In a world where employees can’t rely on long-term relationships with their employers, most of which no longer offer relatively safe retirement protection through pensions, planning for retirement, at least for the younger demographic in today’s workforce, is substandard. People do start thinking about their future as time goes by, but often, the appropriate planning and saving doesn’t begin until later than one would later hope in hindsight.
There are numerous obstacles to getting to one’s retirement number — a measure of net worth that one could live on, invested properly, without needing to supplement with additional work. The future of Social Security is unclear. Pensions are mostly extinct as I mentioned above. Prices for health care are rising faster than inflation. A downturn in the stock market at an inopportune time could devastate your income potential from investments.
A common solution for increasing income in retirement is to delay the beginning of that phase of one’s life. Working in retirement on a part-time or consulting basis can reduce the stress brought on by a full-time job while supplementing income from investments with a check. One of my family members, a partner in a consulting firm, is planning to reduce his hours rather than retiring as soon as he is eligible, and I’ve heard similar stories, even from people who are not nearing retirement just yet. The math shows that income in retirement can be greatly increased by delaying the end of work, and as younger workers begin to realize this, the idea working longer becomes the best-looking option.
When we begin career planning at this level, there’s a tendency to assume we have complete control over our decisions. To a major extent, we do. Every day, even without realizing it, we make hundreds of decisions. We choose to wake up on time. We choose to eat a healthy breakfast. We choose to go to the office. We choose to do our work to the best of our abilities. Every action is a choice where we weigh the consequences. Getting fired is one consequence of not going to the office consistently when expected to do so or not working at the level of one’s potential.
As you get older, though, some of the situations become a little more unpredictable and a little more influenced by external events.
Even if you plan on working into your retirement in order to increase your income after ceasing your nine-to-five job, you may not get that choice. Age discrimination laws aside, if your salary is an expense your company cannot handle when a younger worker in your place could save the company money, your job is in danger regardless of your performance. One could argue you have the choice to better represent your value to the company to avoid this situation. One could argue that a worker with longevity could have offered to take a salary cut to be more competitive with younger, less-experienced workers in a tough job market. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, we must recognize there are situations where there is nothing a person could have done better other than being younger.
Corporate decisions aren’t the only drivers for early retirement. Health issues often become more of a problem as people age, and while one could argue that staying healthy is also a personal choice, health issues are often well beyond someone’s control. A spouse or family member could become sick if not yourself, and either your own health problems or those of a loved one can pull your focus away from your job.
As a result, plans for working longer can be destroyed in an instant. And if you’re already at retirement age, you might find it difficult to simply find another job that fully continues the extended work plan you designed for yourself. The financial planning industry uses probabilities when working with clients to develop long-term strategies for wealth maintenance and growth. A planner might say that a particular set-up of investments and time-frame for retirement has an 80 percent chance of providing you with income for the rest of your life. The problem is that life rarely follows the plans one sets, and there are so many variables — each day with hundreds of personal choices and the effect of external influences — that even if you try to follow the plan to the letter and to the day, you may not live the life you’re hoping for.
I love this dose of reality from a recent New York Times article that calls our approach to retirement ridiculous:
Not yet convinced that failure is baked into the voluntary, self-directed, commercially run retirement plans system? Consider what would have to happen for it to work for you. First, figure out when you and your spouse will be laid off or be too sick to work. Second, figure out when you will die. Third, understand that you need to save 7 percent of every dollar you earn. (Didn’t start doing that when you were 25 and you are 55 now? Just save 30 percent of every dollar.) Fourth, earn at least 3 percent above inflation on your investments, every year. (Easy. Just find the best funds for the lowest price and have them optimally allocated.) Fifth, do not withdraw any funds when you lose your job, have a health problem, get divorced, buy a house or send a kid to college. Sixth, time your retirement account withdrawals so the last cent is spent the day you die.
As we all know, these abilities are not common for our species.
For the most part, today’s workers will be relying on their kids to support them later in life just as has been the case for almost the entirety of human existence. There are certainly exceptions, mostly at the upper end of the wealth scale, now and throughout history, but the likelihood of retirement plans working out verbatim for even the relatively high income-earners is low, particularly if there is a desire for the type of leisurely living depicted in annoying television commercials for investment firms.
Are you planning to extend your career in order to increase your income potential during retirement? What would happen if the decision to leave work at a time you need to build the extra income is made for you?
Photo: bumeister1
New York Times
Published or updated July 23, 2012.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Having an encore career is wonderful imo. To be able to explore new careers, or new endeavor without really needing the money at all is awesome!
I plan on kicking back for a while after retirement and go travel. I’ll continue to write journal entries on my little blog during this time.
I’m just excited there is a blank slate again!
Best,
Sam
I am working longer to receive a larger pension in my career. Not necessarily by choice. I entered teaching late (55 y.o.) after my first retirement. In order to receive a full pension and benefits, I must work a few more years. My plan is to work til 70 years old to max Social Security too. Why not, I retired once when I was 38 years old.
I will definitely work as long as possible (not just to save more money but also because I enjoy working). But I understand that, as you mentioned, this isn’t always possible. I’m going to be 30 in a year and haven’t been focusing on retirement as much as I should have been so I need to face reality myself and get serious about contributing to my retirement.
I am lucky in that I am young, in my twenties, and am saving a significant portion of my income compared to most so hopefully this allows me to retire at least on time or when I need to if before that.
I’m at the other end of the age spectrum from Lance :) For a while there I was pretty stressed about what you call retirement number, but what I call drop dead money (enough money to tell everyone holding me in financial prison to drop dead).
But there is one thing that can make a difference, and that’s paying attention to the economic cycle, recessions in particular. I’m amazed how few people haven’t noticed how regularly we’ve had recessions in our lifetime – every 7-10 years, like clockwork. We’ve reduced the amount of hurricane damage people suffer by better predictions. Likewise, we can limit the damage recessions inflict because we can better predict them.
But, better than that, you can use recessions to get ahead, because if you delay your purchases till the next recession (it’s not that long) you can cut your costs dramatically. Likewise, if you have investments, you might rearrange them when prices become unusually high (those are called bubbles).
Using this, we came out of the last recession in the best shape of our lives, and thankfully, that stress is gone, and if we work now, it’s by choice, not by need.
I am on the younger side of the spectrum, and I was lucky enough to miss out on the most recent economic downturn. Besides putting away as much as I am able to for retirement and avoiding consumer debt, I know that I plan to work in some capacity until I am no longer able to. This way I can have my savings spend as much time working for me as I have spent working to accumulate them.
But what if your ability to work is cut off before you intend?… if that “no longer able to” time comes too early for some external reason?
That’s a real risk nowadays, that’s for sure! Job security as we knew it is on life support.
tbork seems to have adopted the idea that he wants to work by choice toward the end of his career. If that choice is taken away, the money he put away will at least remove the stress of having no income… His “put away” money will hopefully include an emergency fund for exactly that purpose.
Off the topic only slightly, here’s an interesting chart which shows how older people work longer and actually may be taking work from younger people. http://bit.ly/OjWFo5
Scary interesting…
Is it actually possible to work in retirement. I have always felt that just because someone is of retirement age and or drawing from an retirement account that they are not retired until they actually have removed themselves from the job pool.
Oh boy, you nailed it with this one. With me, it wasn’t myself who got ill, but my boss. She died within six months of a cancer diagnosis, and her business shut down. Double shock. I’m starting over, but have also landed in the caregiver role with an elderly relative. You can’t plan for stuff that is so unpredictable. Anyone may, in middle age or younger, end up caring for a sick relative. If you are lucky, they will be financially stable. If not, you may have to lend support. I can tell you one thing from my experience in caregiving: it costs out the wazoo to get old. Having seen this, I think we all need to earn a little in retirement years, unless you are really wealthy.
The fact is, all a reasonable person can do is best-guess how to plan for the future, recognize it all may come to naught, and deal with what comes. And that, also, has been the fact for most of human existence.
I will probably be one of those working through “retirement”. If you are already doing something you enjoy doing (which, for the most part, I am) – I don’t know why there’d be any reason to quit (unless you lose your faculties of course).
The entire concept of retirement is outdated and nearing obsolescence.. It originated due to life expectancy. People SHOULD be working later if they’re living later.