Why save if rainy days won’t come?

We all know the saying, you can’t take it with you. I wish someone had reminded my Nana. When she died in her 80s she left something in her will that no-one saw coming – an inheritance. It was not a fortune, but there was a small amount of money for each of her children. It was money she saved from her pension, probably the most stable source of income she had ever known in her life. It was a sad epitaph to a life of doing without.

Widowed with four children at a young age, Nana worked for as long as I could remember. I recall one time visiting her at a retirement home where she worked as a helper (the old people’s home as we called it back in those un-PC days). Grey-haired and tiny (she was under 5ft in her stockings), she sat perched on the end of a single bed in her small dorm room, and talked about how it was getting too much for her to lift the patients. I have no idea how old she was at the time (Nana always seemed old to me), but I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t much younger than many of the residents.

Nana’s one asset was the caravan where she lived off and on, sometimes with her youngest son (my uncle), whose prison stint was the subject of whispered family conversations and Nana’s stoic loyalty. I think he ended up with the caravan after she died.

As a child, that caravan always seemed central to Nana’s story to me; it was her pride and joy. I recall visiting her once at a caravan park in South Auckland and her showing us around, just as house-proud as any homeowner.

In later years, Nana moved in with her sister, a great Aunty who had taken in some of Nana’s children after their father died. Presumably that’s when Nana accumulated her nest egg. Maybe it was for a rainy day; maybe she thought she would splash out on herself one day, though I doubt it. I wish she had.

Her children were mostly established and in no need of her life savings (the ne-er do-well Uncle excepted), and it was probably the first time she had a decent amount of money in the bank. It would have been nice to know she spent some money treating herself occasionally, though she probably never did.

In his most recent book, property and investment author Martin Hawes writes that most people die with more money left than they expect, and it means they’re not living their best life in retirement.

I suspect that won’t always be the case. Last week I wrote about the increasing number of older New Zealanders who are entering retirement without the stability of their own home, or the security of money in the bank. For many, sadly, leaving money behind is not something they have to worry about. Never having enough money is the problem.

My Nana is the other side of that coin; the pension probably offered her more security than she ever had in a lifetime of having very little. But she probably did without a lot in her later years, when maybe she didn’t have to.

So for anyone who needs to hear this – remember you can’t take it with you.

Maybe Nana’s nest egg was for a rainy day; maybe she thought she would splash out on herself one day, though I doubt it. I wish she had.