Guys have you ever even considered the factor of compound interest?? If putting away 1000 bucks today could give you ten thousand in retirement would you say no? Thats essentially what you are doing assuming the stock market continues to give steady returns in the future...

Another HUGE issue you definitely should consider is that you could set aside a little money in your twenties and end up with more money in retirement than if you started saving in your thirties or forties and continued saving until retirement. TIME is the essential factor when it comes to investing - i.e. start out as soon as you can. Do NOT wait, put aside some money today.
And read this book

I say live today but dont say no to becoming rich slowly but easily. Investing involves risk but over the long term it is more likely to pay off

Look into the book called "Your Money or Your Life".
You can't earn all the money -- at some point enough is enough.
Either you can't predict the future - imagine that you've lived your whole adult life planning to travel when you retire - and then (g*d forbid) you get hit by the train two weeks before retirement?
Instead of working to save fore retirement, just ensure your living costs are less.
After all - the retirement money may not even be here when you are ready to retire: in the light of the changes our world undergoes, inflation or something else might evaporate it or turn in into cents...

just my 5 cents...

poochythedog wrote:My boss is 81. He retired rich in the 70's but got bored and started working again. I would love to be able to work and travel 'til I die. I guess I don't understand the point of retiring or saving for retirement. Do you?

Sorry but that, to me, means that your boss is a pretty sad individual - that his only interest is working for someone else - or is it his own company - but that's almost as bad! I used to go to work to park my brain for 8-10 hours - never in my professional career did I feel like I was using most of my mind- people paid me for my intelligence - they never used it though so in the end I just took the pay but it was soul destroying.

I got out of my comfortable career after going to 2 funerals of people in their 50s - the 52-year-old was fit and healthy and died of a particularly nasty form of cancer. Being fit helps but its not guarantee of a long life.

Now I work for myself and make less than 10% as I used to as a "professional" - but now Iacutally use my intelligence for my own business and its a lot better - I just didn't have the patience to stick it out for another 10 years to retire in my 50's - who knows what will happen to me or my partner my then?

It isn't sad if he loves what he does. If you dream of retiring and working with animals, for instance, but your job now is working with animals then why would it be sad to continue working? Maybe he didn't realize how much he enjoyed his work until he was away from it for a bit.

I'm still learning about investing for retirement, but my favorite books are the ones from John Bogle, the Vanguard guy. I also picked up The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read, which is a pretty good guide - despite the goofy title.

As for working forever vs. saving for retirement, I hope I'll always be working! Now I don't necessarily mean full-time, but I think that once I'm "retired" I'll do projects on the side on and off.

Of course it depends on the person, but I think that this next generation is not going to retire in the way that their parents retired...i.e. retirement doesn't mean just Golf + Retirement Communities, but rather that retirement is a time to take a breath and pursue what you are really passionate about.

But hey, that's just me

Have you considered working for one to two years while investing small amounts of money and saving for travels, then traveling for a period of longer than four months? No matter the route you take you will have to suck it up and make a personal choice to live the life you want even in the face of criticism from friends/family. I recommend reading Thoreau for inspiration. "Why spend the best years of your life saving for the worst"... or something like that.

I thing about dying is you don't know when it's going to happen. You could be quite young or live to be 90. I reckon with most things it's getting a happy medium, work, have time off for travel and safe a little for retirement, you have covered all posts then and that makes you happy.
Jean

you have to have balance. i hope you are just like your boss when you are older but you never know what can happen. that doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy your life to the fullest in the meantime. Just find a way to put some money away towards your retirement. you should talk to a financial advisor who can help you figure out the best way to balance this all, so you are getting the most out of your money.