Just like the topic, my curiosity is:
What Do Animators Do About Retirement?
For the sake of avoiding political debates, assume today's social security or a hybrid form with partial privatization would stick. Just so there's a context.
I know there are things like IRAs, and that -does- sound like the most reasonable solution. I suppose I'm wondering because of the contract nature of the job. Not everyone works at a massive studio, and even if you do, 2-4 years on a project doesn't solidify you in anyone's good graces for things like pensions like most people might get.
How do you handle it? It's something important that I never really considered before.
Personally I'll never retire. I think a lot of people who do animation for a living can and will do it til the day they're pushing up daisies! :) Here in Canada we have a pension plan for old age. But that's really nothing to live off of (Also by the time I can get it, it'll probably be all used up by the baby boomers). I guess in a way I'll need to work til I kick the bucket. LOL Cheers
Cereal And Pajamas New Anthology : August 2007
http://www.comicspace.com/cerealandpajamas/
What do you think I'm gonna be doing with all my free time?
The topical question wasn't a personal one, really, but in case I'm 65 and -can't- get paid to do it, I wouldn't mind getting myself taken care of in terms of monetary survival so that I'm still alive and sheltered to animate at any time or place.
Studios here in LA that are a part of the Animation Guild have 401k options, and these carry over when you leave one Guild studio to another Guild studio. Other than that, or on top of that, you should set up your own savings plan, like CD's, IRA and the like. Also it's good practice to keep a credit card completely empty for when you fall on hard times between jobs.
Aloha,
the Ape
...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."
I don't see the point of becoming an animator if you expect to retire. If you want to retire someday, become a CPA or a cop, not an animator.
I would say this question is similar to - what do magicians do about retirement?
I guess the animator could always write a book or do a video tape and distribute his/her secrets away. :D
Again, since I cannot seem to make this clear, the idea is not to retire in order to not have to work anymore. Retirement for an animator would come about so that, in the event that he's old enough yet not getting jobs anymore, or simply wants to work on his own stuff without worrying how it's to be financed, he can simply animate all he wants and not worry about how he's going to get into a studio to be able to do it. Just live off the retirement money.
I mean hey, it makes sense that at 67 knowing my personality I'll have quite a bit of experience and polished my abilities to a point where I could walk in just about anywhere and astonish them and have a place to keep earning my keep doing this. However...I don't know what the job market is going to look like in 2051...to talk to anyone here is to know it ain't that hot now. Why not have some safety or fallback?
Unless someone is without that extra bit of creativity that comes with wanting to do their own thing, and just wants to orchestrate the movements of other people's work, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of sense in correlating a desire to animate with the desire to get paid for doing it.
Start up a ROTH IRA and contribute the maximum amount that you can each year and by the time you are 65 you will have around $2million+ My wife and I have each opened our ROTH IRA's and have been contributing for the last three years. If we didn't put another penny in it we would have about $60,000 when we are 65, but we are finding ways to put the maximum amount in every year (It has been $3000 a year, but it will be $4000 starting this year). As long as we don't waste money we will not have to worry about anything when we retire. (and I can animate anything I want to.)
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that has been given to us." ---Gandalf
Thanks for the practical application of what I've been reading. Sounds pretty effective. You're only 2 or 3 years older than I am, and I don't really have a lavish expensive lifestyle, but I'm my own better half so 1 mill would certainly cover me until I died, should I be in a position where no one's employing. There's no way I'll live twenty years past retirement. Who'd have thought that a terminal illness could be such a blessing?
i guess i consider myself an animator even though i don't make my living from it, and i don't have much time to animate very much. however - someday, if i am able to partially retire, i'd like to spend way MORE time animating. since i'm self employed, i have the same issues that the thread started out asking: what do self employed people do about retirement? start an ira as soon as you can, put as much into it as you can. pay yourself first.
Here's my two cents:
Plan for a absolute retirement--that is one where you will not be working but living off your accumulated assets/income.
This serves a three-fold purpose:
One: it gives you the OPTION of continuing to work or not past the usual retirement age. You can work as you please, without the stress or worry of trying to make ends meet. Peace of mind is worth almost any price if you ask me.
Two: your health. If your vision goes or starts to go, or your hearing, or you come down with a motor/neuro affliction then you'l need some additional support to help you.
For years, I was near-sighted, and marginally hard-of hearing, now my near sight is going pretty quickly ( relatively speaking) and my hearing is pretty crappy--and I'm only 43.
Unless I undergo some significant reparative procedures for my eyes, I'll be unable to see a drawing by the time I'm 60.
I'll have to be able to pay for stuff like that.
Three: yea, I'll have to pay out of pocket for my own future. No employer is going to assist my retirement income these days--to the tune that I can work for them exclusively until retirement --and then bank on the accumulated monies. Nor can I rely upon my government, because any government that instituted a old-age pension decades ago is now seriously looking at ways to divest itself of that financial burden ( and do so without setting off a revolt). I have no illusions that my pension will be non-existent by the time I reach retirement age--its simply the pattern that governments have been leaning towards for years now.
The best advice?
Regardless of your situation, take your future into your own hands. The sanest course is to start RIGHT NOW. Do not rely on any other agency--consult a good investment specialist and get something set-up and keep a regular schedule of contributions to it.
"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)
Pensions don't exist in any meaningful way anymore, and whether W gets his way with Social Security or not, it doesn't look good for the under 40 crowd when it comes to getting the benefits the government is telling you you'll get.
The way an animator "retires" is the same way anyone else does - save money when you're earning it for when you don't want to have to anymore.
If you have access to a 401K plan - use it. If your employer matches up to a given point, be sure you set aside at least that much - it's free money!
Don't stop at Starbuck's if your employer provides coffee. Take the couple of bucks you saved and put it away. Or skip one mocha latte a week and save that cash instead.
If you need it, buy it. If you don't, set that money aside - it'll be more handy as food when you're 65 than as another iPod today ;)
Buy iPods by the dozens!!!
(Okay, so I have a little Apple stock...it's part of my own retirement plan!) ;)
Splatman :D
SPLAT digital
This is off-topic (by the way, thanks for all the help. This is all good info), but someone told me the other day there are iPod sunglasses you can get now where Windows Media-style visualizations can be projected into the lens.
Save and invest, but I know from bitter experience that even these things can't totally protect you. Life sometimes can come from behind you and knock you to the ground.
Life is what it is and if you worry too much about the future you miss out on the present.
Like Joseph Campbell said..."follow your bliss", and when you are taking that last breath at least you won't be worrying about what you could have done.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
well spoken, Pat. Joseph Campbell is my hero. :D