Skip to main content

Do you have enough money to retire on?

Does anybody really have enough retirement income?

Okay, the really rich, but for most people today, there will definitely be a cutting back after retirement.

And that’s the crux.   If you are used to living a certain way, it is not easy to change your patterns when you stop working.

A combination of the new Liberty Life ad and an excellent presentation to Accsys clients and staff by Professor Jackie Arendse, got me thinking.

Liberty says that the average monthly earner receives 480 payslips in their lives.  If you retire at 60 and live until 85, you will have 300 months when you don’t earn a salary!   That is a frightening thought.

When you consider that the average age keeps rising, and retirement ages have not been increasing at the same pace, planning for retirement becomes more critical than ever.

Rumour has it that the first person to live to 150 has already been born.   What do you think her retirement age will be?

Retirement Reform

No wonder the government have looked at Retirement Reform (definitely capitalised).

Supposed to kick in from March, 2015, it now appears to have a “go live” date of March, 2016. 

Unfortunately, reaction has been less than positive.

There has been a noticeable increase in resignations from people who have decided to realise their retirement income as there are fears that the money will disappear.

Feedback from Provident Fund contributors is also less than enthusiastic.   The move towards annuitisation, partial or full, has not been generally well received.

Will you be 55 by March 1st, 2016?

This is the first time that I have heard people feeling delighted that they are going to be 55 by March, 2016, the reason being that they stay on the existing model.

Two of the major issues the government is trying to address?

1.       Fast erosion of lump sum payments at retirement
2.       Resignations in order to receive retirement income

Worthy goals.
 
Like most people getting closer to the 480th payment, I wish I had done more to provide for retirement.

I have some questions

Will the government moving provident funds closer to a pension structure make the difference?

What about the companies who do not offer Provident or Pension funds?   We see high numbers of job applicants who receive no benefits. 

Do the Life Skills classes at school and tertiary institutions cover saving for the future in enough detail?
 
How many of us have received our financial advice from somebody who stands to gain from the transaction?

We need more objective education and information earlier.   Nothing we do will change everything, but it would be a great start….

Links, References and Notes

Business Connexion:Accsys
email:      tschroenn@accsys.co.za
twitter:   @TerylSchroenn

 Note

 Thank you for reading Teryl@Work.   Should you wish to use any of the material, please acknowledge this blog as the source
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Feeding the Right Wolf

Feeding the Right Wolf This Cherokee story resonated with me (see below).     Like many business people, I get caught up in managing details, instead of focusing on strategy and growth.   Measuring myself against the Good Wolf concept has become a way of thinking for me. Feeding the good wolf - focusing on the right stuff! In a previous article on this topic, I commented that the message is simple, the wolf you feed is the one that grows. The good wolf attributes in a business are where we ideally should spend our time, that good old 80 – 20 rule focusing on our   engaged employees, improving client experience and quality of product,   to name a few. Creating a Good Wolf Environment While we have many different tools – appraisals, customer and employee surveys – to try and understand the temperature and levels of entropy in our businesses – the truth is that it is really difficult to explain to people that they are not seen as feeding the good wolf.    Often the people
Post a Comment
Read more

Sharing your last salary – re-enforcing the gender pay gap…

Sharing your last salary – re-enforcing the gender pay gap… The interview process is never easy.   Whether you are actively searching for a new position or being head hunted, selling yourself effectively can go against ingrained social habits. As a potential employer, there is significant risk in hiring the wrong people, too. So both sides have a lot to lose if the interview process is ineffective. While we frequently hear that people do not leave jobs because of money, very few candidates are looking to drop their salaries … Interviewers have a number of tools at their disposal enabling them to align the right candidate with the role on offer: ·        Psychometric testing ·        References ·        The face to face interview process ·        The CV / Resumé ·        Social media profiles However, the previous salary is a time tested way for the interviewer to measure against the skills and experience claimed in the CV. Why is there a risk that this re-en
Post a Comment
Read more

It's all about the service... Gaining & Retaining Clients

Retaining and gaining customers has become increasingly challenging.  As customers we have abundant choice and it is so easy to comparative shop. We talk about great service We talk about the extra mile We talk about the attitude We talk about customer perception We talk about customer expectation We talk about meeting customer needs We talk about the tangible vs intangible We talk about the client experience So what makes a customer feel that they have received outstanding service?   What makes it a soft skill, rather than a science, is that we are all so different and people in services and sales need to read each situation and act accordingly. In a restaurant, if my chair is constantly bumped by the waitrons going past, no matter how great the food, my perception is negative.  My family don’t even notice the bumps.. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to visit Greece and Turkey. In Istanbul, we were wandering around one of the many fantastic street marke
Post a Comment
Read more