You will miss

When you retire, you will miss the fast, hectic paced days, when you are scrambling to finish that latest project. You will miss being in the action, being held in high regard by your workmates and maybe even management. You will miss the stress of getting to work on time, finishing the day, rushing home. You will miss the chatter at work about what you will do or what you did on your weekend and holidays.

You are also going to miss the slow times and quiet days. Your circle of friends will become smaller, and you will miss those you called friends at work. You will miss plodding along at your own pace, working in spurts, and wondering where your next break will come from. Even your uncertainties, doubts, and fears will be missed.

As you focus on your workday, the idea of missing the stress of working sounds far-fetched, but it is true for many people. Many men who once held positions of relative power are faced with the idea that “I used to be someone important” but when I retired “I no longer am someone important”. Many of us identify who we are with what job we do, and in retirement, we have to focus on defining who we are, not by what job we do, but by what we do for others.

When you are first retired you miss work, strange but true, life works like that once you retire. However, the rewards of retirement will become known to you, over time and you will no longer miss any of the above. Trust me!

The Average age of a widow or widower

According to Census Canada, the average age of widowhood in Canada is just 56.  For men, the average age of becoming a widower is 65. What's more, a large percentage (43%) of Canadian seniors are single.  In the USA the average age of widowhood is 55, and 75 percent of women will be widowed by the age of 56. 

This is a scary statistic, as more boomers get closer and closer to retirement age, it becomes critical for women to prepare for the impending loss of their partner. And yet, boomers are not prepared for the loss of a spouse. If you do lose a spouse here is some ideas to help you cope and deal realistically with your situation.

Bills come due, even if someone has died, so pay those bills that you get following the death of your spouse. Let the government know your spouse has died so they can send the final tax bill to the executor.

Review your extended health insurance if you have it and examine and contact any life insurance companies you may have a policy with so they can start processing your claim. There may have deadlines, so deal with them quickly.

Don't be rushed into any decisions following the loss of your partner. What seems like a good idea could come back to haunt you after a few years. Find the time and energy to talk with your financial planner, if you do not have one, talk to the bank or close friends for a referral to a planner. 

Some spouses will take on the role of executor of your spouse's estate. If you take on this role, understand the responsibilities you have taken on by being the executor. You need time to process and grieve, leave the details of being the executor of the estate to another person. 

To protect yourself if you chose to be the executor you need to follow these formal steps closely, including the following:

• Get a Clearance Certificate from Revenue Canada. It will state that all taxes have been paid. While this isn't required it is strongly recommended.
• You have to also guard or secure against anticipated loss if you make a mistake so it is recommended that you ask the beneficiaries for an indemnification agreement. 
• Consult a legal representative concerning debt repayment.
• If you have the knowledge that the estate may not have enough money to pay all debts, don't wait to seek professional advice.

Boomer women need to prepare for being a widow, sooner rather than later according to Census Canada. 

If you have not done so, consider making all accounts jointly held. By having joint access to accounts, assets including your family home (if you own a home) are less likely to be walled off and subject to a lengthy probate process.

Ensure you are aware of all accounts, investments and debts. Keep account numbers and the contact information for your financial advisors and life insurance agents or company handy.

Widows are victims for clever salesmen, frauds, and sometimes, mistaken children. Don't let others convince you to do something or make a decision you are not comfortable with at the time.   There have been times where family members push sensitive buttons in order to influence choices, to try and take advantage of the situation. 

How to handle this?  Remove the temptation by referring discussions over money to your financial planner. They can handle any uncomfortable confrontations concerning money. 

Have you prepared a will, if not do it now? When you create your will, make sure both your will and your spouse's will leave no room for misunderstandings. The last thing your partner wants is for the estate to tear the family apart.



You will have a lot to worry about following the death of your partner; don't let money become one of the issues you have to deal with when your spouse passes. Talk to your partner about your financial situation today, because no matter what is going on today you never know what tomorrow might bring,

Planning to retire ? Do not focus on money

Money is not everything when you are making the decision to retire. I am not thinking wealth is not necessary, it is. Making a decision to retire is more than just counting your pennies. Talk to financial advisor about your retirement and they will, I bet, concentrate on how much money do you have or how much should you save, to maintain the lifestyle you currently have today. 

If you talk to the experts or read them, you will come across many different rules of thumb, such as these:

Aim to save at least 1x your salary by 30, 3x by 40, 6x by 50, 8x by 60, and 10x by 67. 

The Multiply by 25 Rule estimates how much money you'll need in retirement by multiplying your desired annual income by 25. For example, if you want to withdraw $40,000 per year from your retirement portfolio, you need $1 million dollars in your retirement portfolio. ($40,000 x 25 equals $1 million.) If you want to withdraw $50,000 per year, you need $1.25 million. To withdraw $60,000 per year, you need $1.5 million.

Age rule: As you get older so you should invest more conservatively based on the “Age Rule”. This rule states that you should invest 100 minus your age in stocks. Since I am are age 72, I should have 28% in stocks and 72% in bonds.

These calculations do not, in Canada, include Canada Pension Plan Income or Old Age Security Income, which while not sizeable could amount to over $1100 a month for an individual or $2200 a month for a couple. 

In addition what they don't add, or if they do it is added as a parenthesis is: Factors that will impact your personal savings goal include the age you plan to retire and the lifestyle you hope to have in retirement and how long you think you will live.

We don't know how long we will live, but we do know what lifestyle we hope to have when we retire or do we. Retirement is probably the greatest life change you will ever undergo, make sure you prepare and are set both financially and emotionally, one without the other just won’t work. 

The most important aspect of your retirement that you need to plan for is your lifestyle. Life in retirement is about reinventing yourself, establishing who you are and what you love to do, and being positive.

We know there are three stages of retirement, so Take time out to think about what it is you really want to do as well as what you don't want to do, particularly in the first stage of retirement. Without creating a plan you could drift and things that you did not plan or want may happen. You do not want to waste time not doing the stuff you really do not want to do.

In retirement, it is important to fill your life with something that is purposeful.  Retirement gives you an opportunity to enjoy more freedom, but and I speak from experience, 24/7 fun can get a little tiresome. I believe we need more purpose in life than just leisure.

Helping your parents move out of the Family home

There are some big events within the lifetime of a senior citizen, and few will compare in terms of the tremendous act of moving your parent moves out of their home into an Assisted Living or Residential Care facility.  It’s a surprisingly emotional call.  If your mama and pop are living within the same house for many years, there's a bond that could run extremely deep. Convincing your parent to proceed to Assisted-Living or Residential Care facility may be tough.   

Once you've got gotten them on board to make that huge move, the next major step is to seek out a facility.   Start with a reasonable checklist for what you're trying to find.  And once you enter that facility, don’t be ashamed to be particular about this listing. This may be your parent’s next home and where you will spend time when you visit. 

Your criteria should get quite specific. Assisted Living or Residential Care is very different from renting an apartment. They are also each very different from each other. There are some things to incorporate on your listing such as…

 Safety

 Foodservice.

 Emergency preparation.

 Ability to retort.

 Look and feel.

In addition to the above, try to get a feel for the staff and also try to meet with the current residents, and check out the calendar of social events. Once you have talked to a number of the residents you will get a sense if they are compassionate, friendly, and the type of people your parents will enjoy being around.  

If the facility you choose is close to you or to your parents' old neighbourhood, this is an advantage. Your parents will be familiar with the neighbourhood and will feel comfortable quicker.

If you have brothers and sisters you should talk about the move first and make sure you and your siblings along with your parents are all on the same page about the move.   

Once you begin to explore places it’s important that you just take your parent with you o.  After all, if a place meets all your criteria but your parents don't like the facility, the criteria mean nothing.  If your parents are really into the idea of the move, you may find that they have already done the background work and all you may need to do is to act as an Uber driver to take them from place to place so they can interview the staff and management about life at the complex.  

Opt in or Opt out Pension Plans

There is a gap between what we should save for retirement and what we actually save for retirement. Many retirement plans and many countries do not have a forced option. In Canada, if you work for an employer the employer and you are required to contribute to our Canada Savings Plan. There is not an opt-out option unless you work for yourself.  In a survey done in 2017, it was found that after talking to over 22,000 investors from 30 countries, people in every country, except for Denmark, reported saving less than the amount they need to be contributing in order to have a comfortable retirement.

Respondents in Denmark saved too much, putting away 13 percent of their income, on average, compared to the 12 percent they feel they need to contribute. Chileans are also saving 13 percent, on average, but they feel they’ll need to put away 19 percent of their income. Canadians’ disparity is just two percentage points, with respondents saying they’re saving an average of 12 percent of their income, while they feel they’ll need to put away 14 percent for a comfortable retirement.

Globally, survey participants also underestimated how much of their retirement income they’ll spend on basic living expenses. Overall, they said they’d spend 34 percent, but in reality, they’ll likely need nearly 50 percent, according to the survey.

Canadian respondents said they’d need 42 percent, whereas the survey found they’d actually need 59 percent. The biggest gap in expectation versus reality is in South Africa, at 34 percent and 59 percent, respectively, while Indians are much more in tune with reality, at 26 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

Mexico has taken a rather unique approach to get people to think about retirement and to actually contribute more. In Canada and in the US and I suspect other countries, cashiers will often ask consumers if they’d like to donate to a charity as they pay for items at retail stores. Mexico applied this concept to retirement savings with good results.

Rhe Mexican project is a collaboration between Mexico’s pension regulator, the country’s 11 retirement savings administrators and Ideas42 (, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that applies behavioral insights to find solutions to social problems). The goal was to find a way to encourage higher voluntary contributions to retirement savings.

Mexico’s pension system has called for 6.5 percent of an employee’s salary to go into individual retirement accounts. For workers formally employed in registered, salaried jobs, the mandatory contribution includes an amount from employers (5.15 percent), employees (1.125 percent) and the government (0.225 percent). At that contribution rate, employees are likely to retire on 40 percent of their current salary, an amount considered insufficient for a successful retirement.

While low voluntary contributions in the formal employment sector are cause for concern, the situation is even direr for the 60 percent of Mexicans who are unemployed or working informally or independently. People in this group, are not only not making mandatory contributions to a pension plan but most likely aren’t saving at all for retirement.

After spending time finding out why people are not thinking about or contributing to their retirement they targeted a representative sample of about 77,000 people from a single pension fund administrator and encouraged both active and inactive account holders to make voluntary contributions at the retail level.

They sent out a direct mail communication about the retail branches and paired it with a micro-incentive — either a free cup of coffee at 7-Eleven or entrance into a lottery — when people went to 7-Eleven to make a contribution.

To make a voluntary contribution, account holders provide their citizen identification number and the cashier provides a receipt of the transaction. The identification number serves to direct the funds to the national database and, from there, to the pension fund administrator.

To address a tendency to procrastinate or not consider retirement, they also used a face-aging software through the banks’ mobile apps that will show people an aged photo of themselves to make retirement feel more vivid.

As for the lessons has taken from this pilot projects the researchers have found that increased access to savings vehicles through retail channels alone wasn’t enough to boost contribution rates. Most important is that increasing access does not translate to behavior change — in this case, contributions. Nor does access make the idea of pension contributions more top of mind.

What works is making participation the default option. In this model, people are registered to participate in employer-sponsored pension plans on employment. They can opt-out after a specific period of time.

By switching from an opt-in approach to opt out, people will still have the flexibility to withdraw their participation. But the evidence suggests most people will be glad to be automatically enrolled and will continue to stay enrolled.

The plague of worry

My generations are no strangers to worry. It seems from the first decade we began to become aware of the world, there were big things to worry about. We were the generation to grow up with a reality that world destruction was possible at the hands of a man-made weapon that did exist and was pointed at them. 

In the 1950s and 1960s, the decades when we were entering youth, it was common for us to have to run drills to hide under our desks as a defence against the arrival of a nuclear bomb. Even back then, we knew those desks were a faint defence against such a devastating weapon. I remember having to stay indoors, to wait until the radiation cloud blew past when the wind blew from the East and a Nuclear Test had taken place.

So from worrying about the draft, bomb, Vietnam or about corruption in government, we grew up as a generation of worriers. Of course, worry is endemic in the human psychology. And as we grew into adults, parents and the ones who would come to take leadership in the world, those worries of youth paled compared to the new responsibilities we faced.

This century brings the advent of the retirement years for us. Over the years, many have learned good coping mechanisms to defray some of the worries of life. We have learned that worry about money, their children or whether the car needs a new set of tires should be taken in stride. That is because to some extent, most of these issues can be solved. Money woes can be fixed with better jobs and money management. Kids can be corrected and turn out fine even if they have troubled youths. And new tires for the car are easy to buy.

But the worries of the retirement years are often beyond such short-term fixes. We tend to be hands-on managers who have charged through life with the attitude of, “let me at that problem. I can fix it.” But problems of ageing are not always as easily conquered as many of the problems we conquered in their younger years. Some problems that demand a different approach in the later third of life that we are approaching include…

• Incurable illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, ALS or other forms of dementia for which the only relief is death.
• Running out of money because Social Security was not adequate and life was too challenging to really save up for retirement.
• The prospect of passing many years in an old folk’s home with no hope of release and no physical resources to save oneself can cause panic attacks in many of us.
• Dire issues with adult children such as death or illness, marital woes or the need for grandparents to raise our grandchildren present problems to us that seem beyond our physical, emotional and financial abilities to solve.

These new worries are unlike the worries of their middle age years. These very real and dire problems loom even larger if we see them on the horizon. They can be made larger by being suddenly alone by the passing of a spouse. Now one of our primary resources for staying calm and solving problems has been taken away from us.

This is a time in life when more than ever we need to get a refresher course in stress management and learning that worry cannot solve these problems. And like our parents before us for generations, we too will learn to face retirement with grace and maturity and to live with problems with the same courage we faced down the problems of our youth.

Do you have a reason to get up in the morning?

Forced to retire early, because of economic uncertainty or illness then you may have some fears and questions. Before settling into this new life, there are the practical realities, of course: money, location, healthcare. Once those are arranged, however, what comes next? What do I want to do with my time now? What will get me out of bed each morning? The questions are mostly short but hardly simple. Here are a few:

·       What gives me pleasure?

·       What do I most care about?

·       Can I use my career experience in new ways now?

·       What's been missing from my life?

·       What have I always dreamed of doing?

·       What gives me a sense of purpose?

·       What and who are most important to me?

·       What does an ideal day look like?

There are many others and the hard part is that no one can answer for you.

Here is a short answer, life after you retire, forced or voluntary is a continuation of life before retirement, without the bother of that 8:00 am to 4:30 pm stint at the office.

Of course, we need money for retirement and if we were able to we put some money away for retirement if we did not then we are faced with some problems. These money problems are not life-threatening, however, the answers we chose may be life-altering. We know that it is possible to estimate fairly accurately how much money you'll need to live on after you retire, and in most cases, it's nowhere near the "70% of your present income" that many say you need to maintain your present lifestyle. If you don’t believe me do a google search for "retirement calculators" to get ideas on financial planning. The real keys to a successful retirement are good health, spiritual life, relationships with family and friends, and having interesting things to do.

What are the habits and lifestyle choices that set you apart as a from those who are bored, lonely, and depressed? These choices are important because the difference between a happy, fulfilling retirement and "waiting for the Undertaker" is not money but the quality of life -- family, friends, good health, and meaningful 

activities that give you a reason to get up in the morning.

Some reasons given for getting out of bed in the morning are

·      All of the people who love and care about you want to spend time with you so don’t leave them waiting.

·      Because let’s be honest, you just really have to pee.

·       Breakfast is calling your name.

·       Each day is full of new surprises.

·       Retirement is the time to dust off your ‘bucket list’ and make a list of the ‘100 things you want to do before you die’.

·       It is important to live without regret – so spend time doing the things you want to do, rather than getting caught up in the things you feel you have to do.  Simply start by making a list of what you want to do!

·       Expand or develop your hobbies. Start taking Art Classes, join a group of Quilters, finish or start a woodwork project for your grandchildren, make miniature furniture, play bridge or golf.

So when we retire we cut out the structure provided by work so we need to find something to fill that space and time. For so many of us, life outside of work has consisted of years of relaxing, unwinding and preparing ourselves for the treadmill.  Many of us have forgotten how to find things to do that stimulate us and keep us interested and absorbed outside of work, so your first job when you retire is to find those “jobs” that keep you stimulated, interested and absorbed in life.

Risks

Do you know what they all have in common?

You know, the billions and billions who came before you, who used to live in the jungles of time and space.

Their adventure is over.

You know what else?

Given another chance, they'd take more risks. Not because they'd always succeed, but because from where they are now, the glory of knowing they at least tried far exceeds any regrets of never knowing what might have been.

At the end don't regret not taking risks

Facts women and retirement steps to take

Yesterday and today's post was taken from the Transamerica Survey 2018 written by Catherine Collinson who is a champion of everyday people including those who are at risk of not achieving a financially secure retirement. She currently serves as CEO and president of nonprofit Transamerica Institute® and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies® and executive director of Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement.

The good news is that small steps, when taken together, can add up to great strides in retirement preparedness.  Retirement will be unique for each woman, but the tools to help achieve retirement readiness are common to all. Now is the time for every woman to focus on achieving a financially secure retirement.

1. Start saving for retirement and get into the habit of saving on a regular, consistent basis. Save as much as you can, knowing that both small and large amounts add up and compound over time.
2. If your employer offers a retirement plan, participate. Be sure that your contribution rate takes full advantage of employer matching contributions, if available. Take advantage of the IRS Saver’s Credit if eligible. Consider taking advantage of catch-up contributions if you are age 50 or older.
3. Develop a retirement strategy and write it down. Envision your future retirement and use an online calculator to estimate your long-term savings needs. Then formulate a goal for how much you will need to save each year (be sure to include employer-sponsored retirement plans and outside savings) – and hold yourself accountable for saving.
4. When facing life’s important decisions about whether to reduce work hours or take time out of the workforce to be a parent or caregiver, carefully consider the financial trade-offs and options –such as shifting to part-time work – to help mitigate the impact on long-term financial security.
5. Maintain your ability to continue working past age 65. Keep your job skills up to date or learn new ones. Many employers, community colleges and nonprofits offer classes in the latest technologies and careers. Networking groups offer opportunities to meet more people in particular professions.
6. Become personally involved in your family finances ranging from daily budgeting to long-term planning. Discuss retirement saving and planning with family and close friends. An open dialogue with family members about expectations of either needing to provide or receive financial support should be part of every woman’s retirement strategy.
7. Get educated about retirement investing. Learn about possible ways to help make savings last longer including when to take withdrawals from retirement accounts to minimize taxes and penalties, and the best time to start Social Security to maximize benefits. Seek professional assistance if needed.
8. Have a backup plan in the event of unforeseen circumstances such as separation, divorce, loss of a partner, or being unable to work before your planned retirement. Consider emergency savings; insurance products such as disability insurance and life insurance; and possible ways to cut costs if needed, such as moving to a smaller home, taking on a roommate(s) or scaling back transportation costs.
9. Take care of yourself and safeguard your health. Make a habit of eating healthfully, exercising regularly, getting plenty of rest, and managing stress. Be sure to get routine physicals and recommended health screenings. Seek medical attention when needed.

Learn more about women’s retirement outlook as well as saving and investing for retirement at www.transamericacenter.org.

Self Insight and Growth

Retirement is a time for self-reflection and hopefully a time of self-insight and growth. When it comes to trying to find the answers inside yourself, you have to dig deep into your soul and your mind to find the answers you are looking for. It is a long process and no one will tell you that it is easy, yet you can accomplish much by putting forth the effort.

Retirement is a new phase of life and a new opportunity to change, grow and develop new dreams. Searching for insight will help you to find your dreams as well as to feel motivated enough to make them come true. This is all having a better insight of yourself.

Sometimes it takes some time to become the someone you want to be in retirement but as you grow, you will find that it will be easier for you to handle your lack of responsibilities or new responsibilities. This will help you to be able to define who you are and what you want in life as a newly retired person.

You may have experienced some hard time but you have learned how to overcome. How do you find the right path for you and how do you get on the right path? It will all depend on you and your mind frame on how fast you will progress. It is going to take some time but as you learn to work on it, it will come to you faster than someone who only thinks they want it. In order to become that successfully retired person that you want to be, there is work that you are going to have to do.

Create some goals. It does not matter how long they are or how short they may be. Once they are down on paper, then you are going to have to learn to work at achieving your goals. You could even hang them in the kitchen. This way you can see them and read them each day to keep your mind fresh. When you recently read something, it will soon sink in and this will make it so that you will always be working on your goals. Once you have your goals you will see that the rest will come, natural to you and it will help you to become a very successful retired person.

Putting Your Affairs in Order

Moving into the final phases of life, calls for thinking about things that you might have put off before.  This includes many of life’s philosophical questions and looking back on life and thinking about what you did well and what you regret.  But aside from those reflective questions, there are some basic things you should do now to “put your affairs in order” so that in the event you come to that final day of your life, your children and those charged with such affairs know what to do.

It seems almost morbid to “put your affairs in order” early in your retirement life when you are healthy and active and there is no obvious threat that the end is near.  But these are not decisions that should be put off until your health begins to decline when you are significantly older.  These are decisions that call for a mature and thoughtful review by a retired boomer fully in command of his or her faculties.  That means that putting your affairs in order is something to do now and not procrastinate about.

After all, when you started a family, you didn’t wait until the children were grown to buy life insurance or think about their education.  You took care of that when they were still crawling around in diapers because that is what mature adults do.  So now its time to be a mature adult about the end of life paperwork so those affairs are in order and ready for when they are needed.  The kinds of end of life issues that should be decided paid for and settled now and by you include…

• The settlement of life insurance and who has the authority to close it out.
• Is your will up to date and correct?  This should be reviewed at least every two or three years even if your assets have not changed because there may be other details that should/could be altered. 
• Are your medical directives decided and signed?     In BC we have Representative Agreements that allow us to appoint someone to take charge of our health issues if we cannot speak for ourselves. You can also set up a DNR decision about whether you wish to have your life prolonged if you are on artificial life support after a catastrophic illness or injury. This is a “Do Not Resuscitate” order and what you decide will be the law to medical teams who are caring for you during those final days.   Don’t leave this decision to loved ones to agonize over when they will already be in emotional distress.  Be the adult and make those decisions now and make sure your children and loved ones know what your decisions are.
• You should also set up a Power of Attorney to have someone take care of your financial and legal affairs if you cannot speak for yourself.
• Are the proper legal documents for the disposition of business assets and how you wish to see other legal affairs handled properly documented and in good legal order?  A final review by your lawyers will give you peace of mind that these documents will not be susceptible to legal action after you are gone.
• Are you thinking about becoming an organ donor? If so, have you filled out the correct paperwork and let your family and friends know of your wishes?
• Do you have your funeral arrangements decided?  It is you who should decide where you will be buried, whether cremation is preferred and other details of the ceremony. If there are particular songs you want to have sung at your funeral, a church or minister you want to see handle the ceremony or other details that are important to you, document those so your loved ones can observe your wishes.  Many people prepay for the burial plot and casket in advance.  This is an act of love if you do this and take that burden off of your loved one’s minds.

Of all of the end of life decisions you will make, the most important one will be making sure all of these documents can be found and that you have carefully trained a trusted friend or relative in finding and executing these documents.  The last thing you want to have happen is for your children to have to hunt through boxes of old documents to find life insurance papers, your will or other important end of life documents. 

Create good legible copies that are legally correct and secure them where they are safe and easy to locate.  Go through them with your executor or who will be responsible for them so they know exactly how your will and other affairs should be administered.  And make sure everybody has copies including all of your children and everyone who is mentioned in the will.  In this way there will be no questions when the time comes and everyone will know what to do.

Reasons to not save for retirement

K.I.S.S. Keep it simple smart, is something we don’t do when thinking about retirement. I just received an email from an investment firm that had the topic line “The top ten retirement planning excuses”. I thought I wonder if there were the any of the excuses I used when I was younger.

When I was young I did not think about retirement, I had a company pension so all other thoughts of retirement went out of my head. I may have at one point decided I should supplement my pension by taking advantage of the Registered Retirement Saving Program we have in Canada, so I did. But I was not a steady contributor, nor did I maximize my contributions. If I thought about why I did not contribute or maximize my contributions, I came up with many of the following excuses.

· "I'm too busy "

· "It's too soon "

· "It's too late "

· "I don't need to "

· "I don't have enough money to get started "

· "The Government will take care of me "

· "I don't want to think about it "

· “No access to an employer retirement plan”

· “I don’t have enough knowledge, or I don’t know how”

The above excuses are from the following source, The Retire Wire and if you look online you can find many other lists of why people won’t /cannot/will not save for retirement. The people I know who did not/could not/ plan or save for their retirement are in big trouble. I have several friends and in my workshops, I run across people who had all the right excuses and who are now facing the consequences of indecision.

The frustration I feel is because we know through Behavioral Economics why people do not save and we can help.

There are many reasons why individuals do not always act in their best interests when it comes to saving for retirement. In his book “Misbehaving – The Making of Behavioral Economics,” economist Richard Thaler outlines three reasons why people often fail to save for retirement:

1) inertia or failure to act, which explains why people do not begin to start saving even when they have the opportunity

2) loss aversion, which explains why people avoid taking actions perceived as reducing their paycheck

3) the lack of self-control that contributes to choosing actions that provide immediate gratification rather than planning for the future.

There is much short-term thinking about retirement, many who claim that planning for retirement is an individual responsibility forget that in the long-term society will pay a tremendous price when millions cannot support themselves in retirement. The problem isn’t that people don’t want to save for retirement the problem is that many do not have access to any programs that allow them to do so easily. Today many low- and moderate-income workers, contributing anything toward retirement is difficult because they may have debt and struggle to cover day-to-day living expenses. Not having easy access to a retirement savings program makes it even more difficult to save.

No access to an employer retirement plan excuse

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), 84 percent of the workers who do not participate in workplace retirement savings programs reported that the main reason was not having access to a workplace retirement program, rather than a failure to participate.

It's too soon or its too late excuse

Behavioral Economics talks about time horizons, which is economics speak for how do we see time. Some of us think only of what is going on in our present. For plenty of people, future thinking or planning for the future is thinking about the upcoming weekend or maybe one or two months ahead. According to a study done in 2015, workers of all ages and income levels are present-minded when making financial decisions. This leads them to weigh the present more (“present bias”) than the future and make investment decisions today that reduce their welfare in the future. For example, individuals tend to be more concerned about day-to-day financial needs than their future financial plans. In addition, if the decision is a complex one requiring the evaluation of many alternatives, such as having to choose from a large number of different investment funds offered by their employer as part of a retirement program, inertia takes over and they may simply never take action.

I don’t have enough knowledge, or I don’t know how excuse

A study in 2011 found that many workers were not able to understand the ABCs of finance. Individuals who lack the knowledge of basic financial terms, such as compound interest are much less likely to save for retirement. In the United States, according to the study, many workers do not have a basic financial literacy. The importance of financial literacy has been addressed by the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy: “While the crisis has many causes, it is undeniable that financial illiteracy is one of the root causes … Sadly, far too many Americans do not have the basic financial skills necessary to develop and maintain a budget, to understand credit, to understand investment vehicles, or to take advantage of our banking system. It is essential to provide basic financial education that allows people to better navigate an economic crisis. Without proper knowledge to figure out the numbers, a lack of information, overwhelming information, or information that is difficult to understand could all result in workers over- or under-estimating how much they need to save, to give up on saving, or unknowingly save too little."

How does society overcome our weakness and our inability to plan for our future? While there are solutions, which can be implemented easily, but it does require some political will.

Offer Plans where people work

Research has shown when employees are offered a plan, about 70 percent voluntarily participate which is a solid number, but when workers are automatically enrolled in a plan, with an option to opt-out, participation jumps to about 90 percent.

Keep it Simple, Easy, and Make the Default Automatic. 

Behavioral studies tell us when faced with complex choices people adopt simplifying strategies, which is to take whatever is the simplest path or the easiest option that could be used. This strategy of making the plan compulsory,  with an option to opt out and with increasing contributions, has been tested in a program, named Save More Tomorrow (SMT). An empirical study with 25 companies that administer retirement plans shows the SMT program has a noticeable effect in boosting annual savings.

Keep the message simple

When providing financial and enrollment information, using behavior insights to design the message could make a great difference. In a program to promote retirement security for government agencies, emails redesigned by the Social and Behavioral Science Team (SBST) led 22 percent more people to re-enroll in Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) within a week.

Provide Financial Education Opportunities.

For individuals with limited financial knowledge and primary responsibility for saving and investing, improving financial literacy can make a difference. Many studies and reports have suggested that workplace-based plans and financial education are the most effective to improve financial literacy and thus increase retirement savings. A case study found that “the most financially savvy are also the most likely to participate in and contribute the most to their plan …” and “… employees who completed a financial education module were more likely to start contributing and less likely to have stopped contributing to the DC plan.”

Protecting your partners financial well being

Bob Lowry at A Satisfying Retirement, just posted a well thought out and very good blog on how to Protect Your Partner's Financial Well Being, I recommend that everyone read this post. When you die, you leave behind a partner who has to be able to carry on with life, and you can make it easier by not leaving any surprises about finances. 
In his post-Bob says: 

If a health problem or an untimely death leaves the survivor suddenly facing a desperate form of on-the-job-training there is the potential of a financial crisis. Of course, another option is to find a relative, outside person or business to take over this role. This can be quite expensive. Even worse, the person overseeing the matter may be untrained or even unscrupulous. Very quickly a lifetime of careful planning and investments can disappear.

It is much better for the "financial person" in the relationship to teach the "non-financial person" what must be done before disaster strikes. Taking the time to prepare another is an act of love. Frankly, I believe it is also an obligation, a part of what must be done in a committed relationship.

I agree with this assessment, please for you and your partners sake, take the time to read this post.

Retired, consider teaching part time

Just retired and looking for something to do, ever thought about teaching as a second or third career? If you are just preparing to enter the ranks of professional teachers and you are not a recent college graduate, it is easy to feel a bit insecure and ask that question, "Can you teach if you are old?"It is a fair question even if you are not so far along in life that you consider yourself to be "old".  But it is easy to feel old if you are a senior adult among 20-year olds in teacher college and if the competition for the teaching jobs is children that could be your own grandsons or granddaughters.

There are a lot of jobs where there is a noticeable age bias against older workers.  In the business world, sometimes companies prefer to hire younger workers because they work cheap and if they work out, there is such a longer career life ahead of them.  But even in the business setting, many forward-thinking employers are beginning to realize that the ranks of older workers contain a group of workers who are stable, hardworking and devoted employees.  So too schools are realizing more and more that hiring an older worker is not a disadvantage at all but that you bring a lot of good with you that the school should be thrilled to have.

If anything, the profession of teaching is a perfect environment for someone who has seen a bit of life and who has matured and perhaps raised children of their own.  Teaching part time or full time, while rewarding can be a huge challenge because it is sometimes hard to establish your authority in the classroom and there are so many ways for a disruption to hurt the flow of teaching that is so important to accomplish your academic goals each day.  An older worker is less prone to panic about disruptions or sudden problems that might come up as you teach and you have the experience and maturity to handle the problem efficiently without upsetting the rest of the class and get everyone back on task quickly.

It could be that one concern those who hire new teachers might have with an older worker is energy.  Younger workers are able to keep up physically with children and they need to know that you won't tire during a long school day and that you have the physical stamina to get through a school day and come back for more tomorrow.  There are a number of ways you can demonstrate that you are in shape and up to the challenge of teaching.  You can put on a show of energy and enthusiasm during the interview.  Or you could go so far as to offer to substitute teach or be a teacher assistant for a day so the administrator can witness first hand our energy and ability to "keep up" with those kiddos.

There is a good chance that not only will you encounter no age-based bias or discrimination from school administrators, you will find that they already have a number of older teachers on staff so they know the value the school gets from that experience and wisdom.  But the relationship that may give you more concern is whether the students can accept an older teacher and give you the same respect and regard that they would give to someone just out of college.

It may come as the biggest surprise of them all that children and even teenagers really do not mind older teachers or older people for that matter.  After all, to a child, every adult is an older teacher so they may not even notice that you are 20 years older than their last teacher.  To a kid, old is old so what's the difference?  Moreover, children have relationships with parents, uncles and aunts and grandparents that are loving and respectful so if they lump you in with those role models, you have it made.

What students don't like are older people who try to deny that they are old, who are ashamed of their age or who try to act younger than they are.   Youth crave honesty.  And youth are also quite aware that older age awaits them down the road so the last thing they want to see is you showing shame or discomfort because of your age.  By being honest about your age with the kids, they will embrace you easily and you will have no difficulty teaching them.

Debt Can Eat Away At You Over The Years

When I do my workshop on Wills and Estate Planning one of the questions I ask is how can you distribute your assets. The idea of having a will is to help you decide what you want to do with your assets, once you die. I joke and tell people the two best ways to distribute your assets while you are alive is to spend more and to give them away. Most people laugh, but when we get into the more serious part of the workshop, I find that most people want to be in a position to have something to pass on to family or a favourite friend or charity. 

Many of my friends are thinking of the idea of Legacy gifts. One question that is asked often is will my children have to pay off my debts. This is a good question, and one that varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, so if you have that question, best to ask an expert in Estate law in your area. If you have debt where I live,  then your executor will have to pay off any debt through your estate, before any legacy or before your beneficiaries receive any money. So it is important to find a way to reduce your debt as a senior.

Over abundance of debt can totally creep up from out of nowhere for many people and when that does occur it can often times be very overwhelming for many. It is so very important for everyone to keep in mind how very important it is to always try and steer clear from too many unwanted debts because all that leads to is stress, stress and more stress, which far too many of us know a little bit about, or maybe even a whole lot about.

If your debt condition is currently driving you up the wall then you already know how devastating it can turn out to be, so make sure even you continue to read throughout this article because you might find it to be very helpful, as well as beneficial to you. Your debt responsibilities will become a priority and you will finally have the opportunity to get yourself and your financial standing on the path that it should be, which is where most of us only dream of ever having it.

It is your responsibility as a senior to start thinking more about the future of yourself and the future of your grandchildren as well, which I am certain most of you already have given thought to. Finding out more about the importance of debt relief will change the way you live your life each and everyday that passes. You will be much more conscious about the different things you are spending your money on, as well as the amount of money you are trying to save each month, if any at all.

Your money should be very helpful to you but if you constantly are finding out that your money seems to be going nowhere except to pay off your monthly debt, whenever you are able to, then perhaps something within your budget could need some improvement, just a little bit. I am hoping that by gathering up enough debt information you will be able to finally get your finances under some sort of control and stop increasing your debt each month.

Debt can be controlled by just making a few small changes in your lifestyle each month and I am not at all talking about anything major that would affect your entertainment each month or fun times with friends. Just slow down and pay closer attention to what is coming out of your wallet and if you can continue this type of responsible behavior over a period of time then you will definitely begin noticing slight changes in the amount of extra money you have each month.

If all else fails, talk to a professional about your current debt condition and there is surely to goodness somebody out there more experienced and knowledgeable than you are, who could really help to turn your world around, by providing you with the same knowledge that they are aware of because of studying it over a period of time throughout life. This knowledge can be a lifesaver and can really brighten the outlook of your future, as well as your children's and grandchildren's future. Good luck.

Boomer women and marriage

The Center for Retirement Research asked women about marriage, and I thought the results were very interesting. You can download the full report here

Traditionally, women spent their adult lives married, so it made more sense to study households rather than women separately. The question is whether today’s women are spending fewer years married. The analysis looks at four birth cohorts, ranging from the Depression Era to Mid Baby Boomers.

No matter how you define the age span, the percentage of years spent married has dropped from about 70 percent to 50 percent. The reasons are three-fold: 1) fewer women get married; 2) when they do marry, they get married later; and 3) more women end up divorced.

 Approximately 50% of Boomer women get divorced. Thus, looking at women’s finances separately from men is increasingly necessary for a full assessment of their retirement security.

The bottom line is that women as a group are going to spend less than half of their adult years as part of a couple. This pattern reflects an increase in age at first marriage, a decline in marriage rates, and an increase in divorce. It shows up across race and educational attainment. This change has significant implications for financial planning.

The center for Retirement Research Recognized by the New York Times as “…the nation’s leading center on retirement studies,” their research covers any issue affecting individuals’ income in retirement. Their main areas are: Social Security State and local pensions Health/long-term care Financing retirement; and Older workers

The Center’s work goes beyond economics.  They study the behavioral factors that drive individuals’ decisions so they can craft solutions that work in practice, not just in theory.

Retirement planning for women and men

Men Live 79% as Many Years in Retirement as Women, because women live longer (81.2 years versus 76.4 years), according to statistics from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Living longer and needing more money for the extra years for health care, medical expenses and long-term care needs creates serious problems for women

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), a group made up of 35 mostly highly-developed market economies keeps data on this. The OECD average in 2014 was 17.6 years of retirement for men and 22.3 years of retirement for women.

Here are the figures for six particular OECD countries of interest.

Country	U. S. A	Canada	U.K.	Australia	France
Men’s Year	17.1	18.8	18.8	18.8	23
Women’s Years	20.7	23.7	22.7	23.7	27.2
Percentage	83%	79%	83%	79%	85%

Note that this does not count people who leave the labor market before the age of 40, including many mothers with young children. The OECD thus cautions that their figures under-estimate how many years of retirement women have:

This indicator does not, therefore, capture the labour market behaviour of all women of working age, which leads to an under-estimation of the expected duration of retirement for women. The magnitude of this effect varies across countries.

The OECD data set also includes four major non-OECD countries, where the gender gap in years of retirement is much bigger.

Interestingly, simply calculating years of retirement using retirement age and life expectancy by country from Wikipedia actually yields substantially larger gender gaps in these non-OECD countries. This method tells us that Russian men get not 65% but a mere 24% of Russian women’s retirement years. The reason for the discrepancy between the OECD and this method is unclear.  the OECD’s has a more sophisticated method of calculation and just note the difference here at the end.

Living longer in retirement may be a good thing if one has saved enough money, but women don’t save as much as men.  A Wells Fargo survey of over 1,000 Millennials ages 22 to 35 found that the majority of women (61 percent) said their finances were “stretched too thin to save for retirement.” In fact, about 54 percent of women said they were living from paycheck to paycheck. Those saving for retirement are only putting aside an average of 5.7 percent of their salary, as compared with 7.3 percent for their male counterparts.

As a result, women were 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished at age 65 and older, while women age 75 to 79 were three times more likely to fall below the poverty level than men the same age.

To understand why, consider this: Working women, on average, earn less than their male counterparts, Wage gaps among women who hold full-time jobs, are shocking. White, non-Hispanic women are paid 80% of men’s, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a non-profit, nonpartisan group. African-American women are paid, on average, 66.8% – and Latinas just 61.5% – for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men. This means that women have less money to save for retirement.

For older women, the good news in terms of financial well-being is that a large fraction of women are working in full-time jobs past their 60s and even into their 70s, according to a study, “Women Working Longer: Facts and Some Explanations,” by Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, Harvard University economists. In fact, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that by the end of this decade, about 20 percent of women over 65 will be in the labor force.