Retirement: Three Legged Stool

Lesson of the day

Retirement

Listen: You can hear the episode here (Apple podcasts) on YouTube, or on our website. Feel free to take notes on our Graphic Organizer!

Do: Be a Nosy Retirement Detective

In the episode, Tom Margenau referenced the “three legged stool” of retirement. Here are the classic three legs:

stool.jpg

However, as wonderful and sensible as that metaphor is, the stool has been altered in recent years. In a recent report from the Federal Reserve, only 22% of working Americans claimed to have any pension whatsoever. As a result, different generations of Americans have different ideas of how they’ll save for their retirement. Here’s how current workers are planning across age groups.

retirement-stats-how-americans-plan-their-golden-years-2.png

And by the way, here’s what those words mean, generally:

Millennials: Born 1981-1996

Gen X: Born 1965-1980

Baby Boomers: Born 1944-1964

So today, if you want, if you don’t think it’s an imposition….time to BE NOSY WITH AN ADULT IN YOUR HOME. Naturally, this is entirely dependent on whether you want to talk about money with someone in your home, it’s something I avoided at all costs as a child, but if you want to and they’re willing, give this a try.

Show the above two graphics to a guardian/parent/sibling who is working and ask them the following three questions:

  1. Does their stool have three legs like the classic one above? Or is it different?

  2. Do they align with any of the three generations above in terms of retirement funding?

  3. How do they, and you, think your generation will be funding retirement?

Have a lovely week!