Overall, a number of workers are financially
unprepared when retirement does arrive. So why the aversion to
planning out a retirement?
It is not though old age is going to be
avoided or that life expectancy is going to double when you reach
age 65. Typically, most people know that they are going to get old
and that they will eventually retire but why the avoidance of
even properly planning it out?
Below is a list of some of the most popular
reasons why the work force doe not seriously contemplate the
planning for their own retirement:
●
My children will take care of me.
● Social Security will take care
of me.
● I cannot have money put away
where I cannot access it.
● I won't need much to live on.
● I'm too young to worry about
retirement.
Each reason warrants an explanation but too
often, but I wonder if the sole answer really lies with the
Retirement Fairy.
For instance, why bother going into lengthy
planning for retirement that is twenty, thirty, or even forty years
away when someone else will take care of it for me?
As a result, a huge number of people have
tremendous faith in the Retirement Fairy prior to ending one's
working career. However, this article of faith is often shattered when
retirement finally arrives. But with so many older people
already disillusioned with this elusive pixie, then why do more
younger people end up subscribing to the belief that someone else is
going to take care of them.
The easy answer would be laziness.
Why worry about something today when you can
worry about it next year or the next decade after that? The only
problem with this methodology is that time does eventually catch up
with the procrastinators.
Suppose that an individual decided to save
about $26 a week beginning at age 35 and let’s assume that this
investment generates a generous nine percent return. By age 65, the
nest egg will be about $200,000.
Now let’s add laziness to the mix. Instead of
beginning at age 35, the same individual began investing at 55. Each
week would require a payment of $233 to hit the $200,000 goal.
It is amazing what 20 years of laziness will
do!
Perhaps there is a much more complex reason to
why so many people put off thinking about retirement. If so, then it
would probably require a more complex solution. But even then, the
reality is still quite stark.
But what is wrong with looking at the numbers
squarely in the face?
Like creating a comfortable workable plan and
remaining faithful to it even if it does require 30 or more years?
Yes, it does seem long and tedious but so is
using the bathroom every morning as well as other mundane things
that people do every day. And if the population can handle doing the
same thing like flushing the toilet or brushing teeth for most of their lifetime, then they ought to be able to
handle something as boring as contributing to a retirement plan at every paycheck.
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