Was doing an assignment on retirement, and had been trotting out all the advice that financial advisers hand out to 40- and 50-somethings who are beginning to worry about their golden years.
I can't say I was totally convinced that you need 70 to 80 percent of your last-drawn salary per month in order to retire successfully. After all, many of us are not earning 70 to 80 percent of what we expect to bring in with our final paycheck, and we're not only surviving, but bring up kids in some instances, and salting away some cash as it is, right?
Research brought me to the National Library, where I came across a really inspiring book, Get A Life: You Don't Need A Million To Retire Well by Ralph Warner. It not only confirmed my suspicions that I don't need millions to retire well, but it also made me want to get cracking on my retirement.
Unlike all the other literature, which painted bleak futures for those of us who do not sacrifice everything now in order to have comfy nest eggs when we get old and grey, Warner argues that money is not the most important ingredient in a successful retirement - we are.
Without ignoring the need to have a certain amount of money, he argues that we should invest in our ourselves to prepare for retirement - to develop interests outside of work, to make friends outside of work, and to keep up our health.
Too many people, he says, have their identity tied up in their jobs, and once their job stops, often they lose their sense of self. "People who count on developing new interests, activities and involvement after 65 often don't", he writes.
As for those of us whp claim to be too busy earning money for for living and our retirement, Warner suggests "it makes sense to put more energy into maintaining or improving your health than into growing your investment portfolio." Affluence will not make up for poor health later in life, but maintaining good health is particularly important for those single mothers and others who need every penny just to survive their middle years, and have saved little. Good health also makes it easier to produce extra income by continuing to work past age 65.
It would also help to spend a little time thinking about what we want to do in our retirement - volunteer work, perhaps a part-time job, or maybe follow our interests? Some of these may need investments of a little time, energy and money to develop the necessary skills to get into a different field.
What I though was great about the book was that the money stuff only came in at chapter 7. The earlier chapters were all about personal development.
The book also has lots of interviews with golden oldies to ask them their advice about how to retire well. While these people, who lead very interesting and fulfilling lives, do acknowledge the need for money, it's a lot less than what financial advisers tell us we need.
One of his interviewees, Ernest Callenbach, who has written a best-selling novel about ecological sustainability, notes that ÿou'll need some money, "but if you are willing to change your attitudes about consumption, probably less than you think." And while he did save for retirement, part of his plan was to learn how and where he could save further if he needed to. And yet Ernest has a nice house, decent cars, travels a lot and goes out to dinner fairly often (he and his wife being "careful connoisseurs of cheap restaurants.")
Another retiree, Gretchen, observes: "Especially as you approach 80 it becomes increasingly obvious that it's foolish to keep buying lots of things you'll never need. But if you have spent your whole life getting a large part of your pleasure from shopping, you have a problem - it is probably too late to discover that there are far more fulfilling ways to spend your free time." Gretchen gets her fulfillment participating in a project that builds houses for poor people, and can still drive in nails with just two hammer strokes.
One bit of advice in Warner's book is to make some younger friends along with those in your age group - as you age, and those in your generation die out, you may have to tap into the younger set for company. And if you're half of a couple, get one or two close friends who are yours alone. Somehow, the if couples are friends with couples, the dynamic makes it difficult to maintain the strong relationship if someone gets widowed or divorced - jealousy will creep into the picture.
Perhaps because Warner included real-life stories of really happy, fulfilled retirees in his book, with varying levels of physical and economic health, Get A Life becomes that rarity among books on retirement. Far from leaving you feeling guilty about not saving enough, and uneasy about the future, it inspires you to socialise, discover your interests and pursue them, as well as to make time for a little exercise.
