Green Retirement Blog

Conservation and Retirement

Conservation saves you money, the planet, and your retirement. In a previous retirement blog article, “Retirement Consumption Assumption“, I wrote about how the retirement industry calculates your retirement based on consumption. About why the consumption assumption method, of calculating retirement, is both economically and environmentally unsustainable. And also, why the formula the retirement industry uses is not only mathematically incorrect, but how it will cause you to save more and work longer than necessary for your retirement.

If consumption is the problem, both for the environment, and for your retirement. Then the opposite, conservation, is the solution.

Conservation Saves You Money
The first thing you conserve, when you practice conservation, is your wealth. Conservation makes you wealthier. Consumption involves an exchange, of your wealth, for whatever it is you are consuming. By conserving instead of consuming, you are saving instead of spending, and therefore holding onto more of your wealth.

Conservation Saves The Planet
The United States is 5% of the world’s population, we consume 25% of the world’s resources, and the planet is under going environmental Armageddon caused by? It doesn’t take a Nobel Prize in economics to figure out that the primary cause of our environmental problems is consumption. Nor to figure out that the solution is conservation. Our consumption, our consumption lifestyle, our consumption economy, is causing global warming. Not to mention wars in the Middle East.

Almost everything we consume, involves the burning of fossil fuels, causing global warming. From the food on your plate, to the socks on your feet, oil and/or coal was consumed to catch, harvest, produce, manufacture and transport. By conserving instead of consuming, you are not only saving money, you are also helping to reduce global warming.

Conservation Saves Your Retirement
By reducing your consumption, and instead conserving your wealth, you will be able to retire years earlier with less savings. Here’s how it works:

By consuming (spending) less and conserving (saving) more, in your pre-retirement working years, you will accumulate more wealth enabling you to retire sooner. By consuming (spending) less, in your retirement years, you will need less savings to pay for your retirement.

When it comes to your retirement, conservation has a double-bonus, conservation enables you to retire years earlier and with less savings. Conservation is the key to saving you money, the planet, and your retirement.

Learn more about Green Retirement Planning - And find out how you can save your retirement and the planet!