We retired quite early from computer consulting... because the bottom kind of fell out in 2000. Did several endeavours together and separately; ended up with a small on-line book business, which brings in enough above our pensions to pay for home improvements and catfood.
My plan is to die broke. I collect Social Security & have meager savings. I make an estimate of how long I will live & divide my retirement funds by that many years. Every 2-3 years I reconsider my estimate of years remaining.
Retirement and retirement plans are for The Middle Class. I suppose they'll just find me dead one wintry morning and have to pry the coal shovel from my stiff, frozen fingers. How about you? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Won't be retiring, will work until I buy the farm. Have already made it past 60, will probably pick up on Social Security in a few years when it is a more substantial amount.
Save. Save. Save. About 20% of everything I make. 5% into my 401(k) plus the free 5% my company matches = 10%. Then I send 10% to my Ameriprise investor who manages the funds both post and pre tax. I live almost totally debt free (I have a car payment). If Social Security is there when I retire, then that will be icing on the cake, but between my boyfriend's solid income (he's 13 years younger than me), my income and our savings I won't worry about or expect SoSec to be there for me. ~String
I'm 68 and still working. These days work is so easy, just sitting at a desk, typing on a keyboard and reading on a screen. Pretty much the same thing I do at home. We can keep working until we drop dead on our keyboards. But to answer the question, since Mrs. Fraggle and I never had children, we're in reasonably good financial shape. We're already collecting Social Security and pensions from our former jobs. We could probably retire now, but why bother when I can still bring in more income by doing something I love (writing)? I have often said that one of the saddest things that could happen to a person is to die and have money left over. If you've got people or charities you want to leave it to, then of course that's fine. Sure. At 65 your life expectancy is about 20 years, but that just means you've got a 50/50 chance of reaching 85. Once you get there, that doesn't mean your life expectancy is suddenly zero. I haven't looked up the numbers but it's probably around 12 more years, and if you make it to 97 it's probably five or eight more. So if your goal is to use up your money before you die, it's a complicated actuarial exercise to make sure you don't use it up five years too soon. That's unlikely. Old people are the most reliable voters and they won't vote for somebody who's going to reduce them to poverty. The first wave of the gigantic Baby Boomer generation (b. 1946-1964) are already 65-66. When the other 90% join them (well the age for eligibility keeps rising but they'll get there eventually) and become single-issue voters, they'll be the biggest voting bloc in history. If the economy is in deep trouble, they'll make sure that Social Security is not one of the federal programs to be cut. Since they're the love-and-peace hippies, they'll probably vote for completely abolishing DoD. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The company I work for builds and supports software for one of the agencies within the Social Security Administration. I probably actually will be able to keep working until I stop breathing. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The original "Cosmo Girl", the lady who made Cosmopolitan Magazine what it is/was just died this week. Worked right up to the last minute and appeared to enjoy every second of that. Still looked real good at 90 years of age. I have had several friends that died shortly after retiring and am aware that is a very real connection for many people. For many of us, our work is who we are...when we lose our job we lose our life. I am in no hurry to get there myself, though I paid my mortgage off just this last year and have no other debt. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I'll meet you down at the polls Frag, so we can vote Social Security stays in business. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I don't look that good now. In fact I never looked that good. That's especially true for men. If you meet a man for the first time and ask him to tell you a little about himself, he'll probably start talking about his job, and maybe his hobbies. (In America and some other countries. Men in France, Italy and many other countries don't talk about their jobs unless they're artisans or proprietors of their own business.) A woman will probably tell you about her children, and then the rest of her family. My best friend's mother died last year. She's 64, her mom was 85. You could never have a long conversation without hearing how much she loved and depended on her mom. And that's still true. Frankly I miss that in my life. I've never understood the purpose of dying with a paid-off mortgage. You could spend that money on some nice vacations, or just more concerts, ballets, symphonies, plays, etc., around home. A second dog, a nicer car, more of your favorite food and drink. A gardener to make your place look even nicer. Take your less well-off friends out and have some good times with them. Sure, if you have children you should leave them something, but not everything. Neither branch of the Republocrat Party has ever uttered a blasphemous word about that sacred cow. They know it would be their demise. To me the issue is: which immoral or downright unconstitutional program do they plan on cutting in order to keep Social Security in the black? My vote goes to whoever will bring an immediate halt to the War on Islam. Not only is it immoral, not only is it unconstitutional, not only is it a catalyst that could easily drag the entire world into a Nuclear Holy War between the Shiites and Sunnis (the defining conflict in the Middle East is NOT between the Arabs and Israel, or even between the Muslims and the Christians)... but it's also costing us about half a trillion dollars per year that would be more wisely spent on... well on just about anything else.
Fraggle rocker: The following is a valid assessment if you do not intend to revise your estimate of life expectancy. My approach is to the problem is to base estimates on my own view of my health using input from the doctors who treat me & some Web Searches. Right now, I expect to live about 10 years. I am budgeting for 15. In 3-5 years, I expect to make another estimate & revise my yearly budget up or down accordingly. If something dramatic happens in 1-2 years (pancreatic cancer, for example), I will blow it all on cruises & other vacations & live on my social security until the end. If I do not get hit by a drunk driver, shot by a mental case, or have some other unpredictable end, I think I am likely to die with a net worth approximating zero. BTW: It has been my experience that medical people will not give any estimate of longevity unless the end is highly likely to be less than 1-2 years.
My numbers were meant merely to illustrate the mathematics. I haven't looked up the current actuarial tables. Americans are living longer. They're predicting millions of centenarians in my generation (1943-the War Babies), almost enough to comprise a new voting bloc. My parents (who would be 100 and 101) were of a generation who smoked, grew up without vaccines and antibiotics, mainlined transfats, never heard of aerobics, and drove on two-lane highways without seat belts. Yet they both lived past 85. My mother-in-law, born only a few years later, is still alive at 95. So my wife and I have a good chance of seeing 90--if you can use the adjective "good" to predict what the world is likely to be like in that era, given current trends. Sure. That's a perfectly reasonable algorithm. I have a number of younger friends who are down on their luck and probably won't have prosperous retirements, so I won't mind leaving them a little money. One of them is a complete idiot so I'll have to put hers into a trust fund so she can't blow it all on one shopping spree at Five Below. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! These days medical people are afraid to do or say practically anything. There is a huge population of attorneys waiting to crawl out of the sewers and sue them "on your behalf" if anything they do or say turns out wrong. This is why half of your medical expenditures go for tests you don't really need, just to protect THEM, and why surgery costs twice as much in the USA as in any other Western country.
I'm only just starting to gain a few of the benefits of having survived thus far, mainly a reduction on my auto insurance granted to those who have attained 55. There are a few businesses in town that offer seniors discounts at that age but alas, they have nothing that I want/need with the exception of one drugstore and to date my needs are so minimal that I have yet to take advantage of their seniors day, the last Thursday of each month. I get almost everything I need at the grocery store where I work at excellent prices by watching the sales which is easy to do as that is my job, putting out the prices. Reasonably certain that this job will last until I attain retirement age in another decade and no mandate to retire that I am aware of. Lucky enough to be in the age group that can collect on my CPP and Old Age Security at 65 rather than the 67 which has just been legislated for those who were born a few years later so may decide to cut back on my hours of work after 65 but not likely to retire unless I win the lottery or some other mysterious financial boon should come my way. I enjoy working but would also enjoy more time with my horses, garden and possibly even do some writing if my time frame plays out as hoped. Rather of the opinion that I'll likely be of some use until I quit breathing or at least am fond of thinking so. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I will be working 'til (T) the day I die. My only concern is that I someday become disabled--no Hoveround for this boy.
The use that you have is unto yourself be true, for it is your liufe to do with it as you see fit, not others to dictate it to you.
Excellent point. Actually, I am rather useful enough that I get to dictate some of my own terms, lol.... I is a benevolent dictatrix however, and I use language, abuse grammar and coin terms to suit my purpose. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
