| Are You Saving for Retirement? |
The other day I was speaking with my aunt who is forty-five years old and she was telling me that she only has a few years left until retirement. I was shocked to say the least that before she hits the ripe old age of fifty, she will be through with the nine to five job, but still getting paid through her pension. This got the wheels turning in my head and had me wondering about how people retire that do not work for large corporations. The population of the online adult industry is mostly made up of self-employed individuals who have no company sponsored pension or 401K plans. I wondered, would they be ready to retire when they are fifty?
I know that most people in this industry are not prepared for retirement, or are ready just in case their income-generating source fails them. What are some the reasons for this?
Sure, there are webmasters that make a lot of money and it shows. They drive fast cars, live in palatial houses, throw lavish parties and have all the toys that money can buy. However, are they spending their money as fast as they make it, or are they putting some away for their retirement, or in case their business one day fails? I can understand what it would be like to all of a sudden be blessed with money burning holes in your pocket. If it were me, my first instinct would be to go out and spend it all. I am, by nature, a spender. Many people that go from earning a meager living, to all of sudden making more than they could imagine, feel the need to show it. Also, people with new money often forget what it was like to have none, so they do not really consider the fact that one day it could be taken all away from them. Instead of putting some of their money away for impending retirement or to use as a safety net, the “nouveau riche” tend to spend it all. Just look at the number of celebrities that one day are making millions and then the next day they are bankrupt. We have also seen the bankruptcy phenomenon happen in this industry more than a few times.
Another reason that webmasters do not tend to save for the future is that they feel they are too young. I mean, retirement is for old people. When you are twenty-two years old and just starting out, fifty years old seems a very long time away. I will admit that when I started my first job, straight out of university, I thought it was ludicrous to have to pay into a pension plan, that I would not see for another thirty years. I felt that the money that I was putting into the pension plan could be spent on better things, such as clothes and going to the bar. I know that many webmasters in the online porn industry feel this way and it is justifiable considering that the majority of them are under thirty. There was this email passed around not too long ago that would let you calculate how much money you had spent on alcohol and going to the bar in your lifetime. It took into consideration things such as age, number of times you drink per week, number of times you go out, etc. and calculated a total dollar amount. The results were astonishing. Most of my friends, who are now in their late 20’s ended up with numbers in the $30,000 to $100,000 range. Now, imagine they had saved that money instead of drinking it all away?
So we have examined two reasons that people do not save for the future, what is the last and most obvious one? The majority of people do not put money away for their retirement, because they do not make much money. Some webmasters only make enough money to live, and sometimes not even that much. Sometimes this business only provides enough income to cover the basics such as food and rent. When you have to live paycheck-to-paycheck, things like savings, mutual funds, RIA’s, RRSP’s go to the bottom of the list of things that need to be contributed to. However, you do not have to put away half your paycheck each week to be financially stable in the future. Consider this for a moment. For the price of a coffee and bagel a day, you could have yourself a down payment on a house in ten years.
A coffee and a bagel cost approximately $5.00. If you put away $5.00 each day for ten years into a fairly conservative money market that yielded 4%, compounded annually, you would have $23,100.00 in ten years. Now for you people that can afford to put more than $5.00 per day away, imagine the money that you could save. I cannot stress how important it is to ensure that your future is financially secure. No matter what your current money situation is, you can make a difference in your future. The best thing to do would be to get in touch with a reputable financial advisor and discuss with them some strategies to secure your prospects for the future. They will explain the various ways that you can make money on your money, whether you have a lot of it, or just a little. |
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| Article Details |
| Author: Muffy |
| Date Posted: May 16th, 2004 |
| Topic: Adult Industry News |
| Reader Rating: 0.0 / 5 |
| Comments Posted: 0 (see below) |
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