Is Retirement Realistic for our Generation?

Have you ever thought about retirement? Many of us says things like "I wish I could retire", but have you ever really thought about what's financially required to be able to quit work? I would love to be able to retire from work now, but at thirty three, that's not very realistic.

I frequently see commercials about retirement plans, RSPs, etc., and have to assume that their target audience is between the age of 50 and 65. Not to discount the importance of contributing to an RSP, because that is the only chance most of us have to retire, but considering the job market and the way people changes jobs and careers, retirement as we know it, will be much different for our generation.

The generation currently between the age 50 and 65 lived significantly different lives than we do now. A great majority of them got good paying jobs right out of high-school, or college, and I'd refer to them as career-jobs because it wasn't uncommon to work for the same company for your entire life. Could you imagine driving to the same place and working in the same environment for thirty to forty years? That sounds like hell to most of us, but that same hell is what provided families with security, purchasing power, and the opportunity to retire at a good age of 60-65. (As a note, that same hell is what created the middle-class, which, like retirement, will be much different for our generation, but I'll chat about that another time).

I don't know if those career-jobs exist anymore. Industry (any industry) is so competitive due to capitalism and globalization that I can't see why companies would want to provide employees with life-long jobs/careers. Generally, the longer an employee is with a company, the more he/she gets paid, which, spread across hundreds or thousands of employees, hurts the bottom line for investors, and competitiveness in the global market. That really explains why many people get bought-out and replaced by eager younger counterparts, who are generally paid much less and often not provided the same benefits. Then many of the incoming generation will be laid off at some point due to a merger, downsizing, etc, or bought-out if their lucky. If those career-jobs are fewer and further between, then the thought of retirement as we know it will be a tough or impossible aspiration.

How do you see your retirement years? I just did a really quick calculation and figured that to retire at 65, assuming I'll need maybe $50,000 per year for potentially thirty years, I'll need about two-million dollars, and this didn't take into account inflation. Excluding government employees and others who work for Blue-Chip-type companies that have pension plans, RSP matching, etc. (assuming they don't get laid off), most of us will have to save that two-million plus dollars, and hopefully the RSP investments work out well. So how do I see my retirement years? At this point in time, they're hard to image.