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I came across this terrific heart-warming story on BBC News Online last Friday, about a Los Angeles bus cleaner who finally retired on (you guessed it) his hundredth birthday! Arthur Winston has cleaned buses for the Metropolitan Transport Authority for 76 years, but decided to call it a day on reaching his centenary last Wednesday. Born on 22 March 1906, Mr Winston started work picking cotton in Oklahoma when he was ten years old, left school at sixteen, and went on to join the Pacific Electric Railway in 1924. In a remarkable achievement, Mr Winston had never been late for work, and chalked up just a single day's absence in over three-quarters of a century (sadly, when his wife died in 1988). His record of exemplary service led to him being given a Congressional Citation as "Employee of the Century" by President Bill Clinton in 1996. Also, the Los Angeles transport authority renamed a South Central LA bus division after him. After working for the same company for almost two working lifetimes, I'm sure that Mr Winston can look forward to a financially secure retirement. However, Mr Winston doesn't intend to take things easy, as he plans to do some voluntary work with senior citizens. Wow, that's some work ethic and longevity Mr Winston is an example to us all! Of course, Mr Winston is also a member of a rare breed: those people who work for the same organisation for their entire working lives. My father is fortunate to belong in this group: he joined Her Majesty's Armed Forces on his seventeenth birthday and has spent almost four decades working for HM The Queen. In most cases, as well as a lengthy career, people in this enviable situation can look forward to a comfortable retirement, thanks to their long and stable working lives. Alas, working life these days is increasingly unsettled; consequently, many of us will experience periods of employment, unemployment, self-employment and temporary or short-term contracts throughout our working years. For example, after being employed by various financial firms over an eighteen-year period, I took a leap of faith by leaving The Motley Fool to become a freelance personal finance writer last year. I've had to wave goodbye to a monthly wage, annual bonus, life cover and company pension contributions, sick pay, BUPA and other benefits. Then again, I enjoy the freedom of flexible working at home -- and I'm no longer a commuter at the mercy of South West Trains! However, working irregular hours means having an unpredictable income, so I have to be disciplined and put enough aside to tide me over the lean times. As well as keeping some rainy-day money in a high-interest savings account, I invest in shares inside a tax-free ISA shelter, and I put a chunk of my earnings into a simple, low-charging Stakeholder pension. Indeed, although it'll be at least twenty-five years before I retire, it's my pension planning that worries me the most. That's because my pension CV has some gaping holes in it: in close to nineteen years of work, I have around nine "pensionless" years. What's more, the problem with pension planning is that the longer that you leave it, the more that you have to contribute. The following shows how starting early really pays off: 1) Starting a pension at twenty £100 a month saved from aged twenty, growing at 10% a year, will be worth £908,734 at age 65. Total invested = 45 years at £1,200 a year = £54,000. 2) Starting a pension at thirty-five £437 a month saved from aged thirty-five, growing at 10% a year, will be worth £908,651 at age 65. Total invested = 30 years at £5,244 a year = £157,320. Thus, although the second investor has paid in over £103,000 more than the first, they both end up with similar-sized pension pots, thanks to the extra growth achieved by compounding returns over forty-five years instead of thirty. Hence, with pensions, the answer is obvious: start early and save hard! Finally, Mr Winston was a model employee who thoroughly enjoyed his 82 years of work. On the other hand, if you don't want to work past normal retirement age, it's up to you to take steps to fund your retirement. After all, you can't rely on the government, your employer or other taxpayers to put your interests first, can you? More: Find better savings accounts, investments and pensions today! | Ten Things To Know About Pensions.
