Because of medicine getting better and better and many people living longer, the plans we all made when we were 25 or 30, like taking out a retirement annuity, or you had a work pension or provident fund, maybe you bought some unit trusts, have changed slightly.

Fast forward a couple of years and now there isn’t enough money when these plans pay out because we are all on average now living longer.

According to USA today, if you are 65 now, then you are expected to live on average for another 18 years if you are a man and another 21 years if you are a woman.

So that’s 83 for men and 86 for a woman.  Now the funny thing about averages is that 50% will live longer and 50% will live shorter and how do you decide which one you are?  In this article, we want to get you to think about retirement and start doing some sums.

Many of us changed jobs and used our provident funds, sold our unit trusts when we needed a new car for our wife, and now we are looking at what we thought would be enough for a few years after we retired and now it’s a lot of years we have to think about after we retire.

But there is good news for those who can control it and that is that because of the advances in medicine and the fact that we are all so much healthier, on average again, that we can all work that much longer if we need to.  Now I know that some companies force people to retire at a certain age, but I think that that should be looked at, but if you are going to be forced to retire at 60 or 65 , then a few years before you retire, start looking at other ways to make income, if you are going to get a payout when you retire, maybe it’s time to start a business, or look at some other sort of jobs that you can leave your pension or provident untouched and maybe even contribute more for  few years.  The days that people retire happily at 65 and have been working at a company for 40 years are long gone, and very few people can sit back at 65 and say I have enough to last forever

Don’t forget Assets like a house, I believe that everyone should try to have a paid house by the time you retire, so if you have a bond then part of your retirement planning is to make sure that your house bond is paid off by the time you retire.

The same with debt, you cannot go into retirement with debt, so if you are in a position where you are not controlling your debt, then speak to a debt counsellor about getting your debt finished before your retirement age.  I have had a lot of people who say to me I have to get this debt finished before I retire in 4 years or whatever time.  And that is the right thing to do, get your debt out of your life before you retire.

Another very important thing to consider is if you are still married and both of you are getting old. according to the Society of actuaries For couples who are 65 today, there’s a 45% chance that a wife outlives her husband by five years and a 20% chance by 15 years,

Will there be enough money for whoever lives longer, normally the wife?  Sadly for us men, another thing to do is to make sure that you have enough life insurance to cover each other.  Take out as much life insurance as you can afford so that when one of you dies, the other one won’t have to struggle

So that’s a lot to think about.

Have I got enough money invested, to last for about 20 years after I retire? Can I work for longer, and have I made a plan to work longer? Is my house going to be paid before I retire? Will all my debt be finished when I retire?

If you need to speak to someone, especially if you want to get your debt under control, contact RD Debt Counselling, or visit our offices at 133 Newlands Ave. You can also give us a call at 011 421 2918.