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the unlucky acts of life are something you just cannot avoid. no planning can allow for some of them.
however that said, many folks just commit their own financial suicide by lack of knowledge and bad planning.
by the same token the retirement graveyard is full of failed retirements because folks didn't understand even the most basic aspects of constructing for spending down.
much of the info I post is geared to get those folks thinking for themselves before they fail.
I think that much of what you post is valuable for those who have made it well and are looking for advice on the maintenance and spend-down stage of retirement. Those who are building their retirement funds would be, on the whole, younger than retirement and so reading the commentary on that is kind of late in the game.
I would like to see you start a "Financial Planning for Retirement" FORUM that would be cross-posted in General Finance/Investing AND Retirement (seen readily on both forums as a sticky, since it's such a vast and important topic to both areas). It should be it's own forum, not a thread, as threads get leggy and all over the place and quickly off topic. Your forum could be something like:
Retirement Planning Forum
Possible threads: Investing in your 20s and 30s; what to do in a job change or layoff; how to recoup funds after a financial downturn; best finance authors (I'd like to see this one, as I'm big on books, though as soon as a book is printed it's outdated); strategies for where you live, etc etc.
That would keep all the financial topics in one place, easily accessed between the major forums, and I think would keep the posts more informational and less emotional. Mixing up finance with what did your grandkids say today is just too, too much.
that would be an interesting undertaking. I tend to stick to the retirement end since that is what I am gearing towards . it is also where there is a big lack of understanding by both retirees and pre-retirees.
I think the regular investment forum handles the accumulation stage well.
the only area I see a void is that cross over stage where you are approaching retirement in a few years and want to start moving towards a more comfortable plan that gets you ready for spending down.
that can take place 5 years or so out. we started our changeover about 5 years ago and I still have about 1 to 2 years to retire fully..
If we remove the financial topics from the retirement forum, there won't be enough threads left to keep retirement forum alive.
I really think the best advice is to read the threads that interest you, and if a thread doesn't apply to you don't read it. This idea that everybody needs to read every thread is a strange one. Why would anyone want to do that? It's even stranger to think every post needs to appeal to everyone.
If we remove the financial topics from the retirement forum, there won't be enough threads left to keep retirement forum alive.
I really think the best advice is to read the threads that interest you, and if a thread doesn't apply to you don't read it. This idea that everybody needs to read every thread is a strange one. Why would anyone want to do that? It's even stranger to think every post needs to appeal to everyone.
I agree, as I am opposed to any further atomization of the Retirement Forum. It's a topic which comes up with some regularity. Two major areas have already been split off: Medicare (which is now part of the Health Insurance sub-forum of the Health Forum) and Caregiving (which is now its own forum). I think this Retirement Forum works well as it is currently structured, and I also thought it worked well before those two areas were split off.
NewEnglandGirl, why is it problematic to read thread titles and choose what you're interested in?
It seems to me there are three major areas left here under which most threads fall:
1. Finances as related to retirement, including Social Security issues and retirement planning.
2. Relocation issues - advantages and disadvantages of various states, cities, and areas.
3. Lifestyle issues - activities in retirement, family relationships, etc.
Now NEG wants to remove #1. I say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!
My dear US friends, I love you but really...when we you learn to save instead of borrowing? as an European, when I see all the plastic money you have...I have exactly one Visa card, and it's a debit card! I mean, I met this US guy the other day, he wanted to mortgage his home in the States to buy a condo for his vacations in Cancun! it's mind blowing! no commonsense and old mom and pop budget wisdom nowadays!
The person you are speaking of is silly... unless the condo is going to appreciate and he can rent it to others for their vacations (although this doesn't usually generate an income... at least in Florida it doesn't). Perhaps he needed a write-off for his income taxes. Who can say?
I tend to shy away from the debit cards. It is too easy to have my money stolen. When my husband died there was a big article in the newspaper about it. I had given his death certificate to the bank and was assured that his name would be removed from all of our joint bank accounts. Yet not a week later a man walked into the bank with my dead husband's ID and requested a debit card. Thankfully the card was sent to my address and I was able to cancel it. I also had to close those accounts because I no longer trusted the bank. With a credit card the very worst that person would have been able to do is charge things on the card and the credit card company would have protected me.
My credit card also gives me nice benefits. Mine gives me money back for each dollar I spend on the credit card. It also will pay for damage to a rental car, increases product warranties by a year, gives me a price guaranty for 90 days, and free travel insurance. It itemizes all of my expenditures which helps me to see where and when I am spending my money. I love my credit card.
Different countries handle money differently. Americans do need to learn how to invest and how to save. There are a lot of things we should be taught but aren't.
Another fan of MathJak's posting here. Please, please don't stop. I especially appreciate the posts about how to make sure your money lasts throughout your lifetime, and agree that it doesn't much matter how many zeros are in the account. Many of us here appreciate your threads and I for one would hate to see them moved.
there is always something to learn .whether you want to is another story.
True, there is always something to learn but the second sentence is insulting as it is supposedly applying to retired people who apparently don't know anything about handling their own money.
Many retired people know all they need to know about handling money. They've done it just fine all their lives. Maybe they've ended up with not a lot but that is NOT THEIR FAULT. (despite all the insinuations). It's NOT that they need to LEARN how to handle money.
If you don't have a lot of money, there is nothing else to know than what you already know. You've always been frugal so you continue to be frugal. If you were to do as suggested and INVEST, you would be an idiot because you wouldn't be able to pay your rent or your mortgage. You stay afloat, that's the name of the game and there is no way that paying attention and learning something new about money is going to change things. This is called Living on a Fixed Income.
"Why are most Americans in such bad shape financially?" It's in the Retirement Forum so retirees opened it and started reading. It turned out to be a thread bashing the kinds of people who are crazy spenders. It wasn't a helpful or informative thread and it wasn't even about retirees. But retirees opened it and read it and found the hatred to be offensive. It's the kind of thread I see in Politics & Other Controversies--hatred, venom, stereotyping. I stay out of P&OC. Do we really need that sort of thing on the retirement forum too?
that would be an interesting undertaking. I tend to stick to the retirement end since that is what I am gearing towards . it is also where there is a big lack of understanding by both retirees and pre-retirees.
I think the regular investment forum handles the accumulation stage well.
the only area I see a void is that cross over stage where you are approaching retirement in a few years and want to start moving towards a more comfortable plan that gets you ready for spending down.
that can take place 5 years or so out. we started our changeover about 5 years ago and I still have about 1 to 2 years to retire fully..
How about a sticky at the top of this forum on the subject? There seems to be so much discussion on the topic, more than the other stickies currently, and it would be a place people could go directly to. Just a thought.
there is always something to learn .whether you want to is another story.
True, there is always something to learn but the second sentence is insulting as it is supposedly applying to retired people who apparently don't know anything about handling their own money.
Many retired people know all they need to know about handling money. They've done it just fine all their lives. Maybe they've ended up with not a lot but that is NOT THEIR FAULT. (despite all the insinuations). It's NOT that they need to LEARN how to handle money.
If you don't have a lot of money, there is nothing else to know than what you already know. You've always been frugal so you continue to be frugal. If you were to do as suggested and INVEST, you would be an idiot because you wouldn't be able to pay your rent or your mortgage. You stay afloat, that's the name of the game and there is no way that paying attention and learning something new about money is going to change things. This is called Living on a Fixed Income.
"Why are most Americans in such bad shape financially?" It's in the Retirement Forum so retirees opened it and started reading. It turned out to be a thread bashing the kinds of people who are crazy spenders. It wasn't a helpful or informative thread and it wasn't even about retirees. But retirees opened it and read it and found the hatred to be offensive. It's the kind of thread I see in Politics & Other Controversies--hatred, venom, stereotyping. I stay out of P&OC. Do we really need that sort of thing on the retirement forum too?
The only part we disagree in is the part where you say if they don't have much money what else is there for them to do.
my question to you would be than how do they judge how much of that money they can spend a year and not end up with a shopping cart living under the bridge down the road?
regardless of the amount, they need a way to judge just how much can they spend a year if they have intentions of keeping that income going.
they need to know what can they spend from their small savings and for how long, what about inflation adjusting ? what are their odds of keeping that income going through good and bad times, and last how do they have to allocate that small savings to get that income to last.
that is where most of what I educate in comes in to play.
anyone utilizing their savings to generate an income no matter how large that income is or how small has these very issues ,.
it is all about turning whatever you do have into a reliable income stream.
Last edited by mathjak107; 09-19-2013 at 01:47 PM..
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