Retirement

Introduction#

Probably a better question that "What is retirement?" is "Why is retirement?". Ok, that doesn't make any sense, but I'm going with it anyway. So, why do you want to retire, and what does it mean?

Why#

For most of us, I think it really means "I have enough money that I can do what I want (within reason), without having to compromise due to a limited amount of time." In other words, "I don't have to work and I can still spend money."

There are a few challenges with this, and in full transparency, I don't have answers to some of them.

  • The older you get, the less inclined you are to do new things (including travel)
    • I've seen this in multiple generations. No matter how much you love to travel, and how much you want to do it, as you approach a certain age, the comfort of being at home and the routine and normalcy mean that you're not going to willing to travel people you want to see, much less things you've never seen.
  • The older you get, the more health problems (stupid back) limit your ability to do what you want
    • Here there are a few things at play. Everyone seems to love their doctors. They're always the best at what they do. And you hurt. And ... fact is doctors everywhere are good. But, the longer you wait, the higher the likelyhood is that you can't do what you want. Save all your money until you're 70 and die at 71? Seems sort of pointless, no?
  • What the heck are you going to do?
    • So, you love traveling, but there are other hobbies too. Do those. Find any hobby that you want to do for 40 hours a week. That's what we call a job. Make sure you've gotten to the space in your head that allows you to be doing different things and not getting bored.
  • How can you deal with the fact that you're spending your nest egg, instead of accumulating it?
    • For >30 years you have gained satisfaction out of watching your nest egg grow. It brings you comfort that you know you can spend money without touching it, because you're still earning money. Uh-oh. Now you're actually watching it shrink. Do you have the ability to change your frame of reference to make that a good thing?

With all of that said, here are the standard ways to save for retirement.

How#

Honestly, this is what most of this documentation tries to address. In order to be able to retire you need to:

Follow the flowchart#