Quote:
Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo
You know, Moneysense Magazine (which I recommend to EVERYONE) talked about the financial-decades in an article about a year ago. Basically, the advice was to chill out and stop stressing so much.....you're probably on the right track without even knowing it. Generally speaking, your life will be:
Your 20's: Acquiring an education, likely some acquire some debt. The goal should be to get an education with the least amount of debt possible.
Your 30's: Start a family, buy a house, acquire debt. The goal here is to keep your head above water.....nothing more.
Your 40's: Parental expenses start to ease, earnings still strong. The goal here is to chip away at debt wherever/whenever your can.
Your 50's: Kids are gone, mortgage gets paid off, still earning decent money. The goal is to be debt free, and save what you can.
Your 60's: Retirement beyotches! Woot!
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I understand where you are going with this but at the same time you make it sound as if everyone should be okay with retiring in their 60's. Society expects us to follow this traditional path of retirement and there are so many more options out there which would reduce the age of retirement significantly. A person could retire when you are in your 40's, not your 60's; the problem is it's not taught in our school system.
Our education system is fundamentally flawed when we aren't taught simple things like what an RRSP is, how to balance a cheque book, the impact of compound interest on things like credit cards, etc. It's amazing how many people still carry a fair bit of credit card debt out there. Paying off that debt would be like earning 50% Rate of Return (pre-tax).
Obviously each person's investment strategies are linked to their inherent risk tolerances but still...many people are investing in what they feel is the right method, when in actuality it's not helping their situation at all.