I recently spoke with a young woman who questioned whether saving for retirement was really a good use of your money. Her concern was that climate change would end life as we know it, and as a result, there was no point.

Impending doom has always been used as a reason to not save. The threats of nuclear war, a chemical weapons attack, or the spread of a mutant virus can make you wonder whether there actually will be a future. But climate change seems to me to be weak excuse.

With climate change, the demise of our planet is slow moving. Severe weather, new crop diseases, the loss of natural animal and plant life, and rising sea levels are all serious threats. But they won’t end the human race very quickly.

What they will do is make things much more expensive. Food will be more expensive to produce. We may face greater risks to our health and, therefore, higher medical bills. As we try to minimize the damage, taxes may increase. All this adds up to needing more money in savings when we can’t work for pay anymore. Not less.

Doomsday scenarios are not a good excuse to give up on saving money. Sure, something really bad could happen. There are no guarantees in life. But it’s far more likely that you will live to a ripe old age. The real disaster would be for you to spend those years in utter poverty because you didn’t have any savings.

The most recent life expectancy table from the Social Security Administration is revealing. The following table shows how much longer you are likely to live at different ages.

Age	Remaining Years for Men	Age	Remaining Years for Women	Age
65	17.92	82.92	20.49	85.49
70	14.40	84.40	16.57	86.57
75	11.18	86.18	12.97	87.97
80	8.34	88.34	9.74	89.74

As you can see, there is a good chance you will live a long time beyond the normal retirement age. Some estimates put the number of people living to the age of 100 in the United States by 2050 at 1 million. To support yourself for such a long time, you will need to have saved $100,000 for every $333 you spend in a month.

Yes, the future is uncertain. The political tensions in the world and the growing consequences of climate change should have us all worried. But the answer does not lie in spending all your money now. The one thing that is completely within your control is how you prepare for a likely long life. No matter what happens, you will never regret saving money for your future.

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Photo by Josep Castells on Unsplash

Save Yourself; Your Guide to Saving for Retirement and Building Financial Security, is available on Amazon.