By Ric Edelman From The Truth About Money . All too often, the media use statistics like this one to intimidate consumers, and financial advisors often recite similar numbers to bully their clients into action. The most common use is in the area of college planning. Sadistic planners enjoy telling people that college will cost their infant children and grandchildren hundreds of thousands of dollars effectively scaring the beejeebers out of their clients. They have a point.
Planners often discuss the future in black and white, rather than in shades of gray.
They lead people to believe or they allow people to conclude on their own that if they fail to accumulate every penny that they need, none of the pennies they have collected will be of any help. Of course, that s nonsense, for while you might not be able to save a million dollars, having half a million ain t too shabby, either. But even taking this failing on the part of planners into consideration, consumers still are getting it wrong because they look only at the bad news, and not at the good news. The bad news, in case you haven t already figured it out for yourself, is that you will be unable to save all the money you need by the time you need it . Thus, it seems that he won t be able to retire comfortably, for it is clearly impossible for him to save enough money.