Gen Z early retirement plan: Is $500k really enough to live off for 60 years?

It is the second week of the Loblaw boycott to protest high grocery prices. But is it having an effect? Here is money expert Robina Ahmed Hawk with hopefully some answers. Robina, good morning to you. Good morning. OK. As the boycott that continues, do we have a sense of what impact of any it’s having? And we’re also hearing that this could be benefiting smaller local grocers. Yeah. And that is the benefit that people are thinking outside of the box, outside of where they normally would shop, which is one of these Loblaw stores. They have so many under their banner and so smaller grocers, co-ops, they’re saying that yes, we are seeing an influx of people come in. But critics are saying that it’s not really having a major impact on the bottom line for Loblaws because it is such a big company. And some are actually saying that if these stores have less and less customers, it actually impacts the workers where they’ll send people home because there’s not enough workers to justify that shift because there’s not customers coming through the door, they’re not enough customers rather coming through the door to justify that many people on shift. So it actually might have a a knock on effect where you know individuals who are working at minimum wage just just above are more impacted by this one month long boycott. Let’s move over to the impacts of cyber crime. We were just talking about at the top of the show how London Drugs has reopened shut down for six days to a cyber attack. Let’s talk of the impact that has on companies these days and on customers. So cybercrime is huge. And with the now the advancement of AI, it’s becoming more and more of an issue where it’s hard to detect what’s actually real. You know, before it was very obvious that there was something happening and companies also had guards put up where they could immediately recognize when there was a threat to their systems. And that’s getting more and more difficult as technology becomes more and more advanced. And this is massive because it really does impact people ability to fill their prescriptions, get medical information. The company loses, you know, six days of of of revenue that they would have had just by people walking through the door. And and you know, places where sensitive information is held like pharmacies, that is more of a concern because if it gets into the wrong hands, they’ve got a plethora of information that they can take advantage of. Sure. And this is a growing problem as you mentioned. It was seemingly no end insight, unfortunately. OK, let’s also talk about the no show fees. We were also talking about that off the top of the show and everyone from a hair stylist to restaurant seem to be employing them or using them. Now what is your take? What do you think of somebody being charged when they don’t show up for an appointment? So I have sort of a, you know, I’m going to have a cop out answer, I think it’s you should charge somebody if they don’t show up just because, you know, I wasn’t feeling convenient that day. And especially with smaller places where they might have brought in an RMT just for that hour to give you that massage. Or, you know, if you wanted your hair done and you’d book 2 1/2 hours and now all of a sudden that hairdresser doesn’t have 2 1/2 hours of work that they would have that they would have done just they blocked that time for you. But the same time, if it’s out of your control, like your child is sick or you yourself are ill, I mean, I think in this post COVID era, we can be very forgiving when somebody calls in and says, listen, I think I’ve got the flu. You don’t want that person coming in. I think repeat offenders, absolutely you should charge them. And this is the way the business is, you know, making sure that they are making the money that that, that they need to make in this new environment. It’s expensive right now and they don’t want you cancelling because they still got to pay that person that they asked to come in to fill that hour or two that you would need that service because you didn’t show up. They still got to pay them. Given how expensive everything is right now, this survey was kind of interesting that those in the Gen. Z, Gen. Z generation are really being bullish with their retirement and saying and projecting that they will retire at 50, right, with a half a million, half $1,000,000 in the bank, right. How are they doing that? OK, so let’s put this in perspective. Gen. Z, my daughter is Gen. Z. She’s the youngest, born in 2012, so she’s 12 years old, right? So let’s just put that in perspective. You know, how does she know how she’s going to feel when she’s 50 years old? I think that they should be flipping that on its head. It should be the opposite. I think Gen. Z most likely is going to work well into the their 80s. Their projection is that they will live probably until about 100 and so the idea that you can retire at 50 and then fund A50 year retirement with half $1,000,000 seems very unrealistic. Jobs are becoming easier to do at home. Technology has made it so that you know we don’t have to leave our living room sometimes to make a full time salary. So most people especially in the Millennial and and Gen. Xer category are actually thinking, you know, I don’t mind working a little bit beyond 65, maybe into my 70s. I think Gen. Z’s, although many of them are still quite young, most likely it’s expected that they will work well into their 70s if not early 80s and then have a 20 year retirement still and probably a lot more than $500,000 to get them through that, right for sure. But are they rethinking retirement in a way that maybe stepping away from full time work at 45 let’s say and then maybe just doing contract work as need be? That has been a trend for decades now where you become what’s called an SME and subject matter expert. And so you take your expertise and you consult or you contract for different companies and you give, you know that that gives them value, but then also gives you autonomy over your time. So you can take a contract for three months and then take a month off. You still make enough money that you fund your life, but you don’t really take yourself right out of the workforce. I think this idea that we get to 65, we retire and we move to Florida is completely antiquated. I don’t think many people just don’t think of retirement that way. We think of more as how can we use the skills that we’ve learned over this long career, still healthy and and, you know, have a lot to give over the age of 65. How can we continue to make money but on our own terms? I mean, nobody wants to be getting on, you know, the computer train at the age of 75, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00. I think that’s what people want to get away from. Right. OK. All right. Fascinating, Rabina. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me.