When I hit my 60's a very good friend , who is also a financial adviser that specializes in retired folks, told me something I never forgot.
He told me that over a career of managing retirement accounts and becoming friends with MANY MANY retirees he has developed a theme that he tells his "older" friends.
The you hit the 60's the VAST majority of us have about 10-15 years to do all those " things" we plan to do in retirement. Sure sure there are the Jack LaLane , George Burns types that defy the odd but for damn near ALL of us the mid 70's is the beginning of a serious slowing down. My own experience with my parents and all of my older previous generations relatives/friends has re-inforced this theme. By the time most of them are late 70's and ( for sure) early 80's they have slowed considerably AND they just don't spend a lot of money on the " things" anymore.
My friend asked my a prophetic question :....." how many of these dozen years you have do you want to spend at work building your war chest ?" Now remember that , for me at least, you add about $40,000 to $50,000 a year to retirement funds ..spread that out over the 25 -30 years left and its pretty easy to understand Burn's logic. Is losing another 1-2 or 3 years of good health and prime time in exchange for a few hundred dollars a month in retirement " income" worth it ? IF the 10 year theme is even remotely accurate and these are years you can NEVER recover do you REALLY want to spend them in a job ?
That conversation changed my life.
