Its amazing how much you probably will need to retire. And with how much longer you are expected to live, that makes things even harder.

This is a hard topic to talk about, but it needs to be done. Hopefully we will see a spike in multi-generational households as the years go by. Families need to stick together and take care of their own.

Even though I have retirement savings through work I keep hearing that it requires a lot of money to retire. I think people forget that you may have some of the same debts when you retire as you did while you were working. I figure I may be close to seventy by the time I retire.

I agree. What is really scary to me is if you look at millennials savings, it is absolutely horrendous. Overtime that is going to become a huge problem for them and our economy. To me that scares me a lot!

You're right about your needs diminishing as you age. I think we become smarter in that we don't need to keep up with the Jones's anymore. My grandparents lived very simple in their golden years. I think you still need to really plan though when you are younger to be able to enjoy your golden years.

Points to consider ... few employers really want people around that are at retirement age so it is likely you will be working somewhere not in the construction field or regular line of work (unless you are independent). When I retired during the economic downturn of 2009 I became a news reporter and no direct correlation to my previous 35+ years of work. You need to consider your physical health which will degrade and not guarantee you the standing of today. Health will become part of your life whether you like it or not. So careful planning and as has been said it is hard to know. You will most likely (you can research this) find your financial life style will diminish but then so will your needs.

I definitely do not want to work until I am dead, but given the many unpredictable things in the world, I am not sure how I will ever know what amount I will need to retire. I try and track my savings and forecast over time, but in general my assumptions are so basic I am sure I will need to work until death as well...depressing to think about.

I've never thought about it that way before, Medi. I bet I wouldn't want to work someplace where there is too much technology either. Things change so rapidly that it is hard enough for me to keep up at my current age. There should be jobs set aside for people who are retired that want to or need to keep working.

The article is pretty old, so I wonder if there are better rules established over these years. It sounds like we need to work until death. I know there are some freelancers or online works which are less demanding physically, but my parents are not even interested. I probably will feel the same years later because I'm too old for the technology.

Wanderer wrote: Think you hit the nail on the head. The hard part is finding jobs for senior retirees. Who wants 65+ year olds?

People are living longer now too. It is hard to know how much money you should have when you retire. It's almost impossible for seniors to not work some sort of job just to survive.

Couldn't agree more. You want to be able to save as much as you can. Plus if you can help it, who would want to work when they are 65+ years old.

Wanderer wrote: Think you hit the nail on the head. The hard part is finding jobs for senior retirees. Who wants 65+ year olds?

Hopefully they're still hiring Walmart greeters when I reach that age! I wouldn't bank on being able to find a good job in the golden years, so some savings is going to be necessary to supplement whatever income we can find. It's very scary to look ahead at the uncertainty of it all.

Think you hit the nail on the head. The hard part is finding jobs for senior retirees. Who wants 65+ year olds?

I don't think our generation is ever really going to be able to retire. Most people have spent too much time living paycheck to paycheck and the concept of having enough money saved to stop working at 65 just isn't going to be a reality for a lot of us.

This is an interesting article. I noticed this with my own parents a few years back when they first retired. It was hard for them when they first started out financially, but they have made it through since then. I think their biggest expense has been when something has gone wrong with their house and they haven't had the cash to fix it.