The Boulevard to Financial Independence

By Matt

In thinking about the relationships that many consumers have with their financial provider, particularly around retirement planning, a dysfunctional marriage is what first comes to mind. Being a single guy with no marriage experience, I really have no idea what a dysfunctional marriage feels like, but I have a pretty good idea of that characteristics of a relationship gone south looks like.

As far as I can tell, it’s a downward spiral that continues to get worse as trust is lost, important dates are forgotten, a feeling of dissatisfaction sets in… sometimes leading to “irreconcilable differences” (or “switching” if you’re in the financial services industry).
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By Mariette

We are moving out of an age where we can assume we will be taken care of in our retirement by pensions and social security. With that movement comes a need to rethink not only our own need to save for retirement but also how we educate our children in retirement planning. Unfortunately not everyone is aware that they themselves must take charge of their own retirement much less teach their children to do so. According to the Wall Street Journal on Saturday 1/3 of people with employer-backed 401k or other defined-contribution plans are not enrolling. Clearly there is a gap in educating people about retirement options in this country.

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By Matt

So we tried an experiment to see how willing people were to join a Meetup of others who wanted to get on track for retirement. The first week after we announced our Meetup, there were about 40 people signed up. Great, we thought.

So then we found an excellent speaker to cover the basics of retirement planning for those of us who were relatively uninitiated, which, according to these statistics there are plenty of in the US:
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