A Landscape Design for Seniorhood
“I have all my life been considering distant effects and sacrificing immediate success and applause to that of the future.” Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), known today as the “Father of Landscape Architecture,” was a brilliant landscape artist of the 19th century whose numerous well-known landscape projects include Central Park in Manhattan and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C. The unabridged list of his lifetime accomplishments is quite long.
Receiving very little formal education, Olmsted was self-taught for the most part and held positions as a seaman, merchant, and a journalist before beginning his career as a landscape architect. Central Park in Manhattan, Olmsted’s first and possibly his most well known landscaping job, didn’t begin until he was 36 years old.
Known as a protagonist and a visionary, Olmsted always designed and planned his projects with thought toward the future. During the arduous Central Park project, Olmsted stated, while in conversation with one of his two sons who later partnered to continue their father’s work, ”… we determined to think of no results to be realized in less than forty years.”
As Olmsted intently calculated his timeless earthy designs in intricate detail, he failed to predict what the future held for his own failing health. Falling victim to depression and dementia, Olmsted spent the last years of his life at the McClean’s asylum in Waverly, Massachusetts, among grounds that he himself had earlier designed. He died at the age of 81.
It was the introductory quote italicized above that initially seemed a good fit for this posting regarding planning for retirement. As curiousity lured me to read further about the life and career of Frederick Olmsted, additional parallels applicable to this subject matter began to surface.
Most financial planning articles that have been written lately, or at least the ones that have crossed my reading path, indicate that effectively planning for seniorhood should begin early in life. Financial calculators now dot the horizon of every retirement planning web site; and if you begin plugging numbers into them seeking an optimistic outcome, you’d better have put some nice-sized numbers in by your mid-thirties at the very least.
At the same time, statistics have also begun surfacing with regularity indicating that only about 40 percent of adults belonging to the Baby Boom generation will have adequately saved by the time they reach retirement. Tons of information is available to reach and entertain this affluent 40 percent on track to the good life, but little effective insight is being offered to assist the other 60 percent.
On another news front, science and technology is working full steam in an effort to extend our lives, while the cost of receiving basic health care is skyrocketing. What good will costly futuristic medical breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals or nanotechnology, for instance, be if 60% of the people are living on nanobudgets?
While there doesn’t seem to be much written in way of a solution for fixing currently underfunded retirement accounts, it is probable that someone down the road will have to lend a hand. Eventually, today’s youth will more than likely not only have to be concerned with their own retirement but for the well-being of a large portion of the senior population as well.
As important as it is that our retirement years are comfortable, isn’t the same if not better wished for our children and grandchildren? And in that event, have we served them well?
Throughout the years, and with the best of intentions, hard-earned money was often sacrificed that should have been strategically invested for retirement, while affording loved little ones a life of abundance. From every new toy to hit the shelf, to designer outfits, to expensive extracurricular activities, to a new car at graduation and oftentimes earlier, to a college education, we’ve proved our undying devotion.
Taking one of the parallels of Olmsted’s life and career previously mentioned, let’s look as he did 40 years into the landscape of our children’s future. In 40 years, it is uncertain whether Social Security and Medicare will be there to protect them financially should life take uncertain turns. Even Olmsted who pragmatically took into account what was to be couldn’t have predicted his own ill health.
We know that saving for retirement ideally should begin immediately upon leaving college and securing that first real job. Somewhere in the early to mid-twenties is best. But having been accustomed throughout life to having nice, new things provided at will, does the next generation have the self-discipline required to forego immediate gratification for long-term investing?
As these young adults begin a new career and possibly a family of their own, will monthly expenses leave them without the means to invest in their retirement, putting that goal to the side for a couple of years and then another couple? And what if like Olmsted they find their true talent and passion to opt for a career change later in life? Will they have to abandon life’s true calling to maintain the status quo?
There have to be solutions. Here is one possible scenario that comes to mind. Without consulting a financial planning expert, I can’t recommend it; but it does make sense, and no one seems to be offering any better solutions.
Estimations for the cost of sending a child to a public college for four years today (2007) is around $70,000. For a child currently in the first grade with an 11-year wait before entering college, the cost for that same education and the amount needed then escallates to around $118,000. Ouch.
Let’s say that you are beginning to save money for a child or grandchild’s college education that currently is in the first grade. According to the figures predicted, you will need to save at least $100,000 (around $300/month) to completely pay for that education when the time comes.
Assuming that your savings goes as planned and when it’s time for college, you have saved $100,000. Instead of paying for the entire cost of college, let’s say you agree to pay half while the other half is handled through scholarship, work-study, or loans. Diplomatically insist that the other half of the money saved for college go into an untouchable retirement account. “It’s for your own good,” is your argument, and you stand firm.
Taking one half of the saved money, or $50,000, and letting that money mature in an account with a moderate annual interest rate of 8% for 40 years would guarantee a fairly comfortable retirement income of around $1.2 million. With additional savings throughout their working lives, perhaps the tradition would continue to benefit future generations and a cycle of financial independence could begin.
This is a simplified version of one of the many possibilities that exist to help the next generation secure a comfortable retirement. Just like Olmsted’s Central Park still being enjoyed not forty years later but over a hundred and forty years, future generations could spend their treasured seniorhood years without the financial worry too many of us will soon face.
