By Amanda Morrall
1) It's going to cost how much?
I have a dream. Well I have a few of them actually but a big one is to build or buy an environmentally efficient home that I can grow old in. I started looking into home building costs a few weeks ago with plans of writing a story around it but the good people from Auckland City Council never got back to me on the sticky subject of consent costs. I'll come back to this story another time. In the meanwhile, you can read about television producer (7 Days) and comedian Jon Bridges' wake up call on how expensive the ordeal is here.
In this particular blog Bridges is blown away by the bottom line as calculated by his quantity surveyor. It poured a bit of cold water on my dreams. I cheered myself up by digging up a story I found awhile back about a couple in Wales who built a cozy little Hobbit House for £3,000. Read it and weep Jon.
There's not much pretty about divorce. Because money is the leading cause of it, I end up writing about it a fair bit in this column. The following guest blog published in the Huffington Post offers a somewhat unique angle on the topic. It's a first person story written by a child of divorce (now an adult) who describes how the experience shaped her views on money and also her management of it. It was all for the better.
3) Breaking the taboo
People don't easily or readily talk about money. I've found that to be more so in New Zealand than in Canada. For example, my girlfriends and I (all of whom were working mothers) knew how much money we respectively earned. I don't have a clue how much money my Kiwi gal pals earn, nor would I dare ask them. It's clear, you just don't go there, here.
I found this article from marketplace.org interesting as it charts financial disclosures in the U.S. around age group. It seems the less you earn, the less you have to hide and also the older you get the more reticent you are about talking money. I guess that stands to reason. Still, would it kill us to be a bit more open about money?
4) Retiring by 50
Among policy makers and retirement planners, there is an expectation that many people will have to work past 65 to compensate for insufficient personal savings and the possibility of national pensions being pared back from their current levels. Will this be your fate? Not if you don't want it to be. Here's Forbes Money with some strategies to get you toward an early retirement.
5) Retirement reality
Retirement scares people. I have to talk about it quite often as part of my job so I know this to be true. When it comes up in conversation, people tend to get this look of fear or panic in their eyes, or else an expression of sheer boredom. Believe you me, I'd rather talk about cheerier topics but someone's got to do it. If I haven't scared you sufficiently, than this opinion piece by a retirement policy planner in the U.S. will. The average American at 65, apparently ends up with only US$30,000 in the bank. You do the math.
Retirement calculator here
KiwiSaver calculator here
More '80s goodness. Meow.
To read other Take Fives by Amanda Morrall click here. You can also follow Amanda on Twitter @amandamorrall
24 Comments
RE #4 and #5. There is a sound argument for scrapping the idea of retirement altogether. It's a singularly western notion whose time has come and gone. If you are healthy and look after yourself there is every chance you may live to close to 100, so why would the hell would you want to spend the latter 35-45 years of your life hanging out with retirees and playing golf and pokies all day????
I love my job and while I suspect that I might want to slow it down a bit in another 20 years or so when I crack into my mid 60's, I can't imagine NOT wanting to turn up to the office a few days a week and keep my mind and social life active. I'm a firm believer that we don't stop doing things because we get old, we get old because we stop doing things.
If I become unemployable for some reason when I get much older then I'll buy or create a business - runnning a bar or cafe somewhere on a South Pacific Island so I can keep surfing and swimming into my 90's and beyond, or something similar.
Retirement - meh!
Why confuse 'work' with 'doing things'?
Officially, I've not been full-time since about 1986, and currently put in about 3 days a month.
Haven't stopped thinking or learning, though. This is my 6th year of attending uni lectures, for example. But retirement? I haven't the time for all the things I want to do - the list gets longer with time!
and Amanda:
Look at Corbusier's summer house, a description here and some images here. One of the top handful of Architects of the 20thC lived in 13m2 for a month of the year. He died while swimming there.
On and on retirement, I waltzed into an RSA one Friday afternoon by mistake a few weeks back, the place was chock block of oldies playing bingo. Sad. I though you have got to be kidding me!
Edit: BTW Amanda the last university project I did was to design a hotel into the Norman Ng Building on K Rd. 3.5m wide that had to include the structural walls five stories high. Natural light had to reach to all rooms/levels. I was the only student that managed to fit a bath in each suite, free standing at that. It is not about the floor area, it is about the volume and how it flows.
Scarfie we spend 4-6months a year living in 28sqm, split in to an ensuite and a multipurpose room, 4-8weeks at a time. The only chairs are two folding camp chairs and when the bank manager etc comes calling, one of us has to sit on the bed. There is only two of us staying though we can sleep 3 - bed is a double bunk with single bunk on top. Hot water cylinder is around 30litres so it takes some planning when wanting to have two showers and do the dishes It is a wonderful reminder of how to live 'simply' and living with 'needs' not 'wants'. I will however, admit it is a wonderful feeling when I walk in the door of our other, sprawling home. ;-)
Sounds like a nice set up. Of course I know how to get volume cheapl as well:-) I have posted before about my 147m2 house and 70m2 garage/workshop that I designed and built for $45K a little over a decade ago. Didn't know I was doing Architecture then, I just did it. Can't help myself but make space work, I think in 3D:-) We don't utilise the outdoors enough, or the indoor/outdoor flow, We also don't design very well for the wind that we suffer. Conflicting requirements i know, but it can be done.
I once spent 10 weeks touring NZ by boat with 24m2 to accomodate 6 crew, interesting experience.
What is the definition of retirement? I retired at age 45 - yes, 45. I am now 60. I came into enough money at 45 to be able to live comfortably off the invested interest without ever touching the principal. Why would I want to work for someone?? I am my own person, my own boss.
What do I do with all my *spare* time?? I do voluntary work which is more rewarding than working for someone else could ever be. I have been a volunteer at two organisations for the past 15 years, working with lovely people. If I want to go on holiday, I can. I don't have to ask someone's permission.
As far as keeping my mind and body active - I don't have time for "pokies" and in fact I don't know any retired person who does. We leave that to the Yuppies. Helping others as a volunteer is a very satisfactory and empowering experience. No money involved - just helping others. Which keeps me physically and mentally *very* active.
Sorry "Stangoodvibes" - if you choose to be a wage slave, I feel sorry for you. Life isn't about chasing dollars (unless you don't have a choice). If you do have the choice, it's all about people.
KiwiSue I don't feel like a wage slave. I've had my own business before which was OK, but I actually quite like my job 'working for the man', and not having the luxury of 'coming into enough money' at age 45 to retire I still have to do something to survive. I'm not chasing dollars, I'm just living my life as enjoyably as possible, and simply saying that from where I am right now I would miss the challenge and social interaction my job provides. Passing judgement from your position of good fortune is a bit off, sorry. Some of us manage voluntary work while still having to earn a living.
Also I was being slightly facetious about the golf and pokies. I know it's not like that really. And I'm sure voluntary work is very rewarding - oh to be financially independent to be able to do it all the time.
I think for the rest of us without a get-out-of-work-free card, the recent media output about how much we need to save for a happy retirement is getting out of hand and putting undue pressure on people because we have subscribed to this idea that we have to give up work at a certain age and live off some kind of pension or savings. Such an idea doesn't apply in the rest of the world - most people still work up to the day they die. If we can get past the idea that we have to cease working at a certain age, then it free's us to enjoy what we do right now, instead of worrying about the future to a certain extent.
Just doing the same - IT startup business. I contemplate various ideas from time to time but despite being a 'wage slave' LOL (aka being one the 99% that have to provide for their own financial wellbeing instead of being gifted it on a plate and then launching condescending troll comments on those who didn't get a big handout at age 45 ;-) I actually enjoy my job, so doing the self-business thing again doesn't appeal on a mass scale.
IT contracting provides me with enough money to do what I want and have fun. Eventually I'll do more and more of it at home (aka on the yacht).
Even a canary doesn't realise it is a prisoner in a cage. You are definitely a wage slave - you just don't realise it. Voluntary work provides plenty of challenges and social interaction. I am perfectly entitled to pass judgement from where I sit - just as you do. It's a free country. If you work a little harder may be you too can release yourself from your bondage - if you want to. I don't have to be on a benefit - I grow my own food and generate my own electricity. You should try it. Who knows. You may actually enjoy being a free spirit.
@ KiwiSue The irony is that you're also the 'slave master' as your interest is being generated by other 'wage slaves' .
Think about it, your free time, to pursue charity and volunteer work can only happen because others work for you earning interest.
Paints your goodness in a different light ;)
I am also confused about the comment 'If you work a little harder may be you too can release yourself from your bondage - if you want to".
So... I should become more of a wage-slave and that will release me from a bondage that I currently don't feel??? How does that work then?
I envy you StanGoodVibes. I've been working for 30 odd years in a number of different fields and I can't say that I've ever 'loved ' my job....I've had enjoyable moments, pleasant times,agreeable periods but never true love........sigh!!!
So, taking charge of my finances in order to exit the 'workforce' asap has been my plan for a number of years. I have no intention of playing bowls or the pokies but I do have a lot of plans to walk more, cycle more, garden more, visit elderly relatives more, read more, paint the house when the weather is fine (rather than during pre-determined holidays)travel more,plan more adventures.... ...... ....
So I guess the term 'Retirement ' means different things to different people.
To me ,it means freedom to choose each and every day how I spend my time.
OK maybe "love" was a bit strong a word LOL. But I certainly enjoy it and my two favorite times of the day are getting to work and getting home again, if that makes sense. I quite like Monday mornings too, so maybe I'm just unusual.
A lot of it is really just contentment. When you get a little older and better travelled you realise just how lucky you are to have a job at all, let alone a well paid enjoyable one. That and the understanding that money doesn't bring happiness certainly help.
I read an interesting book a few years back about the Retirement Myth, and it changed my perspective. Maybe I won't be an IT person for the rest of my life, but I am pretty sure as long as I have got most of my faculties I'll be always be doing something that could be considered 'work'. As you say, different things to different people.
(if all goes to plan 'work' will involve taking people sailing around some pristine South Pacific bit of ocean)
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