Oh I’ll just work forever
You’ll hear it now and then — someone who says “Oh I’ll just work forever” when asked about their retirement plan. That’s their entire plan: just to keep on working.
Now there’s nothing wrong with working. Some people enjoy their jobs so much that they don’t have any desire to retire. But having “work forever” as your retirement plan is pretty short-sighted.
You see, the worst case scenario isn’t that you have to keep working because you don’t have enough saved for retirement. The worst case scenario is that you need to keep working because you don’t have enough saved for retirement, but can’t continue to work due to health or other reasons.
That pretty much leaves you with destitute and at the mercy of the government as your backup retirement plan. Or possibly imposing on relatives that may not be financially or emotionally prepared to help.
Basically it leaves you begging for help from anywhere you can get it, even if it puts the people you love at risk of eventually being even worse off financially than you are.
So if you think that you can’t afford to contribute to retirement now, ask yourself this. How will you afford to eat later, if you can’t work and don’t have any money set aside?
It’s a rare person who really doesn’t have even a spare dollar a week to put aside.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:49 am
That was my father in law’s retirement plan. That he would just work forever. That didn’t go so well after he got cancer. He was sick in bed for almost a year. When he passed he left my mother in law with a pension of $126 a month and a $6,000 from a life insurance policy. That’s it. (Her plan isn’t/ wasn’t any better.)
July 7th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Have you been talking to my mother-in-law? You’ve just summed up her retirement place - I’ll just work until I die. And she hates her job.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:41 am
*sigh* Yeah, I think that might have been my parents’ plan. Well, something like working for a long time and then moving out of the country for retirement so they wouldn’t be a burden on us. Didn’t work so well, they really should have made savings plans while they were able to produce income.
July 7th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Those stories are really sad…
July 8th, 2008 at 7:03 am
By the time I run out of money, I’ll be able to turn myself in at the End Center, like they had in the movie Soylent Green, where the government can turn your remains into protein bars to feed the masses when our planet’s resources are depleted of all living things except for people. Or I can run my car off the Grand Canyon or something. I’ve got big plans!
July 8th, 2008 at 7:31 am
Tell me about. My dad was medically retired two years ago with a stroke. Fortunately for my parents, they run their own business. While it’s a strain on my mother to go it alone, they are still earning income as a couple.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to have good healthcare coverage and some life insurance beyond 60, if you can get it. My folks still carry policies because they know they undersaved for retirement.
July 9th, 2008 at 7:15 am
I’ve heard that a huge percentage of people (40%?) retired earlier than they planned to, either because of layoffs or because of health issues.