Retirement Realities

Filed in archive Investing , Retirement on January 20, 2006

A lot of us are having the new reality pushed upon us that we need to face and deal with concerning our retirement.

As Lee Eisenberg says in Kiplinger, "in the old Rest of Your Life, retirement was underwritten by old-fashioned pensions and social security.
The checks were as good as gold. Nobody worried about accounting frauds. Nobody was expected to manage an elegantly diversified portfolio. The old Rest of Your Life was about others taking some responsibility for you."

He goes on to say, "The new Rest of Your Life is all about you taking responsibility for yourself."

Edward Wolff, of New York University, who studies the force that defined-contribution plans have had on the lives of seniors says that the swing from defined-benefit pensions to defined-contribution pensions is looked upon as "one of the most dramatic transformations in the economy over the last two decades."

This isn't a cause to panic, but to look at things realistically. To pretend that things are going to keep on going as they were would be tremendous mistake; especially for us that are in their forties and fifties.

Wise young people know that there is no way that they can expect there to be a social security check waiting for them in their future. Many are investing in their financial futures based upon that reality.

If you're nearing retirement age now, there should be no need to be concerned about this issue; again, it is those of us that are 15 to 20 years out that need to realize that the responsibility for our finances is ours alone. To rely upon someone else is gradually becoming a thing of the past.