I believe one of the biggest mistakes people make when planning for retirement is not properly coordinating all of their goals. It is one thing to say that you would like to retire and you would like to get a certain amount of return on your portfolio, but without truly understanding the details and without setting clear and definable goals, the probability of you accomplishing/maximizing the journey into retirement could be compromised.

If I had a nickel for every time someone came up to me and asked me if "this mutual fund" or "this stock" was a good investment, I would be a very rich man. The answer I gave was the same every time: "Without understanding what your retirement goals are, or what risk you are willing to take with your portfolio, or the risk you should take with your portfolio, I cannot give an intelligent answer."

Experts tell us to analyze and understand what we invest in, but you have not been told how important it is to sync up your retirement goals with your investments. And without understanding exactly what your retirement needs are, how can we possibly understand how good or bad a particular investment is relative to your overall goals? This is why a Retirement Roadmap is so crucial to the foundation of helping you to pursue the retirement of your dreams.

I believe there is a great misunderstanding about the concept of investment risk within an investor's portfolio. Too many people believe that you can only take so much risk, and they would prefer to be risk averse. The reality is you could also take on too little risk, which could mean that you would not be able to achieve the retirement lifestyle you desire.

So the question isn't, "Is this investment good?" The correct question should be, "Is the risk that I am taking with this investment suitable given my retirement goal?" The answer to taking on the proper amount of risk can only be found once you understand how much income you need in retirement.

The lesson to be learned here is that you need to sync up your retirement goals with your investment portfolio in order to make sure that you are taking on the "proper" risk.

About Mark Singer

Mark Singer is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and the author of The Changing Landscape of Retirement—What You Don't Know Could Hurt You. He has been The Retirement Guide to thousands of investors for close to 25 years and is the creator of the Retirement Roadmap, which contributes to a solution to investors' greatest concerns–properly coordinating their financial affairs. These systems have become a primary resource for the people who have worked with Mark over the years. You can download the first chapter of Mark's new book for free by Liking it on Facebook.