You are the only expert in the most important matter concerning your financial well-being.
That is what you want out of life and what you are willing to do to obtain it.

Once you reach adulthood, it is absolutely vital that you understand that you are in total control of your own situation. If you don't take responsibility for the outcome, nobody else will. Unfortunately, our government seems willing to bail out every entity except you and me. You are on your own.

That may seem like the bad news, but it is also the good news. We live in a land where you are free to make your own choices and to change them as often as you like. One of the most difficult activities as a financial advisor is to get clients to define their objectives in concrete terms. Professional planners make it clear to clients that if they are not able to say where they want to go they are likely to wind up someplace they would prefer not to be.

Under very adverse circumstances such as we have experienced in recent years, it is no longer optional to decide on realistic goals. We know that trade-offs will have to be made and it is far better to make those intentionally rather than settle for whatever comes. Now is a very good time to sit down with family members and other interdependent people to review your realistic choices. Some people may need to defer retiring while others may choose to downsize their living standard in order to retire on time. You can get professional help in reviewing the possibilities, but you are in charge. The decisions are yours alone. If you want to control the outcome, you must control the process.