There are simple tricks that can help you cope with the retirement dilemma. Mathematically speaking, your retirement financial well-being is a function of (A) years of retirement, (B) savings accumulated and (C) annual spending needs after you retire. Thus, in order to have the life you want, you can either do (A) reduce your retirement period or (B) increase your savings; (C) reducing future spending is not an option because convincing people to spend less in the future is just mean and simply futile for at least half of the global population (and I’m not referring to the lower income half).

(A) comes more natural. If you’re a smoker, congrats, that’s 5 years shed of your retirement life for which you will not have to save money for. Also, if you are used to sipping 3-5 glasses of wine to cheer up your every day, erase another 2 years. Is walking to your car the only time when you get physical? That’s worth 3 years. Total years of life lost – 10 years. But worry not – this comes only at a 50% probability.  There is also the other 50% – where you will get sick but still be alive for those 10 surplus years.

(B) is more complicated. It implies that you have monthly automatic deductions from your income directed to a retirement account. Start as early as possible.

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