Retirement Planning - Lessons Learned

[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