As we kick off the New Year, it's the perfect time for advisors to connect with boomer clients to discuss their financial goals for 2013. If you want to build a bridge with your clients, pick up the phone, wish them a Happy New Year and inquire if they have questions about what they would like to accomplish financially in 2013. Over the holidays, we connected with four boomers to get a read on their goals. Below are highlights from those conversations.
My husband and I really like to travel now that we are mostly retired. Every January, we sit down and map out our travels for the year. We usually pick two or three places we want to go — in addition to visiting the grandbabies, of course. Then we put away the funds to cover the expenses. This year, we also decided to ramp up our savings a bit more this year by economizing here and there.
Toni, 64
Piedmont, Calif.
I'm still young enough to enjoy working, and I have a good job in city planning with seniority, good benefits, etc., so I plan to work at least two more years. But after that, I'm hoping home prices will have gone up, because I want to sell my house and downsize — hopefully somewhere with a beach.
Rhonda, 56
Wichita, Kan.
We have six grandchildren, and the economy has been really hard on our kids. We are lucky that we made some good financial decisions when we were just starting out, so we're in a pretty good place financially. We want to help our grandchildren with college, but when we crunched the numbers just for state schools, our jaws hit the table. Our goal is to help them — within reason.
Valerie, 63
Lake Bluff, Ill.
I have been concerned about the future of Social Security for years now. It's only a matter of time before they take an axe to it, so my goal is to figure out a way to replace it if and when it goes away. My salary has always been on the high end, so I stand to lose a nice chunk of change when they get around to gutting it. Even if they just tax it or raise the age limit or whatever, it's unwise to expect much from the program, so I'm going be more aggressive than I have been with my stock portfolio.
Kevin, 59
Darien, Conn.
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