Finance Wanted.

By Ramsay Mameesh

In 2008, think big, make your top new year's resolution retirement. Conventional wisdom says to create small, manageable new years resolutions, that are easy to accomplish. Lose ten pounds, join a gym, get better organized, all are typical new year's resolutions. And saving more money for retirement, increasing your 401k contributions, reducing your debt, are great retirement resolutions as well. But why not consider going for the whole thing this year? Why not retire in 2008?

You may be in a position to retire in 2008. You may be wealthier than you realize. But listening to conventional wisdom, and thinking small, may cause you to miss the great retirement opportunity of 2008!

According to the U.S. Census Bureau. In April of 2007, 15 million American Households had a net worth over $500,000. That means 15 million American Families can stop working right now. An individual can retire on even less. Over 30 million American Adults do not need to be working! Unfortunately, since the time of that report, the two assets that make up the majority of Americans' net worth, housing prices and stock values, have both been on the decline.

And many economists are predicting, lower house values and the strong possibility of a recession, in the coming year. So while you are achieving your small and manageable retirement resolution, increasing your 401k contribution in 2008 for example, the overall value of your retirement portfolio may be dramatically lower at the end of the year. You may be in a better position to retire now, than you will be again, for many years to come. This is not the time, to be thinking small, or for conventional wisdom.

Conventional wisdom says you need to be rich to retire. Conventional wisdom is often wrong. The truth is you don't need to be rich to retire. Conventional wisdom in the retirement industry for instance, assumes you will consume, between 70 - 80% of your current income, annually in retirement. It's a guess. It's a "Consumption Assumption", that forces you to save more money than you need, and could cause you to delay retirement. If you are prepared to challenge conventional wisdom, and think big, you may be able to retire in 2008.

But how do you know if you have enough savings to retire in 2008? That depends - on how much you need to spend in retirement. You determine how much you need to spend , therefore, you determine how much savings you need. It's really that simple, and to make it even easier, here are some free retirement tools to help you achieve retirement this year.

• Free Retirement Guide - This 15 page retirement guide destroys conventional wisdom, and reveals the secret to early retirement, the formula to accurately calculate retirement, and much more.

• Budget 2008 Retirement Software - Your budget, the amount of money you are going to spend in retirement, is the crucial element in calculating if you have enough savings for retirement. This free retirement software enables you to easily create a budget, track your current monthly expenses for all of 2008, and plan for your retirement.

• Retirement Widget - A fun little desktop widget, to remind you how much time you have left, to retire in 2008.

This new year make your 2008 top new year's resolution retirement. Thinking big, and challenging conventional wisdom, may lead you to retirement in 2008.

Author Ramsay Mameesh is the founder of iPlan Retirement - a retirement planning company located in San Francisco CA. Mr. Mameesh is a graduate of California State University with degrees in Business Administration, Economics and Marketing. He has over ten years experience working for large financial institutions.