Where are the people who don't have enough to retire (friendly, crying)
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While I agree that putting off taking SS is a good idea, I always bristle when I hear the advice . . . work til you are 70. The reason is -- I know far too many folks whose health or job loss forced them into retirement before 70.
So much advice is advice "in an ideal world" but frankly, I don't think most people live in that "ideal world."
I am very happy for those who have managed to plan things out and then their lives follow that plan! But I look around me and frankly, I don't see many who fall into that category.
While I agree that putting off taking SS is a good idea, I always bristle when I hear the advice . . . work til you are 70. The reason is -- I know far too many folks whose health or job loss forced them into retirement before 70.
So much advice is advice "in an ideal world" but frankly, I don't think most people live in that "ideal world."
I am very happy for those who have managed to plan things out and then their lives follow that plan! But I look around me and frankly, I don't see many who fall into that category.
I don't want to work until I'm 70. I've been in my job since I was 20. Before that I had another full-time job. I never got to sit home and watch soap operas and eat bon-bons. The only time off I ever had was three months maternity leave 23 years ago and then eight weeks family leave I took to care for my grandmother while my mother recovered from surgery, fifteen years ago.
I want to know what it's like to wake up and not have what I do with my day dictated by someone else, and God willing, I want to be able to experience that while my health is still good.
Not sure the advice is a blanket work until you are 70. In fact the recommended practices are designed to help you retire well before 70. Work until 70 becomes a suggested alternative if circumstance allows you to work until 70 and life has not provided you the opportunity to retire with financial confidence prior to. I think many aspire to early retirement and are encouraged by folks like MJ to go for it. I didnt see MJs post above until after posting this.
I don't want to work until I'm 70. I've been in my job since I was 20. Before that I had another full-time job. I never got to sit home and watch soap operas and eat bon-bons. The only time off I ever had was three months maternity leave 23 years ago and then eight weeks family leave I took to care for my grandmother while my mother recovered from surgery, fifteen years ago.
I want to know what it's like to wake up and not have what I do with my day dictated by someone else, and God willing, I want to be able to experience that while my health is still good.
I didn't want to work till I was 70 either but, here I am, at 72 still working. I don't feel so bad about it anymore and have accepted that it's always going to be a fact of my life, but boy would I love to try NOT working! lol I didn't work outside the home from 18 to 25 but have spent the rest of those years on the job. Don't remember any soap operas or bon bons either. No time with a houseful of kids.
I know you'll get your wish. You'll be well prepared for it and earned it!
While I agree that putting off taking SS is a good idea, I always bristle when I hear the advice . . . work til you are 70. The reason is -- I know far too many folks whose health or job loss forced them into retirement before 70.
So much advice is advice "in an ideal world" but frankly, I don't think most people live in that "ideal world."
I am very happy for those who have managed to plan things out and then their lives follow that plan! But I look around me and frankly, I don't see many who fall into that category.
Quite right. I had intended to work until 64 but fortuitously hit a "I'm really tired of working after 45 years" wall at 62 and pulled the work plug. I thoroughly enjoyed being retired, still do, but at 66 suddenly lost all feeling in my lower limbs, including hands and feet, and even after considerable neurosurgery have not and never will regain full function.
Given the above and the resultant loss of mobility and feeling I could never have worked until 70 even if I wanted to, which I didn't.
Thinking of all my professional friends and coworkers who retired before and in the following years, most retired at or about the same age I did. Now granted, we all had good pensions and retirement benefits but I don't believe any of us feel like idiots for not having stuck it out until 70 just to reap more of the almighty dollar (cue sounds of exploding heads) and I doubt any of us feel deprived.
Rest assured, my last thought just before I assume room temperature will NOT be, "Damn! I could have worked longer."
Those who "don't have enough to retire" will doubtless find ways to do so. They can be very enterprising and constructive in many ways and have managed to survive and reach "retirement age" as a result. Many, nay, most, have worked hard all their lives. If it takes some help from our tax dollars, as I've said before, that's what "providing for the general welfare" is all about. You don't have to be wealthy to have been productive members of society.
I didn't want to work till I was 70 either but, here I am, at 72 still working. I don't feel so bad about it anymore and have accepted that it's always going to be a fact of my life, but boy would I love to try NOT working! lol I didn't work outside the home from 18 to 25 but have spent the rest of those years on the job. Don't remember any soap operas or bon bons either. No time with a houseful of kids.
I know you'll get your wish. You'll be well prepared for it and earned it!
I hope so! But you raise a good point--we never do know what life will hand us, do we? We make plans, and the gods laugh.
I hope so! But you raise a good point--we never do know what life will hand us, do we? We make plans, and the gods laugh.
And THAT is the truth! lol I have to laugh when I remember having my life all planned and mapped out at the age of 17. I knew exactly what I wanted and how it was going to be. Very idealistic, starry eyed, dreamer kid. lol For some reason I never took into account that 'other people' in my life might have some say in it, not agree with me or just not see things my way. I made plans and 'they' laughed! lol
Oh, I'm so glad you're here. The trunk on my car won't latch anymore, and in the severe winter storms we've had here, the wind blew the trunk open and it filled up with water. I was able to buy a wet vac on Amazon for only $30 and vacuum out the water myself, but fixing the trunk latch would be great. I don't have the money, so could you send me a check for, say $100? That might cover it.
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Not intending to make light of your broken trunk latch, but reading your post about it made me chuckle as I remembered my graduate school days when money was really tight. I was driving an old Dodge Dart which was suffering from the old "up north" rot ( ie, was rusting out) but which fortunately held out mechanically till I finished school and got a job. Someone had broken into the trunk by popping out the lock and they damaged the latch mechanism so that trunk wouldn't close either. Of course I couldn't afford to get it fixed, so a friend and I used rope threaded through the hole left from the lock, out another hole (left from being rusted out) in the body near the trunk, and tied around the bumper. The trunk door stayed pretty well closed that way. Of course I didn't carry anything in that trunk since I knew it leaked, so I didn't need to open the trunk door again.
I also found, when someone also snapped off the antenna in a random act of vandalism, that metal nail files worked well and stayed put in the antenna spot.
[quote=Curmudgeon;38697446]Quite right. I had intended to work until 64 but fortuitously hit a "I'm really tired of working after 45 years" wall at 62 and pulled the work plug. I thoroughly enjoyed being retired, still do, but at 66 suddenly lost all feeling in my lower limbs, including hands and feet, and even after considerable neurosurgery have not and never will regain full function.
Given the above and the resultant loss of mobility and feeling I could never have worked until 70 even if I wanted to, which I didn't.
Thinking of all my professional friends and coworkers who retired before and in the following years, most retired at or about the same age I did. Now granted, we all had good pensions and retirement benefits but I don't believe any of us feel like idiots for not having stuck it out until 70 just to reap more of the almighty dollar (cue sounds of exploding heads) and I doubt any of us feel deprived.
Rest assured, my last thought just before I assume room temperature will NOT be, "Damn! I could have worked longer."
Those who "don't have enough to retire" will doubtless find ways to do so. They can be very enterprising and constructive in many ways and have managed to survive and reach "retirement age" as a result. Many, nay, most, have worked hard all their lives. If it takes some help from our tax dollars, as I've said before, that's what "providing for the general welfare" is all about. You don't have to be wealthy to have been productive members of society.[/quote]
I'm really sorry to hear of your health problems. I hope you can still do most of the things you want to do and I know you are stubborn enough to not 'give up'.
The bolded is very true. One way or another we WILL survive. I've had my times of being on food stamps. Thankfully very short periods of time. I've had my times of unemployment and wondering where my next cup of coffee was coming from. But, not liking the idea of being homeless...and without coffee!...I always, always, got another job post haste.
Sometimes I'm amazed I've reached retirement age but I don't know why. Maybe because I've already lost so many friends and family at "young" ages. Some died just when they could have retired. And, no, we don't have to be wealthy to retire but it helps if we have enough to pay the bills and live a decent life. I can't do it without working part time but it's okay. I'd rather work than try to rely on anyone else, including the government. BUT if I HAD to? Yes, I would. Self preservation if nothing else.
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lol
