My Unconventional Retirement Plan

I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out

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You know all about the conventional retirement model. All through our working lives, we save and save and save for our retirement. We anticipate the arrival of our senior years when we’ll no longer work and there won’t be a steady paycheck coming in. We believe we’ll replace that regular inflow of funds with our savings, our social security checks, and if we’re lucky, with our pension.

We build up a nest egg to shield us in emergencies but also to provide us with money to fund our happy retirement — travel, golf, housekeepers, meals out. We deserve to splurge. We’ve earned the rest and relaxation. We’ve worked all our lives, and now we can enjoy our golden years, or so the thinking goes.

The retiree’s spending dilemma

There’s no doubt that this model is spot-on for some retirees. But many of us continue to save in our senior years, to hold onto what we’ve got, and often, to accumulate more rather than to deplete our nest eggs.

Some of this is due to our fear of running out of money, most likely as the result of a catastrophic illness. The specter of dementia looms over us more threateningly with every passing year. It will claim 1 in 14 of us after we turn 65, 1 in 6 of us after we’re 80. We may need assisted living, help with meal preparation, help with changing our sheets or our diapers. That won’t come cheap. And if that is our fate, we’ll be glad we hung onto every dollar in our retirement accounts because buddy, we will need them.

But then again, what if we stay healthy? What if we forego pleasures in favor of saving up for an emergency that never arrives? If we don’t use the money we put aside for retirement, our thrift will buy us some peace of mind but little else. Is that the best use of our assets?

Should we stay or should we go?

Retiring frees us up to travel, and for many of us, that’s a desirable use of disposable funds. In fact, retirement offers us our last, best chance for the fulfillment of our travel dreams. If we want to see the world (and who doesn’t?), we’d better see it now, while we still have our health.