Читать книгу Retirement Planning For Dummies - Matthew Krantz - Страница 12

Retirement planning is simply about making sure you have resources available when you’re no longer generating them from your labor. However, the financial industry hijacked retirement planning, and now it’s all about deferred tax accounts, 401(k)s, and mutual funds. It wasn’t always that way.

More than a hundred years ago, more Americans relied on direct labor for their basic needs. In the late 1800s, for instance, about half of Americans were involved in farming. Back then, retirement planning was “an heir and a spare.” You wanted to make sure that you had enough kids to keep the farm running after you no longer wanted, or were able, to push a plow.

But now, less than 5 percent of the population touches food before it arrives at the grocery store. And people are more mobile, so your adult children are just as likely to live on the other side of the state as in your basement. In addition, birthrates are falling as more people decide against having children.

These shifts have turned money into the currency of retirement planning. Rather than having a house full of children who will take care of you in your grand old age, retirement planning is about having enough money when you can no longer work. Famous investor Warren Buffett addressed the importance of putting your money to work when he said, “If you don’t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.”