*Please note everything I'm about to say below is from living a privileged status in a first world country with a decent pension and security net for those that hit retirement age - I know those in the US and countries with not the greatest social security nets may not have the same privilege and what I'm about to say may not apply as much. As well as is different for those with children looking to provide them with something upon death*
So I don't save for retirement - I may save for specific things (like a down payment on a house or investments to increase current income or for large ticket experience items such as living abroad for a year) but never retirement. I don't have any investments into RRSPs, 401k's, Mutual Funds, or whatever safe interest long yield retirement saving plans there are. Often I hear people in threads here or in my life mention about saving for retirement as a huge component of their budget.
So the question I ask all of you is, why do you save for retirement? What's the plan?
Here's my reason for not saving for retirement:
Out of the 5 greatest things people regret on their deathbed, "I wish I hadn't worked as hard" and "I wish I had let myself be happier" were two of the common ones. Source:
http://www.businessinsider.com/5-things-people-regret-on-their-deathbed-2013-12
So here's my personal philosophy. Life is a collection of experiences, and the quality of those experiences can be higher when experienced in your life's prime then when older - or at least have more impact when spaced out over your entire life. Instead of putting 15% into a retirement fund, you can save that 15% towards taking a break from your career to live somewhere abroad for a year as example. You never know when your body will fail you, whether death or disability, to prevent you from doing what you wanted to do in life. I rather we were 65 years old in social housing with a long memory of great experiences then trying to travel at 65 with a bunch of health conditions that limit me wishing I had traveled more when younger.
Maybe this may be the concept of "min-max"ing your life - front loading great experiences and living a minimal life at the end - but it's working out great for me so far.