"You're never going to retire - and here's why"

[pekklemafia]

Doom and gloom... http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/retirement-planning-peter-armstrong-1.3811753

[dougules]

It's basically the Canadian version of the article in

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/uh-oh-mustachians-it's-not-possible-to-retire-early/

There again, it probably is true of most of the people reading it given that nearly everybody is spending every penny they get.  It's really sad since it doesn't take a whole lot of saving and investing to have a plush retirement if you do it over the standard 40 year career. 

[MrMoogle]

For a while there, we had a pattern. You went to school, you worked and then you retired for a handful of years before your eternal demise. Well, that pattern is broken.

That "pattern" only worked for a small percentage of people for a short number of years.  That is not a pattern...

[Papa Mustache]

It worked for my parents and grandparents. How short were those years by your measure?

DW and I ought to be abel to retire just fine. Not early but still, retire comfortably. All the standard choices - everything financial in moderation.

[TheGrimSqueaker]

For a while there, we had a pattern. You went to school, you worked and then you retired for a handful of years before your eternal demise. Well, that pattern is broken.

That "pattern" only worked for a small percentage of people for a short number of years.  That is not a pattern...

Short human memories are to blame for this. "Normal", "traditional", and "right" are words used to apply to whatever circumstances existed while the dominant generation was growing up. This is just as true for finance as it is for social structures or environmental science. Once, most of Europe and Mesopotamia was covered in forests. Then came the Bronze Age.

[MrMoogle]

It worked for my parents and grandparents. How short were those years by your measure?

DW and I ought to be abel to retire just fine. Not early but still, retire comfortably. All the standard choices - everything financial in moderation.

More than 2 generations for it to be an expectation for an expectation.  My parents never worked for a place that offered a pension.  Both males of my grandparents did have pensions/retirement plans I believe.  I'm not sure how much of their costs are offset, I know one side saved up quite a bit.

[MgoSam]

For a while there, we had a pattern. You went to school, you worked and then you retired for a handful of years before your eternal demise. Well, that pattern is broken.

That "pattern" only worked for a small percentage of people for a short number of years.  That is not a pattern...

Short human memories are to blame for this. "Normal", "traditional", and "right" are words used to apply to whatever circumstances existed while the dominant generation was growing up. This is just as true for finance as it is for social structures or environmental science. Once, most of Europe and Mesopotamia was covered in forests. Then came the Bronze Age.

Yup "traditional" pension is nothing of the sort as pensions haven't been around all that long (if remember the industrial revolution started in early 1800s). The same goes for working 9-5 or 40 hour workweek or 'the weekend.'

[zephyr911]

Funny story, this:

'Disengagement from the labour market will not be an "event" marked in the calendar, it will be a much more gradual process.'

...is exactly how I picture retirement, except it happens from ages 38 to 40-something or 50-something, instead of 70/80/???