In the last blog, I looked at The Rands and Sense of Retirement. There’s a brilliant analogy about retirement. Let’s go on a picnic. Yes, let’s say it’s a braai lunch picnic, and it’s a two-hour drive to get there. I can’t simply jump into my vehicle and leave. I need to do some planning first.
- What do they provide? (Braai areas, chairs and tables, toilets.)
- Is there an entry fee? (Yes.)
- What do we need to take? (Everything we need for the time we plan to be there.)
- What am I going to do there? (Just lunch, and family socialising. No time for anything else. You worry too much, Jay.)
- Should I plan for any important issues that may arise? (It’s only a lunch-time braai. Come on – what can go wrong? Jay, Jay!)
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Going on retirement is like going on a picnic. Is it going to be as much fun? Well, I need to do some planning first, just like I’d do for a braai lunch picnic. (The same questions again – but cardiac-arrest answers now.)
- What do they provide? (Zero. Well, not really. There’s a State pension of R1,690 per month (as at June 2018). If I need more than that, I must create it myself.)
- Is there an entry fee? (No. Unless I consider 42 years of working as an “entry fee”. That’s the GREEN zone in the graphic above.)
- What do I need to take? (Everything I need for over 20 years. I can’t pack this in a car boot, but I can create a decent monthly pension that will take care of it.)
- What am I going to do there? (“My work is my life. If I stop work, I’ll die.” Oops… I’m still going to get 24 hours a day – what am I going to do for 20 years’ worth of this daily ration? Maybe it’s time I break out of my mental prison, and deliberately cultivate new interests.)
- Should I plan for any important issues that may arise? (It’s a 20-year picnic, also known as the RED zone, and I won’t be getting younger. I’ll need fewer and fewer possessions. I need to get used to discarding stuff – after all, all that I will finally need is a coffin-shaped box. Declining physical and mental health is very probable – nearly certain. There are State hospitals, but I want a good medical plan too. Increasing frailness is likely. I must plan for living alone, for needing care, for death.)
I submit that my whole working life is preparing for retirement. I submit that preparing for retirement is beautifully rolled into the word PRETIREMENT. And I’m glad I’ve learned that new word now. [My final submission is this: If I have a child in Grade R, that R is for my retirement – and if there’s an R on my pay slip, that’s a Reminder again.]
Jay Pillay’s first two critical decades were spent where his first decade began – in Pietermaritzburg. After studying at ML Sultan Technikon in Durban (anyone remember that place?), he then joined the sugar industry, working in Tongaat, Durban, and Xinavane – a sugar mill village 120km north of Maputo. Oh yes – there was a brief period of unfaithfulness, when he flirted with aluminium in Richard’s Bay. Upon retirement, he and his wife Dorothy – settled in Southport.
Jay began writing about salary management (for ordinary people living on a salary) in the early 2000s. Many of his articles were published by The Ripple Effect, a Durban-based corporate newsletter. In all his writing, Jay says he attempts to emphasise the big picture in salary management: it’s not just about making it to your next payday – it’s about making it to the end of your working life. It’s not just about your working life – it’s about your retirement too. It’s not just about the cost of living – it’s about the cost of dying too. It’s not just about you as a salary manager – it’s about your dependants too.
This 16-part series is being published here for the first time. It would be invaluable for salary managers in the early years of their lives – who realize that salary management is a lifetime business. Finally, it’s not just about reading stuff on salary management – it’s about careful thought (that means time, well invested), and then taking appropriate action.
There’s a second finally. To daughter Nikki, thank you for the picture.
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