August 26: BEST FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

August 26, 2024

A man with a pension – that does impress her much!

Singles out there, take note – having a pension may be worth more to you than you think!

According to a recent article in Business Insider by Nicola Prentis, you may get more attention if you list a “pension” as one of your attributes on your dating profile.

“I ask men if they have a pension before I seriously date them,” she writes. “`Have you got a pension?’ isn’t the first question I ask a date but it’s high on my list if I’m considering an actual relationship,” she continues.

“It’s not about how much they earn, and I’m not looking for someone rich. In my opinion, a low-earning saver, like me, is actually much better off financially than a high-earning spender with no safety net. But I have to ask about pensions to really find out where our future is heading as a couple,” Prentis explains.

So why is having a pension more attractive to her than having big bucks? Let’s read on.

“One guy I dated had his own business and earned four times more than me. He kept offering to buy me flights to visit him, sent me expensive flowers, and had a penchant for buying anything in the grocery store labeled `finest,’” she writes.

“Big spenders make me uneasy because I don’t enjoy extravagance and I’m happier living simply. But my fears were confirmed when I asked him the pension question,” Prentis tells us.

It turned out that, at 50, he had no emergency fund to call on, no pension, and no investments. Even more telling about how the balance of our future relationship would be was when he added, `I don’t understand all that stuff but I’m happy for you to manage it for me,’” she writes.

“That was my cue to end it. No relationship can work if one person is always the `fun police’ and has to do all the labour because the other can’t be bothered to learn. I ended it and truly hope he put that flower money toward a pension,” Prentis notes.

Her article tells the tale of another prospective date who, while equipped with an impressive collection of high-end running shoes, had no pension. His retort – “who knows how long we have to live” – did not impress her, the article adds.

Prentis says she feels this way because, as a single mom “who had her head in the sand for years” about retirement savings, she finally sorted things out a few years ago. She makes small contributions to her retirement savings account each month that are automated, so that she doesn’t forget to contribute and stays on track.

Now that she has taken control of her personal finances and long-term retirement savings, the article continues, she has recognized that “attitudes toward money are one of the most persistent and destructive factors in relationship issues. That’s a clear theme when I look back at my past relationships. Disagreements about money caused more than just arguments. They brought a feeling of distance from a partner because their beliefs and behaviors around money were so alien to me,” she writes.

“So when I’m asking if a guy has a pension, what I’m really asking is: `Are you thinking about the future or just about enjoying today?’ It’s not that there’s anything wrong with living in the moment. After all, I get that `you can’t take it with you’ and `there’s no point being the richest person in the cemetery.’ But, to me, I can enjoy the present more if it’s not ruined by worrying about what will happen later if I don’t have money.”

It’s an interesting perspective on the importance of retirement savings.

If you are fortunate enough to have a retirement savings program through your workplace, make sure you are contributing to the max. If you don’t – or you want to augment what you have – the Saskatchewan Pension Plan may be just the program you’ve been looking for. You can decide how much you want to contribute, and how often – your contributions can be made through pre-authorized transfers from your bank account, or by setting SPP as a bill through online banking and paying that way, or even via a credit card.

The heavy lifting of investing for retirement will then be in the capable hands of SPP, who will grow your contributions in a pooled, professionally managed pooled fund. At retirement, you can choose from options like a lifetime monthly SPP annuity, or the flexible Variable Benefit option.

Check out SPP today!

Join the Wealthcare Revolution – follow SPP on Facebook!

Business Insider

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