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> I were to be of retirement age today, I'm having trouble thinking of a reason NOT to do this. Family? Helping your children with their kids instead of selfis

by maratd 13y ago

> I were to be of retirement age today, I'm having trouble thinking of a reason NOT to do this. Family? Helping your children with their kids instead of selfishly running away to some tropical destination? After you get past a certain age, you may also want some help for yourself from your children.

sharkweek 13y ago
That's making a lot of assumptions about future lifestyle choices -- But point taken, I do suppose if my wife and I had kids now, that quickly changes the overall mindset of retirement. Still though, I hardly consider it a selfish choice -- shit, I would have loved to have gone and visited the grandparents in some tropical destination as opposed to northern Idaho.
sliverstorm 13y ago
Oh, it depends a lot on your family. For example, what if you had kids at twenty, and your kids had kids at twenty? By the time you retire, your grandchildren are in college. Maybe not a bad time to run off for a ten year Hawaiian vacation. The connection between parent and mature children also varies a lot from family to family.
malandrew 13y ago
After you get past a certain age, you may also want some help for yourself from your children. The cost of a maid or other household help in many developing countries is low enough that you can get much much much better help there than you could possibly get from your adult kids with their own lives in the US. A really good live-in maid will run you $500 a month (a great salary for many people). They will cook all your meals three times a day, keep the house spotless, do all your laundry, run errands like buying groceries, etc. You can't find service like you can in Brazil without paying a pretty penny. The average cost of a retirement community in the US is $2750 a month, many times more expensive for probably far worse service, with one employee shared among many retired individuals.
- maratd 13y ago
  I will always choose care from my children over professional care. Easy choice. Even a few hours of time with them will be much more enjoyable than days or weeks with a stranger, regardless of how wonderful the stranger happens to be. Not everything can be reduced to dollars and cents.

by maratd 13y ago

sharkweek 13y ago

That's making a lot of assumptions about future lifestyle choices -- But point taken, I do suppose if my wife and I had kids now, that quickly changes the overall mindset of retirement. Still though, I hardly consider it a selfish choice -- shit, I would have loved to have gone and visited the grandparents in some tropical destination as opposed to northern Idaho.

sliverstorm 13y ago

Oh, it depends a lot on your family. For example, what if you had kids at twenty, and your kids had kids at twenty? By the time you retire, your grandchildren are in college. Maybe not a bad time to run off for a ten year Hawaiian vacation. The connection between parent and mature children also varies a lot from family to family.

malandrew 13y ago

After you get past a certain age, you may also want some help for yourself from your children. The cost of a maid or other household help in many developing countries is low enough that you can get much much much better help there than you could possibly get from your adult kids with their own lives in the US. A really good live-in maid will run you $500 a month (a great salary for many people). They will cook all your meals three times a day, keep the house spotless, do all your laundry, run errands like buying groceries, etc. You can't find service like you can in Brazil without paying a pretty penny. The average cost of a retirement community in the US is $2750 a month, many times more expensive for probably far worse service, with one employee shared among many retired individuals.

maratd 13y ago
I will always choose care from my children over professional care. Easy choice. Even a few hours of time with them will be much more enjoyable than days or weeks with a stranger, regardless of how wonderful the stranger happens to be. Not everything can be reduced to dollars and cents.