I am 35 years old. Why am I so obsessed with retirement and saving for retirement ?
1) I need a major life goal to save for and look forward too. Having goals and a plan to get to those goals means that I am working towards a worthwhile retirement, one where I can have land and my off-grid cabin 🏡in a low-tax, high-freedom state in my later years.
2) Money saved in my thirties will have a lot more of a chance to grow over the next 30 years💸 then money saved during my 40s and 50s.
3) I don’t want to be a renter, living in the city my whole life.🏢 While I enjoy the ease of public transportation and the conviences of urban living, 🐣I’d much rather have the right to build fires, shoot guns, ride four wheelers, and even hobby farm in my later years.🐮
4) Rather then waste money on shit I’m going to have to pay to get rid of eventually at the landfill🗻, I would rather be putting my money where it’s helping to grow the economy by investing, and have more money in later years.
5) I don’t trust that I will make it to my final years in good health, so I want to be able to retire at a fairly early age so I can enjoy my land, 🚜do things before the end comes. I have no interest in living long enough to ever need nursing care.
6) I don’t trust that social security or my pension will be there in full when it finally comes time to retire.⚠ Simply said, social security and pensions are both under-invested in💰 and with shrinking GDP projections📉, it’s going to hit taxpayers hard to make whole on their promises in further generation. 🙊I am fine with living frugally in retirement, having wood heat and small-scale solar, no Internet or television, and a small cabin in wilderness, but I want to be able to afford those goals in my later years.
7) People who make saving for retirement a priority are more likely to live to their retirement,👴 as they have a life goal they’ve been working for their whole life to obtain.
8) Retirement savings in IRAs and deferred compensation are generally locked up until retirement. 🔒While other investments like stocks and bonds can be sold, retirement savings can’t be touched with a significant penalty. This means they’ll have decades to mature without being touched. 📈Obviously having money in savings, CDs, and mid term market investments of stock and bonds are important too.