Memorial Day! For many, this is a day of remembrance often coupled with the first family BBQ of the season. For the Myerson Family, this year was no exception. Different this year, however, was the very slow cooked Kansas City style baby-back ribs I smoked for the first time. Here, I must give a shout out to my friend David Murdock, who originally hails from Kanas City, and let me into a couple of secrets with regard to smoking the perfect ribs. I promised him faithfully these secrets would not be revealed, and I’ll certainly honor that promise. What is not a secret when smoking baby-backs, however, are both the temperature and the length of time it takes to cook the “perfect rib.”

Smoked baby-backs need to be slowly cooked at low temperature for many, many hours. While there are short-cuts that may end up with reasonably good ribs, they will never be great. A great rib takes much pre-preparation, careful nurturing during hours and hours of smoking, selection of the right spices, smoking woods, temperature, and final tweaking before they’re ready.

So by now you’re probably guessing where this month’s food report fits into my professional practice. If you guessed Retirement Planning, you win. With very few exceptions, the best way to guarantee the retirement you’re looking for is to start early, take no short-cuts, and let the plan “cook” for many, many years, with continual monitoring, and final tweaking prior to retirement.

Planning for retirement means different things to different people. In the final analysis, however, it’s the same for everyone: to provide a safe harbor of financial freedom and flexibility at the time we choose to slow down or cease working completely. That’s naturally a very relative and subjective goal, usually consistent with one’s lifestyle, income earning capacity during one’s working years, health and outlook on life.

For almost everyone, however, the process should be the same:

• Start early! Remember the miracle of compound interest.
• Find a fee-only planner, or someone you trust implicitly to help you design and monitor your plan.
• Make sure your plan is well-diversified and includes growth, preservation and protection.
• Stay the course. This is easier said than done, especially in the turbulent times. During these times rely on your financial advisor to keep you on course. Remember, there has never been a storm, no matter how bad or how long, that hasn’t been followed by sunshine.
• Avoid the short-term sin of greed and its equally debilitating cousin, fear. If properly planned, the natural order of things will get you through the volatile periods.
• Tweak the plan as necessary, but never overreact. Know that the plan includes provisions for market volatility.
• Stay healthy! This is not some sentimental rhetoric that your grandmother used to espouse. If you haven’t gotten there yet, I’m quite certain one day the light will suddenly turn on and you’ll be confronted with the following question: what is the point of building financial health if one’s physical health cannot enjoy it?

Eat well, drink well, live well!