Mother Tested - Mother Approved!
In the world of marketing, product testing and product launches, companies spend millions of dollars to find out if their “next big thing” will succeed. Focus groups, surveys, polling, samples, are all tools used to measure customer response. I know something about this subject, having spent ten years in a corporate marketing department, and involved in several product launches.
There is an axiom in marketing, an old saw if you will, that for all the millions of dollars you spend, the time and energy, in trying to find out if your product will succeed - if your mother dosen’t get it then your gonna fail.
If you describe your product or service to your mother, and she either doesn’t understand what you are talking about, requires a lengthy explanation repeated several times, or fails to see the benefit - you’re screwed.
Before I started this retirement website, I thought I had a great idea, but the final step I took just before launching, was to describe the product to my mom, and see what she thought.
I explained to her in two sentences the entire concept “Retirement is not dependent on how much you have saved, or earn, but on how much you spend. The amount you spend determines, the amount of money you need to have saved, and if you only spend x dollars every month, then you only need to have y dollars saved.”
My mothers’ response? “Well, that’s just common sense!” Bingo, in the world of marketing, it doesn’t get much better than that. I’ve got a winner. In the field of retirement planning, it is not common sense, the focus is on saving and earning. Hardly anyone pays attention to spending, she did point out that their are articles on spending, however they neglect to point out the central role spending plays in retirement planning.
When you see articles about spending in retirement, they tend to be the “save on airfare”, “cheap places to live in retirement”, and “Don’t overpay for life insurance!”. Instead of - “Spend less and retire early!”
The concept may be common sense, but it is not conventional wisdom, and my challenge is to explain the difference in approach to retirement planning. Here’s an example:
Old Retirement Planning
Pick a savings goal.
New Retirement Planning
Pick a spending goal.
Focusing on spending helps you achieve an early retirement. If you spend less before your retirement, you will automatically save more for your retirement, and you will not need to save as much for retirement. Common Sense.