Those old Polaroid instant cameras were the epitome of high-tech back in the day. Think about it, before that you had to wait a week or so to get your pictures developed, and now here it was in the palm of your hand within mere seconds.
That camera was like an instant party; you could go through a cartridge of film in a blink of an eye. You can probably still remember the blinding flash and sound of the motorized device as it spit out your picture. They made newer models of the camera that were thinner and even folded; boy were we living in the days of futuristic technology. So, who cared if the photo wasn’t the finest quality, the moment was captured and instantly available to be viewed.
One of the most memorable parts of the Polaroid experience was waiting for the picture to develop. It was like some sort of black magic as images slowly appeared out of nowhere. There were arguments over who got to hold the yet undeveloped picture, and disagreements on the best technique to speed up the picture revealing process. The most common approach was the fan technique, this was where you would hold the picture on the thick white border and fan it in an up and down fashion to speed up the process. It was also common to take a break every few seconds to see what part of the photo had revealed itself.
Planning for retirement is a lot like a giant, slow developing Polaroid picture. It’s a snapshot in time that slowly develops before fully revealing itself. The main difference is that the picture we’re waiting for to develop is dynamic and changes as it reveals itself. Instead of seconds, we wait decades for parts of the picture to appear. As time goes by things become clearer and clearer, until one day we retire and the whole image finally comes into focus.
We work with people every day who are still anticipating what their retirement Polaroid will look like when it’s fully developed. It all starts with proper planning and that’s why we offer people the chance CLICK HERE to request a stress-free, complimentary, no obligation financial review. We’ll take the time to understand what your vision of retirement looks like and discuss how we can design a plan to help you achieve your goals.
So remember, with a little bit of patience and some solid planning, the beautiful retirement picture you’re envisioning could develop just like those old Polaroid pictures you’re used to.