Thus begins the retirement

Retirement became real today.

On this final working day of the month, my bank account shows a direct deposit of my pension.  I am now officially a pensioner!

Pension and retirement are relatively new concepts in human history.  In the old country, for instance, the multi-generational living arrangement allowed for the elderly--if they managed to live long--to be supported by their children and grandchildren.

I grew up in such a system. 

My paternal grandmother had two sons--my father and his elder brother. As was the custom, she--a widow--went to live with her first son.  And that is how it would have been until she died, but for the domestic drama with that daughter-in-law.  She then lived her final seven years with us before her congenitally enlarged heart just stopped working.

My maternal grandmother had no sons.  In the old tradition, parents worried a lot if they did not have sons.  Only sons could support them in this earthly life and in the beyond.  She lucked out with welcoming and warm sons-in-law and daughters who never fought a day in their lives.

At some point in my high school life, I began to wonder if people had children only because they wanted somebody to take care of them in their old age.  As we get older, our bodies begin to ache and squeak and break, for which medical and financial assistance is needed.  Sons and daughters and grandchildren automatically become the insurance policy.

With a few cousins and friends I talked about this old age insurance scheme.  Looking back, I am not surprised that one cousin started referring to me as the Buddha because I had lots of thoughts and questions on various aspects of life.

Much later, in graduate school, I found it hilarious that researchers had given such a behavior a name, and were publishing papers on it!  According to the old-age-security hypothesis, the benefits that people expect from children as their insurance decreases with economic development.  Further, if there are government-offered old-age security programs, then fertility rates plunge with economic development.  Of course, there are a few other factors too--like increase in the rights for women.  My gut-level and observation-led argument on children as old-age insurance was now intellectually validated.

Sure, people have children for other reasons too. But, none of those reasons ever appealed to me.  Even as a teenager, I knew for certain that I did not want to have children, and why people have kids continues to be beyond my imagination.  But, here too, life does not unfold as we script it.

At my first real job, in California, a colleague, Peter, told me that he was going to offer me a piece of advice whether or not I needed it.  He talked about the importance of saving for retirement. He suggested that I channel the pay-raises into savings.  His mantra was simple: You never miss the money you never saw in the first place.  

I became a saver, and am thankful I did.  After all, the odds are that the years in retirement could even exceed the years that I lived working.