What! I was supposed to save money for retirement? Nobody told me!
I suppose that it would be hard for any of us to claim that we never got the message that saving and planning for our retirement was important. On television and radio, in print, and online, advertising for firms providing retirement financial planning is absolutely relentless. Every financial institution in the country wants to “help you” prepare for the day you quit work and begin to live on your accumulated resources.
Whether we have worked with one of these organizations, or gone it alone, and whether we are re truly financially fully prepared for retirement or not, we need to know how to manage our money when the day arrives. We all come to retirement in very different financial situations. Learning to function within one’s own personal financial reality is essential. Whenever possible, I endeavour to make what I share relevant to individuals and couples irrespective of their financial situations.
Not surprisingly then, this blog will primarily focus on financial topics dealing with how to best live with the resources available to us. So, more about, “this is how I deal with what I’ve got to live on”, rather than, “how do I accumulate more before I pack it in?” These topics should also be of benefit to those of you who are a-ways-away from retirement. It is never too early to begin sound money management practices.
The financial piece may be the issue that is considered by most to be of the utmost importance when considering life in retirement. If you look at most books written concerning the subject, you would certainly be left with that impression. As this blog progresses, I will review retirement related books on an ongoing basis. Amongst the first will be the ones I have already read, which of course, focus heavily on the financial component.
Our finances might be the most important consideration in life after work, but it is certainly not the only one. We will not dwell on it. There are many other facets of retirement life that contribute significantly to the overall experience.
Liked the posts, and find the one about finances quite interesting. Before I retired, my bank’s financial advisor helped me do a bit of long range planning. At the time, we budgeted for approximately four thousand a year for a major trip ( I am on my own ). It seemed generous and more than adequate, but in the five years that I have been retired the amount needed for a trip seems to have gone up almost 25%, and five thousand just seems enough, but not generous.
You can probably do better traveling with your own planning, but trips abroad when you are single and female seem better taken in a group.