The Easy Answer To Why We Can’t Save For Retirement Is The Wrong Answer

Just because you’re the victim of a dead American dream doesn’t mean you should live a bitter life of playing the victim

Over the three-year period I’ve been writing on Medium, I have railed on a consistent theme.

Two actually —

• Yes, there is a retirement crisis. In that a majority of the population doesn’t have anything close to enough saved for retirement and never will. Yes, my generation — Generation X — has been impacted somewhat uniquely, but the crisis crosses any demographic designation you can think of. And none of this is our — the individual’s — fault. We have been flat out screwed by a culture that continues to push a way of living that’s no longer possible for most — given economic reality— or preferred by many, due to changing tastes, often in direct response to the soullessness of the runaway American dream.
• Even though there’s a retirement crisis, those of us with choice in the matter still control over own destiny. We can carve out better lives and futures for ourselves in or outside of the United States. There’s no use carrying a sense of entitlement or kicking and screaming to hang onto the American dream. You have limited time left on this planet. Don’t be bitter. Don’t be jaded. Don’t make futile efforts for large-scale change. Control what you can control. This most often starts with you.

In other words, society blames the victim. Then, many of us self fulfill the prophecy by acting like victims.

Sounds contradictory. However, you can hold competing thoughts. In fact, to get by in this world — at least within the context of this discussion — you pretty much have to.

We fail at saving for retirement because, for many of us, it’s an impossible proposition. Then, we’re given nothing but the same old advice from the financial and mainstream media. Save more. Catch up. Double down. Get a side hustle. Work longer. There’s rarely, if ever, a more comprehensive discussion that focuses on how do these things within a different context. Particularly one that doesn’t require 40-plus hours of work per week alongside a ton of overhead.

I have described a collective problem. Not an individual one.

However, they’re still trying to blame the victim. And it goes beyond the media.

Consider some research out of UCLA.

Professor Hal Hershfield and his team studied people’s brains.

When they asked people questions about their present selves, one part of their brain lit up. When asked questions about super recognizable celebrities another part of their brain lit up.

Here’s where it gets into the victim blaming on, for our purposes, saving money and retirement.

When asked questions about their future selves, the same part of the brain lit up as when asked about celebrities.

Which led Hershfield to conclude —

In the brain, the future self looks like another person…

And so we started thinking in the same way, there could be a version of myself in the future who I really don’t feel all that emotionally connected to or invested in. And if that’s the case, I am probably going to live much more for today than tomorrow.

Interesting research. However, you can see how it contributes and really flat out encourages blaming the individual on personal financial issues. Or, at least, it could lead, say, proponents of the American dream to take this research and frame it in a way that blames the victim, rather than a system of unreasonable and increasingly outdated money-related expectations.

Taking a widespread problem and a collective reaction to it and suggesting that you simply need to make better choices. Choices with your future self in mind, even if you can’t really yet relate to who this person will be.

This said, sometimes shit isn’t fair.

While it’s absolutely the easy answer to blame the victim on retirement, it’s entirely another to play the victim if you’re life isn’t what you want it to be. Rather than, in the words of Bob Dylan, be bent out of shape from society’s pliers, you, in the words of me, will be better off freeing yourself from the hold of society’s pliers.

That’s both the expectation that we not only should be able to, but should want to save for retirement, carry a 30-year mortgage and work our assess off to pay for all of this stuff. And the idea that if we — for one reason or another — can’t do this, we should walk around with a bitter, pissed off, defeatist, the sky is falling chip on our collective and individual shoulders.

When you do this, there’s never a solution. Just endless complaining.

If you’re unhappy — or even if you’re happy but unable to make ends meet and/or live the life you really want — find ways to do things differently.

When I came to the realization that I would Never Retire, I assessed my situation and ultimately decided on living my version of a semi-retired life.

I focused on keeping my housing expense as low as possible, minimizing other expenses as much as possible while lowering that overhead a long the way so I can live a good life in what otherwise could be a super tough situation. That is, renting in the nation’s second largest city. First, on my own, now with my partner.

Then, with an eye on the future, my partner and I devised a plan we’re working on now. One where we can enter and live out relative old age in a place that will not only bring our cost of living even lower, but better align with our socio-cultural preferences on public life and politics.

A plan that starts with housing, but necessarily goes way beyond this albeit crucial element of life as it pertains to work and money.

You can read concrete details at the link, but the point with respect to today’s article is simply that you can talk about how badly things suck and focus on your struggle. Or you can find a better way.

Throughout my life, I have always picked option number two.

No matter how you feel or how much things suck, give yourself a minute to get pissed, cry or both. Then determine the best way forward to a good life where you can be refreshingly content and much less bitter in the day-to-day.

This absolutely requires letting go of society’s longstanding ways and expectations. Its pliers. It might require wholesale change, such as a drastic change of locale or renewed focus on better ways to work and earn money.

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This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.