Retirement Planning - Lessons Learned

[drssg]

Maybe someone can chime in... I see them but maybe only I can...

They are a few Instanatic before and after pictures with even Plymouth and Dump Trailer

I see them fine now on my laptop. The phone app was giving me problems for some reason. Cool pictures!

 

[goeduck]

You have to be pretty rich for that to be a consideration. The 2021 tax exemption is $11.7 million. It's not like your heirs are going to end up eating beans out of a can in a hobo jungle.

So who should benefit in your world?

 

[ultrarunner]

It's the property tax in California that allowed certain parent/child and child/parent escape reassessment to the assessor's opinion of value.

Many family owned businesses hit hard prior to Prop 13.

When I bought my home in 2003 the original owners paid $1200 and the day I bought it went to $8800 and now is 12k.... All 1958 ranch style of 1700 square feet right down to linoleum and tile. If someone bought it today it would be 17k

The new law started Feb 15th.

Many estate planners worked non stop as the deadline approached deeding property to heir kids.

All about highest and best use on transfer with limited exception such as family farm...

All the appreciation on paper is fine but property taxes require real money.

 

[ultrarunner]

I see them fine now on my laptop. The phone app was giving me problems for some reason. Cool pictures!

When people hear bought SF Bay Area home for cash at age 22 few realize home covers a lot of territory...

It was my best single financial move as it served as not only a springboard but hands on renovation experience and just how to get along with people as an outsider.

Only on my second renter since I moved back in 1985...

Not counting labor I'm in it 40k including renovation... Imagine it would sell for 360 +/- in today's crazy market... tenant is super... still paying the same 850 mo as she did 10 years ago...

So many of my older friends with service)construction businesses said it was owning their business property that made retirement possible. They often sold the carpet or plumbing business and became commercial landlord to the buyer.

 

[ultrarunner]

Part 2... Lesson Learned.

With 10 years in being self employed I happened to be home for lunch and get a call from the local hospital... seems during surgery the power went out and the emergency generator did not start...

A nurse gave my name to the CEO saying I'm a wizard with engines and rebuilt motors for their antique cars

Anyway... I said sure... be there in 20 minutes... all the vendors were saying 4 to 8 hours maybe?

Arrive and battery dead... said I will be back with a new one in 20 minutes so in less than an hour up and running... also put on my battery tender as charger not working. Service log indicated no one there in 3 weeks instead of weekly.

The short is I was offered a job on the spot and politely declined...

A few weeks later the CEO calls and asks if I would consider maintaining just the generator anytime from 5 pm Friday to 6 am Monday... I said OK

Soon I was spending 8 hours a week working for the Hospital

3 years later the decision to build a new facility was made and I was asked to be owners representative. It really was a great job that lasted about a year and covered every aspect of the build.

When completed I was asked to stay on as salaried with benefits... never seen dad so happy... I was getting a real job!!! Dad was ecstatic... paid with medical and retirement!

The benefits never lived up to the promises. Through mergers and takeovers I was never fully vested and often lost thousands in the 401k and employee stock plan where clerks had picked up as much as 20k one year basically stopped...

You see the money in your account but it's not yours until fully vested.

The fantastic profit sharing went away to nothing so those big payouts never did come my way...

All the planning is no guarantee when it comes to retirement...

July it will be 30 years... I can look back and say I'm glad I kept the property management going on the side and didn't put all my eggs in the employer basket.

With 30 years in I'm looking at 800 a month retirement last I checked plus social security... had I been in a few years earlier it would be close to 2k under the old plan.

The Boomers often enjoyed much better plans that few have today...

 

[Larry Caldwell]

So who should benefit in your world?

That's a political consideration. If you are worth over 11 million, go buy a Senator. They'll be glad to take your money.

 

[oosik]

Let's face it. If you are a "high spender" now and have no plans to change in retirement - you best have the money.
Do you have funds in an IRA or the like. How much can you draw monthly without decreasing the fund value. Will you get funds from retirement programs where you work now - how much monthly. How much will you get from Social Security in retirement.

How do these fund sources match up against what you spend now. Are you willing to make changes in your life style so $$$ match up with anticipated retirement life style.

It's not magic. It's just cold, hard calculations.

 

[3Ts]

With Ultrarunner's post about mergers & takeovers - Always have an alternate plan. I worked for an aerospace company and was accumulating a nice retirement nest egg thru their plan when they were bought out. That money was frozen, could not get it out and it did not gain interest. There were law suits over that! So 20 years later when I retired, the principle became available, but the interest that it should have been accumulating was not. If it weren't for the other accounts I'd set up, I would not have been able to retire when I did.

 

[MoKelly]

That's a political consideration. If you are worth over 11 million, go buy a Senator. They'll be glad to take your money.

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins.

MoKelly

 

[RickB]

Other than a 3% employer match and whatever SSI will actually provide, my retirement nest egg is self funded and self managed. I had major concerns about the adequacy of my portfolio but I now believe I'll be ok.

 

[Frankenkubota]

As far as i know, the only real pensions left for the working stiff are....


Go to work for uncle sam.

 

[MoKelly]

As far as i know, the only real pensions left for the working stiff are....


Go to work for uncle sam.

Ha! What do you call a society when all the citizens work for the government?

MoKelly

 

[CobyRupert]

As far as i know, the only real pensions left for the working stiff are....


Go to work for uncle sam.

Yes, in the 90’s the baby boomer ME generation took over and Capitalism went on a race to the bottom. A search for the cheapest labor. If American weren’t willing to work for less and without benefits, like pensions, they just moved the capital (production) offshore to somewhere cheaper. Meanwhile the worker to CEO wage ratio went from 1:3 to 1:500
They haven’t been totally successful in finding a way to outsource or offshore government jobs and bust their union and living wages...but they’ll keep trying.

 

[ultrarunner]

With Ultrarunner's post about mergers & takeovers - Always have an alternate plan. I worked for an aerospace company and was accumulating a nice retirement nest egg thru their plan when they were bought out. That money was frozen, could not get it out and it did not gain interest. There were law suits over that! So 20 years later when I retired, the principle became available, but the interest that it should have been accumulating was not. If it weren't for the other accounts I'd set up, I would not have been able to retire when I did.

It's something that wasn't even on my radar... come work for us and here is the benefit package...

I looked it all over and at the sit-down was told the bonus profit sharing is exceptional... and it was.. but timing is everything.

Being 35 months in on a 10 year vesting meant 20 cents on the dollar of what my account showed on match, profit sharing and bonus program...

The 6 week paid sabbatical every 5 years was also out of reach... no one got it as that merger happened in year 4

Had I had a crystal ball staying non-benefited would have been the smart move. It happened a second time and I argued same desk rule should apply... it did not but vesting was changed by Congress from 10 to 5 years and I was one in contact with my Congressman.

PT0 was similar in that approval required to use... we were just so darn busy and I was salaried... my PTO was 680+ hours..

Company implemented a 25% penalty to cash out so I left it in... and then later capped accrual so I said I'm taking 4 weeks this year and 4 the next and did.

All things learned along the way... and it was not just me... several of my airline pilot friends got decimated on their retirements...

Planning is great but sometimes it is better to be lucky like my god-sister working a high school intern program back in the 70's for this start-up called Apple in Cupertino... her dad said invest in your future put your entire paycheck in company stock and she did... the high school job with 45 years of dividends paying cash for their house, vacation home, kids educations, etc...

 

[ultrarunner]

As far as i know, the only real pensions left for the working stiff are....


Go to work for uncle sam.

Dad's advice always was work for the government... so far no one has...

12 of my High School friends became OPD... being 51 with a 180k pension and lifetime medical leaves lots of options in retirement...

Dad was right.

 

[KennyG]

You have to be pretty rich for that to be a consideration. The 2021 tax exemption is $11.7 million. It's not like your heirs are going to end up eating beans out of a can in a hobo jungle.

If you read Joe Biden's campaign platform, he intends to reduce that to $3.5 million. Others in the House would like to reduce it further. And there are no plans to index it to inflation. That starts to hit medium size farms and small business in some places.

Remember the alternative minimum tax that was originally going to target only a few dozen high income people? Now, unless it's amended each year, it would impact something like 30% of taxpayers.

 

[JethroB]

That's a political consideration. If you are worth over 11 million, go buy a Senator. They'll be glad to take your money.

One thing in favor of those with considerable assets is that many in Congress are quite wealthy themselves. They aren’t going to cut their own throat when it comes to taxes on inheritance, capital gains, and dividends.

 

[MossRoad]

The political discussions keep creeping into this thread, folks. I know it's hard not to, but it's not allowed, so please leave it out. Thanks.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins.

MoKelly

I refuse to go from politics to religion. Both of them are based on controlling people through fear.

 

[ultrarunner]

Some of America's wealthiest such as Gates and Buffet retirement planning is how to give away vast amounts of their fortunes and have advocated more giving across the higher income ranges.