Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ric Edelman is Barron's #1 independent financial advisor, the bestselling author of seven books on personal finance, and host of The Ric Edelman Show, heard on radio stations nationwide. Ric's firm, Edelman Financial Services, manages $5 billion in assets and has been helping people achieve financial success for twenty-five years.

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Discover the Wealth Within You

HarperBusiness

Chapter One

Does the Cabbie Know
Where You Want to Go?

Have you ever gotten into a cab but refused to tell the driver where you want to go? Of course not. The whole point of hailing a cab is to have the driver help you get to your destination. You tell him your goal, and the cabbie both develops the plan for getting you there and implements it for you.

Financial planning operates the same way. Thus, if you don't have goals, the planning effort is as pointless as asking a cabbie to drive you around town, with no destination in mind.

I bet you can tell me what surveys reveal are the top three reasons people save money. They are:

• To buy a home

• To pay for college

• To afford a comfortable retirement

If you were to expand this list, you could add:

• wedding costs

• capital expenses, such as a car

• celebrations, such as a couple's 50th anniversary

• vacations

• major medical expenses

• elder care costs

• and, ultimately, leaving your money to your kids and/or other heirs.

Each of the above is a common reason why people save and invest. Each requires or constitutes a set of goals. And when combined, each fits into an overall financial plan.

But one thing bothers me about this entire list. And I imagine it bothers you, too. You know what the problem is?

Simple: The entire list is boring.

I mean, really boring. Yeah, I'll grow up. Buy a car. Get married. Have kids. Pay for college. Maybe foot the bill for a wedding or two. Retire. Wither away in some old-age home. Die.

And to make this even more fun, I'm supposed to pay some financial planner to tell me I can't afford it.

There's more to life than this, isn't there? Tell me there is! Please! Yes, there is much more to life than obligation and responsibility. There is also personal fulfillment and happiness. In fact, it's partly why our nation was founded.

In the Declaration of Independence, the founders of our nation recognized our right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

The pursuit of happiness.

The document doesn't say anything about financial planning.

This is what makes the United States of America the greatest nation on earth. If anyone ever disputed that notion, no one has dared do so since September 11, 2001. On that day, our lives changed forever. At some point -- was it days? weeks? I can't remember -- I began wondering if this book's message would still be valid. So, I reread my manuscript, and discovered that you still need the message this book offers you, and that perhaps you need to hear this message even more so than before that horrible day.

That's because this book is all about setting and achieving goals. More than ever, you need to focus on your future. But as you read, you'll see that my emphasis on goal-setting is of a personal, and in many cases, materialistic nature. And in the aftermath of September 11, I suspect that many of us will have replaced many such goals with different, more fundamental ones. Where in the past goals might have pertained to beach houses, fancy cars and exotic vacations, people increasingly are considering goals that involve their communities, charities and families. All of this is healthy, and as you'll see as you read on, it is entirely consistent with my message.

Life is about the future. And our future is bright, thanks to the incredible foresight of our nation's founders. So, let's return to our nation's roots -- and begin our journey, a journey in the pursuit of happiness.

Excerpted from Discover the Wealth Within Youby Ric Edelman Copyright © 2002 by Ric Edelman. Excerpted by permission.
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