(Image above | Pixabay)
In order to maintain the life that you want and not be dependent on the state after you retire, it is important to start saving and investing in your retirement as soon as possible. Retirement can seem like a distant concept, or you may even feel like it’s too late to start saving for it, but it’s never too late no matter your age or lifestyle.
Is your future a priority for you?
Many of us face big expenses throughout the course of our lives, such as mortgage, rent, bond payments, car payments, and educational fees. With so many things to spend on, it can be difficult to prioritize saving for your retirement or keeping yourself informed on your investments and unit trusts that perform well. Moreover, with other expenses such as clothing, electronic gadgets, and travels, sometimes there is not much left to put away into a savings account. Our current wants and needs take priority over a retirement investment, as it does not provide instant gratification.
Look towards the future
If we take such good care of our mental and physical state and invest in our health and well-being, why can’t we follow the same principle for our retirement? In the future, you will appreciate being in good health and having a healthy body, and all the steps that it took to get you there. Similarly, you will appreciate having invested in your retirement, and securing your future so that you can live a comfortable life and maintain a certain lifestyle once you’ve stopped receiving a regular paycheck.
While everyone finds it difficult on some level to empathise with our ageing selves, Millennials (anyone born between 1980 and 2000) tend to find it even more challenging. Millennials differ from previous generations in terms of their priorities and expectations. Moreover, with the global economic trends being what they are today, many Millennials are heavily indebted and, as a consequence, unable to save much. Many still have to live at their parents’ home. Millennials also tend to delay marriage and having children, and do not see retirement as an immediate goal.
However, being a millennial is not all bad. As a millennial, you tend to be more health-conscious and thus have a longer lifespan, which means that it is important to start saving for your retirement as soon as possible.
It is not always easy to see the benefits of having a retirement savings account when dealing with daily expenses, bills, and other desires that provide instant gratification.
Another obstacle that often prevents us from saving is that we tend to see our future self as a stranger, instead of an extension of our current self. With this perspective, we find it easier to make the choice to spend on ourselves in the present rather than handing money over to an unknown self in the future.
Empathize with your future self
A research study has shown that participants would allocate twice the amount that they normally would to their retirement funds, when asked to visualise a future version of themselves. By foreseeing our future self, we are faced with the potential future of achieving that goal and becoming that person, which leads us to take action in making it happen. Close your eyes and think of who you want to be in the future, your lifestyle and other life goals, before making any financial decisions.
