The NEW “New Retirement” and 5 “Need To’s”

The prospect of extreme longevity will change, yet again, how we think about the notion of retirement.  This is “RetirementSingularity”.

The idea of  “The New Retirement” refers to a shift in how many of us are thinking about retirement.  The old version went like this; You go to school, you get a job, you work and save money for 35 years, then you retire and relax until you die.   The current “New Retirement” is being shaped by the Boomer generation who don’t want to slow down. Instead, they see retirement as a chance to do what they really always wanted to do, to be more engaged, to lead a meaningful life, to experience adventure, to find fulfillment and to have fun doing that. They are not content to go quietly into the night.

RetirementSingularity.com introduces a further evolution in how we see retirement – one that includes the real possibility and even the real likelihood of living much longer AND with a body/mind that is  much healthier and vital.  The prospects of a healthy and vastlyextended lifespan opens up much larger vistas of what we could do with our lives. It also opens up the need to look at our financial resources in a different way.

Five “Need Tos” for Your Retirement Thinking

1. Need to consider health care costs more seriously in budgeting. This is partly because we will likely want to pay for future medical innovations that make us healthier and live longer AND also that people who are healthy will live longer and actually will spend more on healthcare costs then someone who is ill and will not live as long.
2. Need to put a greater value on our “Human Capital”. Moshe Milevsky, one of my favourite financial gurus, talks about  Human Capital as our ability to work – to earn money, and this is often our biggest assets.  He writes,  “Younger folks are much wealthier than you think. When I talk to audiences about this, especially the older crowd, 40s and 50s, I ask them with a show of hands how much of their money they’re willing to give away to turn back the clock 20 years. And most people say, “Take it all, and make me 20 years younger.” What people start to realize is that their human capital is the most valuable asset they have — more valuable than financial capital.”   [ see Your Real Net Worth ]   The possibility of having time to have multiple careers over an extended lifespan, means the Human Capital is greatly increased.  See spending money on developing your career capabilities as a good investment.
3. Need to spend the time and effort to stay healthy.  A solid regimen of exercise, diet, supplements, medical checkups, relaxation etc. becomes even more important if the result is a vastly longer life.
4. Need to look at what is important in life.  Procrastination is a powerful force in many peoples lives. The notion of having a much longer life could result in us putting off (even longer) looking at the most important parts of our life. Have we deeply dealt with the issues of what makes our life truly meaningful? It would be an even greater waste of life if we live much longer but have not truly considered what is ultimately most important in our lives. The time to relect and work on who we want to be, what we want to accomplish is – now.
5. Need to keep up with this New New Retirement.  RetirementSingularity.com is one source to help you do that! Sign up for email notice of future posts, and consider posting comments to help guide the discussions.

All the best!

Michael