Boomers, Retirement, and the Lord

Baby boomers long to retire, but can't

Excerpt:

The sad reality is that many members of the baby boom generation are shell-shocked from their recession-related financial losses and have no idea what kind of shape they are in for retirement. The numbers aren't going to add up for them, forcing them to keep working or undergo a drastic change in lifestyle.

"I would love to be able to retire," said Valerie Kindle, 60, one of the 76 million people born from 1946 to 1964. "At this point in time, I can't afford to."

The 2008 recession hit baby boomers right on the brink of retirement age. Kindle, an employment and training specialist for Michigan Works! in Highland Park, said that as painful as it may be, boomers have to take stock of their situation.

HT: Stuff Out Loud

This is a good reminder not to build your life on shifting sands

Comments:

• Nice graphic associated with the article.
  
• I'm one of those "Boomers" (b 1949)
  
• Be sure to read Larry Rogier's comments on the article at the HT!
  
• John Piper has a great article on savings for retirement. Link and excerpt below
  

John Piper: Should I invest for retirement?

Excerpts:

If you get paid once every two weeks, should you give it all away the day you get it and trust God for the other thirteen days? Or would keeping some of it in the bank for thirteen days—because you know a bill is coming in twelve days—be distrusting God for his provision twelve days from now?

That sounds silly, right? But it's not silly: it's an analogy. God ordains that we work for our living and that we use what we earn to pay our bills, whether it's food, clothing, housing, education for our kids, or whatever.

Those bills don't arrive simultaneously with our paycheck, which means that everybody saves if they pay their bills. Everybody does. Some just do it more consciously and briefly than others.

...

Retirement is forced for a lot of people. When you get to sixty-five or seventy you have to step back. Finding another job at age seventy that might support you or your invalid wife is not an easy thing. The way our culture is dealing with that is having you earn your money for the post-working years while you're working. And what do you do with it? You just set it aside.

Why should we assume that the post-working years should be provided for from heaven and the working years should be provided for from labor? I don't assume that.

The way I think about retirement—though I don't believe in "retirement" if you can avoid it—is that you should start doing different things for Jesus. And if you can do them without having to be paid by people because you've set it aside, then that's all the more wonderful.

I think of that like this: I don't want to get rich. I don't want to sit on a pile of money. I just want to be able to survive between the ages of sixty-five and eighty-five. And I'd like to be spent for the kingdom. So if I can have a house and have my bills paid and pour my life out for the kingdom, I would be thrilled.

...

So, all that to say, Put a governor on your life. Make as much as you can, give as much as you can, and save what you need to in order to be a responsible non-borrower. Then do retirement with some minimalistic plan that frees you up for gospel ministry till the day you drop.