When I’m 64….
OK, the unknown radio station my computer speakers mysteriously pick up just played that catchy old Beatles tune “When I’m 64″ and as I hummed along it got me thinking: What will I be doing when I get to age 64? That’s only 29 more years from now!
I’m not going to bother with specifics like where I will be living or what I will be eating LOL but a big question is: Will I still be working because I need the money? Or will I be free to work just for something to do to keep myself from being bored? Will I feel financially secure by then? Or will the fear of being poor still haunt me? Will I have caught up on my retirement savings by then? Will I ever truly catch up on my retirement savings since I have started so late? Am I starting to sound like an old serial cliffhanger announcer yet? LOL
But seriously, I don’t yet know enough about investing and retirement calculations yet to know these answers. How much will I need? Will the government decide to up the retirement age before then? What will the economy look like? Will there even be Social “Security” by the time my parents’ generation get through with it? Will I even care if there isn’t? Right now it looks like I have a better chance of vacationing on the moon than ever collecting Social Security.
A lot can happen in 29 years. Twenty-nine years ago the world was a different place: there was no internet, or even home computers. Star Wars was still new and ground-breaking. Inflation was sky-high and people didn’t think interest rates would ever go below 10% again. People still believed you could come out of high school and get a factory job that you worked until retirement, then you got a pension. Gasoline prices were outrageous and the Pittsburgh Steelers were the best football team ever … oh wait … those two things are still true!
I guess the point of this song-induced rambling is that while I don’t have a clue what tomorrow holds, much less that far into the future, I can still make some best- and worst-case scenarios to work from. I do know we will get debt free long before then, and I have no intentions of going back into those chains. I plan to save up a nice big cushy emergency fund, then invest like a madwoman because I am so behind in that respect. Will it be enough to foster a sense of financial security? Who knows?
And while I’m at it…just how do you figure out how much money you need for retirement?
