Will that new wife gives you a successful retirement?-Odunze Reginald C

According to  a recent research, the latest life expectancy figures reveal that a 6o year old pensioners today are expected to live off their pension for an average of 15 years- this is nearly a quarter of their whole life. That is why, any pension mistake could cost more, and according  to Robert Kiyosaki (1999) in his book ‘Cash flow quadrant, the Rich dad guide to financial freedom’ he noted that people invest for two basic reasons,

         To save for retirement

         To make lot of money

The first one underscores the importance of pension schemes, but one of the major mistakes people make is using the pension to marry a new wife especially in Africa and Nigeria in particular.

Most retirees end up using retirement money in marrying new wives and procuring new cars. By so doing they attract people’s attention to their lives, they also end up having issues with their immediate family members, especially their first wife who now feels alienated, even though they are not aware  that marrying a  new wife  will definitely set aside the existing will, if there was no update of the previous will.

 In an article in Yahoo Finance captioned “7 ways to Retire happy” Mandi Woodruff observed that “Happy retirees are more likely to be married” As common as divorce is in the U.S. today, the overwhelming majority of happy retirees were married (76%) and only 9% were divorced. Less than half of unhappy retirees were married, while one-quarter were divorced, Wes Moss found. 

This is right on par with what past research has shown about levels of satisfaction in married and unmarried people — over the long term, married couples are much happier. It’s fairly obvious why two may be better than one in this scenario — dual incomes can make a huge difference in a couple’s financial outlook. 

On the flip side, divorce not only reduces both parties’ income but is also expensive to go through. 

What it all means that marrying a new wife during retirement can offer a short term happiness to retirees as the pressures and the financial implication of maintaining two families may be devastating to the retirees, it also becomes increasingly difficult if the first wife of the retiree is enlightened as the law of intestate normally set aside the will, when a second marriage is entered into. 

Though there is law of Bigamy that makes it criminal for a one to enter into another marriage without divorcing the first marriage, with up to 14 years in jail for defaulters  But in Nigeria , this law seems to be redundant as most elderly statesmen enter into second , third and even fourth marriages without divorcing the first one.

What happens to a situation where the couple has entered a joint mortgage?

What will be the plight of the first wife that contributed for that mortgage, what about cases where the man has children and the desire of the second wife is to also have offsprings of her own. Will the retiree be able to cope with these issues coupled with harsh economy realities?

To contact us,send us a mail to regy2005@gmail.com