If you didn’t set up your retirement plan on the day you started to work back there in the 1950s or 60’s, you’re in for a thin time when it suddenly dawns on you that you are outpacing your money. It’s very simple. You grow every day, but in the economic times we live in, your money stands still. Nowadays, when everyone understands exactly what’s going on in the global economy, you can earn little or no interest on savings and sophisticated savings schemes. Sound and safe investments are not easy to find, especially when the money you are looking to invest is all or most of the money you have. There are also sharks circling around you, waiting for a chance to take a bite out of your nest-egg.
Then to make things worse, the cost of healthcare and medicines rises as though it’s linked to your age and the cost of retirement homes is mind boggling. And to make it worser, if that’s possible, is that after the age of 70 or 75 when you think you’re just hitting full stride, your chances of finding a job are zero. I read news articles every day which tell of the difficulties of a 50-year old finding a job. So here you are at 80, carrying a shovel so you can dig into your savings to keep yourself afloat. Of course nothing ever drops in price and every month you scoop out a larger chunk of savings than you did the previous month.
Finally, to cap it all, we are living longer and longer. Our parents never had this money problem – they didn’t lived long enough to reach it; they could also get anything up to 10 percent on savings, there was little inflation and minimal healthcare.
So welcome to your Golden Years, enjoy them!
