The first step in the process of helping one organize their financial affairs is to take a detailed look at how you manage your cost of living, how your debts are structured, how much you are paying for insurance premiums and overall are these affairs structured so as to minimize taxation. When the foregoing are properly organized your disposable income is maximized. Disposable income is what is available for savings and managing your risks. After 15 years experience with the equities market as mutual fund Dealers it is our opinion that the equities market is no place for ordinary people like our clients when it comes to retirement planning in most cases unless we can protect our clients from market losses. The risk of loss of capital and destroyed dreams is far too high without a downside protection. We consider that every event in the life of an ordinary person is a risk. more... See more text