When is enough, enough?

Studies have found no significant increase in happiness during a period in which a person moves from a lower income to a higher income, in fact an interesting research was done between the world's richest and some of the world’s poorest in which some on the Forbes 400 “richest” list were given a survey and their satisfaction was rated at almost exactly the same level as did the people of Masai of Kenya and Intuit people of Northern Greenland, who had no access to electricity or running water.

So it seems that money is a necessity to live, but apparently it can’t buy happiness. That’s for you to decide, and as the old saying goes, “Money can buy you a house but it can’t buy you a home.” Also, home is where your heart is, it does not need to be defined by brick and mortar, it can be a place, a person-your person, a pet or a memory that makes you smile or makes you giddy.

Everyone's situation is unique, and there is no shoe that will fit all, but the earlier a person wants to retire, the more they need to have saved up by then, a rule of thumb is to have a minimum of 30 times more than your salary saved up, and have no liabilities to pay monthly. This obviously decreases the older the person is when they retire. A person normally earns their highest salary just before retirement, so they will forego some of their highest income by leaving the workforce early. At this point, they should also be earning the highest interest on their savings due to compound interest.

Better life expectancy means that a lot of countries are increasing the retirement age to 70, and thus some people are working longer to have more savings on retirement. This will also mean that most people will be too old and less agile when they retire to really enjoy the extra time on there hands, and health issues increase with age and wealth without health is like driving a Ferrari with a 900cc engine! The older a person lives, the more money they will need if they are poor in health.

Retirement seems to be a double edged sword then, retire too early and face the risk of running out of money too soon or retire too late and not being in the position to fully enjoy the "golden years". So, like anything in life, it's about weighing up your situation, planning ahead according to the lifestyle and activities that you would like to be able to do and taking it from there.

Please your thoughts, at what stage are you in your timeline, and have you or did you plan your retirement well enough? Do you or did you do anything different that works out perfectly for you?

I believe that retirement planning and doing your personal taxes should be taught at school, because death and taxes are the only two certainties in life!