Plan on working forever?

By Gail Vaz-Oxlade on May 25, 2011
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

Ask some people how they’re doing in the retirement savings department and you’ll hear, “Oh, I’m just going to work forever,” followed by a sigh.

I am of the camp that believes the way to keep your brain healthy is to do something useful with it. But most of these people are simply referring to the fact that they don’t have a cent saved and they can’t ever imagine being able to hang up their spurs. You might think that having to keep working would be really tough to take, but it isn’t a patch on having to work when you’re sick, disabled or plum worn out. Relying on social assistance is one way of finishing off your life, but it isn’t the most fun way, not by a long shot. It’s interesting to me that there are people who can’t seem to see beyond next Thursday. An Imagineering exercise could help. Most financial advisers ask their clients to think about what they’d like their retirements to look like. But I’ll take a different tack today. In a minute or so, I want you to close your eyes and imagine what your life will be like if you retire with only $20,000 a year to live on. You know what you make now. You know what you spend. Think. What will you be able to do if your income is only about $1,667 a month or $385 a week? Where will you be able to live? What will you eat? How will you get around? The next time you’re contemplating dropping a bundle of cash on some non-essential item, ask yourself how many weeks of improved living you could have if you saved even a portion of your income instead of spending every red cent you make on STUFF. That might help you see past Thursday.