How Long Will Your Money Live After YOU Retire?

I don't know about you but if I knew then what I know now, I would've been saving like crazy and by now I would be moving rather comfortably into retirement.  Sadly, that is not the case.

Back in the 80's I had a retirement savings plan.  I had no real clue of its value so I used it as my personal spending account.  I FAILED to plan for my future life expectancy and even though I pride myself with being smart I was financially illiterate.  I had a lack of knowledge about what it meant to do retirement planning and saving and when you have a LACK OF KNOWLEDGE you have a lack of savings and investments. 

It used to be when you retired you got a gold watch (or some other trinket), a send-off party, and a nice pension to rely on every month in addition to your social security check.  At one time nearly 90 percent of private sector workers had a pension as their workplace retirement plan which was FULLY FUNDED by the employer.  Today that number is down to 33 percent.

These days the idea of collecting a pension from your employer is practically non-existent. Unlike our parents, most baby boomers aren't likely to spend their entire working lives on one job to benefit from a pension.  In addition, more employers have opted to offer 401K retirement plans where you have to contribute a portion of your salary if you expect to get anything in return. 

According to a survey by the Insured Retirement Institute, only 24 percent of baby boomers were confident their savings would last throughout their retirement years.  That's a dismal thought considering the fact that we are retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day through at least 2030.  What's even more dismal is the survey also indicates approximately 35 million of us lack any retirement savings today.

Enter the pandemic.  Now we have an entirely new set up of problems to deal with that will also affect our retirement financially and health wise.

Experts say you should have 10 times your income saved to retire by age 67—here's what to do if you aren't yet there:

1. Delay retirement and keep earning. 
2. Make some extra cash. 
3. Invest while there's still time. 
4. Invest to generate an income. 
5. Sell up and downsize to a cheaper property. 
6. Discover what state support might be available. 
7. Work with a financial planner.   
8. There's an old Chinese proverb that says, The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.