[Locke]

Originally Posted by Slava

I think that there is a huge gulf in retirement savings though. There are people who plan and get advice on how to structure things and as a result might end up "over-saving" (although I don't think that is the correct term). Then there is an entire other segment where they save nearly nothing, and essentially feel like they're doomed so they won't seek advice. Getting advice and help with this has an enormous impact on peoples outcomes though; we see study after study show that people who get advice have far better outcomes than people who don't.

The reason I don't think it's over-saving though is that we don't know when we'll die. So if I save piles of money and die at say 70, you could look with the benefit of hindsight and say "gee, Slava could've spent more and didn't need to save as much money". Sure...if I know today that I am going to die on my 70th birthday, I would plan accordingly! But statistically there are pretty good odds that I or my wife will be alive at 95. Planning for years less than that is not something that I would entertain.

I've worked with a lot of people on their retirements, and come to think of it, I haven't heard anyone of them lament saving too much money. I've heard people feel that they should have started sooner, and should have saved more of course, but none in the opposite camp.

Hey! Thats not what you told me! You said that my plan of becoming a semi-insane burden on the State was foolproof!

I believe your exact words were: 'ingenious.'