Retirement

Curmudgeon wrote: About that part time job... maybe I can be a stand in for Ron Jeremy.

Wow, you're that ugly?

Zomby Woof wrote:

Curmudgeon wrote: About that part time job... maybe I can be a stand in for Ron Jeremy.

Wow, you're that ugly?

Damn close.

I retired from teaching at 51. Sat around, worked on house projects for 6 months and had enough of that. Went to work as a computer programmer/analyst for 5 years till the company was sold and moved. Did house/car stuff for another 10 months and then went to work part-time in a hardware store.

When I hit 62 I decided I had had enough and started drawing S.S. This had pretty much been my plan all along. By that time the wife had been retired for 2 years. She retired at age 55 from the Federal Government with 36 years of service-the last 10 in a fairly senior position.

Between our retirements and my S.S. we would be doing fine. But 30 years before our retirements we decided to try living on one salary and putting the other in savings. That worked very well and has allowed us to feel very comfortable in our retirement.

At 59 with >40 years service, I could have gone 4 years ago. I lke what I do; my boss is a 33 year old 5'11" blonde engineer with 2 Masters' and thinks I'm some kind of magician because I can make square things round. She just can't give me enough monetary awards. Thank you.

I find myself less patient with snow and winter every year and New Mexico is looking better every day. I can't do nothing otherwise I'll be in the garage staring at some car/motorcycle project and popping beers by 11:00am. Mrs. 914 wants to travel. Spain or Italy for three months in the winter?

For the <40 year old crowd, may I suggest socking away money with some investment Guru. Really, Soc. Sec. isn't going to be there so don't bank on that. Go with some high risk - high dividend investment and then back away a little as you near retirement.

I've been offered a job at a local Community College as a teachers aid in the machine shop. We'll see.

If you're going to mess with cars, I find motorcycles easier to deal with. Cheaper buy in, faster turn around, less clutter in the garage.

I'll send you a post card.

Dan

I'm a Gen. Y'er, so I'll either die in office or in poverty. Or possibly even both. So I'm trying to have as much fun as I can while there's still some fun to be had, and build skills that will be useful for eking out a low-resource existence. No real plans apart from that, heck I'd optimistically estimate that there's a 50/50 chance I'll still have my job next week.

I'm in my early 40s, and the loose/general plan is to retire once all my major life expenses have been dealt with and I can live on less money. Kids should be done with college in roughly 10 years, figure another 5-10 after that to pay off the house, and we should have enough financial security to hang it up at that point. My 401k's are fairly well stocked and I add to them with every paycheck. But I don't see myself just sitting around the house. My mom retired as a school teacher about 15 years ago, but has worked at a quilt shop part-time since then. I'll probably do something like that, except involving cars. Not sure exactly what yet, though.

I'll never forget a retirement commercial I think from the early 80s.

Scruffy guy sitting on the edge of a bed in a fleabag motel, subway rattling just outside.

Camera pans back.

Announcer says: "How you save for retirement decides where you spend it".

Don't retire, all your old buddies will stop over thinking you have nothing else to do and want you to fix their junk stuff for nothing and drink all your beer.

I wish my job had an actual pension retirement, but all has is offered is a 401k plan. They do match .75 per 1dollar up to 6%, so there is some free dough right there.

My other fallback is a mutual fund account that my dad set up 15 years ago. I was in a car wreck when I was 16 and received some insurance money from it. Popz was my power of attorney since I was under 18. He set up the account with our local bank and told me to leave it alone and it would grow bigger than I could imagine. Sure enough. I dug into it 3 years ago to make a hefty down payment on my house, replaced the AC unit on the house and bought mrs.pigeon a more reliable car. Even after all of that its still above the initial amount and continuing to grow. Hopefully that continues for the next 30-35 years.

an odd thing - just say that a file showed up with payroll info.

I was shocked at how little most people were dumping into their 401K's - that was after being pissed off seeing payroll.

If I retire at 55 (fat chance), it'll be 2044.

I often forget that I'm probably a little under the average age of the GRM forum user... Must be the maturity level around here that throws me off.

<<(Will be 55 in 2045)

JohnInKansas wrote: If I retire at 55 (fat chance), it'll be 2044. I often forget that I'm probably a little under the average age of the GRM forum user... Must be the maturity level around here that throws me off.

You old fart!

Here's a question I keep asking myself. Would be curious to hear what you guys think. I've got my 401k cooking along and it's done okay. I've put as much as the law allowed in it since I was 28. Now at 45, it's some money. Not as much as I thought it would be, but we're all in that boat over the last few years.

But how much do you think you need to have to retire? I don't have any "pension" or anything coming. Just what I can save, and hopefully a little something from SS.

But how much do you think you need to have to retire?

How fast do you want to go?

fast_eddie_72 wrote: But how much do you think you need to have to retire?

Ramsey, Orman, and Burkett all state you need to be 100% debt free and have $1,000,000 in savings.

Good Luck.

Datsun310Guy wrote:

fast_eddie_72 wrote: But how much do you think you need to have to retire?

Ramsey, Orman, and Burkett all state you need to be 100% debt free and have $1,000,000 in savings. Good Luck.

Debt free, absolutely. The $1000,000 thing is bullE36 M3. If you have half that, you're in real good shape.

fast_eddie_72 wrote: Here's a question I keep asking myself. Would be curious to hear what you guys think. I've got my 401k cooking along and it's done okay. I've put as much as the law allowed in it since I was 28. Now at 45, it's some money. Not as much as I thought it would be, but we're all in that boat over the last few years. But how much do you think you need to have to retire? I don't have any "pension" or anything coming. Just what I can save, and hopefully a little something from SS.

The answer to that question boils down to your monthly expenses. For instance, let's say you have $500,000 saved and manage to average a 10% return, from whatever investment vehicle you prefer (stock market, real estate, etc). That's $50k per year without touching the principal. If you can live on that, you're golden. If you can't live on anything less than $100k per year, you're screwed.

This is one take on the amount of money you'll need. Safe withdrawal rate

dyintorace wrote: you have $500,000 saved and manage to average a 10% return

Which is so incredibly unrealistic for 75% of the people who even HAVE retirement savings (the 10% average return).

My pension (if I stay where I am at for good) says $5k per month until I die if I were to retire at 55. Obviously, I'd retire, take the pension, and then continue working for the next decade.

No pension for me. The IRA fund I am in averages about 7.19% per year; over 30 years the lowest it's returned was 5.67% and the best has been 10.19%, the expense ratio is .25% (which is LOW). But-unlike many out there- it did NOT hit negative numbers during the latest economic contraction. That is the main reason I went with it. I'm not touching it, just letting it grow and throwing a few $ at it as I go.

So, going by the Money Mustache formula, I could live off just the interest as long as I have a paid for house, etc and not touch the principal. If SS is still around, that would be sort of like getting a raise.

In reply to HiTempguy:

Yeah, exactly. Tell me where I can get 10% year in and year out and I can retire today. I haven't seen anything like that kind of return for a good number of years now.

Retire? I'll still be working after I'm dead.

I was just reading on fb, that a high school friends father just retired after 43 and a half years at the same company.

fast_eddie_72 wrote: In reply to HiTempguy: Yeah, exactly. Tell me where I can get 10% year in and year out and I can retire today. I haven't seen anything like that kind of return for a good number of years now.

It's average return. Not every year. The market fluctuates, and has traditionally shown gains like that. Retirement saving is a long term effort. You need to realize that.

Datsun310Guy wrote:

fast_eddie_72 wrote: But how much do you think you need to have to retire?

Ramsey, Orman, and Burkett all state you need to be 100% debt free and have $1,000,000 in savings. Good Luck.

Can you provide a link to that? I'd like to see why they say that, because it's not good advice.

Zomby Woof wrote: Can you provide a link to that? I'd like to see why they say that, because it's not good advice.

Certainly not bad advice. Also, Canada vs. US, and I suspect that your cost of living will be significantly lower than the general population of either the US or Canada.

My 23 year old opinion: I figure that when I'm retired, I'll want to have a fixed income of about $50,000 a year. I want to retire by 55, based on family history, I expect to live to about 90 years old. That leaves me 35 years. By the time I'm retired, I will want my investments to be low-risk, so I'd plan on an average return of 3-5%.

That means that when I retire at 55, I will want my portfolio to be valued at about $850,000-$1,090,000.

I'm assuming that there will be no social security for me, and I'm not counting on my company's pension. If those are still there, then hey, good for me, I'll retire early.

The plan for my girlfriend and I (assuming that we end up together, and anything can change) is that we put away the entire income of whoever makes more for as long as we can. Maybe we'd be able to retire even earlier.

This is the best reason to retire early and enjoy yourself.

http://www.smithsfh.com/book-of-memories/1505983/Mount-Lorne/obituary.php

I worked with Lorne. Apparently he sat down the watch the Daytona 500, closed his eyes, and that was it. He was 62