Twofer...

die Ruhestand = retirement

Not that I am fortunate enough to be anywhere close to it; however, it is a subject my German and I discussed at length last night. Our hopes and dreams upon retirement hinge upon the planning we do now. Let's be frank, our planning has sucked. And we are not getting any younger.

Just as it is with most things, once you start thinking about it, signs apppear from all over. Just today as I perused MSNBC.com, I came across this article about the very thing we spoke about last night. It's always that way... You want to buy a certain brand of car and then suddenly they are all you see on the road...

I know I mentioned that our planning sucks; however, I should clarify that we both participate in our respective company's retirement plans. We are both quite fortunate to work for privately owned companies that are much more generous with their contribution match than what we had when working with publicly held companies. We both are socking away more funds than we were before we were married because we can afford to since we have a double income family. We are not tucking away nearly as much as we should if we would like to retire even a little bit earlier.

We have some other opportunities afforded us that several people we know do not have available to them. My family is far from wealthy; however, with proper planning my parents squirreled away a nice retirement nest egg for themselves. With the knowledge that their only child is not so good at the saving money aspect, my folks basically retired for three to guarantee that I would be okay with what I had and the padding they left behind for me. For their love and foresight, I am completely grateful. Truly that is something for which I am completely blessed. With what I have and what they have for me, retirement should be an option I can easily face.