Retirement

I passed by a taxi stand once and someone caught my eyes. It was the old taxi driver seated in front of the steering wheel patiently waiting for passengers. It was almost midnight and by the looks of him he should be sleeping on his comfortable bed enjoying the night with dreams and the midnight sky. But that wasn’t the case.

Suddenly, I thought of myself when I grow old. Will I continue working for money? Will I spend overtime for work? Will I still be employed?

It really saddened me seeing people at the twilight of their lives still working for money because they were not able to save anything for themselves. They give all their efforts for their family not realizing that they are robbing themselves of the good life they deserve after almost a lifetime of work, work and work.

What’s more frustrating are the old beggars in the streets. They beg for money or food from the passersby and commuters in the busy intersections. The mere look at their condition will really persuade the people to give alms.

These scenarios encourage me more to save for my retirement. I believe that nobody (except God of course) will take care of my future but me. I don’t want to burden my child in taking care of my personal expenses when I am old. I want my child to have a life of his own and I want him to focus on attaining his life goals. I should be able to help him if I have enough money set after withdrawing from a career.

~Till then.

I am 26 years old. Is it too early for retirement planning?

All of my mentors would say NO.

At 26 years old it should be clear what you want in your life - when do you want to get married, how many children you want to have and of course your retirement plans.

Let’s have a little workshop. Get a piece of paper and a pen. Draw a horizontal line on the paper. Place the year of your birth on the left end. Place the approximate year of your death on the other end. (Of course this is just a workshop. Just imagine you'll live until that year.) Then somewhere in between place the year today. And then place a dot at the year you want to retire. Subtract the year today from the year you want to retire. That my friend is the number of years you are allowing yourself to prepare for retirement.

How much you want for retirement depends upon your lifestyle. Nobody will tell you the exact amount. You decide on your own. Remember, the longer time you have to prepare for retirement the lesser the amount you have to save.