Why I’ve Become Obessed with Saving for Retirement
I am 35 years old. Why am I so obsessed with retirement and saving for retirement ?
1) I need a major life goal to save for and look forward too. Having goals and a plan to get to those goals means that I am working towards a worthwhile retirement, one where I can have land and my off-grid cabin 🏡in a low-tax, high-freedom state in my later years.
2) Money saved in my thirties will have a lot more of a chance to grow over the next 30 years💸 then money saved during my 40s and 50s.
3) I don’t want to be a renter, living in the city my whole life.🏢 While I enjoy the ease of public transportation and the conviences of urban living, 🐣I’d much rather have the right to build fires, shoot guns, ride four wheelers, and even hobby farm in my later years.🐮
4) Rather then waste money on shit I’m going to have to pay to get rid of eventually at the landfill🗻, I would rather be putting my money where it’s helping to grow the economy by investing, and have more money in later years.
5) I don’t trust that I will make it to my final years in good health, so I want to be able to retire at a fairly early age so I can enjoy my land, 🚜do things before the end comes. I have no interest in living long enough to ever need nursing care.
6) I don’t trust that social security or my pension will be there in full when it finally comes time to retire.⚠ Simply said, social security and pensions are both under-invested in💰 and with shrinking GDP projections📉, it’s going to hit taxpayers hard to make whole on their promises in further generation. 🙊I am fine with living frugally in retirement, having wood heat and small-scale solar, no Internet or television, and a small cabin in wilderness, but I want to be able to afford those goals in my later years.
7) People who make saving for retirement a priority are more likely to live to their retirement,👴 as they have a life goal they’ve been working for their whole life to obtain.
8) Retirement savings in IRAs and deferred compensation are generally locked up until retirement. 🔒While other investments like stocks and bonds can be sold, retirement savings can’t be touched with a significant penalty. This means they’ll have decades to mature without being touched. 📈Obviously having money in savings, CDs, and mid term market investments of stock and bonds are important too.
3 Comments
But it shouldn’t make you miserable, Andy.
Buying an old farmstead and accruing equity while you own it is one of the best ways to plan for retirement. Real estate: “They’re not making anymore of it and people will pay through the nose to get it”.
Jeff’s comment is good. I think part of the issue is that it is hard to “live in the future” with all your goals and dreams especially when you are in your 20s and 30s. It’s like you have to see some of those dreams bear fruit. Otherwise its like you end up being in a rut-spinning your wheels, and can become unhappy and bored. I ended up working for 6 years in my dream job (ceramic engineer), then took a 3 year leave of absence and lived in Logan, Utah and got my masters degree. Every day I looked up at 10,000 foot mountains, and every evening and weekend I could go hike and backpack in them. Hundreds of different canyons to wander. And the fascination of Southern Utah’s canyon lands. Made coming back to NYS and working at the same job a heck of a lot more tolerable after that. My boss said that it had really matured me as a person and in my field. Looking back- it was a very hard decision to leave my good paying job in NYS- but it was the right decision and the right time to do it, as I was still renting, not married, no big commitments. When I came back here to NYS from Utah, I finally “settled down” and bought an inexpensive house at age 33. Now, at age 50, that house is paid for, and I am free and clear from debt. While my “dream job” in manufacturing is gone, I have retrained and now work part time in local govt. The pay is low, but the work and people are interesting and all the bills are still paid and I am basically living as if semi-retired. I feel for Andy- because he is sort of at that same break in the road, at that same decision point. If he did something brave, like take a one-two year leave of absence, for travel and to go work on an advanced degree in a Western (or Southern) state, you can usually return back to your same job for higher pay. It really takes the edge off! New people, new scene, new challenge, new adventure. Looking back, I have no regrets. The bit I borrowed from my retirement to pay for those 3 years in Utah for my Masters was made up for by the experience and enrichment of my life. I now have new friends, new experiences, and new places out West that I never would have had if I had stayed put in NYS and continued on in in the same rut in those restless years of my late 20s early 30s. My experiences out West formed and shaped the rest of my life here in the East, in NYS, and have given me the inspiration to keep on!
Plus, when you have seen the whole country, and lived somewhere else- NYS is seen as something pretty special- we have a heck of a lot more culture and arts here, people are generally more well-educated and more intelligent, that is something the other “free” states don’t have. Plus the Adirondacks and the Finger Lakes Trail and the Catskills are our treasures that the flatlanders do not have. I hope this letter inspires Andy to think outside the box for his future. Teresa-Ceramic Engineer, Geographer, Govt. Clerk, Semi-retired.