Unpack Your Financial Baggage by Lou Melone
Tens of millions of people are stampeding into retirement on their last major financial run expecting a retirement lifestyle of independence and dignity. Unfortunately, they are following a leader off a financial cliff, due to the traditions and habits that have led to a misunderstanding of long-term planning—not to mention the prehistoric cognitive bias that is tugging at their behavior.
In this case, the leader is not a person, but an archaic set of principles and practices hauled around in their minds by generations of misinformation and a culture that works against long-term planning. These ideas are packed into a mental suitcase that many people carry with them through retirement planning.
For up to sixty years you have been packing your suitcases—unconsciously— with inaccurate and unclear financial strategies and decisions. As you visualize your next thirty years, you have finally come to a realization that hits almost everyone at this point in life: it is time to repack my financial baggage to ensure our future; otherwise, my family and the generations thereafter will never get to where they want to go.
How to Battle the Misconceptions of Retirement Planning
Inflation, the pandemic, and the current economy have many people wondering how and if they will be able to retire. The first step to retirement planning is to begin to unpack financial baggage.
Financial baggage comes in many forms and influences which are explained by author Lou Melone, CFP®. Readers will learn how to unpack their financial baggage after reading Lou’s Anatomy of Investor Returns Theory, the basics of financial planning, and why money is not defined as units of currency but by purchasing power.
Unpack Your Financial Baggage explains the complexities of financial planning using simple language, easy to understand charts, and even quantifies the value of using a financial planner. Lou’s 25 years of financial planning experience is the inspiration for a conversation between a couple and their financial planner throughout the book.

Author Lou Melone
As a board CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, Lou provides comprehensive financial planning strategies for higher net-worth families to help protect, preserve, and grow their current levels of wealth and plan for retirement.
With over 25 years of financial planning experience, Lou has focused on helping answer two critical questions, which most investors desire: Do you know exactly how much money it is going to take for you to retire in comfort? Do you know how much money it is going to take to remain comfortably retired?
Lou has championed a personalized and simplified approach to financial planning that is grounded in behavioral investing, with a strong commitment to a fiduciary standard of care.