You will learn in this book that investing, like life, is unpredictable, so your planning must be strategic in nature. And the best strategy is to maximize your greatest possibility of winning right from the get-go. That approach is not the same as trying to win the most. Many investors wrongly think, “I don’t have enough to keep up my lifestyle, so I’ll shoot for the highest pos-sible returns.” Poor investors seek the highest possible returns, while the great investors seek the highest probability of good returns.

I’m inviting you to use my experiences with retirement planning to bet-ter your own planning. The more self-sufficient you are, the less you need to depend on our government, and the more you have to share with those you love. The mistakes of others can be your least expensive lessons—les-sons you do not want to learn firsthand at a time when you can least afford the experience. As Laurence Peter said, “Experience is the worst teacher— it gives the test before explaining the lesson.”