What is a comfortable retirement?
A comfortable retirement means having enough financial support to maintain your desired lifestyle without worrying about money.
You have time & money freedom to travel, to spend time with your loved ones, to do activities you like, to pursue your passions.
Without peace in your mind, you cannot have a comfortable retirement. To get the peace in your mind you should not worry about spending money. To not worry about spending money you need to build some savings & investments over time.
How to save & invest money for a comfortable retirement?
The problem with most people is that when they reach their retirement age most people are not ready to retire. They do have not enough savings or investments to retire. Not only for retirement they have no money even for food.
As the latest statistics show even after age 65 still 5% of Americans had to work, they have to get a monthly paycheck to live.
54% of Americans aged over 65 need family or government support to live. This is not a good way to spend your old age.
Even after spending 40 years of your life making money & still, you still cannot retire means there is a huge problem. The problem of lack of financial education & discipline.
At a young age, people do not worry about saving or investing their hard-earned money. They buy houses, cars & other stuff. Most of the time they have to take loans to buy these things. Without even saving a penny they take loans. As time passes people are stuck in this debt bubble & they have to take loan after loan.
The most important discipline you need to establish from your childhood is saving & investing. Schools didn’t teach this, universities didn’t teach this, and our parents didn’t teach this.
Saving some portion of your income & investing your savings wisely is the key to building a comfortable retirement. There is no need to read a book about ‘How to save money’. You just have to do this after getting your monthly paycheck or monthly business income, the first thing you need to do is just put aside some portion into savings.
Even before buying groceries or paying the rent you have to save. Just save.
After saving some money you can invest your savings in some investments. You can buy stocks, bonds & other assets.
If you are not a good stock picker you can invest in an index like S&P 500. All you have to do is just put some money in the index month after month for the next 30-40 years. This is not rocket science. But it needs much discipline.
How to spend a happy life while working for retirement?
Achieving retirement doesn’t mean sacrificing happiness & fulfillment along the way.
It is important to have a happy life too. If you are not happy with your work or you are not stress-free while working it is not good for your health.
As humans, the most important thing in our life is mental freedom. You have to take care of your mental & physical health.
Otherwise, after you achieve your comfortable retirement you will not be able to enjoy retirement with mental or physical illnesses.
Find a balance between living for today & saving for tomorrow. Spend your time with your parents, wife, kids & friends. Always keep a healthy relationship with them. Invest in activities that bring you joy & fulfillment. Take care of your physical & emotional well-being. Just enjoy the life.
