“Retirement is wonderful if you have two essentials – much to live on and much to live for.” – Unknown
Picture this: You are now 60 years old and have recently retired after years of working your heart out. You now have all the time and the money to experience your dream vacations like the white beach of Boracay or El Nido, the Cherry Blossoms of Japan, the Broadway in New York and the Christmas Markets in Europe. You are busy scheduling your visits to your children and grandchildren or your next reunions with former classmates and workmates. You are excited as you can now pursue your new hobbies or projects. And you now can do your advocacies and charitable works.
Ask any working adults and the above is how they want their retirement to be…fun, relaxed, and moneyed. And that’s how it should be because retirement is supposedly a time for celebration. When you look forward to enjoying your retirement to the fullest, with no worries about targets and workloads. It’s time to start doing all those exciting things you never had time for when you were busy earning your keeps.
That’s the dream retirement. But here’s the reality.
Based on a recent study, out of 100 retirees:
Only 2 are financially independent, have the means to support themselves and most probably live the dream retirement pictured above. These people were able to plan, save and invest to have the financial resource to support their needs and wants during their retirement years. They were responsible enough in ensuring that they will not be a burden to the people around them.
45 are dependent on their families/relatives to fund their retirement needs. Mostly are still staying/living with their children/relatives as they cannot afford to live on their own. Some of them may have pensions but are not enough to support their daily sustenance and maintenance requirements, much more to make their dream retirement a reality. While some really didn’t prepare to have pension money and will not/can no longer work. Sadly, they consider their children/relatives as their retirement plan.
30 rely on charity for their daily keeps. Their children/relatives are, themselves, also struggling to even extend assistance. Their only source of financial support comes from dole outs (ayudas), either from the government or their friends. They are living a hand-to-mouth existence where they have hardly enough food or money to live on.
23 continue to work, not because they want to but because they have to. As they neither have pensions nor children/relatives to support them, they have no other choice but to continue working in order to finance their daily needs. Even when they are already too old, tired and sick, they needed to work. Otherwise, they will end up relying on charity.
If I were to ask which category do you want to end up in as retirees, I bet everyone will say category 1. Now the question is, how are you making sure that you will be there and not in the other categories when you retire?
We cannot build our dream retirement on hope and chance alone. We have to make the necessary steps to come closer to it and make it happen. Set your retirement goals. Retirement planning does not happen on the eve of your retirement, it should happen many years before. Know how much you will need to continue living comfortably as retiree. Start saving/investing for it. You don’t need to start big, just start and stay on it.
Let us break the cycle of poor or zero retirement planning. Let’s take action now so sooner than later, the majority of the retirees will be in category 1, where they get to live out their dream retirement. Starting with you…
