Source: Pixabay

Editor’s Note: With luck, you’ll have started a wealth-building plan in your 20s or 30s.

But what if you’re in your 60s and you still haven’t built a comfortable nest egg?

Is it possible to make up for lost time?

It absolutely is, according to Bill’s longtime business partner and self-made multimillionaire Mark Ford.

The following essay first appeared in Mark’s wealth-building advisory The Palm Beach Letter.

Says Mark, “You may be feeling run-down and beaten-up, but your life at 60 is far from over. In fact, 60 is the new 40!”

What You Can Do in Your 60s to “Start Over”

By Mark Morgan Ford, Editor, The Palm Beach Letter

I’ve received a number of letters recently from Palm Beach Letter subscribers who are in their 60s and have no savings, no significant assets, and bad credit due to having had to file for bankruptcy.

“On top of all of that,” Paul T. wrote, “I’m about to hit 60, and I feel like everything is suddenly starting to go wrong with my body! Is it even possible to save myself at this point?”

The answer is yes. And not a qualified yes – a definitive yes!

You may be feeling run-down and beaten-up, but your life at 60 is far from over. In fact, 60 is the new 40!

What You Can Do in Your 60s

I come from a family that is not only depressed but also overweight and uncoordinated, but I consider myself to be in good health. I am able to practice jujitsu five days a week and work 60 hours a week with no problem.

You can have this kind of physical stamina and personal productivity in your life, too. It is just a matter of intelligence and persistence.

Before I get to your financial needs, let me give you a few examples of what these well-known people have been able to do in their 60s (or thereabouts):

• Harland Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders, was 65 when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken. As demand for his tasty chicken grew, Sanders opened a restaurant. And the rest, as they say, is history.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder was 65 when she began writing her beloved Little House on the Prairie series. She went on to pen eight total books in the series – in addition to being a journalist.
• In 1954, at the age of 52, Ray Kroc opened a hamburger stand – when most people his age were retiring. Kroc revolutionized the fast-food business when this hamburger stand eventually became McDonald’s.
• Car icon and businessman Henry Ford was 60 years old when he created the first car assembly line.
• At 70 years old, Golda Meir became the fourth prime minister of Israel – and the first woman to hold the post.
• In 2004, at the age of 82, Robert Galvin, retired longtime CEO of Motorola, started Galvin Electricity Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming and improving the nation’s power grid to 21st-century standards.

As of 2009, the latest year for which information is available, persons reaching age 65 had an average life expectancy of an additional 18.7 years (20 years for females and 17.3 years for males).

This means you have many more years to live well and thrive!

What to Do About Your Financial Future

The first thing I’d recommend is to put some of the doom-and-gloom material that is out there in perspective.

Yes, debt burdens our world economy. And yes, that debt will be paid one way or another. But you are not going to make yourself any richer by worrying about it.

The second thing I’d like you to do is to believe what I’m about to tell you: It is perfectly possible – even likely – to eliminate debt and acquire wealth within seven years if you are willing to do the right things.

That seven-year term is a personal projection, but it’s not without basis. It comes from what I’ve done many times over in my own life and what I’ve been able to help other people do many times over.

When you are young, seven years seems like an eternity. But at 60, you now know that it will pass faster than the blink of an eye.

That’s why it’s so important for you to take my advice seriously and put it to work immediately.

If you wait even a week to get started, you will find it easy to push it off another week and then a month, and before you know it, those seven years will have passed, and you will be in the same bind you are in now.

The third thing you must do is take responsibility for your future finances and well-being. This is not something you can simply agree to. You must make a serious review of what you’ve done in the past. And you must make a serious personal commitment to change.

Once your body is healthy and your mind is right (including your commitment to persist in this plan), you are ready for the first life-improving change. And that is the acquisition of additional income.

My argument is (and you won’t hear any “investment experts” saying this) that you can’t get wealthy by investing alone. You must curtail your spending, manage your money, and allocate your investments wisely. But you must also create extra income for yourself and your spouse.

Bringing in extra income is the single most important way you can get rid of debt and become wealthy within seven years. It is the surest way you can get out of the financial pickle you are in and enjoy a comfortable, worry-free retirement.

Being 60-plus years old is not a problem. It’s an opportunity. You are older now, and that means you should be wiser. You should be able to use that wisdom to make good choices.