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The Myths of Retirements and Reality

During retirement or when preparing for retirement, one of the questions people like to ask - how much is enough for us to retire without any financial worry and independent?

Then the next thing is the myths of retirements, and the reality of it, how do we handle these issues?

So what are the myths of retirements?

  1. We can start preparing for our retirement later.
  2. Our Savings is enough for our retirement.
  3. We will spend less in our retirement life.
  4. We will have a lot of free times during our retirement.
  5. Health issues do not slow down a person until much later.
  6. We can start our savings plan for retirement later.
  7. We can take care of our health insurance.
  8. Invest in safe and stable financial instruments to lower risk and preserve capital.
  9. The Retirement Fund is sufficient for retirement.
  10. Still, can work during retirement.

1. We can start preparing for our retirement later.

People like to put off what they intend to do to a later date especially on retirement. And this is quite a serious problem, if we do that, as the longer we put off our retirement financial plan or wealth plan, the less we will have accumulated for our targeted funding for retirement.

The power of compound interest will come into play in our wealth plan, and the later we start savings for our wealth plan, the less amount we will have in term of compounded interests accumulated. Which will be quite a substantial amount, which we may regret later for not starting earlier.

2. Our savings will be enough for our retirement.

Enough Money for Retirement?

Whether the amount saved for retirement is enough or not, is anybody guess, there does not seem to be an amount which is the right amount for retirement, as there are so many variable involved; and also very much depend on where one is residing; and the lifestyle one has and hoping to have upon retired.

3. We will spend less when we are retired.

Nice Food For Retirement

I hear a lot of this when I talk to people about retirement,  the usual norm is one will spend less when one retired. Is it really the case? some may have more to spend on health and medical, others may have to spend more when they move to a new place to retire, instead of staying put at the place they used to live during the working life.

4. Having a lot of free time during our retirement.

Relaxing on Retirement

Conversation I have with people going to retire is - they currently put off whatever they want to do until retirement because they have the impression that they will have a lot of free time during retirement, and they can do whatever they plan to do.

The reality is -- do you really have a lot of free time during retirement?

It will be a shock to some people when they find out they need to adjust their retirement plan, as they go along and realize they are busier than their working life!!! as when they are getting into retirement life and find out they have planned a lot of activities and not able to cope with.

5. Health issue does not slow a person until much later.

There is a possibility that once a person retires and suddenly there is no much pressure and stress, the body takes time to adjust to relax mood, and all of a sudden, those problems in the body start surfacing and the person will face a lot of sickness such as hearing issue, movement problem, pain and aches and so on, and this will surely mean we need to incur more to solve these health's issues.

6. We can start our saving plan for retirement much later.

A lot of people decide to delay the start of saving for retirement, and prefer to pay off the house mortgage, children education loan and so on, without realizing that the more we delay the start of the savings plan, the more we need to save in the later years in order to have a bigger nest of funds for retirement and we may have to adopt a more aggressive method to accumulate the fund/money required.

As mentioned earlier, the power of compound returns which can help to achieve financial security.

7. The health insurance will be taken care of.

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Quite a lot of people depend on the health insurance for the golden year, most of the time we purchase the insurance policies in our younger day, and we later find out the policies  do not seem to be the right policies for the purpose., and if we go for a new health policy to meet the requirement, it will be very costly.

The next question one needs to ask is, what are really covered in the health insurance?

8. Invest in safe and stable financial instruments to lower risk and preserve capital.

This is a big headache for a retiree to consider:

  • to move to a stable and low risk investment,
  • the return may not be as high,
  • this will affect the growth of your savings fund,
  • the immediate problem one needs to face will be the rate of inflation will be higher than the return on investment.

If the rate of inflation is higher than the growth and return on investment of the fund, sooner or later it will affect the availability of the fund for sustaining the lifestyle of retirement.

The situation will become more acute if one's life expectancy is more than 90 years old.

9. The retirement fund is sufficient for retirement.

People may have set aside some fund specifically for retirement, besides the savings they have.

The main question one needs to ask is -

  • whether the money in total set aside for retirement is sufficient, and
  • if it is not, what do we need to do to ensure we have enough for retirement?
How do we determine the retirement fund is sufficient?

There is no any hard and fast rules on this:

  • it all very much depends on the needs and
  • requirement of each individual.

10. Still, can work during retirement.

Plant Durian in Retirement

A lot of people have the idea that retirement means stop working, which will actually cause a lot of issues and problems,

Are we retiring from work or from life?

There is a different between the two and we have to make sure we are not retired from life and do nothing.

If we work every day and we are active, when suddenly we drop every thing we are doing and declare " I retire!!", that is the end of it, a lot of problems will arise

And you will be facing a lot of issues if you are not able to adjust to the retired lifestyle.

Sooner or later, the mind may be as sharp as before, because suddenly one stops using the mind.

As we know, our mind stays sharp the more we use our brain and our mental will stay healthy if we consider using it.

Likewise, our body also stays healthy and mobile if we consider to exercise and move around more often, instead of just sitting around and lazying away.

We may want to start a second career which is less taxing than our first, and enjoy retirement at the same time.

Not to mention it may generate and supplement our income for retirement.

So, what can we do to mitigate the impact on retirement and at the same time enjoy our retirement?

For those people whom I have had discussion with, I always encourage them:

  • to start a second career, or
  • do something less taxing, and
  • which can generate income for their retirement,
  • at the same time can learn some new skills.

With the advancement of technology and availability of internet, it will be good for those who want to retire, or soon to retire can start learning some skills about online business.

Why I found that Wealthy Affiliate is a good platform for a person to learn/

  • a person can learn a lot from Wealthy Affiliate, such as
  • learning how to create a website of your own,
  • how to use the internet in a more productive way,
  • getting to know how to link with other social media and so on, some basic computer skills which will come handy when one retired and have ample time to learn in this WA community.

By doing so, it can also help to keep a person's mind sharp and in a healthy state.

If you have any questions or wish to share your experience on this topic.

Please feel free to leave your comments and questions and your experience in the feedback space below.

I would be glad to get back to you and thank you for your feedback and comments and sharing of your experience.

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10 thoughts on “The Myths of Retirements and Reality

  1. Ben

    This is a great article that more people should read. You're onto something here- people (myself included as of now at least) are not nearly as financially literate as they need to be. Between the aging population, social security, and burgeoning debt, it's quite possible that "retiree hopefuls" could be in trouble for future years and decades.

    The importance of investing early and often for compound interest and financial wisdom cannot be understated. It can be life changing.

    Glad you're educating people about these very real and important issues.

    Thanks!
    Ben

    Reply
    1. Chee Shi Teo

      hi Ben

      i find that quite a lot of people are not well prepared for retirement, quite a lot are depending on government or wishful thinking that everything will work out on its own course, some will think their children will be able to take care of them and most of the time, the children will just put their old folks in the old folks home and visit them when they have the time, so it will be better if we can take care of ourselves and decide our own future

      Reply
  2. Doc

    Ten very important points to consider for retirement. Sure do wish I would have been more prepared. It is never too late as you point out. Thanks for the motivation to get myself in gear and prepare. Time and money, it always comes down to time and money. With these tips I will be better prepared. Thank You. Doc

    Reply
  3. carol

    After many years of teaching in the elementary school system, I decided to take early retirement. Even though I love teaching, it has become too stressful and has impacted my health. To point out, I have not retired from working. As a matter of fact, I found Wealthy Affiliate online and I am learning how to build an online business from the training.

    Reply
    1. Chee Shi Teo

      hi Carol
      yes, Wealthy Affiliate is the way to go if one wants to retire and still work as this is the community where one can get to learn and earn some income as well as meeting friends from all over the world and share the experience.

      Reply
  4. Lilian

    Hi Chee Shi,
    Thank you for sharing "The Myths of Retirements & Reality". It is indeed a great article, worthy of reading! Many procrastinate n regret later. I hope others, especially, the young working adults will start saving for their retirement plan much early. One will never regret doing so.

    Once again thank you for sharing this valuable info.

    Reply
    1. Chee Shi Teo

      hi Lilian
      thank you for your comments, it is really important that one starts the retirement plan early so there is sufficient fund to take care of one's retirement if one wishes to have a happy and good retirement free of financial worry.

      Reply
  5. Christine

    This is a great article to remind us to look into our retirement life.

    To me the most important issue is our health. A healthy mind and body will allow us to live a good retirement life.

    You are right. We must keep our brain and body working after retirement. We should take advantage of the internet. Starting an online business is a good choice. This is what I am doing now.

    Thank you and I really enjoy your article.

    Reply
    1. Chee Shi Teo

      hi Christine

      Happy New Year to you and wish you have a good and healthy year ahead.
      Thank you for your comments and feedback, yes, it is important that we keep our body and mind healthy after retirement and learning online will help in a long way.

      cheers!!

      Reply

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