A few months ago, someone gave me a simple piece of financial planning advice that completely changed the way I think about retirement. Most financial planning

A few months ago, someone gave me a simple piece of financial planning advice that completely changed the way I think about retirement. Most financial planning advice focuses on regularly putting money away for some returns. Returns are important, but they are only part of the story. Much more important is that putting a portion of your income away every month creates habits that stick by making you get used to having less money available, while at the same time ensuring that in the future, you will have more available. It cuts both ways! Think of it like this: say you have an income of 5.000 per month. You don't put away anything away and when you retire, you receive a state pension of 1.000, so your income drops by a staggering 3.000 per month. Or you could pretend that your income is only 4.000 per month and put away the rest. You live a bit more frugally, but now when you retire, your pension is 3.000 per month, so the difference is much smaller. Of course there are also other ways besides saving for pension that address the amount of money you need in the future, rather than increasing the money that you have available from a pension. Buying a house and paying it off is a good example. The principle is the same: reduce the gap between your income/expenses now and your future income/expenses. Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, so please do not base major life decisions on this.