Retirement Countdown: Take Action Now to Get the Life You Want

Chapter 4. No Plan Is an Island

It seems like such a long time ago when working for a company was, in many respects, for life. My father is 80, and he spent 30 years working for one company. I'll be 50 within a year, and I had five jobs before I was 35. Nevertheless, when my father was working, it was typical for corporations to provide workers with a pension benefit that could provide 50–100 percent of their final year's salary as a retirement benefit for the rest of their life. On the surface, that sounds fine and certainly is a good start, but with inflation chipping away at your income like an ice pick on a glacier, your buying power on a fixed ...