Feel Smart About

<p><I>Building wealth is about managing our careers and the money we make. It allstarts with the understanding that we build wealth primarily for two reasons: 1) tobuild prosperity and 2) to afford a comfortable retirement. Saving and investing tobuild prosperity is what we do to improve the quality and independence in our lives.Each of us measures quality and independence in our own terms-to some itmeans being able to afford big-ticket expenses such as a dream home orsupporting a favorite charity. To others it might mean making money work for us sothat we don't have to work for it.</I></p><p>We save and invest for retirement because at some point in the future we willchoose to stop working and will need to replace the salary we currently earn.Saving and investing to afford a comfortable retirement is an obligation we have toourselves. It is important to realize that we have no choice but to get on tracksaving and investing for retirement. We will be depending on it for survival in thelater years of our life-considering how much longer people live with every passingdecade saving and investing is becoming increasingly more important.</p>