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I retired at 62 and there are several pieces of advice I can offer.
Live life like it’s the adventure of a lifetime, because it is.
Adventures don’t have to cost money.
Avoid debt except for a mortgage.
Only buy a new vehicle when you can pay cash for it. Otherwise buy 2 or 3 year old vehicles.
Don’t allow yourself to become addicted to anything that will destroy your health.
Save and invest with the help of a reputable “fee only” financial planner.
Most of all.....enjoy the journey!
I would suggest keeping your money where you can get to it and use it any way you want to without government influence. Government has been rumored about taking over those 401 accounts. I think I am paying more taxes on money coming out of my 401K than I would otherwise have paid on it and it was my money going in the account in the first place.
I've been thinking about this recently. I haven't researched this yet, but the itch in the back of my mind tells me.....The more money you amass in your 401k, the more your required minimum distributions (RMD) will be. At some point if you start taking social security payments, they could push you into a new tax bracket and you'll be one of these people complaining about all the taxes you're paying.
Consider ROTH IRA and lighten up on the 401k to simply get the company match.
When it comes time to retire, start drawing down the retirement accounts instead of taking early social security so that your RMD won't be quite as large when you hit 70.
Feel free to shoot my thoughts down if it's poor advice.
I retired at 62 and there are several pieces of advice I can offer.
Live life like it’s the adventure of a lifetime, because it is.
Adventures don’t have to cost money.
Avoid debt except for a mortgage.
Only buy a new vehicle when you can pay cash for it. Otherwise buy 2 or 3 year old vehicles.
Don’t allow yourself to become addicted to anything that will destroy your health.
Save and invest with the help of a reputable “fee only” financial planner.
Most of all.....enjoy the journey!
Save but don't deprive. The older I've gotten the more I believe "it's only paper" and it comes and goes and if our great govt fathers can be in tremendous debt, why should we worry about our little debts. I use their money and keep my cash as much as I can. I don't think as my parents did. I'm 79.
These sorts of threads invariably follow a pattern. Besides the usual exhortations to be frugal and mindful of savings, to take the long-view, to develop one’s career and to seek balance between pleasure and self-control, between ebullience and risk-aversion, there’s the underlying assumption: we make our own destiny. Life is not a play by Sophocles, where heroes strain and struggle, only to end up at their foreordained position. Fatalism is outright… un-American.
Rather than overstating the case for fatalism (maybe I’d like to, but what if destiny demands otherwise?), I wish to enunciate a different sort of tune, from the usual drumbeat: it is more important to finish late, than to start early. How could this be? Simple! It takes tremendous vigor to graduate from college on time (let alone early), to land a remunerative job, to save money at entry-level wages. It’s certainly worth trying, but it’s hard. Well, what happens if we burn out? What happens if, in middle-age, we commit some transgression, that wholly obviates the good-things done in prior decades? And what if we rest too soon, crying “Enough!” prematurely?
I marvel at how many people arrive at 40, let alone at 31, having saved nothing, worked more or less menial jobs, frittering about, flailing and seemingly getting nowhere… yet 20 years later, they are prosperous and secure, and 10 years after that, still very much working – not from imposed necessity, but self-generated pleasure. It amazes me, how much the second half of life, matters more than the first.
so I am 31 now and started my 401k. it has 6% match and I am adding 10% in from my own income.
after I am done remodeling my house, I am thinking of saving and buying an apartment or town house and renting it out, so in 20 - 30 years, I can refinance to whatever I have left and have more residual income
thats about it. Not sure what I should do. I was wondering if you all have advice, please share the knowledge
I feel like I started off way too late and I should have started in my early 20s. BUt having a rough start, i am starting in my 30s
Thoroughly understand all the terms of your retirement, sometimes they aren't as good as your employer makes them sound. When I can retire, if I leave job early, all benefits and taxes. My job a government job had a retirement class. I took it a few times 5 years before retirement and what a help it was, wish I had done it sooner!
I'm not retired yet, but I would tell people just starting out in life:
1. Live like you are poor. You aren't impressing anyone with a fancy car, big house, or any other luxury item. Nobody cares about your material possessions. Whatever is left over at the end of each month, put it into an S&P 500 index fund regardless of what the market is doing and DON'T TOUCH IT. If your salary gets up to the $70k-$80k range, aim for investing 50% of your take-home pay, not the 10% that is often recommended. You won't regret it.
2. Eat right and exercise. Don't become obese.
3. There will be loads of people at jobs who will be difficult and who you won't like. Just ignore them and focus on what you are paid to do.
4. Once you can afford it, take a vacation once in a while, especially outside of the U.S., both to highly developed first-world European and Asian countries, as well as developing, second/third world countries. It gives you some perspective.
5. As soon as you can swing it, retire. You are only given one life. Most jobs are unfulfilling and quite frankly, just suck. That is why investing money regularly is so important.
I suppose you posted in the retirement forum because you are thinking ahead long term regarding you finances. Setting aside money in your 401k is a minimum. Building additional savings, investment and wealth is important but at this time in your life nothing, aside from family, is more important than building your career. Think about what you need to do to move ahead. That might mean changing jobs, changing locations, additional education, continuing education.......
Invest in yourself and your growth.
Working for someone else means you are never really free! You'll spend your life pandering to others. Build your own business/s and your own income stream/s and you'll never have to be concerned about government pensions, government legislation or handouts.
Working for retirement is a complete waste of a life. You should be working for a purpose and then you'll never be concerned about the weird concept of "retirement".
If you were ever in the military, join the Reserves or the National Guard and get your 20 years in. For some, that pension will be a life saver. For me, it just means every month my income is measured in the five figures. And I get to use all the amenities of my local military base, as well as military lodging all over the country. The military has a lot of prime real estate on some of the best beaches in the country, including Hawaii.
I marvel at how many people arrive at 40, let alone at 31, having saved nothing, worked more or less menial jobs, frittering about, flailing and seemingly getting nowhere… yet 20 years later, they are prosperous and secure, and 10 years after that, still very much working – not from imposed necessity, but self-generated pleasure. It amazes me, how much the second half of life, matters more than the first.
I'm sure such people exist, but my experience of aimless 40 year olds is they just get more aimless over time.
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