Anyone For S.K.I.ing?

I came across a term I’d not heard before in an article from my local newspaper. S.K.I.ing: the act of spending down your retirement portfolio and assets without regard for familiar inheritance. To my mind it’s basically blowing the budget on travel and other indulgent consumption. Apparently it’s a growing “thing” now.

The article in question came with glowing endorsements from practitioners and testimonials from the potentially inheritanceless children, telling their parents not to feel guilty and they never expected an inheritance anyway. Everyone to their own thing, no harm done. But I have to wonder.

One of the traits that caught my eye was the word spontaneous. It seemed to be an underlying creed with the S.K.I.ing crowd interviewed in the article. Spontaneous, high value spending, from a portfolio doesn’t seem like a very sensible idea to me. Could some of the underlying thinking behind the movement be a lack of financial education?

Of course, “spontaneous” is a much prettier word than “unplanned,” and a much prettier word still than “sold to me by someone with a cruise line to keep profitable.” I have a sneaking suspicion that “spontaneity” here is less a personality trait and more a marketing department’s rebrand of what used to be called, less flatteringly, poor impulse control with a six-figure balance behind it.

The testimonials, those cheerful children insisting they never wanted an inheritance anyway, read less like reassurance and more like the world’s sweetest hostage video. Of course they’re saying the sanctioned thing. What’s the alternative, telling a journalist they’re a bit annoyed their parents sold the family silver for a business-class seat to Santorini? I suspect the whole “don’t worry about us” is just putting on a brave face.

So by all means, ski if you must: down the slopes or through the portfolio, it’s your life. I’m just not convinced the second kind is a sustainable pursuit. None of the practitioners in the article seemed to be budgeting for the boring stuff: the hip replacement, the care home, the decade of boring expenses that doesn’t come with a photo opportunity. Future unknown costs really do exist.

Do you know anyone taking this approach? It’s not for me. I’m still travelling and still enjoying retirement, but as a planned expense on a loose budget, not a spontaneous one on a shrinking portfolio.

Call me old-fashioned, but blowing the lot on a few extra experiences still seems like a poor deal for the kids, however politely they insist otherwise. Maybe that just makes me out of step with an increasingly self-centred world. But I can live with that.