Honey, we just got old……
Some of you will remember that memorable 90s Disney film ‘honey, I shrank the kids’. The story tells of how four children are accidentally shrank by a ‘shrinking machine’ and joins them on their journey trying to get back to their parents and switch back their real size.
The children were accidentally shrank and it took a while for their parents to realise what had happened. Perhaps this isn’t that dissimilar to how people tend to age. In our 20s we don’t notice it, in our 30s and 40s we park it in the camp of ‘let’s think about this later’ and by time we’re in our 50s and 60s we accepted (and indeed hope) we’ll have a long and healthy retirement ahead of us.
The challenge with time is that, no matter how hard we try, it’s the one resource we can never get back. Ageing is part of life and whilst we might not think it when we’re younger, we need to start planning for retirement the moment we join the workforce.
Here at Pensions Penguin we set up the pensions calculator www.pensionspenguin.com to help you think about what you might be able to retire, how long your pension will last and to highlight the importance of joining your workplace pension scheme at the earliest available opportunity.
If you start young (ie in your early 20s) and make combined contributions of at least 10% of your salary each month (which includes the tax relief and any matching contributions your employer provides) for the duration of your working life you’ll likely have a comfortable retirement. (it goes without saying the more you contribute the better off you’ll be.)
If you put off thinking about your pension today you might well wake up in 30-40 years thinking, “Dam, we just got old and never got around to making those pension contributions”.
The moral of this story? Like it or not, most of us will get old (it goes without saying the alternative is worse) . Being financially responsible and thinking about your future from a young age is something we should all do and those of you who already do it should be proud of youselves.
Ps we aged the couple in this picture using the app FaceApp. It’s worth checking out if you fancy a glimpse at what your future self might look like….
Photo credit: Pexels and FaceApp
