At some point, did you start collecting something? Dolls, coins, toys, stamps? Maybe a set of dishes? Remember when we were young and every time your mom bought a certain amount of groceries she got to add another free piece of her dish set? Remember S&H Green Stamps? Or the gas station where every time you filled up you got a glass? I know in Arizona there was a gas station chain back in the 50s and 60s that you collected a glass and pitcher set with each fill-up. This glass set has now become a collector’s item, and that set that was given away free 40 to 50 years ago could now be worth $400-$500 bucks! Remember when Union 76 gas stations gave away a free basketball with a fill-up? More recently, did your kids collect Beanie Babies?
Over the years we collected all these items and now some have value, and some don’t. But whatever you collected, it made you…you!
As kids, when we needed money, we took our wagon (yep, a Red Ryder), and walked up and down the roads around our house collecting pop bottles that people had just thrown out by the wayside. This was, of course, before the major campaign of “Make America Beautiful” in the 60s. We would collect hundreds of pop bottles and take them to the local grocery store and get a 2-cent redemption for each one. Ta-Da! Now we had $4-5 bucks to go see a movie matinee or go get an ice cream cone. Of course, back then a movie was only 25 cents for a Saturday matinee. Now we must hand our kids or grandkids a $20 bill and don’t expect any change.
Point is what did you collect? And more importantly where is your collection now? Back in the late 80s and 90s when comic books became so valuable as collector’s items, those comics we bought for 10-cents were now worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. I remember going to my mom’s house and asking her where our big wooden box of comics was that we collected as boys, and she sheepishly admitted she had sold them at a yard sale several years ago for a whopping twenty dollars for the entire collection! I was stunned! There were first additions of Superman, Batman, and Spiderman comics worth who knows what. But no use crying over spilt milk. But it just showed me that when you have something and if you hold onto it, no telling what it will be worth in 50-100 years from now.
When assisting clients with their retirement planning, we often run into situations where the client didn’t know what they had and sold it, or terminated a policy that was old, only to find out that what they thought of as out-of-date or useless had value! Bits and pieces of policies and 401(k)s from old employers, collected over the years of their employment careers and sometimes over their entire life, are just sitting somewhere and they have no clue what it is, or what it’s worth. Don’t be a collector of retirement assets, only to get rid of something when you don’t know the value!
Don’t wonder, get some help! We are here to assist all our clients by going through your collected stuff of old policies, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, IRAs, Roths; you name it, we can research it and give you peace of mind about what you have and what it’s worth! As you near your retirement years, it’s time to access and put to work those assets you’ve collected for your retirement income. Call us we can help!