There is nothing I would like to do than to complete a retirement plan. Everywhere I read they encourage you to have one. However, the whole idea for me gets caught in a million intertwined catch-22 scenarios and so involved I can’t get it free to complete it.
At first, I just wanted to guess about our planned income in retirement, and see where, and then how we would need to live to accomplish a “not running out” of money before we ran out of life scenario. As you can see that’s 2 guesses already in the plan – one the amount of income, and two how long we might have to live. Caught in this type of guessing game really messes with my brain. I haven’t even considered the cost of living, and inflation in my plan yet… and I am not the type who likes to guess about that many things at once.
Since I prefer knowing that I have all my bases covered, I’ll start by thinking I’ll live to 100. Is that reasonable based on my personal family history? – not even close. My parents made it to 69 years old each, my one sister died at 61 and another at 52. Most of the people in my family were lucky to make it to a ripe, old 72 – 75 years. And while I know life expectancies are higher and I know that I could easily make 75 (I am now 57), there is no guarantee or simple way to guess just how long.
If I really pick 100 – then I have 43 more years that I will need income. That’s a lot. I think I should pick a more reasonable number… like 80 – that should be enough, right? But, what if it isn’t? Shouldn’t I just worry about that if I get close?
Eighty only gives me 23 more years to live, and time is running at a breakneck speed for me. If what’s left of my life is that short, shouldn’t I just throw caution to the wind and enjoy it? Take that vacation, quit my job, hang out and sleep in? Maybe I should start selling all my stuff on eBay and that might help finance my “enjoy myself” lifestyle for the next 23 years. In a way that makes sense, because as I age I will use things less and less – and when I finally pass away they’ll be less to fight over, divide or to sell at the estate sale.
Well, now that’s what I call turning something that could have been annoying into something enjoyable. And seriously since the planning part isn’t working for me, I am going to just decide to go with the flow and enjoy every day and moment that I can – and consider the plan accomplished.
Planning for Retirement is Annoying nblo.gs/zUh2S
— Johannah Brookwell (@Its_Annoying) July 15, 2012
Yeah. You’re telling me… Annoying is right… Although Selling everything slowly is awesome, I’m hoping to work on that myself.
I like how you ended the post with the upside positive!
Retirement is so hard to plan for because no one can predict how long they will live and that makes it hard to determine how much you need to save. I think a lot of people are taking your approach and just going with the flow.
As people get older, it seems like they start panicking more about retirement. At 57 it seems like you panic less than I do at 24! I had it so drilled into my head not to trust that Social Security will survive and I started my retirement accounts at 19 years old. I’m *still* scared that it could run out if I don’t stay consistent with funding it! What a great, positive outlook you have on it.
yeah, it sucks, especially when you need the money now. But, seeing both sets of my parents retired and enjoying life is a good reminder that we need to do it, or we will be working until the day we die!