a quaint twentieth-century concept

[swan_tower]

My husband and I reached a point a while ago where we ought to start thinking about doing something more useful with our savings than letting them sit in a savings account. After much procrastination, we finally went to see an investment advisor to talk about our options.

During that meeting, one of the things he asked us was when we expected to retire. I forget what my husband said; my reply was basically that so long as I am healthy enough to write, and continuing to earn money by doing so, I see no reason to stop.

What I did not say to him: I don’t think I believe in retirement anymore.

I have a dreadful suspicion that fifty years from now, “retirement” is going to be seen as a quaint twentieth-century concept, an unusual social construct that existed for a little while and then went away again. There will be no retirement; there will only be dying or reaching a point where you are no longer able to work. If you’re lucky, you’ll have enough money to more or less support yourself when that latter point comes. If you aren’t . . . and a lot of people won’t be. I have far too many friends with no savings and too much debt — college- and even grad-school-educated friends who can’t find jobs worthy of their qualifications, who work at what they can get to make ends meet but god help them if one thing goes wrong. There’s no “retirement” when you can barely afford a nest, let alone put together a nest egg.

I’d like to be wrong. I’d like to see this country, and a lot of others around the world, reverse the current trend toward wealth stratification that leaves 1% with obscene amounts of money and 99% with a life plan straight out of the nineteenth century. I don’t really plan to retire, but I’d like it to be a thing people can still do when I get to that age.

In the meanwhile, I will save money, invest it wisely, and count my lucky stars that I’m in a position to try.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[carbonel]

Well, I've been planning for retirement since my 30s (now almost 60). I have a Roth IRA, plus 401(k) money from various companies I've worked for. Between that and Social Security, I hope to be able to live reasonably well once I retire.

I intend to leave my current job at 66 years and 4 months, which is when I'll be eligible for full Social Security income. Part of the reason I was so assiduous about saving was that I took it as an article of faith that Social Security wouldn't be around by the time I hit retirement age, but at this point it appears it will be. It wouldn't be enough on its own, but it'll be a nice extra. I may also try to pick up some freelance work.

I'm probably an outlier in many ways, though:

1. I graduated college without any debt (thank you, parents).

2. I've always been pretty compulsive about saving money.

3. My house is paid off (see 2.; the fact that I was able to make a 20% down payment helped a lot).

4. I'm unmarried with no children, so I don't have many of the expenses other people do.

5. I've been lucky enough to be employed full-time, either as W2 or 1099, since 1990. Before that, things were more patchy.

And for what it's worth, there was a discussion on the subject of retirement on the Copyediting mailing list I subscribe to, and most of the people there -- most of whom, unlike me, are freelancers -- planned to just keep working forever. So you're in good company.

NB: I really look forward to having more time to spin yarn once I retire. It's not something I envision myself being able to make a living at, but if I can support my fiber habit by selling what I make, that's a win.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

That's the thing: you can manage, probably, if your circumstances are good. And some of those circumstances are under your control (e.g. the decision to start saving early and do it consistently). But if you have trouble getting a job, or the jobs you can get barely pay enough to live on, or you're in debt because of school (these days most people are) or medical expenses or anything else like that, or you have dependents to support . . . you can't control all of that. So being able to retire comfortably, the way we've all been promised ought to be possible, you need the stars to align on your behalf. The number of people for whom that's true is getting steadily smaller.

[marycatelli]

Retirement was invented by Bismark. And set a good number of years past the life expectancy of his time.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's part of the problem: our life expectancy has gotten longer, but our assumption of when retirement should happen hasn't. (At least, not officially.) There's a big difference between saving for those last five years of your life, if you even make it that far, and saving for thirty fairly likely post-productive years. There was a golden zone where it seems to have actually been possible, but it was short-lived.

Mind you, with the way health in the U.S. is going, I believe our life expectancy has actually started to drop. So maybe we'll solve the problem by another route. >_<

[raktajinos.livejournal.com]

I agree the time of 'retirement' is coming to an end. My parents are nearing retirement (in the next three years) but neither of them is planning on stopping work entirely, which I think is smart - they're both able and fit enough to keep working and enjoy what they do.

As for my generation - the idea of retirement seems unrealistic. With the baby boomers and the echo aging, my generation simply won't be able to afford to retire (let alone the social safety welfare net being bled dry by that population - and this is speaking in a Canadian context).

As a kid I was always good with money and my 'big plan' was always to start saving as early as possible. I'm lucky to have finished grad school with no debt (thank you parents), but I've been unemployed for three years and so my big ol' life plan to start saving hasn't even begun yet...and I'm in my late 20s now.

I think with people putting off marriage, children, etc all until they are older, the retirement age will have to be pushed back too if not eliminated all together.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I don't think it has to be that way. But I think we had a brief period where we as a society were capable of long-term planning . . . and it's gone the way of the dodo.