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Clemencia, any veteran waiting to file their VA Compensation claim until after they retire from a regular job is leaving thousands of $s on the table. VA Compensation claim awards are back-dated to when the claim was filed. Also by waiting it makes the chances of approval less. It is harder to prove service related conditions years after the fact.
recycled, VA Compensation rates are based on a veteran's combined disability percentage and the number of dependents (spouse, children, and parents). Even a veteran with 100% disability would still need to be supporting multiple dependents in order to receive $3,500 or more in VA compensation. https://www.benefits.va.gov/COMPENSA...ces_comp01.asp
I had neighbors who are retired military and their conversations about how to maximize disability benefits at times were amazing. One guy who had 100% disability had it down to a science. Another oh well he was back with the military working at a high level as a retiree with benefits. All were 20 year plus retirees. Getting a high percentage disability was a challenge and keeping it perhaps a greater challenge. Constantly needing to fill out forms and see people. One misstep and boom it could be gone.
The pensions can be a huge factor that determines the amount of money saved for retirement. My wife and I both receive pensions. Because we knew we would receive pensions while working for over two decades, we invested at a higher risk with diversification. As a result, we gained a higher return on investments over the long term. If we had worked jobs that didn’t receive pensions, we would have invested more conservatively, and gained a lower return over the long term. The pensions give you the freedom to invest at a higher risk level.
The “Rule of 72” tells you how long it takes for your money to double. If you’re average return over the long term is 8%, your balance will double every 9 years. Over the long term, we gained 8% not including the money we were adding to the retirement savings while we were both working. So, during our working years, our balances were doubling faster than that, due to our extreme saving.
We lost a lot of money in the downturn years, but we held our positions, and we gained back all the money we lost, then gained more. Many people can’t handle the downturn years, then withdraw during the downturn, then wait too long to get back into the market, and then miss most of the recovery years. The pensions make it easier to handle the financial pain during the downturn years, making it easier to hold the investment positions.
Our financial advisor estimated that we’ll live another 25 years. It could be shorter or longer. If we lived that long, without adding anything to our retirement accounts, the balance will double almost three times over that 25 year time period. So, our balance could be close to 8 times as large in 25 years. Of course, inflation will reduce the spending power over that long time period.
Now that we’re both retired, and had been living well below our means for decades, we are finding it harder than we thought it would be to spend more money than we did during our working years. It will be tough to see the balances drop over our retirement years. We’re living mostly off of our pensions now, withdrawning very little, adding nothing to our accounts, and the balances are still increasing. When I start drawing social security, we wouldn’t have to withdraw anything to pay all of our expenses. We’ll had even more money when my wife starts drawing her social security several years later.
Our sacrifices we made over the long term has paid off. Struggling to educate ourselves in a high return career paths. Studying hard at school to be in the top of our class, while many others took easy majors, with low or no return on investment, and partied in school. Then we both obtained high income jobs with companies that offered pensions. Living well below our means, and saving a lot of money for retirement. Most people can be financially successful, but it isn’t easy to get there, starting with next to nothing. There’s some luck that is involved too, avoiding serious financial set backs. Before age 40, I was on track to never retiring or retiring poor. I was being held back by myself, until I transformed my life.
Bada Bing, congrats and a often travelled path with a happy ending
my little grandson is in to little league at 5 years old . his team is the cubs . he wanted to see the real cubs play so i planned a getaway trip for my son , grandson and i , to fly to Chicago for a ball game and steaks and have a boys trip .
it is nice to be able to do things like this . we will make it in to a 3 day trip and give his mom and my wife a break from the 3 of us . .
my little grandson is in to little league at 5 years old . his team is the cubs . he wanted to see the real cubs play so i planned a getaway trip for my son , grandson and i , to fly to Chicago for a ball game and steaks and have a boys trip .
it is nice to be able to do things like this . we will make it in to a 3 day trip and give his mom and my wife a break from the 3 of us . .
Bada Bing and sweet and can't kids and grands be the cornerstone of a great retirement. Having the resources to do stuff like this can make it even more special. You are a great dad and grand dad affluent or not
thanks ... we try . we are here in nyc just so we can be part of all the grandkid's lives . not like our parents ended up being to our kids . they were a vacation stopover . the kids barely knew our parents .
thanks ... we try . we are here in nyc just so we can be part of all the grandkid's lives . not like our parents ended up being to our kids . they were a vacation stopover . the kids barely knew our parents .
We are heading up soon to help out son take care of our grands while his wife and friends take a well earned beach vacation. They are all moms and friends some from farther away who went to college with.
Exactly -- IMO the OP is trolling. His question is silly and humble-brag is so 00s.
I disagree. As you know, there are many sources out there stating that $1 million is the required nest egg for a good retirement. I used an online calculator years ago and it told me I need $2M (I'm not going to make it, BTW but I think I'll be alright). So I completely understand why he might wonder if his $500k 401k is going to be enough.
But if you follow the conventional wisdom that you can safely withdraw 4% per year, his $72k pension is equivalent of $1.8M, so it's almost like he's got $2.3M in the bank. That ought to be enough, but I'll bet if he uses the online calculator it will say he should have $3M.
those knowledgeable in retirement planning do not count income sources as an asset base . they are more like annuities not assets . they are not even close to the same thing on so many levels . no one counts social security and goes i have a million dollar asset base .
you SUBTRACT OUT all your income sources first . that is social security , pension ,ss , annuities , rental ,etc . then what is left has to come from savings and your asset base .
then that asset base is stress tested against the proposed allocation and checked to see if it had a high enough success rate .
. don't forget to get 40k safely from your portfolio you need a million if you are 40-60% equities but as much as 2 million if it was fixed income only
Last edited by mathjak107; 06-18-2018 at 11:09 AM..
my little grandson is in to little league at 5 years old . his team is the cubs . he wanted to see the real cubs play so i planned a getaway trip for my son , grandson and i , to fly to Chicago for a ball game and steaks and have a boys trip .
it is nice to be able to do things like this . we will make it in to a 3 day trip and give his mom and my wife a break from the 3 of us . .
lol. I'm here in Philly and my not so little or sweet kids wanted to use their savings to fly out to see the superbowl because finally, finally the Eagles were in it.
Now for the most part my kids are really great young adults. they've done some boneheaded things in their life but they are pretty great. So I told them I'd match anything they were going to throw at this adventure. lol, I also reminded my youngest who just graduated from temple U. that, this was officially his graduation, birthday and Christmas gift.
lol, on behalf of your wife and his mom, I can say without a doubt it was wonderful without the pachyderms for a couple of days.
Enjoy the "boys" trip. those are the wonderful stories I love to read about with retirees.
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but they are pretty great. So I told them I'd match anything they were going to throw at this adventure. lol, I also reminded my youngest who just graduated from temple U. that, this was officially his graduation, birthday and Christmas gift.
