Is Retirement A Thing Of The Past?
We convened in January 2021 for this conversation.
We gathered to explore retirement, which is particularly relevant for business owners as we are directly responsible for creating a plan to take care of ourselves. What does retirement mean to us?
The root of this brainstorming session was a conversation around trying to understand what life will look like for us when we’re elderly. We discussed the fact that we’re in collapse, and how that shapes what we do.
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This is not meant to be a definitive guide to this topic.
While BFTP members come from various backgrounds with unique life experiences, there are details, layers, and dimensions missed simply due to the fact that there are a great deal more nuances of opinion from a much greater variety of sources out there in the world.
Furthermore, this paper merely reflects the ponderings of the group from a single session at a singular point in time. This paper does not reflect the exact opinions of any given individual or the group as a whole but is an aggregate of unique points expressed during our conversation. There’s bound to be much left unexplored and unsaid. These are topics worth revisiting as we grow and the nature of our reality shifts.
Nevertheless, these thoughts are being published with care and consideration. We hope to spark further reflection and conversation around this topic by sharing our thoughts out into the wild.
What Is Retirement?
We all need to take time to think about what that means to us. And we’re not talking about what was sold to us growing up.
Really reflect on it.
When you put aside the common wisdom of “Save. Invest. Contribute to your 401(k) and IRAs,” what’s left?
It’s an important exercise. We shouldn’t just go through the motions that society has deemed to be the best course of action for its citizens without truly understanding what it means for us.
“Retirement” Is Bullshit
In our discussion, we established that pretty quickly! Let’s just say, we had a few qualms about retirement…
1) “Retirement” isn’t possible for most people.
For many, saving is an impossibility. The choice to save is a luxury that the majority of the population simply do not have. There is no nuance in mainstream discourse on retirement. Somehow, the lifestyle of the few (namely, the upper middle class) have been deemed the norm, when they are absolutely not. The rest of us are left to feel shame and guilt about our inability to meet an unattainable ideal. (The story of capitalism, isn’t it?)
We have a situation where most professions don’t allow for saving enough for retirement. Social security isn’t enough for people to live well. And many have to keep working, or rely on others, to survive.
Do we want to uphold a system where the many toil in order to take care of the few (inadequately, at that)?
Also, think about the idea that we’re supposed to spend our life working, being a “productive” member of society so that we can save enough on the side to have some time for ourselves when we’re older?
Is that what we truly want as human beings?
This feels like another arbitrary set of societal norms being forced onto people. We need to ask ourselves if that sounds desirable to us.
2) We’re uncomfortable with the ethics of investing
Investing is speculating on future growth, pure and simple. Again, one of the many “benefits” of capitalism that only a few can take advantage of (The wealthiest 10% of Americans own a record 89% of all US stocks). Do we want to build our future on that?
In our discussion, we were resigned to the fact that participating in our economy means that we don’t have much choice when it comes to financial institutions. (This is by design.) To be frank, there is no financial institution in the world today that does more good than bad—even the ones that are “socially conscious.”
We also don’t really have control over our money. There are so many rules in place to keep you from touching your money. (Under the guise of “it’s for your own good!”) And we get penalized for doing anything with it, even when it’s for an emergency.
Why does it feel like the system always punishes people for being poor?
Because it does. It’s not just withdrawing money from retirement accounts, think about overdraft fees or interest rates on debt. It’s a practice of exploitation that is repeated again and again.
When we consider investing, we need to ask, “who does this money really work for?” (Hint: It’s not us.)
What we’re really interested in, then, is how we can realistically divest from these financial institutions so that we may invest in the future we want to build.
3) What will the world even look like in 10, 20, 30, or 40 years?
Unless we’re retiring in the next few years, expecting the traditional model for retirement to exist when we reach the age of 65 is unrealistic.
The world has changed a lot, generation to generation, throughout the past century. Going forward, we know one thing is certain: the world will change drastically in the next few decades.
Politically, economically, ecologically… things can’t continue the way things are.
We have an economic system where regular recessions are a feature, not a bug, where we’re always living in the next bubble about to burst.
The wealthy nations of the world today are facing an immediate future of population decline. Capitalism is sustained by growth, which simply can’t continue without workers and consumers. Ironically, we might find countries competing for immigrants very soon.
Disasters that happen due to climate change will result in mass migrations.
Real estate markets will collapse one way or another. (By the way, real estate is another common “investment.” Is it a reasonable proposition given the reality?)
Change will happen.
Collapse Isn’t Something That’s On The Horizon.
It’s Happening Now.
We are living in the middle of collapse.
Pause. Let that sink in.
Now, let us say that again:
We are in collapse. Right now.
We HAVE been in collapse.
This is a sentiment that is understood and accepted among the members of BFTP.
But it is NOT something that is talked about in the mainstream. It’s not how we as a society view, or frame, our current societal predicament. Even among those who acknowledge the problems in our society, a common outlook is that we must do something to prevent collapse, whether it is the collapse of democracy, economy, or our biosphere.
We’re in mass denial about this truth.
People aren’t tuned in to reality.
We are under “the spell of capitalism” (as coined by Toi Smith and Jen Lemen).
When we began our conversation about retirement, we felt it was important to name this. If we’re living—really living—in this reality, we need to root in the fact that we’re in collapse. Because it doesn’t necessarily have to mean the end of the world.
Knowing this, we ask, what can we do to be resilient? To be together in this.
How do we change the definition of wellness and being/living well? And be with that? How can we hold the grief and pain of the struggle that things are different?
We’re so used to living in a world with a predetermined structure. We start to believe things happen in a linear way. People don’t have the ability to be with change and uncertainty.
Certainty isn’t a thing in life.
As mentioned before, there will be displacement. Migration.
Understanding this, we’re faced with many questions.
What does this mean for us?
Where will we be living?
What will our relationships look like?
We’re also conscious about the generations that come after us, inheriting the world that we’ve shaped, making it that much more important to be intentional in what we create, why we create it, and who we choose to be with.
Moving The Focus From Money To Relationships
To reframe retirement, this is what many of us seem to be considering:
Who’s going to care for me when we are unable to do so ourselves?
Under capitalism, we work hard to accumulate wealth in the hopes that we can use money to take care of ourselves in the future. But no amount of money will ensure you that security. Money is a social construct, bound to the whims of our political and economic system.
We have been socialized to think of money as a replacement for relationships. We buy what we need instead of relying on each other. Right now, we live in a world where we try to work hard enough to pay people to fill societal roles erased and eroded by capitalism.
We have parents who could be caring for their child, working so that they can pay someone else a huge chunk of their paycheck to do that because it’s somehow more “economical” that way. Yes, think about that, we’re living in a reality where people can’t “afford” to stay home and raise their children themselves. There are real instances when the margin between working and staying at home is really just a couple hundred dollars, and yet, people choose to work because they need the couple hundred dollars.
We have a similar situation with the elderly. Immediate family members often don’t have time to give the elderly proper care so they hire carers to do so.
Everything we sacrifice so that we can spend more time at work is replaced by having the option of purchasing it, and, by extension, exploiting someone else’s labor for it, because it wasn’t “worth it” for you to do it yourself. That’s an unsustainable model. Something has to give.
There’s a link between our overworked society and a breakdown in relationships and increase in isolation. (And we’re talking causation, not correlation, here.)
In the pursuit of wealth, you might have everything, materialistically, but find yourself with nothing, in reality.
We are being asked, in this moment, to interrogate and investigate how we define everything and nothing.
Whether or not our current system collapses, or whether it evolves into something more equitable (perhaps with something like universal basic income), it doesn’t change the fact that money will never be the ultimate solution.
So what is?
What are the things that keep us safe? Give us real security?
It’s other people. Not money.
We need to invest in relationships. On a large scale, as well as on an individual level. This is how we will live well in collapse and post-collapse. What will flourish is being in community with each other. How to heal. How to be in our bodies. Be better with the land. We need to tap into traditional and future forward-thinking.
That’s how we will thrive.
So we need to ask how we’re headed that way. As important as thinking about the things, actually doing the things is key. We need to do something. Try something. We need to start with our capacity to build relationships. Can we be vulnerable? Can we think of relationships not as a zero-sum game, but as a non-zero-sum game?
In Collapse And Post-Collapse, We Need Relationships.
So How Do We Do That?
Start with the people you trust, those you’re in relationship with. Your family unit. Your closest friends. (Which isn’t possible for everyone. There are many, like queer folks, who are cut off from families because of who they are. And there’s work to be done there.)
Talk about the fact that we’re in collapse. What are we going to do for shelter? Food? Joy? How are we going to be prepared for what is coming?
This is a real conversation and we need to have it.
The truth is, we won’t be able to build the perfect community. We will need to find ways to be together even if we don’t get along with everyone that’s part of it. We need to build capacity for the possibility that we might not like someone, but we will take care of each other.
In the apocalypse, you don’t have to like everyone.
There are ways we can choose, and ways we won’t be able to choose, for the sake of collective care. (Just look at the pandemic. Many of the measures that are inconvenient, individually, are meant to look out for each other, collectively.)
On an individual note: What do we want to contribute to community? Whatever it looks like, wherever it may be.
We need to start learning to be in our bodies. We need to start learning to be with the land.
Models for alternative ways of being do exist. Learning about them will help us tap into tangible ways of doing things differently.
Whether we have the means to do so is another question.
Are we able to devote the money and time to make our plan a reality? After all, the current cost of survival is already high enough.
Regardless, we need to root in what will allow us to be resilient. We need to root in the things that stabilize us, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually.
A legitimate retirement plan is having relationships and a community that we trust. One where we’re able to navigate conflict and difference in a healthy way.
This will not be easy. As mentioned, we live in a world that is constantly being fractured. How many of us know our neighbors anymore? How many of us have lived in a place for a long period of time?
Building relationships and community will be difficult, but we need to try.
Lingering Questions
How do we be with people? How do we relationship build? How do we tangibly support each other?
For many of us, we feel like we were never taught how to do this and don’t have this competency.
What are practical steps we can take to move towards how the world will be in the next few decades?
Is there a way to take the money we would invest for retirement into something that helps build the world we want to liv
Business For The People is a virtual co-werking and learning space for entrepreneurs, creatives, healers, and guides who are dedicated to doing business differently. We care about the businesses we’re creating, the work that we’re doing, and our direct impact on the collective.
Every quarter we gather to collectively explore a topic related to how we think and practice business as people who are trying to dismantle systems of oppression and domination. Want to join us? Learn more about our membership here.
