He also passes the bug to his brother Jeremy, who lives on the couch. Johnny goes home with his little bug and gives it to his wife Sally. Let’s say Johnny goes to a bar and catches the little bug. Well, there’s been this little virus circulating for a while now. The Sweet-Ass Math Behind Compound Growth I fully intend to work the rest of my life, but I would be (likely) wrong to assume that a livable paycheck will accompany that work.Īnd Social Security? Consider Social Security highly insecure, if not extinct, by 2035.Īs such, we face the great importance of saving and creating compound growth of our money…as soon as we can. That’s not how our society is structured. While I full-heartedly agree that the western concept of retirement is ridiculously flawed-sitting on the lazy boy and watching endless reels of Fox News and true crime dramas-I think we’re rolling the dice to assume that someone will continue paying most of us a livable wage beyond our prime working years. How Will We Fund Our Later Years? Compound Growth This culture, and many like it elsewhere in the world, observe core tenants of a good life: staying active, adopting a slower pace of life, eating moderately and eating well, spending time in nature, and surrounding themselves with a wholesome community. In fact, Okinawan women are three times more likely to reach the ripe old age of 100 than North American women. And certainly, this idea works: the number of centenarians (those that are 100 or more years old) on the Okinawan islands is far beyond that observed elsewhere in the world. There is little in the Japanese language that conveys the concept of stopping work completely. In this book, the authors note that in Japanese culture-more specifically on the Okinawa Islands-the concept of retirement simply doesn’t exist. And like the faithful servant I am to my readers, I read it. A reader of this website recently recommended me the book Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles. Perhaps we tend to overemphasize the notion that if we find something we love, we will truly never retire. So why do we spend so little attention on saving and investing, rushing to catch up late in our careers once the writing is clearly splattered on the wall like a Stephen King midnight foray? The Dangers of Believing We’ll Never Retire Shockingly, more than 50% of workers age 50 and above are being pushed out of long-held jobs.Īs climbers we (hopefully) now know that we can’t build finger strength by Saturday if we start on Wednesday. He or she reluctantly waits until you are disgruntled, cynical, overpaid, and twenty years behind on the latest technology before huddling you into a conference room with an HR representative, a security guard, and your severance papers. Your boss doesn’t walk up, pat you on the small of your back like a burping baby, throw some confetti, pop a shrill-but-well-intentioned chirp out of a party horn, and wish you off into the sunset. Retirement is not something just happens when you get to age 65. Shockingly, more than 50% of workers age 50 and above are being pushed out of long-held jobs. And nowhere is that more apparent than with money. Modern man still has a tendency to overvalue now, even if to our detriment. Well, the world has changed faster than our brains can keep up. Right? When we were hunched over, clubbing bison, and sewing loin cloths we didn’t need to dictate much critical brain power to anything other than that damn wriggling bison and the finicky loin cloth. We shouldn’t be surprised by human kind’s tendency to disproportionally value now (the tangible) over later (the seemingly intangible). Today we delve into the concerning data behind millennial retirement planning, some misconceptions on what retirement should be, and the shocking power of compound growth and how it can, quite possibly, save us from ourselves.īack in late 2019, we took a deep dive on the cost of not considering retirement at an early age: Retirement? Don’t Worry, I’ll Be Fine! And who can we put on our side of the ring? Compound growth. We don’t need board room salaries or country club memberships to consider a retirement. It’s so easy to assume that saving, investing, and even considering a retirement is something to do later.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |