The True Cost of Happiness: The Real Story Behind Managing Your Money

Chapter 13. Living Longer and Stronger:THE NEW RETIREMENT

We are living longer, stronger lives than ever before. At 60, many Baby Boomers are starting businesses and pursuing their passions. They are making plans to see the world. They are doing work to make it a better place. At 40, Generation X feels like they've just hit their stride. Many are just starting families. Talk to people in their 20s and 30s and those old models of moving up the corporate ladder as quickly as possible are simply gone. Their generation doesn't feel those kinds of pressures.

While we are all grateful for our longer lives, it also means that there is more to plan and pay for. This is challenging on many levels:

• We're facing the highest health care bills in history for ourselves and our parents.

• Families are using assets meant to be inherited by their children to pay for things like retirement and nursing homes.

• Social Security may be at risk.

• Corporate retirement benefits are changing their structure from the old defined benefit (pension) model to the newer defined contribution (401(k), 403(b)) model.

All of this comes at a time when we have the highest debt levels and the lowest savings on record. One of the many reasons Stacey and I think Life Planning is so important to current generations is that we simply cannot afford to blindly allocate time and money to assets and ideals that aren't part of our core values.

Your Ideal Retirement

Let's make sure that your financial resources are working to create the retirement ...