How to Be Prepared for Involuntary Retirement

Here's a helpful retirement planning article that I came across this morning over at cbsnews.com Money Watch. I appreciated this piece because it touches on something that I regularly bring up with our clients, which is that saving for retirement should be viewed as something much more than just a time during which one's savings can be applied to the pleasures of life. Hopefully retirement does create such pleasures but, in many ways, retirement savings should also be viewed as the largest emergency reserve fund that one will ever accumulate. This is because, as the article rightly points out, retirement is not always voluntary:

For many older workers, their retirement "plan" is to keep working as long as possible. Unfortunately, life events often intervene and force people to retire sooner than they expected. This may result from job loss, illness, disability, caregiving responsibilities or some other reason. This unanticipated situation can force people to make many decisions quickly and without a lot of forethought, leading to inappropriate choices.

To put this differently, many people don't take saving for retirement seriously because they think they'll simply be able to work until they die. I genuinely hope that all of us are still going strong like Banana George was when he was still barefoot waterskiing at age 85 (see video below), but, for many Americans, old age will inevitably set in and they simply won't be able to do the things they once could, which includes not only play, but work.

I don't bring up the realities of aging in an attempt to scare one into saving for retirement; instead, it's my hope that retirement will be viewed holistically: I hope one will view retirement not only as a time to play and work, but also as a time to be financially prepared in the event one is unable to play or work. For more tips on how to be prepared for an involuntary retirement, you can read more at cbsnews.com.

Originally Posted right here: How to Be Prepared for Involuntary Retirement