I’m Grateful to Be Alive

Hi Barefoot,

My wife and I are 40 and we (almost) own our home -- with a mortgage of $70,000 on a house worth about $900,000, about 10 kilometres from the CBD. She works part time and I, due to a near-death experience, do not work, so I look after our child. We have $70,000 in super and no credit card debt. After nearly dying I feel deeply grateful to be alive and so we both only ever want to work part time. We earn $35,000 a year. If we sell the property when we are 65 and downsize, would we have enough to retire on and live a simple life?

Mark

Hi Mark,

A near death experience will certainly cause you to rethink things.

Here’s what I’d be thinking: “Why am I limiting myself to only one course of action, 25 years into the future?”

If you only ever work part time, you’re unlikely to accumulate enough in super to give you a decent standard of living in retirement. And what happens if you and your missus get 20 years down the track and decide you don’t actually want to downsize?

It might happen. Most pre-retirees tell themselves they’ll downsize when they retire -- but most don’t. It might be because of their emotional attachment to their home, or their community, or the arrival of grandkids, but they tend to delay it for as long as possible. What do you do then?

Look, I’m all for living a pared-back lifestyle and taking time to stop and smell the roses. But you’re young and you still need to work. My advice is for you to find a job that will give you meaning and purpose, and do that.

Scott