It's about choice, as far as I'm concerned. Debt makes you brittle, assets make you flexible. Additional money right now is of low value to me, especially if I calibrate my spending habits to taking 20% off the top and stashing it and don't develop as many expensive hobbies as someone of my income bracket typically does. But having money put away lets me keep living decently even if I can't work, or I can raid it if I lose my job, or I can use it to help buy a house or put my (hypothetical) kids through college, if stupidly overpriced college is still a thing in 20 years. Having that flexibility is one of the best insurance plans on the market, and it's one I get paid to carry. How could I say no?
Besides, government insurance is looking like a pretty terrible deal to 27 year old me, even if I do live in a rich country. Exactly how solvent do I expect it to be when I'm 65? And it's not like I can retire at 50 on a government pension that doesn't start until 65, but I can on my own dime.
(Also, speaking personally, I'm an investment advisor by trade. Being able to talk about investment decisions in the first person gives me direct business benefits)
I know I said I'd be gone... but this was just a comment originally, and I noticed it may actually be relevant.
Elharo said in Munchkin Ideas:
I'm interested in the following:
Why should people invest in retirement? Or, instead, why should someone invest as much as most do in retirement.
Few facts that make it a boggling question for me:
You are 10% to 20% likely to die before you enjoy even your first retirement year.
People adjust much more to harsh economical conditions than they believe they would. They remain happy, as many studies by Seligman and others show.
People who retire are only happier as retirees if they retired by choice (I lost the paper, sorry).
Most people here live in rich countries - darn, hate to be the exception! - , and their state would happily provide them with at least the maximal retirement plan legal in my country (aprox 2000 dollars/month). And surely would provide them with double the minimal (about 200/month) if they needed.
If you have descendants, they may support you in case you are still alive, and if you are not rich enough to keep a house, you have a good excuse to be in company of loved ones (you have nowhere else to go).
Last, but not least: That person is not even you that much anyway.
Given all that, I have no clue what the whole fuss about retirement plans, and being 60% of a rich old person with a crappy body is all about, specially if you are in the grave.
I mean, in the cryopreservation chamber, of course.
Edit: A related question not worth its own post, but maybe worth discussing, is Should inheritance "jump" a generation. Everyone inheriting from grandparents, instead of parents? Just the abstract ethical question. Regardless of implementation procedure.