Factors that may increase your life in retirement –Odunze Reginald C

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 According to an article in Yahoo Finance captioned “7 ways to Retire happy” Mandi Woodruff opined that  In a new book, “You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think,” Atlanta-based investment advisor Wes Moss, offers an alternative to the traditional line of thinking. Rather than focus on a dollar amount to reach for, Moss decided to figure out what retirees needed to be truly happy in retirement”
“I wanted to go beyond simple income numbers,” Moss says. “I wondered what it really takes to get somebody to a point where they truly feel they have a cushion and they are also enjoying life.”
“In 2012, Moss conducted an online survey of more than 1,200 workers who had either already retired or were fewer than 10 years away from retirement. He asked them questions about what type of cars they drove, where they shopped, how much their homes were worth, and, of course, how much they had saved for retirement. But he also asked about their passion projects, how often they went on vacation, what types of volunteering they enjoyed, whether or not they were satisfied with their lives, and how much time they put into their retirement planning before calling it quits. (Moss did not ask participants about overall debt levels like student loans and credit cards, but did include questions about their mortgage debt).”
What he found was that more money doesn’t equate to more happiness. The happiest retirees didn’t all drive BMWs or take 12 European cruises a year, either.”

That brings us back to the important idea about what gives happiness, happiness is within, it’s a product of contentment, feel contented about what you have, you will discover that you will be happy, feel otherwise, you will discover that you will be sad, all the days of your life.  As Dolly Paton noted in her song “Coat of many colors”, that she was as rich as she could be in her coat of many colors” and she tries to make to understand” linked to contentment is happy married life.

Good health is very vital in life, retirees should rest, exercise, and diet, what may be termed as RED. It is very essential for people to rest, exercise and diet, so as to be in form , and as one approaches old age , it is also important for retirees to monitor their diet and rest

Being in tune with God, It is good to be in tune with our maker, when you are not tune with your maker, so many things will go wrong including finances, moralities etc. you also lack that self awareness , self will and the ability to adjust to trends in the society to suit your current status and position,

Being in tune with your family It becomes more rewarding, when a retiree is in good relationship with family members especially their wives and children .The more a retiree stay connected to a happy love life, the better for him. In a research carried out in the United States has it that people tend to be happy when they are married than when they are not. And as they say that divorce is more devastating; coupled with the financial implications and the legal battle that comes with it. It went on to say that people are more likely to commit suicide when they are disconnected with their love life or life partner.  But I will also add that men are likely also to commit murder when they are disconnected from their love life and the emotional torture of such act can also drive them to take their own lives.

 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. 

 

Reasons why your wife may live longer than you- Odunze Reginald C

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The pension reform act under section 4 subsection c of the 2004 PRA states that a lump sum to the balance standing to the credit of his retirement savings account: provided that the amount left after that lump sum withdrawal shall be sufficient to procure an annuity or fund programmed withdrawals that will produce an amount not less than 50 per cent of his annual remuneration as at the date of his retirement.

 And in section 7 subsection 1 paragraph a of the PRA 2014 states that withdrawal of a lump sum from the total amount credited to his retirement savings account provided that the amount left after the lump sum withdrawal shall be sufficient to procure a programmed fund withdrawals or annuity for life in accordance with extant guidelines issued by the commission from time to time.

And in arriving at the payment of lump sum to retirees, four factors determine the size of the lump sum, and they are follows: Sex, age, Final salary and RSA balance.

The application that PFAs are using for pension has the principle that women live longer  than men , I do not know how they arrived at that but I do know that there are more widows than widowers in my village. In an article by Forbes, titled 15 Richest women in the world, about 13 of them inherited their wealth from their husbands who are now late. And when I did a pilot with National Population Commission, some years ago we also discovered that there are more widows than widowers, it all means that Chile Application which Pencom is using is indirectly right. Because by either the inductive and deductive analysis in statistical research , analyst have come to that conclusion. But events surrounding women living longer than men as a normal application in social statistics indicates that the social mobility of a woman is a straight line graph and that of a man is an undulating plane. But the hustle of life and the stress of making it in life have come to reduce the life expectancy of men.

But what this indicates is that generally women with the same  bio data , salary structure with a man and retiring at the same time will definitely get a lower lump sum and a lower pension salary than her male colleagues.

According to recent research by Forbes titled 20 richest women in the world, indicates that 75 percent of them inherited their wealth from their deceased husband. But in this research, we are more interested on the factors that account for women living longer than men, so why then do women live longer than men.

Women emotional built up and how they are created-Women are more balanced in life, they are less stressed. Women are emotionally intelligent than men, they can psyche up emotions within the slightest provocation. In fact it has been proved that men are more likely to commit suicide than women, in fact there is unwritten maxim that” it is only a disappointed man that hang himself on a tree,  a disappointed woman do not hang herself on a tree but on the neck of the nearest man”.

Habit: Men are believed to have such habit as drinking , smoking and womanizing, these are harmful habits that reduces somebody’s life expectancy.

The danger of marrying new wives.

The danger of marrying new wives during retirement leads to the following:

Alienates the first wife and set aside the existing will as the law of interstate states that marrying new wife set aside the existing will. It also brings collusion between family members, and at the centre of such issues is the man. There is also the pressure of meeting up with financial and emotional needs of the new partner, and the extreme part is meeting the sexual needs of a teenager wife  have driven most men to a point of taking sexual enhancing drugs, and these drugs increases the risk of high blood pressures , hypertension and even stroke.

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 can offer a short term happiness to retirees as the pressures and the financial implication of maintaining two families may be devastating to the retiree, 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 procured. 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 to also have offspring of your own. Will the retiree be able to cope coupled with harsh economy realities.

7 Major factors that may increase your life during Retirement -Odunze Reginald C

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According to Emily Brandon in an article captioned   “8 tips for people who will retire in 2015-Emily Brandon”  “What you decide to do in retirement will have a big impact on your costs and quality of life.  "Certainly you will spend less on gas and don't have to spend as much on work clothes, but some people are also going to spend more money now because they have the time and don't just want to sit around the house," says Craig Schmith, a certified financial planner in Durham, North Carolina. "If you've got pent-up demand to travel, especially internationally, and you haven't had time to do that, you need to think about budgeting that in."

In article captioned  “4 dangerous assumptions that could hurt retirement plan” ,which appeared in Morning star,  Christine Benz noted that  ”Continued portfolio contributions, delayed withdrawals, and delayed Social Security filing can all greatly enhance a retirement portfolio's sustainability. Given those considerations, as well as the ebbing away of pensions, increasing longevity, and the fact that the financial crisis did a number  of setbacks on many pre-retirees' portfolios, it should come as no surprise that older adults are pushing back their planned retirement dates. Whereas just 11% of individuals surveyed in the 1991 Employee Benefit Research Institute's Retirement Confidence Survey said they planned to retire after age 65, that percentage had tripled--to 33%--in the 2014 survey. In 1999, just 5% of EBRI's survey respondents said they planned to never retire, whereas 10% of the 2014 respondents said that”.

Continuing Benz noted that “With that in mind, there appears to be a disconnect between pre-retirees' plans to delay retirement and whether they actually do. While a third of the workers in the 2014 survey said they planned to work past age 65, just 16% of retirees said they had retired post-age 65. And a much larger contingent of retirees--32%--retired between the ages of 60 and 64, even though just 18% of workers said they plan to retire that early. As Morningstar.com assistant site editor Adam Zoll discusses and observed  the following factors, -the variance owes to health considerations (the worker's, his or her spouse's, or parents'), unemployment, or untenable physical demands of the job, among other factors.”

But working longer past that mandatory age of 60 years may be the issues of health etc.

The seven major factors that may affect your retirement are as follows:

1Not saving enough

Almost more than two third Nigerians of working populations do not have a pension account, including the informal sectors, those with various state governments and other categories too many to mention. Also the savings are not enough as people are not keying into voluntary contributions. What they contribute is basically not enough to carry them.

 

2 Investment decision Tom Macphail in 10 costly Pension Mistakes noted that “If you have a pension, have you ever reviewed it? Millions of people haven't. Moreover, recent research revealed more than two in five adults (41%) - 8 million people - cannot remember how their pensions are invested. Why is that alarming? Performance can vary quite dramatically across investments and even a seemingly small difference could have a significant impact on the size of your pot” Continuing he stated that these are just projections. Investments will not always go up in value, they also go down, so you could get back less than you invested; what is certain is that they won't perform as predicted. Also, these values are in today's terms, without considering inflation, which will reduce the spending power of your money over time “According to several researches, people invest for two basic reasons; they are follows, to make provision for old age and to be wealthy. Being wealthy is a function of the state of mind of the owner and the generosity of the individual.

So many people cling to their money as if their life depends on it. While some are willing to give almost half of their possessions but that is not our subject of discussion.

Venita Van Caspel according to schuller noted  while studying investment “heard a very startling statistics of every people reaching age 65, only 2 percent were financially independent” continuing  Schuller op cited opined that Venita was raised in a Christian home without money, which she claims gave a health respect  for a dollar.

From the startling revelation, it all means that many are bound to fail should they kept deaf ear to investment.

What the article is saying is that apart from your pension contribution, you can also embark on one or two investment instruments to protect your age.

And in embarking on investment, it is wise to consult the professionals in that field, these investment advisers, analyst is able to study trends and be able to make informed decisions to that effect.

3 Fraud   Schuller (1988:112) noted that success without social respect can be an ultimate and dismal failure.

Old age has one problem according to psychologist, it tend to make old people vulnerable to issues of money making, as they have dream idea of trying to achieve what they fail to achieve during their working career. They now want to achieve it     during old age and by so doing enter into one wrong investment decision or the other.

Whatever they have not achieve they tend to believe that retirement fund will afford them that opportunity, by so doing they enter into wrong hands who will fleece them of their hard earned money. The result is that most of the retirees return back to work in order to survive and enjoy their old age. But what these scammers do not know is that wealth do not bring happiness as it is stated in Ecclesiastics 5 verse 10-11 “ How absurd to think that wealth brings happiness, the more you have, the more people come to help you spend it and  continuing  in Ecclesiastics 5 verse 12, 14, it sates “ But the rich are always worrying  and seldom get a good night sleep” Riches are sometimes hoarded to the harm of the saver, or they are put into risky investment that turn sour and everything is lost”

And continuing in Ecclesiastics 5 verse 19 and 20, “And it is good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it” “To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life- that is indeed a gift from God, people who did this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reason for joy”.

And so in making wealth, it is pertinent for us to have that God given joy that gives one  happiness- a lasting happiness.

Anything short of that may not augur well especially for con artist as Robert Kiyosaki in his book Rich dad Poor dad, noted that there are so many ways, one can be rich, and he included the following, through inheritance, playing lottery, investing or by being a crook or an outlaw but there is a price, you risk going to jail. Kiyosaki  (1995:351) continuing he stated that ‘A great story must interest , excite and cause people to look into the future and dream a little, there should also be integrity behind the story, because our jails are filled with great story tellers without integrity”.

4 Health

The desire of every pensioner is to take care of his or herself during old age, but is it  the  retiree financially stable to shoulder such responsibility , bearing in mind that the period 60 and above comes with various lingering issues including medical health problem.

The medical and health challenge is of varying dimensions, high blood pressure, stroke, obesity, heart attack, cancer of the breast, prostate cancer   that and other medical issues comes with old age.

With the developing state and coupled with the inability of the African governments to have a viable medical programme for old people as prevalent in other continents like Europe, North and South America, Asia , Australia etc. Africa countries with the exception of few African countries like South Africa, Egypt etc have not been able to develop a medical programme for old people and senior citizen. Even where it is said to be existing, there are bottlenecks, corruption and other vices militating against it.

So what do they do in such economy where there are little on non existing medical program for old people, what will the old people do in such a situation, will they resort to the little or no  contribution of their pension pot.

5 Alienating family member – One of the major disaster of retirement is a life of solitary confinement, human being are gregarious, people tend to be happy when they associate with like minds. Even on a cosmetic level, people that value association spends most of their valuable life Face booking and engaging in other social networks, and that has accounted for the increase in social networks channel.

It becomes more rewarding , when a retiree is in good relationship with family members especially their wives and children .The more a retiree stay connected to a happy love life, the better for him. In a research carried out in the United States has it that people tend to be happy when they are married than when they are not. And as they say that divorce is more devastating; coupled with the financial implications and the legal battle that comes with it. It went on to say that people are more likely to commit suicide when they are disconnected with their love life or life partner.  But I will also add that men are likely also to commit murder when they are disconnected from their love life and the emotional torture of such act can also drive them to take their own lives. 

6 Negative attitude

Maintain a positive attitude towards life and pension inclusive; according to book of job what people fear most always comes to them. And according to Robert Schuler, in his book , “the power of positive thinking “ he noted that  one of the basic ingredient of success is maintaining a positive outlook to life, believe that you will make and you will make it, believe that you will not , and you will definitely not”

Therefore maintaining a positive attitude in all aspect of life is pre requisite for all facets of life and Le Boeuf (1987:21) noted that “your world is a mirror and your mind is a magnet what you perceived in this world is largely a reflection of your own attitudes and beliefs. And life will give you what you attract with your thoughts. Think, act and talk negatively and your world will likely be negative. Think, act and talk with enthusiasm and you will attract positive results.

7 Marrying a new wife.

The danger of marrying new wives during retirement leads to the following Alienates the first wife and set aside the existing will as the law of interstate states that marrying new wife set aside the existing will. It will also brings collusion between family members, There is also the pressure of meeting up with financial and emotional needs of the new partner, and the extreme part is meeting the sexual needs of a teenager have driven most men to a point of taking sexual enhancing drugs, and these drugs increases the risk of high blood pressures , hypertension and even stroke.

And according to Eileen Sweeney (1979:31) in her book titled “Another country” Sweeney noted that “marriage was something more rounded than mere infatuation, and once a man had built his home, things were different with him. He must still need his home and would never be the same without it”