Retirement Planning - Lessons Learned

[RickB]

That depends on what one views as a "negative." I see "missed opportunity" as a negative. If i can hold cheap debt and invest that money making much more, i'd feel like i wasn't doing my best with money management.

On the cusp of retirement I'm happy to be debt free. The thought of managing an investment portfolio that would fund debt repayment and offset inflation would likely require sustained double digit returns. Despite my past successes I'm not optimistic about those kinds of returns going forward at a cumulative risk level I'm comfortable with at this point in my life. My equity/fixed income ratio is 62% and won't be going higher.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Share with us who the real leeches are who rake in $millions a day while producing nothing.

MoKelly

Start with the Walton family.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Ot

Or hang on hoping it comes back only to be delisted...

Since I didn't sell I guess I didn't loose?

My brother was heavy into WaMu and Chrysler bonds. He lost the whole pile. He's dead now, so I guess it doesn't matter.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

What I don't get is how poor often equates to filth and lawlessness...

The trash generated for no reason when free disposal goes unused can only be explained as purposeful or mental illness...

Back in the run up on 2008 I know people that mortgaged to the hilt with refi and the walked as in leaving the country taking hundreds of thousands in cash with them...

One lady said it was her retirement and if the lenders are so stupid who am I to question?

As simple as it sounds... your health is your wealth rings true... so how does anyone explain otherwise healthy people that live on hand outs unless it is the same... if they are stupid enough to offer it... why not?

When you subsidize something you encourage more of it...

I don't see the advantage over selling out and staying on the right side of the law.

 

[goeduck]

I don't see the advantage over selling out and staying on the right side of the law.

?

 

[dirttoys]

That's capitalism for you. With a little effort we can set ourselves up to suck money out of the system for nothing. My wife and I rake in over $90k/year and haven't worked in years. We're nickel and dime amateurs compared to the real leeches, who rake in $millions a day while producing nothing.

Aside from the fact that you mentioned it, I have no standing to ask about your income. 90k a year with no effort is pretty good. If you are making it from investments, your "effort" is the risk of the return or even the principle?

If you make 90k without investing, or working, or feeling guilty, I would probably just quietly enjoy it

Best,

ed

 

[goeduck]

If ,you make 90k without investing, or working, or feeling guilty, I would probably just quietly enjoy it

Best,

ed

Larry,

Could please tell us how you get to $90K a year without working?

I am curious about this statement of yours:
"set ourselves up to suck money out of the system for nothing"

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Larry,

Could please tell us how you get to $90K a year without working?

I am curious about this statement of yours:
"set ourselves up to suck money out of the system for nothing"

Two SS accounts. Two pensions. Substantial savings in value stocks that drip dividends. Next year will be awkward because I have some 30 year 5% federal bonds that mature. No mortgage, so lots of income and little outgo.

I did the whole thing staying debt free, buying two properties we could afford on 10 year and a 15 year mortgages. I haven't rolled up a nickel since I retired 8 years ago.

It used to be a lot easier for working folk to get ahead.

 

[Torvy]

So one pet peeve of mine is when people refer to money they take out of Social Security as income. That money was income when you made it years ago. The government confiscated it and used it. All they are doing now is returning some of your money at a rate of return much lower than even a modest investment would have returned over the same period. All the while, the government was betting you would die before you got old. If a private investment firm offered a deal like SS, people would lump them in with the Bernie Madoff's of the world.

I am not sure which is worse, the scam of SS being perpetrated on people or the way people have bought into so much that they truly believe the government was making them better. Don't believe me? Do the math. Remember, unless you were self-employed, you need to double what you paid in. Sure, they told people their employer was paying, but that just reduced the money they would have paid you or others in salary. {rant over}

 

[RickB]

Two SS accounts. Two pensions. Substantial savings in value stocks that drip dividends. Next year will be awkward because I have some 30 year 5% federal bonds that mature. No mortgage, so lots of income and little outgo.

I did the whole thing staying debt free, buying two properties we could afford on 10 year and a 15 year mortgages. I haven't rolled up a nickel since I retired 8 years ago.

It used to be a lot easier for working folk to get ahead.

So your claim of having this current income without any effort is unfounded, false and misleading. Like anyone else enjoying retirement you and your spouse are enjoying the fruits of a lifetime of effort.
Pretty much the way the system is set up to work if one aims towards the goal of a comfortable retirement.

 

[ultrarunner]

In the 80's people were saying the same as to how they feel sorry for anyone starting out as mortgages were 15%

In the 60's it was the draft and Vietnam...

In the 70's it was stagflation and gas lines, etc...

Each generation has their challenges...

I've already heard those buying property 10 years ago had it made... low prices and declining interest... not recalling a foreclosure on every block.

I'm sure some will look back and say 2% mortgages... wow, how lucky are those people.

I know young couples doing quite well...

One, first in family with college... She is RN and he is police officer... no problem buying home and both have nice to fantastic pensions...

Then there are others with kids right out of college making more than the old man... they work for Google, Microsoft, Genentech, etc...

The key as I see it is to make the best of your situation and move the ball down the field and you will get there.

A good marriage is something many successful couples share... both on the same page as it were...

 

[ultrarunner]

One thought on Social Security to remember is you can refuse the money.

My step-grandfather did that...

He came here with nothing and built a successful Tool and Die business saying he owed his success to the United States for the opportunity...

Grandmother and Step had both lost their spouse and married near age 70...

He was the first in the shop each morning and last to turn out the lights... each Saturday morning he would go in to lay out next week's work... As many as 50 Union employees with contracts with Caterpillar, Owens Corning, General Mills, Hexcell and lots of paper companies like James River...

His attitude was I am doing OK...

Worked into his late 80's until he was no longer able to drive and then Grandma drove him each day...

Again... no need to accept Social Security and I know one individual who did just that...

They lived in a tract home built in the 50's that was Grandma's and both drove 15 year old Ford's...

Only thing they splurged on later in life is each year they took one big trip and one small trip...

 

[beowulf]

And it is never too soon to introduce kids to retirement planning - sort of a "things I wish I had known when I was young". In our house when growing up it was pay check to pay check for my parents and retirement planning was sort of a fantasy. I grew up clueless and it took way too long to figure things out.

One Christmas when our two daughters were in high school we put $500 each into a Vanguard account and told them we would match whatever they put in those accounts over the next 5 years. We told them that if they did this they would never regret it, but if they did not plan for retirement they would always regret it - our 'delayed gratification' discussion. They were not much interested at the time - to kids retirement is so remote it is really not anything they will focus on. They did not contribute anything for a long time so we matched nothing.

However, gradually they became interested - particularly when they began to receive periodic statements showing that the $500 was now $520, then $580, and increasing regularly. It took a few years for them to figure things out and to begin asking questions, but those simple $500 gifts opened the door to many financial discussions over the years about IRAs, Roth accounts, deferred compensation accounts, pensions, credit cards, borrowing, and more. And many years later they still contribute to those accounts - now with balances in the $60,000-$70,000 range. They have their work related retirement accounts as well, but I think those Vanguard accounts are the ones they feel attached to the most.

 

[goeduck]

Two SS accounts. Two pensions. Substantial savings in value stocks that drip dividends. Next year will be awkward because I have some 30 year 5% federal bonds that mature. No mortgage, so lots of income and little outgo.

I did the whole thing staying debt free, buying two properties we could afford on 10 year and a 15 year mortgages. I haven't rolled up a nickel since I retired 8 years ago.

It used to be a lot easier for working folk to get ahead.

Good for you, none of that is "sucking money out of the system". You had me wondering what you were saying.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

So your claim of having this current income without any effort is unfounded, false and misleading. Like anyone else enjoying retirement you and your spouse are enjoying the fruits of a lifetime of effort.
Pretty much the way the system is set up to work if one aims towards the goal of a comfortable retirement.

That's the whole point of capitalism. You accumulate assets, and those assets provide wealth with no effort. It removes the link between income and productivity. If you think I actually earned all my savings, dream on. A lot of that is other people's assets, thanks to their freakout in 2009. Like any good capitalist, I took advantage of market conditions to accumulate assets at far below their true value. Between July of 2009 and June of 2010, I doubled my net worth. There was no effort involved, I just gamed the system and won. If you think there's any virtue there, thanks for the freebie.

 

[goeduck]

That's the whole point of capitalism. You accumulate assets, and those assets provide wealth with no effort. It removes the link between income and productivity. If you think I actually earned all my savings, dream on. A lot of that is other people's assets, thanks to their freakout in 2009. Like any good capitalist, I took advantage of market conditions to accumulate assets at far below their true value. Between July of 2009 and June of 2010, I doubled my net worth. There was no effort involved, I just gamed the system and won. If you think there's any virtue there, thanks for the freebie.

So how many poor people's miniscule wealth were stolen along the way?

I am happy for the poor who don't get their minuscule wealth stolen by rich people.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Start with the Walton family.

You got that right. Billionaires off of the backs of American taxpayers...

 

[MoKelly]

That's the whole point of capitalism. You accumulate assets, and those assets provide wealth with no effort. It removes the link between income and productivity. If you think I actually earned all my savings, dream on. A lot of that is other people's assets, thanks to their freakout in 2009. Like any good capitalist, I took advantage of market conditions to accumulate assets at far below their true value. Between July of 2009 and June of 2010, I doubled my net worth. There was no effort involved, I just gamed the system and won. If you think there's any virtue there, thanks for the freebie.

You are so wrong in so many ways.

MoKelly

 

[Steppenwolfe]

You are so wrong in so many ways.

MoKelly

I would like to hear your opinion on why Larry is wrong, if you don't mind.

 

[MoKelly]

I would like to hear your opinion on why Larry is wrong, if you don't mind.

Read Wealth Of Nations. I cannot read it for you.

MoKelly