What Carpenter Bees Can Teach Us About Saving

It’s springtime again, and that means it’s me versus the carpenter bees.

I bought this zapper fly swatter, and I have to admit it’s kind of fun to hit a bee — which is really hard with my poor aim. While this is kind of a game, I’m really trying to protect my home against these drilling machines.

This leads me to think about homeowners insurance and retirement. Most of us are pretty sure that we have enough insurance and the right protection on our houses in case something happens.

But what’s wild is that we aren’t required to have some kind of protection like a retirement plan to make sure we will have enough wealth to support our lifestyle when we retire. A lot of people end up running low on money in their golden years and have to drastically change their lifestyle to make their savings stretch and last until they die.

We don’t want carpenter bees to destroy our homes, just like we don’t want our inability to plan and invest for our future to destroy our golden years.

Here’s a great article by Sam Ettus about how shrinking your way to glory is a terrible idea, and why it’s smarter to look at your earning potential and get serious about prioritizing your saving and investing habits as soon as possible.