Ignore these three items at your own peril, for they can seriously derail your standard of living in retirement, no matter how well your other investments are doing. Let’s take each item in turn.

Household Budget
If you don’t know how much you’re spending each month, how can you ever hope to come out ahead in the financial game? We hope you do realize that your checking account isn’t a bottomless well. Eventually it will run out of money. Perhaps you’ve already experienced this in the way of overdraft fees. The initial step to setting a household budget plan involves nothing more complicated that tracking your expenditures for a month. This allows you to establish a baseline for how much it costs to live. With so few people paying cash any more, electronic bill paying makes calculating household expenses a relatively painless chore.

Cut Costs
With an eye turned towards creating a better retirement plan, it’s then time to review each category in your personal budget. It’s not unusual to be able to make major cuts without affecting your quality of life. If it seems too awful to contemplate analyzing the whole thing at once, take a single category each month, tear it apart, see if you can make reductions, and put it back together. Even fixed costs like car insurance can change from year to year. Solicit quotes from other companies periodically to see if you can get a better deal. If so, jump on it!

Banish that Mortgage
This one is very simple. Consider doubling up on payments in order to get your house paid off by the time you retire. Heading into retirement without the onus of a monthly payment hanging around your neck can be quite liberating. It’s like getting a raise without doing anything. We’re not suggesting you limit your family’s food intake solely to Ramen Noodles in order to pay more on the house, but if it’s not too much of a financial squeeze, why not give it a shot?

The Heroic Investing Team

Flickr / 401k

Andrew “Andy” Ramirez is the founder and president of the 501c3 non-profit Law Enforcement Officers Advocates Council, which he founded in 2008 as a follow-up to his original non-profit law enforcement officers advocacy organization Friends of the Border Patrol. FOBP was initially created to support the Border Patrol and their agents, while improving the quality of life for border residents. As FOBP’s role expanded over the years to include all law enforcement officers, LEOAC is the next evolution in law enforcement advocacy. Andy continues to focus on improving national security at and between the ports of entry as well as along our coastlines, including Puerto Rico. His is a recognized expert on Customs and Border Protection. Andy is a trusted conduit of information between Congressional leaders and those on the front lines. Andy’s work has led to a number of Congressional bills that address border security policies to help America’s law enforcement officers. These bills enhance enforcement of laws and help remove obstructionist policies and red tape. Andy has uncovered numerous issues, becoming known as the “Defender of Border Patrol Agents”, which now includes all law enforcement officers. He has defended numerous officers that were unjustly prosecuted, terminated, and persecuted for doing their jobs, especially whistleblowers. Some of the issues that were discovered included suppression of evidence, abuse of power, suborning of perjury, ignoring Supreme Court rulings, illegal criminal alien violaters who broke laws and were protected by DOJ/DHS during prosecutions of agents/officers.

Andy joined the Liberty News Network as their National Correspondent in October 2010. He has given many appearances on TV and radio over the years. He also authored a comprehensive report titled “Unjustifiable and Impeachable, The FOBP Report on DHS, DOJ, and the Courts.” Andy was instrumental in the prison release of former Border Patrol Agents Ramos and Compean, and he has been extensively involved in the Jesus Enrique Diaz case. Andy has been featured frequently on CNN’s Lou Dobbs, FNC’s Fox and Friends, Neil Cavuto, and Hannity & Colmes. He has also been a guest on such programs as Michael Reagan, G. Gordon Liddy, Laura Ingraham, as well as many local TV networks and Talk Radio shows across the country. More about Andy Ramirez and the issues he is fighting to address and resolve on America’s border security and laws in favor of law enforcement officials and American citizens can be found on his website at http://www.advocatescouncil.us/.

That’s more than $300 difference! Do you see opportunity in these numbers? We’ll make it easy for you. Buy a house, then turn around and rent it out. Put that $300 in your pocket or take the family out for dinner at a nice restaurant. This is a perfect storm of real estate investment if we ever saw one, because the forces driving this particular chain of events within the housing market are going to be in play for a while. On one hand, you have a massive and continuing foreclosure crisis fallout shoving house prices ever downward. While it’s true that lending standards have been tightened, for those who qualify, it doesn’t get much better than this.

On the other hand, all these people forced out of their homes by the wave of foreclosures still have to live somewhere. This makes them renters, and they’re going to be forced to pay the going rate or move back in with their parents. Some will pick up the phone and call good old mom and dad, but a good chunk will bite the bullet and write out a check for the rent. Keep in mind that the foreclosure is not a mess in the rear view mirror. It’s still unraveling and will continue to have a heavy hand in real estate investing for years to come.

You can sit on the sidelines if you want. Continue to dabble in the stock market and get your head handed to you periodically, or you could finally make a decision to invest in history’s proven best asset – land. We’re here to tell you that NOW is likely the best time to invest in real estate that’s going to come along in your lifetime.

Are you simply going to watch it pass? We sincerely hope not.

The Heroic Investing Team

Flickr / josh.ev9

The idea of investing in real estate as a financial strategy probably doesn’t immediately fill you with joyful trembling. The problem is how to get from here (knowing next to nothing) all the way over there (financial independence). Heroic Investing founder Jason Hartman realized that, though some seminars are filled with great information, many attendees don’t get the full benefit due to the instructor to student ratio and the nature of the event. Maybe you learn better in a one-on-one environment. In fact, two full days of personalized attention from a guy who’s been there, done that, and made a million bucks in the process could be priceless.

That’s where the concept began for a Private Investment Market Tour, the latest in a long line of innovative and unique offerings from Mr. Hartman. This tour allows you to purchase a weekend of Jason’s undivided attention while the two of you (plus his local market specialist) travel to inspect possible residential investment properties in your geographical market of choice. This is your chance to to bombard him with all the questions you might not get a chance to ask during a seminar.

There literally is no better way on earth to get this up close and personal with an acknowledged expert in the field of real estate investing. In addition to Jason’s full attention and rather pleasant personality, the reasonable price of $1,497 gets you two nights at the upscale hotel of your choice, four meals (Jason’s treat), transportation throughout the tour, and two full days of the kind of personalized property investment education you’re not going to find anywhere else.

For more information on how to take advantage of this rare opportunity, visit JasonHartman.com. Feel free to email or call us if you have any questions about the tour that aren’t answered. It’s okay if you start to feel a little bit excited. We think this might be the best financial strategy you’re ever going to come across.

The Heroic Investing Team

Flickr / alexanderdrachmann

To be fair, we don’t seriously think pension plan managers went into this planning to defraud vested retirees, but a combination of incompetence and desperation has created the same effect. Too many benefits promised to too many workers in the 1980s and 1990s. Soft performance in the stock market. A lingering recession. Now pension programs are going under, leaving the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), a government agency that insures private pensions, to pick up the pieces.

The PBGC was formed in 1974 and, as of the end of fiscal year 2011, operates at a $26 billion dollar deficit. Confidence inspiring? We think not! To believe your pension plan cannot fail is to ignore reality. It can and it might. Ultimately, you could end up being paid pennies on the dollar for what you were promised back in the good old days. The very idea that this is a possibility strikes fear in the hearts of workers everywhere, and it should.

The reality of today’s economics has created an environment where nothing can be relied upon, especially if the government sticks its ineffectual hand into the mix. So how do you know if your pension is in trouble? Are there signs to look for? The first thing to do is resist panic. Though you hear talk of underfunded plans, that isn’t an ironclad indication that it is headed for certain failure. The technical definition of being underfunded means a plan that for three consecutive has assets less in value than 90% of all current and future obligations. This doesn’t mean they WON’T meet future obligations, only that there is a present deficit.

A strong run by the stock market could remedy the situation for many companies. Of course, continued weakness could exacerbate the problem even more. But how can you go about finding out if your pension plan is overextended? Check the newspapers. Run a Google search. Many companies experiencing pension plan funding trouble are well-publicized. If you don’t run across a news story right away, that’s a good sign.

Your next step should be to request a Summary Annual Report (SAR). Larger employers issue these every year. Smaller ones might come out only once every three years. Pay attention to how the plans investments have performed recently. This won’t tell the whole story but might give you a heads up if returns have been anemic, or worse, negative. Though the SAR won’t discuss liabilities, find the Minimum Funding Standards section, which should contain a statement indicating whether or not the plan is meeting current minimum funding standards.

For a more complete picture of pension plan health, ask for a Form 5500. Visit the PBGC’s website to learn how to read the form with an eye towards financial stability. If it looks like your plan is in trouble and you’re already retired, there are a few positives to take away from the situation, though, in the short term, it might make sense to prepare for tightening the belt on your personal budget. First off, the PBGC was created to provide a safety net when private pension funds fail. As long as the agency remains solvent, expect that it will provide some sort of insurance against catastrophic events.

One smart way to respond is to adjust your personal portfolio of investments. But what’s the point in that if the stock market is already failing? Contrary to popular belief, there are other places to park your money besides Wall Street. Real estate is an excellent option and has continued to create wealth for savvy investors despite the recession. For a quick, thorough primer on how to conservatively invest in rental properties for maximum rate of return, consider attending Jason Hartman’s upcoming educational event: “Meet the Masters of Income Property Investing.” This twice yearly presentation gathers real estate experts from around the country and puts their knowledge at your disposal.

Click here to learn more about the Spring 2012 edition. Keep in mind, the best way to avoid the crippling fear of your pension plan failing is to create enough wealth on your own that you don’t need it!

The Heroic Investing Team

Flickr / Abode of Chaos