Released: November 05, 2007

Retire early: Brokers want your cash

Source: Kathy Chu, USA Today

HOUMA, La. — After 30 years of toiling in oil fields, Ray Lirette was told in 1997 that he could retire at 52 and buy a camper so he and his wife could travel across the USA.

Lirette says he trusted the advice because it came from an investment broker used by other Chevron workers. That’s why he turned over his retirement savings — $335,000 — to the broker to manage, bought a camper and truck, then borrowed against a nearly paid-off mortgage to pay off credit card bills and auto loans.

“He showed me this projection that I’d have $1.3 million in 10 years,” Lirette, 63, said as the sun glinted off the 28-foot camper parked on his lawn. “I thought, ‘I guess we can retire.’ “

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