In different ways from different vantage points, I’ve always seen saving for retirement as a point of hedging my bets, and I don’t think the likelihood of doom changes that for me.
Why do I expect I’ll want or have to retire? Well, when I get old I’ll get to a point where I can’t do useful work any more… unless humans solve aging (in which case I’ll have more wealth and still be able to work, which is still a good position), or unless we get wiped out (in which case the things I could have spent the money on may or may not counterfactually matter to me, depending on my beliefs regarding whether past events still have value in a world now devoid of human life).
When I do save for retirement, I use a variety of different vehicles for doing so, each an attempt hedge against the weakness of some of the others (like possible future changes in laws or tax codes or the relative importance and power of different countries and currencies), but there are some I can’t really hedge against, like “we won’t use money anymore or live in a capitalist market economy,” or “all of my assets will be seized or destroyed by something I don’t anticipate.”
I might think differently if there was some asset I believed I could buy or thing I could give money to that would meaningfully reduce the likelihood of doom. I don’t currently think that. But I do think it’s valuable to redirect the portion of my income that goes towards current consumption to focus on things that make my life meaningful to me in the near and medium term. I believe that whether I’m doomed or not, and whether the world is doomed or not. Either way, it’s often good to do the same kinds of things in everyday life.
In different ways from different vantage points, I’ve always seen saving for retirement as a point of hedging my bets, and I don’t think the likelihood of doom changes that for me.
Why do I expect I’ll want or have to retire? Well, when I get old I’ll get to a point where I can’t do useful work any more… unless humans solve aging (in which case I’ll have more wealth and still be able to work, which is still a good position), or unless we get wiped out (in which case the things I could have spent the money on may or may not counterfactually matter to me, depending on my beliefs regarding whether past events still have value in a world now devoid of human life).
When I do save for retirement, I use a variety of different vehicles for doing so, each an attempt hedge against the weakness of some of the others (like possible future changes in laws or tax codes or the relative importance and power of different countries and currencies), but there are some I can’t really hedge against, like “we won’t use money anymore or live in a capitalist market economy,” or “all of my assets will be seized or destroyed by something I don’t anticipate.”
I might think differently if there was some asset I believed I could buy or thing I could give money to that would meaningfully reduce the likelihood of doom. I don’t currently think that. But I do think it’s valuable to redirect the portion of my income that goes towards current consumption to focus on things that make my life meaningful to me in the near and medium term. I believe that whether I’m doomed or not, and whether the world is doomed or not. Either way, it’s often good to do the same kinds of things in everyday life.