I read an article recently about people dying with more money than they retired with. A great result for your family - even more money to mourn you with. But has it meant that people aren't enjoying the benefits of all of their hard work before they go?

I can see how this can happen. For the last 30 years I have been saving for something - to pay off loans, to buy new cars, to pay for all of the expenses of having kids. Now I'm saving for my retirement. In my head, the thought is "Work to Live and Save".

When my retirement comes along, all of a sudden I won't be working and won't be saving but I will still be living so my living costs will come out of my savings. I haven't watched my savings go down before. Very scary!!

For most of us I think, the idea of selling off assets so that we can spend the money to live on is completely against everything we have done all our lives. I don't think this even occurs to us. But really, why did we buy all those assets to start with - and by assets, I mean property, investments, superannuation etc.

If you make yourself stop and think about it, what were we saving for all those years? Yes, to buy the house, give the kids the education and other things we wanted for them, but now the house is paid for, the kids are (hopefully) earning their own money and retirement has arrived. There are the daily expenses to pay for and that is what all the saving was for - so that we could still pay our living expenses and have some fun after we had finished working.

I started thinking about what I want to leave for my kids. I will be happy to leave them our house or the value of our house. So when I die, they will have half a house each. This is their bonus from me - half a house - not a bad windfall. Not enough for them to retire on, so they still have to earn their own living. But that's OK, my retirement money was for me, not for them.

So I have all of the rest of the money I have saved to spend on myself over the course of my retirement. Now, I know that none of us know how long that will be, but as an example, if we retire at 60 and plan to live another 40 years, and leave the house to our kids, we can spend everything over the value of the house over the next 40 years. If I retire with the house plus $1,000,000 and I plan to live 40 years and just live off the earnings of the $1,000,000, I can spend $50,000 per year and my kids get the house plus $1,000,000. If I am happy to just leave them with the house, I can spend an extra $25,000 each year.

If I do live another 40 years and die with nothing other than the house, I have spent $1,000,000 on the things I have enjoyed doing (I've had a great time) and the kids have half a house (like a win in the lotto - no effort required).

Of course, it isn't just a simple calculation. There are lots of variables - what do I want to do in retirement, when do I want to do it, at what point will I need less or more money. The future is totally unpredictable and whatever you plan won't happen.

But if you don't plan, you don't even know what could possibly happen and I felt sad to think that people are working and saving hard for 50 years, then living for many more years still thinking that they have to save, so are maybe missing out on a holiday, a flash new car or some other fun. And not realising that their saving efforts are all for the ones who they leave behind.

So my advice is, when retirement is coming up, you need to plan a spending strategy, not a savings strategy.

We are able to talk to you about this and help you to prepare your spending plan. The time to start preparing your retirement spending strategy is once your kids are off your hands, not once you actually retire.

After all, my kids probably won't end up saving their inheritance for their kids, they will be spending it on a good time. And I think the one who earns it should be the one having a good time.