If you work from about the age of 20 until about the age of 65, that gives you about 45 years to earn the money to support yourself for your entire life.

Your entire life?  What about those years as a child, when you were supported by your parents?  

In essence, you are paying for an entire lifetime, from birth to death.  If your spouse does not work you are paying for two lifetimes. Most people have kids. If you have kids, you are also paying their way, as your parents did for you.  

Does 45 years of bringing home a paycheck total up to enough money to last for an entire lifetime?

How long will you live?  Do people in your family tend to be long-lived?

If you live until the age of 90, working for 45 years must support you for twice as long – 90 years.  If you live to be 100, your 45 years of working must support 55 years of not working.  

Where you live matters.  As the chart of life expectancy by State shows, life expectancy in South Carolina is lower than in many other States.  Of course, you may be one of those who pulls that statistic upward.

Making living into old age affordable

Crucial to being able to afford to live after retirement and into old age is the need to save money throughout your working years.  

Build up your savings

Social Security payments are not enough to live on.  Learn how to invest your savings, to let it grow to a 0larger amount before you retire.  

Reduce loans and paying interest

Whenever possible, avoid borrowing money.  When money must be borrowed, borrow the minimum amount, and pay it off as quickly as possible.

Buy a less expensive home

Home mortgages are available that are paid off in 15 years, 20 years, or 30 years.  Choose a less expensive home, so that only a 15-year mortgage will be required.  

Do the math:  having a 30-year mortgage means you will spend three times the original price of a home.

Realtors will always encourage you to “buy the biggest, most expensive house you can afford.”  They will do everything in their power to convince you that an expensive home is a great investment.  

A more expensive home means a higher fee for the realtor.  That bigger fee far outweighs any interest a realtor has in your financial well-being.  They have a vested interest in selling you the most expensive home they can convince you to buy.

Banks, likewise, will encourage you to stretch your financial well-being to the limit:  the greater the amount of interest they collect from you, the more profitable your home loan is for them, with the least amount of effort.  

Big mortgages are not in your best interest.  The money you do not spend on your mortgage is then available to you for some other purposes:  children, cars, vacations, and most importantly, your financial well-being into old age.

Above all, make sure you will be paying off a mortgage before you retire.

Realtors and banks are not at all interested in how you will afford to live after your retirement.

Buy less expensive cars

Automobile sales, like home sales, are made with the intention of selling you the most expensive vehicle possible.  As with home sales, banks team up with the salesman to offer you long-term loans that make buying a more expensive car possible – at the cost of excessively long-term loans.  

At most, buy a car you can pay for with a 3-year (36-month) loan.  Five- and six-year loans include nightmarish amounts of interest payments, inflating your total cost for the purchase.

One way to buy a good car for less is to visit a luxury-class auto dealer’s used car lot.  Look for a three-year-old luxury-class car traded in on a newer model of the same brand, which has been well cared for.  The price is likely to be cheaper than that of a brand-new economy car, making a 36-month loan an affordable choice.  

Your friends and neighbors will always wonder how you can afford a luxury car, and why they always see you with a smile on your face.

Make your life affordable

Move into a location with lower taxes.

Move into a subdivision with no regime fees.

Mow your own lawn.  While pushing a non-self-propelled lawn mower, think about the exercise you are getting, and the money you are not paying to a local gym.

Pay off your credit cards in full, every month.  Credit card interest will literally eat you alive.

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without” – World War II slogan

It is not necessary nor reasonable to go through life deprived of the things that make life more pleasurable.  But pick and choose carefully what it is that you really want.

It is neither necessary nor reasonable to over-spend when you are younger, and then have to live in old age without the things that make living more pleasurable.  

Life is most pleasurable when you plan your expenses, and stick to your plan.  Compulsive buying and overspending is not pleasurable, and leads to problems later on, particularly after you retire.  

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