After reading this article it just reminds me of why I write this stuff. Millions of Americans are so unprepared for retirement it keeps me up at night (not really, but maybe one day). Set astray by either financial advisers who do a crappy job with their own finances or the smart ones who just want to screw you out of money.
This of course is only part of the problem. It's kind of like blaming the obesity problem in this country on personal trainers. It starts at home, not at the gym! I've seen transformations with close friends from spendthrifts who couldn't possibly deny themselves the slightest pleasure, to lean mean saving machines who are well on their way to early retirement with no debt and a robust emergency fund. And what now brings a tear to my eye is they are passing along those lessons to their children. Soon a whole generation of Crass Cash juniors will harness the power of society, rather than becoming "Mother Consumer's" bitch.
What can you do about it? Check out the attached file to see a comprehensive plan from start to finish. It's pretty much a skeleton like Paris Hilton, but I'll be adding meat to it as I go along. It'll be posted on a new tab and will be constantly growing as more details are added.
-CC

steps_to_financial_independence.docx |