Like self-improvement books, the purpose of pension adequacy surveys is to make us feel lousy about ourselves.
Lousy and scared: We haven¡¯t saved enough because we¡¯re myopic and lack self-control. We don¡¯t have a retirement plan, and it¡¯s getting late. That next avocado toast may deny our future selves a pair of reading glasses.
And the nagging chases us right into our graves. At the back of our minds, there¡¯s always the guilt that we should be leaving something ¡ª actually, a lot ¡ª to our children. Yet, after you throw in the bequest motive, the avocado toast is truly toast. So perhaps we shouldn¡¯t bother having kids?
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