> I used to think that once I made it ... stashed away some savings to weather a health crisis or creative drought ... I’d finally feel free to slow down ... Instead, accomplishment—and the sense of “arrival” I imagined would come with it—proved elusive.
I mean, yes? You do indeed need an emergency fund, and the theory, which various retirement vehicles are designed to support, is you set up your affairs to permanently slow down at around 65.
Before that is outside of the reach of most people, but if you want to do it sooner, the way is straightforward: increase your savings rate.
It's math and economics... once you don't need the income anymore, you get to slow down, until then, you manage your stress and anxiety as best as you can.
I am also self employed, fortunate enough to be in the technology profession where we're relatively well paid - I hit the "I could stop at 65" number a few years ago and the way I see it every year I put in at this point, is just bring that number down lower. At some point my age and that number will meet in the middle.
I used to think like that too (because it seems like rational thinking and nobody around me could prove me wrong). But as I get older I start to think about the things I’m putting “aside” for when I have time when I’m retired. Doesn’t sound as good as before anymore. I still save for the future, but I don’t delay things anymore because I may not make it (accidents happen), or the people I love may not make it, or some other things can happen in between. You never know. So yeah, I’m trying not to put aside things for the future anymore, even if that means not saving as much as I could.
Prior to an actual diagnosis, an excess of this type of fear is irrational. You have two powerful tools at your disposal.
#1, most people who take care of their bodies will live long and healthy lives. So the first tool is just to take care of yourself through diet and exercise and watch your risk of deadly diseases plummet.
#2, insurance exists and the medical field is extraordinarily effective. Rich people beat all kinds of conditions. Worried your insurance isn't good enough? Buy more. Keep making more money, and keep buying more insurance. Insurance is tool #2.
This may sound harsh but I really don't know a lot of people, in America or elsewhere, who take care of their body, have a Cadillac fantastic insurance plan, and are worried about illness destroying their life. People who are already unhealthy, on the other hand, or don't have great insurance, are worried about this constantly. Now it's unfortunate that society can't guarantee that optimistic state of mind and health for everyone but until it can, it's diet, exercise, and more income that you funnel into more insurance, for you and your family that are the solutions.
After a diagnosis these tools, especially #2, start becoming less effective because now you've got a pre-existing condition and in particular you're kind of stuck with whatever insurance you had when it happened. So the urgent message here is to get on this stuff now, and sleep better tomorrow (and live longer) because you did it.
People of course can have a family history of a certain kind of cancer (for example). They probably ought to worry about this.
To your point though enough insurance and regular visits (and screening — does insurance always pay for that?), you might dodge a bullet that your ancestors caught.
I’m near that magic number age with a few million but I also have health issues and I’m terrified all of it will be spent on treatment because of how the USA is being governed into flames by the current corrupt administration. It never ends, when I was young and healthy I saved as hard as a could for my old age and didn’t vacation. Now I’m there and there’s zero guarantee of safety because of the rightward shift of politics in this country. Maybe you just have to say “fuck it” like gen z. Because being a paranoid gen x sure sucks.
Same here. I may be thinking about this wrong, but in my view, that "magic number" is a constantly increasing target, increasingly unapproachable. I once thought I could retire on $1M saved--at a 4% withdrawal rate, that's 40K per year... add social security and I could probably do it in a very low cost of living state. 5 more years later, when everything costs a little bit more, and my lifestyle inflated a little, I started thinking that the number I could safely retire with was $2M. A few more years of inflation and cost increases later, plus a kid that needs college, I started thinking I had to shoot for $5M in order to be safe. Some more years pass, more societal safety nets are burning down, and now I'm starting to feel the pangs of old age and potential health problems, I feel like that number is even larger and further out of reach....
You can move to somewhere that has a lower cost of living. It's not unusual at all for people to move when they retire. There's a whole big amazing world out there and one of the best decisions I ever made was squeezing in enough travel when I was young, that it totally altered my mindset.
(That, and reading The 4 Hour Workweek. Once Tim Ferriss became famous, legions of people picked it apart and called him a bullshit artist. I took inspiration from that book, and went and lived it. 20 years after he published it I bumped into him completely by chance in a cafe in Phuket Thailand, which was an incredible moment, here were two guys, for decades just doing the thing that everyone had said was impossible or impractical, and we were two of the first to have the exact same idea and end up in the exact same place once Covid restrictions started to relax around the globe.)
I'll grant that kids significantly alter the numbers.
I mean, yes? You do indeed need an emergency fund, and the theory, which various retirement vehicles are designed to support, is you set up your affairs to permanently slow down at around 65.
Before that is outside of the reach of most people, but if you want to do it sooner, the way is straightforward: increase your savings rate.
It's math and economics... once you don't need the income anymore, you get to slow down, until then, you manage your stress and anxiety as best as you can.
I am also self employed, fortunate enough to be in the technology profession where we're relatively well paid - I hit the "I could stop at 65" number a few years ago and the way I see it every year I put in at this point, is just bring that number down lower. At some point my age and that number will meet in the middle.