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I agree with texdav. It's pretty easy to spend money. It takes a lot more effort to save money. You are going to be glad you have some money when you get older, and want to retire.
We're pretty much set now. We won't be rich during retirement but we'll be doing alright. Thank Goodness!
Trying to prepare for what will happen over the next 40 years is impossible. I've lived through several recessions one hyper inflation and had six jobs. The time I thought I was preparing for the future turned out to be wasted and the time I wasted turned out to be the basis of my retirement. Insurance and annuities only make money for the Insurance Companies. Put some away and use the rest to improve your life.
funny, i found the exact opposite, nothing has changed over the last 40 years. the same planning , investing and strategies still held true for us. if anything i would have diversified a little more the last 20 years as not
that equities did bad but other asset classes made it on the radar and did very well too...
if anything income taxes are lower today , markets are drastically higher and the only change is its harder to find a job with a pension.
i can honestly say there isnt a thing i would have done 40 years ago that would be different in our planning.
Idon't see nay changes either but do think more information is avialable. People have generally more disposable income than in the past; often they just choose to spend it on cellphone;compuers and things.I rememeber when I was a kid there were no way for a person to save for retirement other than a employer pension fund;invest in the markets himself;in a business or savings account;no IRA etc that gave breaks on taxes also. I rememebr when CD's giving more interest were quite popular.
... i'm 28, working for 6 years, 42k in 401k, 20k stocks, 75k equity in houses,
6 years of work and you have a portfolio with $137,000 ? ! ?
[42k + 20k + 75k = 137k]
That is amazing!
How many 28 year olds have 137k somewhere?
You have been building your portfolio at around $23k / year. In the next 37 years [when you hit 65] if you continue to build at this rate, you will have ~850k built up.
living in the U.S. has proven to be almost always about one thing! Retirement!
everyone is "living to retire!"....it's an ultimate goal and you better be ready for it!!! how silly! People don't understand that there needs to be a balance! live well now, prepare so you can live well later also! that's what i believe it should be!
i wanted to know if people here are overly concerned about retirement.....or have they found that balance. I'd also be interested in hearing about how much you've stashed away and at what age....
i'm 28, working for 6 years, 42k in 401k, 20k stocks, 75k equity in houses, and that's about it. most calculators put me at the bottom to midle of the chart as far as saving for retirement. I don't want to kill myself now with saving just so that i can have money in retirement (and then die at 75! lol)
Well, you only have one chance to save for retirement and that chance is now until you want to retire. You cannot do it once you reach retirement age.
I do not know what calculators you are using, but you are a model of fiscal sanity, especially at 28
I enjoy life now, but I don't want to be coming into the office at 70 and dealing with all the young punks- assuming age discrimination does not get me. I want to have fun.
living in the U.S. has proven to be almost always about one thing! Retirement!
everyone is "living to retire!"....it's an ultimate goal and you better be ready for it!!! how silly! People don't understand that there needs to be a balance! live well now, prepare so you can live well later also! that's what i believe it should be!
i wanted to know if people here are overly concerned about retirement.....or have they found that balance. I'd also be interested in hearing about how much you've stashed away and at what age....
i'm 28, working for 6 years, 42k in 401k, 20k stocks, 75k equity in houses, and that's about it. most calculators put me at the bottom to midle of the chart as far as saving for retirement. I don't want to kill myself now with saving just so that i can have money in retirement (and then die at 75! lol)
I think if you put away 5-10% of your gross income each year until retirement age (I assume mid to late 60's) you should be OK. It would help if you have a full or partial matching contribution from your employer.
I think you will find Social Security will still around in the future, and your savings will generate income to supplement SS.
I've read those calculators about how much you should have in retirement, and generally find them to be inaccurate.
I certainly agree with you on the calculators. 10-15 years ago, when I first started thinking about retirement, those calculators pointed out that I would need over 100% of my income in order to retire. This basically meant that I would end up working in retirement.
Fast forward to today, where I'm within 5 years of retirement. Based on my current expenses, I'll need nowhere near 100% of my then current income unless we have hyper inflation over the next 5 years. In fact, we should be able to live on less than the income streams we'll have available in retirement, which is far less than our current income.
One comforting thing is that I've heard from others who've retired that confirmed their expenses dropped when they retired. They may not be living extravagantly and might occasionally forgo a vacation, but they are able to pay their bills with their retirement income.
I never judge anything by how others are doing. each one of us is so unique in our lifestyles and expenses.... we are figuring almost 100% of our current earnings for the early years of retirement.
to many things we want to do and places to go... i have never had more then 10 days off in a row except once in 35 years so this is going to be awesome.......usually to make my few vacation weeks last all year ill only take long weekends.
I don't either, but it's nice to get confirmation that expenses have gone down for others. Made me feel better that our projected expenses being lower was not an anomaly. For instance, with our youngest away to college, we've had some of our lowest electricity bills ever, like 40% below our previous lows. I won't adjust that expense down though, because I like to keep some play in the projection.
If you have had to work full-time with no vacations, I can see where right off you would want to travel a bunch. My career included a lot of travel, so travel is not a big portion of my retirement.
My pension is around 1/4 of what my salary had been, and we have had to liquidate 4 income streams, however my Dw's income has gone up. Overall our houshold income has dropped to about half of what we were bringing in before my retirement.
Without plans to do much travel, we are doing fine. As a retiree, I think that each year our cost-of-living is going down.
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