Dave Ramsey's book states a statistic that 80% of Americans think their standard of living will go up after retirement.
Yet other statistics have clearly shown that almost 2/3 of the population have nearly nothing saved for retirement so far.
Even people who are within a decade of retirement themselves.
This is shocking and shows how far the gap is between reality and fantasy.
Logically, if you have nothing saved for retirement then your standard of living will go down, assuming you don't win the lottery or inherit a fortune.
As those are somewhat unlikely you have to consider the facts.
Your income stops when you retire.
Social security will pay you something, but for many it's just a few hundred dollars a month, can you live on that? What else will you live on? Your expenses for housing may go down if your house is paid for, but your other expenses are likely to increase.
Health care and insurance go up dramatically, your vacation expenses will be high as you finally see the world, and as you're more and more unable to do things yourself you have to start paying for more social services.
The net result is an increase in expenses and stark decrease in income.
How does that make your standard of living better? When people finally see the truth of this it can be shocking.
Often they are frozen with fear and continue to ignore the problem, hoping a long last relative will appear with money.
But facts are facts.
We have to do more to help ourselves and not end up in poverty after picking up our final paycheck.
It's up to us.
Start now saving for retirement.
Talk to a financial advisor or even just put a few hundred in savings to be moved to a more aggressive plan later.
Do something to get the ball moving and make a commitment to do it every month.
This is a bigger deal than saving for college so if you must then put that project on hold.
Do not neglect your retirement accounts.
They literally determine the quality of your future.