I need how much to retire?!?
Some of you may have been diligent about saving for retirement. Me? Not so much. Benefits like pensions never meant much when I worked in the corporate world. Maybe I should have paid more attention… Retirement savings contributions have been sporadic at best – I was busy paying for the present! Maybe I should have tried a little harder, spent a little less on “stuff”. Is it too late to start start taking it seriously now? I hope not!
So, I started to do some digging. How much do I need? How much am I willing to cut back? And on what? How long do I have to plan for? I’ve never paid much attention to money matters. We’ve had lots and we’ve been broke. We’ve managed – paid our bills on time, never gone hungry – but, coming up to this new adventure, maybe it’s time to get money savvy.
Step 1 – get a handle on what we’ll spend each month. I created a worksheet listing all our expenses – food, utilities, taxes, prescriptions, clothing, Christmas, birthdays, insurance, and more. I based the numbers on what we currently pay and added ten percent – just in case.
Step 2 – gather information about what kind of income we can expect. We’re in Canada so we’ve paid in to the Canadian Pension Plan all our working lives. Our retirement plan relies on it still being around when we need it!
Step 3 – add up all our investments. This didn’t take long – there are embarrassingly few…
Step 4 – using the information from the previous steps, figure out how much we need to save over the next few years. This step scares me!
And scare me it should… A basic calculation taking our annual expenses minus expected income minus the total of our retirement savings leaves us with a shortfall of (drumroll, please) $427,500. With 66 months until I turn 65, that means we need to put away almost $6,500 per month. ROTFL as my grandkids would put it (rolling on the floor laughing – yes, I had to ask). Of course that doesn’t take in to account compound interest. At a conservative estimate of four percent return annually, we’ll have our retirement funded six months early.
Guess I’d better start whittling down those expenses. Hmmm, where to start?
Want to check your numbers? Click here to see my simple worksheet – hope yours looks better than mine!
Time for a Change
My first clue for the need to change came when, on my annual performance review, I couldn’t answer “Where do you see yourself in 3 to 5 years.” Well, I could answer it, but the answer “Not here!” didn’t seem appropriate.
I took some time, got quiet, and looked at my life. I realized I was no longer happy with what I had created. I sat down with my journal had a think about the different parts of my life:
Family – All good there. Great husband, check. Healthy parents (yes, I’m one of the lucky ones), check. Happy kids – at least most of the time, check. Healthy, happy grandbabies, check. Not much wrong in this department.
Health – Reasonably good. Could use some work but no big complaints.
Work – Logic told me that I shouldn’t complain. I worked for a great company with great people. I was told I did a good job and I got to learn new things. From what I read, I was lucky to be a valued employee at my age. The problem? My gut told me I was in the wrong place.
I stewed about this for a few days, trying to figure out what the problem might be. Here are a few of the things I came up with:
-
Not being in charge of my schedule and calendar was not working for me. I have family commitments and life commitments that just don’t fit the 9 to 5 corporate world.
-
I worked in the IT industry. As much as I love to learn new technologies, I didn’t have the same drive as the “younger folks” to spend my evenings and weekends learning more. Been there, done that. Still doing that, actually – but for me, not “them”.
-
The work I was doing was majorly dependent on a strong online connection. There was very little I could do offline. I was stuck at a desk. Albeit a great desk in my home office, but stuck all the same.
-
After 20 years working as a Systems Analyst/Programmer, maybe I was done with that, suffering from burn-out. I had no enthusiasm left for work I’d loved for a long time.
So, now what…? Got it! Craft a work-life I love! Work that allows location-independence, and a schedule that works around the rest of my life. Doing meaningful work where I’m learning fun things and using technology that I love. So, here’s my plan…
-
Start a blog. This is it!
-
Explore online business opportunities. There is a lot – A LOT – of information out there. I’m thinking of creating online courses down the road but I’d better identify a subject first…
-
Share what I’m learning with others. There must be people like me out there – nearing retirement-age but not ready to pack it in just yet. Or maybe you do want to pack it in but want something to fill the extra time.
Want to join me on this journey? Together, we might just learn a thing or two!