by Nicholas Hamner
Investment Advisor Representative
[email protected]
This past weekend, I finally got the family up to Knoebel’s, the traditional no-cost-to-enter-but-rides-cost-tickets amusement park located in the Poconos. Over the course of the trip, I managed to traumatize my wife and daughter. How? How cruelly did I behave? What monstrous act did I commit?
I took them to a campsite that had no freshwater hookup. We had to make one tank of water last the entire weekend.
Now before you say, “Aw, that’s not that bad”, remember… this limitation was essentially me telling my wife and teenage daughter, “Hey! Know how you both like to take hour-long showers? Not anymore!!” We spent the entire weekend—Friday night to Monday morning—rationing 45 gallons of water. For reference, your shower at home would go through 45 gallons in about 15 minutes. If you have a top-loading washing machine, you wouldn’t even be able to do a load of socks with 45 gallons. It wasn’t a large amount to start with, and having to scrutinize every toilet flush, hand washing, tooth brushing, dish washing, and shower for the better part of four days was… not pleasant.
Why am I talking about camping trips and water shortages in a newsletter focused on retirement planning? Because the anxiety we felt this weekend worried if we’d have enough water is darn close to the folks out there who spend every day of their retirement worried that they might run out of money before they run out of time. Spending your retirement savings is essentially the same as rationing out a limited bit of water. You put your money into a big pool during your working years and then, when you’re not working anymore, you start siphoning off to continue funding your lifestyle. And if you’re not certain how much you’re taking or how much is left, you can really start rationing things to a point where it gets painful.
Looking at human history and looking at this country’s history, rationing isn’t something any of us want to do. When dealing with a limited resource, throughout history we’ve tended to look for solutions that provide more of the resource and avoided reasons to use less. Driving back through the mountains, it’s not hard to see how much we tore up in the search for more coal. Over a broader period of time, we’ve put plenty of animals and plants into extinction rather than curtail our use of them. And when resources get so limited that we are indeed forced to ration, we really don’t like it. Heck… Levittown nearly burned to the ground the last time this nation was asked to ration anything during the oil crises of the ‘70s. And, for what it’s worth, asking my wife and daughter to take Navy showers this weekend just about got me burned at the stake.
We, as a nation, as a people, like our resources plentiful and immediately available when we need them.
Let’s circle back around to your retirement savings. Unfortunately, few of us have struck oil or divorced a tech mogul, so most of us lack plentiful and immediately available money. However, we still have ways to provide for ourselves for the rest of our lives without having to worry about every penny or enjoying a Fancy Feast for solo dinners.
But you can’t determine how much you’ll need to retire until you know for sure how much you’ll need in retirement. And because that number is different for every single person, planning a worry-free retirement is going to be different for everyone. This is no time for off-the-shelf products or buying whatever the bank “manager” pitches your way every time you go in. You need a plan… a holistic plan developed for you with your needs, dreams, and goals in mind and tailored to your every circumstance.
Don’t have that? It’s not too late to get yours. You just need to work with someone who can do it. Like we do.
Take it from me. As much as you don’t want to ration what you have, you really don’t want your family to have to ration what you have.