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Buy the Latte! Retirement is a Lie

Guest post by: Chellie Campbell

Article Overview: Here’s how to calculate the amount of money you’ll need at retirement: 1) Whatever you have now; plus 2) Ten million dollars. That sounds like enough to make you feel safe, right?....

Buy the Latte! Retirement is a Lie

Buy the Latte! Retirement is a Lie

Here’s how to calculate the amount of money you’ll need at retirement: 1) Whatever you have now; plus 2) Ten million dollars.

That sounds like enough to make you feel safe, right? Financial advisors estimate that the percentage of Americans who can actually save enough money to afford a reasonable lifestyle for 25 years without working is about 3%.

Here’s the problem: over time, the retirement game has warped beyond any reasonable shape. It was invented in the 1930s along with Social Security, which set the retirement age at 65—because most people died at 63. It was only supposed to support the few people who lived beyond the average life expectancy for a few years. Now life expectance has risen to 78, so retirement should start at 80. Most people can save enough to last 5-10 years.

I spoke with a 50-something man the other day. He was burned out at his job and wanted to retire. But he was afraid. “I have enough money to last twenty years,” he said. “But if I live longer than that, it’s a problem.”

Living too long is a problem? No—the problem is working too hard and burning out. The problem is too much work and not enough vacation. The problem is not having work you love.

When was the last time you heard a movie star say, ‘I can’t wait until I have my pension funded so I can retire and stop making all these movies’? You never hear that. Because actors love their work. At ninety years old, they’re trying to convince insurance companies how healthy they are so that they can make a movie. They die onstage. They want to die working because they love their job.

The game of richest man in the world has been won already. Bill Gates is still working. The number two richest guy, Warren Buffet, just gave the number one guy all his money. He’s still going to work every day. The number three guy, Sheldon Adelson, is still working, too – he has a five-year plan in place to become the number one guy. He’s 83 years old! Why bother? you might ask.

Just for fun is the answer.

Find work that you love doing and you won’t want to retire from it. Retire to do what? Lie on the beach? For how many days would that be interesting? You only think you want to lie on the beach because you haven’t had a good vacation. So go to Hawaii or Cabo or the Caribbean or someone’s backyard in Malibu now.

And enjoy a latte on the beach while you’re at it.


Chellie Campbell
Author, The Wealthy Spirit and Zero to Zillionaire

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Article Tags: 10 years, 1930s, amount of money, average life expectancy, bill gates, enough money, financial advisors, five year plan, guy sheldon, insurance companies, million dollars, movie star, retirement age, retirement game, richest man in the world, sheldon adelson, social security, twenty years, warren buffet, when was the last time



Related Forum Posts
The Double Close/Escrow - Hello, I was in business for many years and have decided to buy another. Retirement isn't what it was cracked up to be. BITD if I needed a piece of equipment or bought another business I just put up 20 percent and the bank did the rest. I have been reading about another way however and hope some of you can fill in some blanks for me. What I am reading about is the double closing which uses a swing loan and an asset lender to purchase the assets of a business to use as the down payment. As below: 1.You arrange a swing loan for the down payment amount from the bank and give this to the seller. Supposedly after the paperwork this transfers title of the business and its assets to you. 2. In another room you have a second closing set up with a asset lender who loans you the amount of the swing loan which you use to pay off the swing loan. Now the asset based lender owns the assets as collateral for his loan and the seller is owner -financing the remaining balance. Now , I get a double escrow close in real estate circles but there are a couple of things about this business purchase situation that I don't understand. If the seller of the business is owner financing it and has the first lien what is his motivation to allow his assets to be used for collateral to the asset lender? Does the asset lender take a second lien on the asset loan he has just made( the down payment)? Or does it truly mean that during the first closing where the seller received the down payment that the right to do whatever I wanted with the assets was truly transferred to me and I can now give the asset lender a first lien position? This seems very strange to me but I continue to read about it in numerous places and the methodology never varies. Again, its been awhile since I did all this and we were much simpler back then. However, even then it took an act of God and Congress for any first lien holder to give up that position. Even for a very large down payment. Any help you guys and gals could give me would be greatly appreciated. All the Best!


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