The concept of retirement is a big scam. I could write about the gross immorality of Social Security, which is nothing but an unsustainable Ponzi scheme that steals from the young to support the old. I could write about the madness of the government regulated accounts that us young people are encouraged to establish early on, making a bet about whether government taxes and rules will or won’t change in the years ahead (good luck with that). But I won’t write about those things, because as important as they are, they don’t cut to the heart of the retirement scam.
The worst part of the idea of retirement goes deeper than phony government programs or constantly changing rules. What bothers me is the pervasive cultural idea that you should plan to reach age 65 and retire on savings from your earlier years. The experts usually recommend a million dollars or more, to cover living expenses, possible medical bills, and who knows what else. You might live to be 102 for all you know.
I ask, what is the point? What is the point in having that kind of money when you will be too old to enjoy it? The money stolen from you by Social Security and Medicare, and the money that people voluntarily contribute to retirement accounts throughout their working lives, often adds up to a substantial amount. If not for making those retirement contributions, people could invest more money today, or even enjoy it by taking more vacations and such.
Now, they will tell you, you want to have a million dollars not to enjoy but to live off of. People are living longer than ever, and you’ll need to draw down those savings when you retire in order to meet your expenses.
That’s a stupid bargain. Give up a measurably large amount of happiness or potential growth from ages 25 to 65, so that you can guarantee you can live like a pauper as you age, linger awhile, and die?
If I had the choice of living my life that way — making huge sacrifices today for a future of watching Jeopardy reruns and reading the newspaper twice — then I would prefer to live my life to the fullest today, save nothing for retirement, and if I reach 65 and am too sick to work, I would honestly rather jump off a bridge, having lived a full and happy life. I don’t think I would lament that, had I saved more money, I might have enjoyed a few extra months in a hospital bed. Or, in better health, years of staring out of windows and doing crossword puzzles.
Doesn’t this mean that I think only about the short term, and not the long term? Not at all. I strongly believe in having a long term vision, including working hard and saving money for things you want, or making investments that will improve your life, such as a business. The problem is that when you go to great pains to save money year after year for 40 years, and then the form in which it is paid back is not a business you can enjoy, or a better education, or even simple short-term pleasure, but an old age of watching your body wind down and stop, you can see why I would prefer to live life to the fullest now. Retirement is a long-term bet all right, but if you win, you get a booby prize.
Just because an endeavor requires long term thinking and planning and years of delayed gratification and self-discipline does not mean that the reward you get will have been worth all of that pain. What if you save for 40 years, hit 65, and then get sick and die? Think of all the life you could have lived that went into your 401(k) instead.
I don’t worry about retiring. I save nothing for retirement specifically, although I save plenty of money in general. This does not mean that I am an utter hedonist, living paycheck to paycheck or client to client. I do, in fact, exercise self-discipline and forgo pleasures so that I can gain rewards later. Only I expect to get those rewards while I am healthy enough to enjoy them.
When I reach retirement age, I will either be able to continue working or I will not. I am counting on working. Should the day come when I am unable to work in any capacity, I will not much care what happens then. I refuse to spend my youth and vitality preparing to live in comfort when I am old and weak someday (maybe), which is a future that may not even come. I do not accept that it’s a sure thing. I plan to keep on thinking and working forever.
Many people remain active and prosperous right up until the day of their death at an old age. Frank Lloyd Wright was designing buildings and making money (and incurring even bigger debts!) up until the day he died at age 92. Why is it seen as perfectly reasonable to bet that you will slow down with advancing years, and not that you will be among those who keep on going right up until the end (in which case, who needs a massive retirement fund?). You almost make a slow death inevitable when you plan on that very outcome. I’m planning on the opposite. I realize the risk in this — I won’t have any retirement savings. I plan to use that money now to make worthwhile investments and build businesses that will earn income for as long as I need.
Plan for the long term. Save and invest and delay gratification to improve your situation. Just be careful about the nature of the reward that you are working so hard for. If you’re counting on retirement, then you might spend your entire working life living a smaller, less joyful life than you otherwise could, for the booby prize of watching your body get sick and wither away — but with no worries about whether you can pay the light bill.
Oddly enough, with all the death talk, I consider this to be a life-affirming article. Just be careful to think about what kind of a life you are affirming.
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5 Comments
Since there is likely very few people named “Tod” from my generation, it’s probably safe to assume that you’re much younger than me.
I’ve been raging against social security since I was in my late teens in the early 1960s. By that time, social security retirement had been in existence for close to thirty-years. About that time, people who’d been paying into the system (having the money involuntarily stolen from their pay check) were collection retirement in larger numbers. The old people, who always voted had plenty of political power and blocked anything to do with social security elimination or reform. About that time, the media labeled the social security debate as the “third rail” of American politics.
During that period, Medicare was added an auxillary budget buster. Then, social security disability, which was apart from the original retirement system was quietly installed. Disabled persons, including children started getting monthly handout cash. If your kid was simply stupid . . . he got a check. Had a cousin who was a 300 pound psycho maniac who at least once set fire and burned their house to ground. She received $985 a month starting in the 1970s just for being an out of control maniac.
Myself, I would like to see the who anti-American destructive system abolished, but it won’t happen so as the United States in it’s current form exists. Should the 50-state union collapse and break up, which may happen sooner than later, social security would naturally disappear too.
I will turn age 65 next year and want as little to do with the federal government as possible. Unlike a number of long time friends who signed up for socialist security retirement bennies at age 62, I did not. Want as little to do with the federal government as possible.
For one thing, there are too many strings attached and taxes are levied. Social security retirement is a total scam as the money was already taxed by the IRS before the social security money was ripped from paychecks over the years.
Considering the meager thousand bucks a month before taxes, I for one can’t be bothered. Meanwhile, millions of my fellow boomers, now in their sixties, are bellying up the troth to suck on the great government social security teat.
You know, what many left-wing think tanks are arguing for now is to have the government establish mandatory retirement savings accounts for each person. They tax you into Medicare (a retirement health plan), they tax you into social security (a retirement pension plan), and now they want additional money to go into separate retirement savings accounts. They might as well just take all of our money and manage it for us, giving us a weekly allowance out of our own wages. What is happening in this country is insanity. You are witnessing certain customs of human behavior, right or wrong, forced on us all. Do most people save for retirement? Then we all will, they decide. Are most people never going to drink raw milk? Then we will outlaw it for everybody, they decree.
I am young, as you guessed. I don’t want to live in this kind of world forever. This blog is part of my effort to fight for individual rights. It’s disheartening to hear stories of those who have been abused by the government but have no claim against it, except wanting to be left alone. I hope that we can stop it in time.
What’s even crazier about retirement at 65 is that when 65 was set as the “retirement age”, the average life expectancy was only 62.
Wow, I disagree with this whole article. I work with several men in semi-retirement up to age 90. They live well, remain active and do what they desire with the wealth they built through the years.
We play tennis, go biking, eat out and travel all over. This life would never be possible were it not for our retirement planning, delayed gratification and hard work.
Son, you are not in fellowship with the right people if your vision of the golden years is not happy. I pity you.
B Clerici
I’m not against delayed gratification in principle — I’m against delaying it until you’re too old to enjoy it. I think most people work too hard when they’re young to get things that aren’t really important later in life when they generally can’t enjoy them anyway. But if the traditional approach works for you, great!