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Old 03-02-2013, 08:48 PM
 
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I always planned to work until 67 to get the full Social Security to supplement my retirement plan, and the recession has not changed that. Having just gotten another promotion and the fact that I love my job may mean that I could go another year or two beyond that but then I'll wait to decide when I get closer. We have been in this house 20 years and despite the bubble bursting the equity is still more than what we paid, and starting to go back up so we still might be able to pay cash for a house in a cheaper area when we retire. The biggest unknown "if" will be what happens with medical care between now and then. Things happen, but for now, thankfully, our kids are doing better than we were at their ages. The people I know that postponed their retirement in this area are business owners that invested for retirement in stocks rather than more secure instruments.
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Old 03-02-2013, 10:17 PM
 
Location: Northern Wisconsin
10,379 posts, read 10,867,404 times
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Cancelled plans to retire. Not because that I can't afford to retire now. But I prefer to stay productive and use my God given talents and abilities to serve my fellow man and contribute to a better world for others.
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Old 03-02-2013, 10:40 PM
 
11,181 posts, read 10,491,937 times
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I retired as planned and on schedule in 2011.

We paid off our mortgage in mid-2008. I have 3 pensions cobbled together, don't plan to draw SS for several more years.

Health care coverage will always be iffy. I'm thankful I've so far avoided chronic or acute conditions that negatively impact lifestyle and costs. Work hard (exercise, diet, etc.) to maintain that status. Hope the SS bump I will get, by postponing applying, will somewhat offset future health care premium costs.
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Old 03-02-2013, 11:16 PM
 
Location: Alaska
5,356 posts, read 18,507,683 times
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I reached my retirement goal, prior to the recession, went under the goal during it and I'm now back above the goal. Right now, I might be sacrificing a little return in order to prepare for retirement at the end of the year (beginning of next), by holding a higher percentage of cash. If another recession hits, we'll still be on track because of this.
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Old 03-03-2013, 02:34 AM
 
106,110 posts, read 108,073,381 times
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in many cases even the housing crash did not change things. if you were able to sell ,even at a lower price many of the popular retirement places crashed even worse so you may have still did better when you sold and re-bought.

a good pre-retirement plan should have had market corrections not effecting much either. one popular way of making sure that does not happen is by implementing a bucket system in advance or just plain old making sure if you are buying long term assets you buy time and the assets.

it is not the markets that dashed folks retirement plans but bad planning setting up for retirement.

being on the 401k committee at work i see fatal flaws made all the time.

folks continue to just throw money into equities funds as they get close to retirement with no plan for buying time in case things hit the crapper right before.

not being able to sell a home would be one of the few reasons that things could get delayed but then again that is a risk even in good times for real estate.

one recommended way to buy time is to set up 3 buckets a few years prior to retiring or thinking you will retire.

the amount of money you have doesn't matter as it is all based on your own amount.

bucket one should hold as much as 15 years of withdrawals in safe money in cash instruments, cd's or annuities , bucket 2 is bonds,income funds, income reits , bucket 3 is all your equites,commodities,reits etc.

regardless of what happens you have 15 years of withdrawals before you even have to think about selling equities to refill the buckets if you had to wait..

to date we never had a 15 year period ever where you could not have sold equities to raise cash at some point and made money.

having just finished structuring us like that before we dropped we watched the huge plunge more as a spectator than a participant .

that is not to say it didn't bother us, it sure did but the fact was our plans would have been un-scathed if we decided to retire earlier.

there are quite a few ways to structure in pre-retirement to avoid having markets and rates destroy your plans.

you may want to cut spending back a bit if retired after a 40% fall in the equities bucket but things should hold up okay even if you didn't.

there are and will be economic events that always will try to kill your plans off if you are not prepared.

prior to the big drop historically different parts of the country had rolling recessions instead of 1 master one. first the farmlands got hit, then the oil patch states ,then it was new england that got crushed, nyc got its share of grief in the late 1980's when the market and real estate crashed .

markets and or real estate crashing is nothing new , the key is how you prepare for them.

the fact is not everyone can prepare , there are those who have their home as their piggy bank and no savings. if that is your case then you are no different than anyone else who takes all their dough and throws in the whims of the market, or throws it all in cash and gets burned by low rates.


you may have had no choice as it was either own a home or save but that doesn't mean it won't turn out a risky bet for you.

when you bet the ranch on only one outcome and hope it turns out okay when the time comes that is always a risk and should be avoided if you can.

hope is never a strategy .

Last edited by mathjak107; 03-03-2013 at 03:14 AM..
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Old 03-03-2013, 04:25 AM
bUU
 
Location: Florida
12,077 posts, read 10,669,819 times
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I cannot say the plan has changed because we didn't have a plan before, and now we will. I think the net-effect will probably have been nil, because as much as the economic crisis would tend to push retirement dates out, it also has made the likelihood of maintaining profitable employment longer much less likely. I think neither of us will end up retiring, but rather simply reach a point when we can no longer find great jobs, and therefore will be retired by circumstance. The only questions that remain are (i) whether that'll be before or after the numbers on paper say we've reached financial independence; and (ii) whether the numbers on paper will turn out to be correct.
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Old 03-03-2013, 04:34 AM
 
106,110 posts, read 108,073,381 times
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those are the 2 age old questions that all of us have.
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Old 03-03-2013, 04:39 AM
bUU
 
Location: Florida
12,077 posts, read 10,669,819 times
Reputation: 8793
At least we've gotten it down to the bare minimum, down from the dozens of questions we once had!
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Old 03-03-2013, 04:48 AM
 
106,110 posts, read 108,073,381 times
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With 483 days 16 hours and 23 minutes left i don't think those last 2 questions will ever be answered prior. Lol
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Old 03-03-2013, 07:34 AM
 
31,672 posts, read 40,944,798 times
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We are a few month over having been retired five years and the Great Recession has helped our retirement plans come true.
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