Retirement is not just a financial equation—it’s a philosophical one. There is sound reason for making such a statement.

So you’re going to retire soon? Oh, you’ve already retired! Had the farewell party? Or maybe just a handshake and box of personal things?

Now you look forward to—to what? Assuming you have some money in the bank and a whole new life in front of you—what are you going to do with it?

You’re at a crossroads, and it’s time to decide how you will live “for the remainder of your life.” That decision involves understanding two very significant factors at this juncture.

1.) How much money do I really have?
2.) How much lifetime am I going to have to support with that money?

It’s for these two reasons alone that retirement is not only a financial question—it is a philosophical one. Because, logically, we can’t plan to live “too long.”

Yet, neither question has a simple answer. As old Bob Dylan said, “The Times They Are A’Changing.” Or if you are a bible reader: “Time and circumstance befall everyone.” We simply cannot predict the future.

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Retirement Roulette: Pleasure Now or Security Later?

This is where reality steps in…i.e., ‘a financial question.’ 

Retirees were told: Work hard, pay your taxes, and you’ll be taken care of.

From that perspective, what does the future hold? According to the Census Bureau, there will be 10 MILLION new retirees every day on the average between now, (2025) and 2029. TEN THOUSAND/DAY with their hands out asking for their money to be returned to them.

Ironically, however, the goalposts keep moving and the trust fund is consistently raped and pillaged.

As a result, the promises hollow out over a period of time. Social Security is a system rigged for dependency, and the truth of the matter is, most of the monies collected since 1935, were never paid to those who contributed.

Why? Because they died before they could collect it! So, then, what happened to it?

THE GOVERNMENT KEPT IT! They don’t call up your wife, son, or daughter and say, “We have some money for you that your loved one loaned to us!”

NO—instead, they declare themselves to be the only INSURANCE AGENCY with no obligation to pay a death benefit.

The average retiree, after 40+ years of working life, receives around $2,000/month in Social Security. That’s average according to most sources.

•  $2000/month x 10,000 retirees per month = $20,000,000  per month, and there are ten thousand retiring EVERY MONTH!
• $20 million x 12 Months = $240,000,000/yr., i.e., 10,000,000 retirees per/month @ $20,000,000 per/month, added MONTH AFTER MONTH AFTER MONTH = $2,880,000,000 from 2025, to the end of 2029.
  
• The total amount paid to the NEW RETIREES ALONE during that period, would amount to $14,400,000—not to mention all those already collecting from the fund prior.

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However: for a single retiree it amounts to about $24,000/year—before Medicare premiums are deducted, and long before inflation takes its pound of flesh. So essentially, about $1800 ± $50, in the end ON THE AVERAGE. Obviously, some have more, and some have less.

The magic happens as our money is held by the government, but it IS NOT in stasis. While wages stagnated for 40 years and housing, healthcare, and education prices skyrocketed, the government used your retirement money for investments to earn interest that you lost by their holding it.

Now, after you’ve worked hard through your life, you’ve come to a juncture where life is left largely to chance.

A small portion of your money, which, most likely, will never be fully repaid to you, along with whatever savings, if any, combined with your planning ability, will determine your lifestyle from retirement, on.

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Folie à Deux: Government & Corporate Corruption…Where Does Your Money Go?

A folie à deux—a shared delusion. Let’s name it:

• The state pretends it’s providing safety and support.

• The corporate class pretends it earned its wealth through merit.

• Together, they suck the marrow from the working class while blaming them for having brittle bones.

Then comes retirement. Your are still taxable after you retire.

• Federal income tax on up to 85% of your Social Security, depending on other income.

• State taxes, in some places, also skim from Social Security and pensions. Goodbye to what you worked for.

• Property taxes keep rising, making homeownership a burden for older people, and Corporately owned Senior Communities and Care Homes, MAXIMIZE their profits while MINIMIZING care and amenities.

And this is for the generation that built the roads, fought the wars, paid into the system every paycheck of their lives while the government knew, all along, that the majority would never live to collect their benefits.

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The Philosophical Part:

It’s up to you, individually, through tenacity and careful planning…

Accepting death without letting it dictate every choice: There in lies the rub. We all know that we have “a certain amount of life.” The caveat is that none of us, well, most of us know, neither the length of our life, nor what our longevity will bring us as we age. Our health is, simply put, too unpredictable.

That said, since we retiring, we’ve come to know many who eventually became unable to care for themselves.

Consequently, despite having a “comfortable” income to live on, once you are unable to care for yourself, your monthly cost of living can triple or even quadruple. So, the question remains, “how can I possibly plan for that?”

Example:

With $300,000 (an arbitrary figure that is unrealistic for most of us) in the bank, and an S.S. pension of $2400 per month. Using an online tool, I asked for a breakdown of what my income would be drawing from an annuity that depletes exactly over the period, assuming 3% annual interest (compounded monthly).

Now, I am as good at math as I am at fishing, which is why I don’t eat fish, so the calculations were done by the computer. Calculated using the annuity formula, we see what the income ‘might be’ for 10, 20, and 30 years after, if we begin drawing from both immediately after retirement.

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So, this is assuming that one would try to spread savings through the ‘presumed’ years of life following retirement. Also assuming that Social Security keeps rising slowly (2%/year avg.): my total monthly income actually climbs a little each year—even as my savings shrink.

That Catch-22 of this scenario remains: If during this time you should become incapacitated and need a care-giver, the “AVERAGE” cost, in Florida, for Long Term Care, and Assisted Living is approximately $55,000 – $60,000 per annum. This leaves anyone with LESS THAN $300,000 in savings falling far short of being able to afford long-term assistance. (See Genworth, 2025, for more information.)

My wife and I have gone around and around about what we may have to do, and for now we have boiled it down to the fact that, whoever needs the care first, is the one that will receive it. It has to be that way because we have neither the income, nor the savings that will permit an LTC facility for any great length of time.

There are a few places that we would like to live, and many more that we would rather die, alone, in the woods than live in. However; if we went into assisted living now, we would have nothing left for insurances, basic needs, medical expenses, car or life insurance, etc. etc. It would take our entire income-plus to afford a decent place.

BEING A REALIST: We have to face the fact that we were led to believe that we would all, somehow, be okay, and would have all that we needed to survive.

Well, that may be true! We may survive! But is that the type of retirement we anticipated? People living in the street—survive, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend my last days in a tent under bridge.

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What we have recognized as NECESSITY:

Someone once said to me: “Retirement isn’t just a financial equation—it’s a philosophical one.” One that for which, maybe the best plan, is to live modestly, love deeply, and spend just enough to feel alive and happy. New cars, expensive cruises, and seeing the world is not everyone’s given when it comes to life-after-work. No, not in the slightest. (For a more philosophical view, see: Fast Company, 2024)

To make things better, or so we hope, I went back to work for a while. I still do side-work for people. We began investing what little we have a bit more aggressively, We reinvest the monthly stipend from our employer retirement plans, and reinvest the required minimum amount that we withdraw from my small IRA and annuity.

We both agree that, we will not spend on lavish trips and living today, and chance dying in the street should we live long enough to no longer afford to live.

The ideal situation is being able to let go of the burdens of the everyday struggle of paying bills, keeping up the big house, paying off mortgages and vehicle loans.

If you can just afford to get out from under your dept before retiring, you have made great strides toward enjoying more fully your all of remaining years. Unfortunately, ‘survival’ is the operative word.

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