Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Economics > Personal Finance
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 11-19-2010, 12:04 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles area
14,017 posts, read 20,836,714 times
Reputation: 32530

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by DrEarth View Post
Wow...life is unpredictable. If you die at 39, would you have enjoyed life?
I think we would all have different answers to this. If I had died at 39, I would have enjoyed life tremendously. Now that doesn't mean I didn't look forward to my retirement at age 61 and a half, but while working I was still able to pursue various hobbies and meaningful activities outside of work, and there were some aspects of work I enjoyed too, along with periods of horrible stress and misery, which fortunately were not continuous.

In reading the retirement forum during the past 8 months, I have seen this question answered in various forms and wordings over the entire gamut of the possible: One poster implied that he would commit suicide if he could no longer work because life would no longer have any meaning outside of work. Others hate their jobs so much that they wonder if their mental health will hold out until whatever retirement date they are shooting for financially, and they long for retirement as a pure heaven. Most of us probably fall between those two extremes, as I do.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 11-19-2010, 04:52 PM
 
Location: Portland, Oregon
7,084 posts, read 12,015,436 times
Reputation: 4125
It's your money, why are you asking everyone around you for permission to do what you want with it?

If you want to enjoy your money now, and that's your own decision, then do it.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-19-2010, 08:01 PM
 
Location: Conejo Valley, CA
12,460 posts, read 19,997,870 times
Reputation: 4365
Quote:
Originally Posted by subsound View Post
It's your money, why are you asking everyone around you for permission to do what you want with it?
No where in this thread do I ask for peoples permission to do what I want with my money.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-20-2010, 04:39 AM
 
105,757 posts, read 107,736,740 times
Reputation: 79380
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider View Post
I think we would all have different answers to this. If I had died at 39, I would have enjoyed life tremendously. Now that doesn't mean I didn't look forward to my retirement at age 61 and a half, but while working I was still able to pursue various hobbies and meaningful activities outside of work, and there were some aspects of work I enjoyed too, along with periods of horrible stress and misery, which fortunately were not continuous.

In reading the retirement forum during the past 8 months, I have seen this question answered in various forms and wordings over the entire gamut of the possible: One poster implied that he would commit suicide if he could no longer work because life would no longer have any meaning outside of work. Others hate their jobs so much that they wonder if their mental health will hold out until whatever retirement date they are shooting for financially, and they long for retirement as a pure heaven. Most of us probably fall between those two extremes, as I do.
ill tell you this much, having the savings and choice to work or not can make what you do even more enjoyable . the fact that you are doing it because you want to and not because you have can put things in a much better light.

i was going to retire early in june but i find i really enjoy what i do now since its on my terms and when the day comes i no longer want to do it ill stop.

being retired doesnt have to mean not working,it can meant just not having to work .
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-21-2010, 11:09 AM
 
8,263 posts, read 12,155,865 times
Reputation: 4799
Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
being retired doesnt have to mean not working,it can meant just not having to work .
Or being able to work a job you like despite low pay.

Or being able to work a job for no pay. "What do you do for a living? I work at the no-kill animal shelter three days a week."

Or knowing that if you are working the option to say "f*** you" is a viable alternative that doesn't come with unmanageable repercussions.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-21-2010, 01:32 PM
 
Location: Conejo Valley, CA
12,460 posts, read 19,997,870 times
Reputation: 4365
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider View Post
In reading the retirement forum during the past 8 months, I have seen this question answered in various forms and wordings over the entire gamut of the possible: One poster implied that he would commit suicide if he could no longer work because life would no longer have any meaning outside of work. Others hate their jobs so much that they wonder if their mental health will hold out until whatever retirement date they are shooting for financially, and they long for retirement as a pure heaven. Most of us probably fall between those two extremes, as I do.
Although, I would agree that most are not so extreme, I think a lot of people that are aggressively planning for retirement are short changing themselves today. Not so much in the financial sense, many can afford to save for retirement and live decently today, after all someone making $100k can easily save $15k and still have an income higher than most. But rather in terms of life, working some job you don't like, waiting until your old to take big vacations, etc etc seems rather depressing to me. Although, not everyone can have a job they love, I don't get why so many accept working in careers for 30~40 years that they don't enjoy or even are just so-so about. At least from my experience, there seems to be a high correlation between people focused on "retirement planning" and people that aren't really taking advantage of today.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-21-2010, 01:44 PM
 
Location: PNW, CPSouth, JacksonHole, Southampton
3,730 posts, read 5,721,373 times
Reputation: 15073
I know plenty of people who started trying to build net worth when they were still in their twenties. Many have had their savings confiscated in one way or another. Inflation ate up the value of their savings. The rental properties they bought were rendered worthless by 'Diversity'. But they had to pay Capital Gains 'recapture' on them, even though they sold them for far fewer Dollars than they'd paid, and even though a Dollar was worth half what it was when they'd bought the properties.

Now, people's IRAs are being wiped out. This, after the value of their stocks evaporated.

People think I'm 'set for life'. Personally, I have no confidence in the future. I've seen too many thrifty, prudent people wiped out to believe in anything.

So, I can't blame anyone who doesn't bother to save for the future. For most people, what's the point?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-21-2010, 02:00 PM
 
105,757 posts, read 107,736,740 times
Reputation: 79380
not sure where your investing but its not in diversified markets here... we are just about back to the highs and if you rebalanced instead of bailing at the low you already broke new highs..... there arew no diversified funds that are not up big time from the lows..


as far as working at jobs we may not like... thats life, thats why its called work. very few of us had the luxury of falling into something we like . usually its based on your first job and you just drift into that career or else we graduate and take a job and being that is our area of expertise thats where our value is.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-21-2010, 02:13 PM
 
Location: Conejo Valley, CA
12,460 posts, read 19,997,870 times
Reputation: 4365
The only reason someone, who has invested over the last 20-30 years would find themselves broke today, is if they made extremely poor investments. Even putting all your money in treasuries would have resulted in a decent return.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 11-21-2010, 02:19 PM
 
105,757 posts, read 107,736,740 times
Reputation: 79380
for the first time i think we are on the same page
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Economics > Personal Finance
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top