United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), Ford Motor Company (F): 3 Earnings Season Takeaways for Your Retirement Planning

3. Revise poor assumptions and unrealistic expectations.
Sometimes we make bad assumptions (“Sure, I think my portfolio can return 20% annually over the next three decades”) and have unrealistic expectations (“I’m 40 years old, have nothing saved for retirement, and want to retire by age 50”). But not revising unrealistic assumptions and expectations — when the writing is clearly on the wall that we must — is detrimental to reaching our long-term financial goals.

Planning means giving thought to what could go wrong and then magnifying that. Many corporate pension plans must dig themselves out of huge deficits because of poor assumptions that were made and not enough money pumped into the plan. But it’s so much easier to start out ahead than it is to play catch-up later.

The article 3 Earnings Season Takeaways for Your Retirement Planning originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Nicole Seghetti.

Fool contributor Nicole Seghetti owns shares of United Parcel Service. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleSeghetti. The Motley Fool recommends Ford, General Motors, and United Parcel Service. The Motley Fool owns shares of Ford.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.