<!--StartFragment -->The effects of the recession have been devastating for many people already in retirement and those nearing retirement age.

With the stock market crash, the drop in interest rates and in many cases, the need to support financially dependent children... Millions of people won’t be able to afford to leave their jobs. They’ll have to continue working indefinitely.

How are you positioned?

Are you on a debt purge? Or, are you one of those people who rarely thinks about how you're going to survive financially when you retire?
 

In which case, you might want to give it some thought... 

Do you dream about retiring early in comfort? In which case you’ll have to consider how much of your life you could end up living without an income... Possibly as long as 30 years.

Are your finances geared up for that?

What about if you want to do all of those things you dream of doing in retirement...

Summer holidays in Europe, golf, dining out... You know, the rewards for 40 years plus of hard work...

But, how much will you need per year then?

R200,000? R300,000? R400,000?

Let's say you arrive at a figure of R200k a year to pay all your bills, meet all your living expenses and live a reasonably nice life in retirement.

If you lived for 30 years, you'd need R6,000,000 in ready cash when you hit 60. And that's before inflation!

Will you have that sort of money on retirement?

Well... You may be able to survive on way less than R200k a year. Or, let’s just say, you may HAVE to survive on less...
Makes you think doesn’t it?

On a much bigger scale...

After the 2nd World War, soldiers returned home full of renewed hope, excitement and anticipation of a brighter future...

And boy, did they get to work!

They caused a population explosion, known as "the baby boom"!

Now, fast forward 60 years or so and that generation is now starting to retire - in their tens of thousands.

In the meantime, improvements in healthcare have resulted in an increase in the human life span. So, we’re living much longer than our parents did.

I'm thankful for that, of course, but this is going to place a huge burden on the global economy... As if there wasn’t enough to worry about already!

Retiring baby boomers will be withdrawing large sums of money from governments, companies and funds.

As a result, the average retirement age will rise in time in most countries.

I don't know when you plan to retire...

But if you have a few years to go then you still have time to make sure you can enjoy a decent retirement here.

Here’s to your success,

Pascale Barrow
Managing Editor of Personal & Finance Confidential

Adapted from The Rich Life Letter, Lewis Geary