The retirement planning pundits have finally thrown in the towel.
The new leading piece of wisdom to come from this crowd is to work longer before retiring.
Recall that other gems have been:
- Start saving in your 20’s
- Max out your 401K contributions
- Take some risk but not too much investing (?!)
Now we are told this won’t work as prescribed. We need to work longer before retiring.
Let me throw some cold water on this—it’s not our choice!
It never was but no one told us.
Do You Recognize This?
This month 2 guys have left my company. Both are mid-50s. Both wanted to keep working.
The first guy, Harry, became so fed up with the politics that he quit. He had told me from Day 1 he could retire. He has lots of real estate that I know of. Probably has much more too. At 54 he may live another 30 years and his son just entered college. At least Harry is in sales if he wants to keep working.
The second guy, David, was shown the door. No question he was let go. Also, he confided in me only two months earlier his plan was to work another 3 years and then do consulting. I can safely say he was entirely unprepared to get fired. Worse yet is David is a middle manager with an HR angle. He’s clearly in a bad situation.
The New Reality
Everyone looking at future retirement from a corporate perspective has drunk the same Kool-Aid.
Go to school. Work hard. Move up the ranks. Stay the course. Retire to your dream island, golf course, or chalet.
The problem is the corporate math has changed for the worst. Fifty year olds are expendable just when they most need the stability to reach their goal. New job positions are rare. These jobs don’t pay as well. It’s called job bias and it’s real.
So this is what the real situation is from an article on Yahoo!:
“According to data from the National Institute on Retirement Security, two thirds of working households age 55-64 with at least one earner have retirement savings that are less than one times their annual income. Given the shrinking share of households covered by pensions, it’s no wonder that 72% of people age 50-64 believe they will have to delay retirement, according to an AARP poll, and half don’t think they will ever be able to retire.”
Maybe you won’t have to be a greeter at Wal-Mart (no offense).
But maybe you will get a similar job at (much) reduced pay.
Is this what you want?
Have a New Retirement Plan
What you can do today will thrill you.
Start by making an exit plan for the day you get the pink slip. You need 2 years of living expenses and a very low cost place to live as I describe here.
Start today to reign in your expenses.
Start today to invest in alternative sources of income. My favorites are building online businesses, buying established online businesses, and buying/improving real estate. I also like some consulting and mentoring.
If you have an alternative source of income and a solid exit plan you’re set.
You can be confident. You can take back control of your life.
Be like Harry.
The Way Forward
I have spent thousands of hours and thousands of dollars researching this plan. I have developed resources to tackle the most obvious problems.
It’s really that easy to change your retirement plan and your life.
My most valuable advice has come from my mentors. I’m happy to share our collective wisdom with you.