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Money isn't everything... at least so it would seem.
One of my High School friends went to work for the Oakland Police Department... retired at age 51 with a 180k pension plus lifetime medical... after 2 years got bored and went to work for the County Sheriff's department earning another 130k.
After you buy the new trucks and take a trip around the world... then what?
In my case... it is simply a good feeling to know if lost my job today... it wouldn't affect my lifestyle one bit... and no... I don't have a pension or anything that continues after separation...
What I did do was to buy my first home right out of college and for a number of years would buy one dump every 18 to 24 months... move in, fix up and then on to the next and keep the old house for a rental... AND yes... it is still a job! But in no way comparable to having a boss.
I'm disabled but my hubby works. We don't own a home and have basically no debt. Is this something that is practical? We cannot afford to give more to retirement than we do already (I think my dh gives like 5% of his paycheck or something). Is this a possibility or a dream?
I'm thinking you'd better put your entire disability check into a 50/50 stock/bond fund, every month. Also to use a zero down FHA or RDA loan to buy a modest house. Your mtg payments will likely be similar to your rent payments. Pay a little more every month so you have some kind of house/condo/whatever paid off in 20 years.
It will hurt, but unless you work to have paid off housing, your husband is going to have an extremely difficult time retiring even at 70, given a 5% contribution. By "extremely difficult", I mean you will be eating cat food in a rented room - ESPECIALLY in New England, the land of high-priced everything. Certainly you could go onto a waiting list NOW for subsidized housing. One of the other posters has said that in New England, it is not the best. But it might make sense for you to do it as a way to stop the bleeding regardless of the conditions. The other benefit to subsidized housing: once you have been a qualified unit for a year, you can transfer anywhere in the country and get OUT of New England.
There is likely a way for you to earn casual income, as well. Look for it. Babysitting comes to mind. Grit your teeth and get good at something. You're "disabled", not "dead". The discipline you exercise now will have multiplier effects in ways you cannot imagine.
Best wishes. But seriously - take your current path as a screaming emergency siren.
Living frugally, no cable, no eat-outs, no entertainment, no kids (of course, a personal choice), no family vacations, all just to be able to retire between 45-55 yrs. of age....why would anyone want to live at all? Between 25 to 55 is the prime age where one is earning, healthy, fit, good looking and energetic. What's the point in wasting all those best years of life living frugally in anticipation of a better life somewhere in the far future where we don't even know whether we will be alive and if alive healthy enough to experience all the things we want to.
Of course, we all have to save for retirement but not at the cost of difficult and miserly adulthood according to me. I would never exchange the current life's experiences for any of the future comforts e.g., the 45 day road trip across the US we did a few years ago costing $35000. Like the master card punch line goes ' there are some things money can't buy for everything else there's master card'.
Agree with this. Yes, I try to be frugal enough to meet my savings goals, but not to the point of not enjoying my life in the here and now. I don't carry any credit card debt, I don't finance things beyond my mortgage and a couple of things with zero percent interest so why not (and I have the cash on hand to pay in full if I needed to). But at this point in my life, I am glad that I can enjoy the small indulgences for my son and myself without having agonize over every penny. No, I won't be retiring early, but frankly, the amount of indulgence I allow for myself wouldn't really change that even if it were invested, because it's just not that big of an amount. But it makes an enormous difference in my ongoing enjoyment of life, and I'm not willing to give that up to have a small additional amount more in retirement, when my plans leave me with enough to be comfortable at that point in my life as it is.
Keeping healthy is something people should do completely independent of our broken healthcare.
Agreed. But it's plainly obvious that most Americans are not doing that, by and large. I'm not going to get into the politics of it because I don't want to derail the thread. But suffice it to say the health care companies wouldn't make so much darn money if more people lived healthier lifestyles. My focus is on what people can control, not on what they can't. And people have more control than they will admit (over their money and their health).
Who in the heck with 500k in the account will just live off interest of 6%. it will take almost 16 years to even see 500k off interest.. With 500k one can sure make more money than 6%
Actually, if you want the money to last 30 years, a 6% withdrawal rate is way too high in most time periods. The down years will really hurt you with that withdrawal rate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by key2success
Buy 2 houses with lots of equity for about $150,000 each and rent it out for 1k a month each would be mor better then 6%
If being a landlord were that easy, everyone would do it. Reality check: You don't get to keep the whole 1K in rent for yourself. There are: bad tenants, vacancies, repairs, taxes, and insurance to consider. Not to mention being a landlord is really more of a part time job...It just isn't as passive as having a stock/bond portfolio. I'm not knocking it, but it's not for everyone. And your comment here makes it sound way too easy peasy.
Here is a really good blog series on real estate investing from a landlord. The guy really likes investing in real estate. But since anything you invest in (stocks, bonds, real estate, savings accounts, precious metals, etc.) will have pros and cons, he is honest about mentioning the drawbacks of being a landlord:
Last year, in our 70's we did 8 weeks across the U.S. and Canada and it didn't cost near that much. We did 4 weeks all over Europe and it didn't cost near that much. So far this year, just came back from Boston and NYC for two weeks, even with hotels costing $300 up per night. Two weeks in San Francisco and Oregon coast. Two weeks in Florida and one week on the Gulf in Texas it didn't cost that much. If we add it all together with flights and car rentals it maybe that much.
This was one of those 'once in a lifetime' moments. I could breakdown the cost for you if you don't trust me.
7000 mile road trip, car rental and gas (rented all kinds of crazy cars with added insurance like Lincoln, Mercedes, hummer and never returned it to the rental point) $6000
Train ride from Chicago to Seattle for three, $3000
$225 a day average night stay, about $10000
3 meals a day for three averaging $150 $ 160/day, $7000
The trip included Cleveland, McKenna's Island, guided kayaking and camping Great Lakes, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Yosemite, Los Angeles (a weeks stay Sunset Blvd, visit to Disney), San Diego,
Phoenix, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon (actually hiked the Canyon), Yellow Stone, Minneapolis and everything worth visiting in between.
35000 dollars? You're either loaded or terrible spenders.
I've lived out of the country for almost a year and didn't spend even close to that.
Loaded? No, Terrible spenders? May be, we in fact splurged on the trip thinking we weren't going back to those places ever again, I was leaving US for good but here I am back again as fate would have it.
I think a lot of people don't put enough focus on the "big ticket hits." If you're an average family with two newer, average cars with payments on them, that could be easily $600+/month. When you think of that as foregone retirement contributions and capital gains, say over a fifteen year period, it's a tremendous loss. For people that have kids, look at daycare bills these days. Cars and daycare can easily be more than a mortgage payment.
People often complain about cell phones, but they can be rather economical, considering their value. My family and I have three iPhone 6 pluses on the same account, and have 10GB of data, and unlimited voice and texting for $50/month per person. It would be hard to get a flip phone for that (the phones are paid for). Other than my car, the phone is the most useful device I have. $50/month isn't a lot (a nice dinner for two is more). Given that up seems silly.
Cutting cable, the cell phone, etc, is small potatoes compared to multiple car payments, an expensive boat, daycare, etc.
I know someone who retired in his mid 30s, although he has some passive income coming in. What he did:
1) Didn't even bother with college, started working as a web developer when he was 16. Was making $60k/yr by the time he was 19, $80k/yr by the time he was 22. He lived with his parents until he was 24 and pretty much just saved everything.
2) When he was 24 he bought a nice house in cash. He rented out the other bedrooms so that he was essentially living with zero housing costs. Think he broke into the six figures in his mid to late 20s, so he was saving even more.
3) Kept saving most of what he made and invested it all into buying houses and renting them out.
4) By the time he was 34 I think he had over 10 rental houses and was making about a $3-4k per month profit on them. I think most of them are paid for at this point, not sure.
I think he's still single with no kids, which explains how he can live so cheaply off his rental income, work part time when he feels like it, and travel a lot. Last I heard, he was backpacking in Europe somewhere.
Money isn't everything... at least so it would seem.
One of my High School friends went to work for the Oakland Police Department... retired at age 51 with a 180k pension plus lifetime medical... after 2 years got bored and went to work for the County Sheriff's department earning another 130k.
After you buy the new trucks and take a trip around the world... then what?
In my case... it is simply a good feeling to know if lost my job today... it wouldn't affect my lifestyle one bit... and no... I don't have a pension or anything that continues after separation...
What I did do was to buy my first home right out of college and for a number of years would buy one dump every 18 to 24 months... move in, fix up and then on to the next and keep the old house for a rental... AND yes... it is still a job! But in no way comparable to having a boss.
That's common with police and some fire fighters because really we do not want a bunch of older cops on streets. Its really like soldiers in combat to a degree. The risk is too high for taxpayers. Its called double dipping and is common in many professions where they can get jobs from past experience in demand. Airlines do same with military pilots.
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