retirement planning

I review my 401k stuff a bit sporadically, I’m the type who wants to have the money taken outta the paycheck automatically and never hafta think about it, hoping I can retire at 59-and-a-half with this big golden nest egg I can polish with a soft cloth, admiring my reflection in its lustrous shell. And when I was checking stuff I realized that the amount my 401k grows from return-on-investment is now larger than the amount I contribute from my paycheck. It’s this weird and kinda cool feeling, like I’m on this locomotive that’s chugging along and all I gotta do is ride it. Took me a long time to get here, and it feels neat to finally have this visceral sense that things might actually work out, glad I listened to dad and everyone else who told me to sign up with the 401k with that very first paycheck, they weren’t kidding about the power of compounding interest over time. Cuz really, when you think about it, time is the only goddamn advantage you haven at that point in your life, fresh out of college everything else against you.

But nothing is certain, of course, I could lose it all if my personal life or the American financial system have some sort of cataclysm, you never know. The best you do is keep saving what little bits you can. But then what if it’s not enough? I want money to live decently comfortably, on - say about a quarter-million a year - and if I retire at 60, I can reasonably expect to live what, 70 or 80 more years after that...ooh, my little 401k retirement plan might not be able to provide for all that. I might have to look into supplemental sources of post-retirement income. Bank Robbery. Extradimensional Demon Minions. Orbital Death Ray.