Collecting vs. Saving

Lisa / 10 Apr 2017 / Retirement Trends

Okay, I’ll admit it, I like to collect things. At some point in my childhood I started collecting watches, and while most of them are in need of a new battery, I do enjoy looking at my watch collection. I have fond memories of either the person who gave a watch to me or from the experience I was having when I purchased it. Having one collection isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

However, throughout my life, I started to accumulate more collections. Suddenly, anytime I acquired an object that was related to another I thought of it as a collection. Soon collections started taking up more boxes and more space and I saw myself on a future episode of Hoarders. The madness had to end!

So I tossed most of it all away and decided that I was only going to collect one thing in the future: Money.

It’s the perfect collection, really. It doesn’t take up space (unless you are hiding it under the mattress). It provides actual long-term security, and it even multiplies without any intervention on your part. I get much more satisfaction looking at my increasing bank balance than I ever did dusting off any of my past collections. More importantly, it gives me confidence that when I retire years from now, I will have enough saved to not worry.

We live in a very materialistic, instant gratification society, so it’s a challenge to not buy something as soon as we want it. But I believe that peace of mind about my future is worth far more than anything I can buy today. Sure I have my splurges, but they are always done after I have hoarded away some money. Anything extra, it gets saved too! I want to ensure that I am planning for a realistic retirement and that it’s not just some ambiguous event that will happen in the future. It’s real, and I need to be prepared.

I challenge everyone to think long and hard about whether your actions today will give you the confidence to retire in your golden years. A good reality check is to see how many of these scenarios you are preparing for or already are prepared for. Yes there are some that are out of our control, but it’s still a good idea to hope for the best, but plan for the worst. Right off the bat, I am already planning for the idea that when I retire, Social Security will be a thing of the past.

How confident are you in your retirement plans?