Investing for retirement is not something everyone does ahead of time. Many people do not get started because they feel that their retirement is several decades away and they can get to it in good time. Almost everyone under estimates the resources, mainly cash, that are required to retire with a certain quality of life. With better health management and medical technology, many people are beginning to live beyond the previous general estimates for human life spans. The result is that many people run the risk of running out of money before their time is up.

Since few people are motivated in investing for retirement early enough, it has become a serious issue for governments in many developed countries. In some of these countries their welfare systems are straining from the demands put on them by the growing numbers of elderly living beyond the estimates of previous human longevity models. In these countries governments have warned their citizens that their social security systems may not have enough funds to go around.

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