Publisher's Synopsis
Our Financial Lives as Mount Everest I look at our financial lives as a long journey that has peaks and valleys throughout. I often use Mount Everest as a metaphor to illustrate that point. If you think of your retirement day as reaching the top of your personal Mount Everest, the rest of your life is the descent. Unfortunately, most people's retirement plans fail after they retire, or on the way down from the mountain. In some ways, it's easier to get to retirement, or go up the mountain, than to stay retired. If you make a mistake getting to retirement, what do you do? You keep working. You planned to go out at age 55, that's not looking so good anymore, so maybe 65, or maybe 75. If you make a mistake after retirement, what happens? You run out of money. Every successful summit of Mount Everest uses a Sherpa to guide them up, and back down the mountain because they are the world's best mountaineers. In retirement, it's very much the same. The guide who helped you climb the mountain, may not be the best one to lead you down. This is why you need a financial Sherpa guide, one who can steer you away from danger and towards your ultimate goal of a successful retirement.
