Hindsight being 20/20 is not all that helpful, but you can glean insight from people whose eyesight hasn't been 20/20 for at least 20 years. The New York Times asked Journalism Students around the country to interview retirees and find out what tips they have for the millennial generation. It's probably no surprise that health and money topped the list. Here are 10 pieces of sage advice from the older generation to the younger.
- I would have put more money away for later years.
- I wish I would have invested a little more aggressively when I was young.
- My husband passed away six years ago and I'm in a financial pickle.
- I was a stay-at-home mom for 17 years in the middle of my career, and I didn't realize that during those years I wasn't accruing social security.
- Get your own degree. I worked night and day on my husband's degrees, and a degree dies with that person.
- You can have all the money you can possibly accumulate, but if your health's no good, what good is the money?
- Watch your diet, get lots of exercise, and keep your muscles going so if you fall on your butt you're not going to crack your hip.
- Fortunately I had a good wife, and she bought long-term health insurance, and now she's using it.
- Retirement isn't a place you go to prepare to die, but a place where you go to prepare to live.
- Work hard as long as you can. Don't retire too early. People who stop doing anything die.
Source: NY Times