Is Your Retirement Nest-Egg Big Enough? Or Is “Growing a Nest-Egg” The Wrong Idea?

Do you think a “secure retirement” is in store for these people? These are just 2 of the “shocking” stats from a recent Franklin Templeton 2013 Retirement Income survey. Meanwhile, conventional retirement advice would say that all is not lost, just make a few adjustments (start saving, work a little longer, reduce expenses, etc.) and then a secure retirement is in reach. I beg to differ.

Here is part of an article about this survey from Fool.com says;

“This is pretty frightening. If you’re 45, you might be hoping to retire in 20 years. If you’re 54, you might expect to work just 11 more years or so. And if you don’t have a sizable nest egg under construction, you’re probably in trouble. The good news is that all isn’t lost. A little retirement planning and some actions taken now can have a profound effect on your financial situation. You might work some additional years, for example, or take on a second job for a few years. You could reallocate your investment money, if it’s not deployed effectively. You might even decide to downsize your home and perhaps even move to a less expensive region in retirement.”

Credits: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/07/15/this-is-what-poor-retirement-planning-looks-like.aspx

While this may seem reasonable advice, like nearly all retirement planning commentary, it assumes the world will not change much going forward. Where I beg to differ is in saying that the future needs to be considered when you are thinking about retirement! This may seem obvious, but it rarely is taken seriously.

As a “retirement-futurist”, I feel that the prospects of significant healthy life extension, major disruptions to job and investment markets, and the huge debt-loads carried by those entities who pay your pensions – all need to be considered. Longer life spans increases need for financial resources, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence will disrupt job markets and have major impacts on economies and investment markets. And debt loads will likely seriously cramp the ability of pensions to keep their promises. Still, all indeed is not lost!

A key to adapting to this new , as discussed in RetirementSingularity.com, is a need to “reframe” the notion of retirement. The idea that we struggle to have just enough income so we can fund our retirement between ages 65 – 90 is a dangerously flawed concept. Why dangerous? Because it will continue to cause continual despair to those who can’t save the golden egg, AND it will cause those who think they are financially set to make the wrong financial and life decisions at a crucial time in their lives.

Reframing “retirement” means that instead of thinking of retirement as one period of time after work, it becomes a period of personal exploration and reinvention – that leads to another period of education/training for a new or rejuvenated livelihood or business.

This is not simply a matter of “working longer”. Rather, it is about spacing out work throughout your (much longer) life. Spacing out work throughout life also leaves more time for enjoying life as you live it, instead of deferring enjoyment to a period we currently call “retirement”.

My motto for RetirementSingularity.com is “Live long, live well, and prosper!” To “live long”, we will need to keep in mind that we are now in a transition to where radical healthy life extension becomes the norm. To “live well”, the right mental frame around how our life will unfold needs to be considered so we put a proper focus on health of body and mind. To “prosper” is both a matter of financial security and of discovering a wealth of purpose within how we lead our life.

If you feel behind in saving for retirement, it is crucial to consider the future of life extension and technological disruption. For a more detailed discussion, refer to the free report “The End of Retirement As We Know It”