Where are the people who don't have enough to retire (financial advisor, meal)
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This thread has taken the usual turn toward how to make money.
The original intent was about wondering where the less wealthy retirees are? I'm glad we've heard from them, many are here but don't bother posting because they don't want "lessons" that do not apply to them. Most have done the right things and have been sideswiped by poor health or late divorce or other matters beyond their control.
I am an extremely frugal person and always have been. I also invested and saved. I had a nice home. I worked. I took care of my aging parents. Yet I ended up without a lot of money. A lot of other people have similar situations.
I still wish we could divide this forum into pre-retirement planning and retirement. Those who want to know how to make more money and are still able, could hang out primarily in the pre-retirement planning. Those of us, rich or poor, who are already retired, could have our own forum where we accept what we have in life and discuss what applies to US, not to people who are ten to twenty years younger and not retired.
I always thought the Retirement Forum was for retirees, older people who are retired. We're different from the middle aged folks who have middle age issues. Since we're all lumped in together and the emphasis is on money and planning--which simply do not apply--I hang out more in my state forum, the gardening forum, the genealogy forum, the frugal living forum, etc.
I wonder what other retired people do on CD? Do you get weary of all the financial-planning-for-retirement discussions and find yourself gravitating toward other forums instead? Do you scan the internet looking for a real retirement discussion group? (Has anyone found one?)
I have started another thread for people who want to retire but are looking for strategic ways to get there. So far, it's only about ME, but I didn't want the thread to be just about me. If anyone else is in my shoes--looking for a way to get to retirement when NOT having savings and still carrying debt as I approach retirement age, please feel free to go in there and post your story.
My plan is to take my pension and then find another job. Some folks have already posted and are giving me good ideas.
I still wish we could divide this forum into pre-retirement planning and retirement. Those who want to know how to make more money and are still able, could hang out primarily in the pre-retirement planning. quote]
Seems as though planning for retirement easily fits in either the Investing or Personal Finances forums, especially since how younger people are allocating their funds impacts many and different financial decisions during those years that aren't related to most retirees.
the problem is those forums do not attract many seniors and they are suited for the 1st half of the game the accumulation stage.
once you reach retirement the game becomes very different for those in retirement as many have this pile of money they saved and now want to know :
how much can i spend and not worry about running out of money ?
how do i allocate it to meet those goals ?
what other products can i add to increase my odds of not having to take an income cut down the road ?
most important how do i tax plan this mess to co-exist with rmds and social security.
these are issues most have no interest in on the other forums. they want to know how to make money , not spend it down in the decumulation stage we are in.
i think we need a seperate retirement financial sub forum. maybe retirement and our money .
Last edited by mathjak107; 03-08-2015 at 01:30 PM..
I still wish we could divide this forum into pre-retirement planning and retirement. Those who want to know how to make more money and are still able, could hang out primarily in the pre-retirement planning. quote]
Seems as though planning for retirement easily fits in either the Investing or Personal Finances forums, especially since how younger people are allocating their funds impacts many and different financial decisions during those years that aren't related to most retirees.
Those could be worse. Folks in the investing thread tend to have money or ask questions like, I just came into 100K how should I best invest it. Folks there are more likely to break down and disclose their resources and that could make a person really feel on the short side. The personal finance thread can be a hodgepodge and if you think folks here can be opinionated and take a thread elsewhere. Most of us do it at some time and one of the reasons we know little in the way of real specifics about other posters. Go to the Boglehead forum and people will disclose their financial life history and feel comfortable in doing so.
same on the early retirement forum many of us frequent. good discussions go on all the time with real numbers and real people and there is always something to be learned.
90% of all the thoughts and ideas i steal from others come from those discussions.
Each person needs to evaluate their own situation as it relates to fixed cash flow and Medicaid cost. Even if your nest egg runs out your fixed cash flow might be paying 80% of the bill for ever and ever. That is why the when to take SS discussion becomes important for many people. Sometime you only need enough money to get to the door and their accountant will g you in the door. Perhaps most importantly is the range of nursing home quality and getting into a quality one is the big battle.
That's what's happened with my mother, only it's an assisted living facility instead of a nursing home. The place has been recommended by any number of people we know, we checked it out, and seems she's lucked out as for getting into a good place. I'd go there myself if I needed to go to an ALF.
This was her decision to get into an ALF. Not what I would have done in her circumstances, and we've suggested, and tried to help her (including financially, within our means without going broke ourselves) with those other alternatives including independent living with help, transportation, and entertainment as she needed it. She's in good health and her mind is as sharp as a tack ( and she's just as manipulative as she ever was, LOL).
She probably could have made it on her SS and dwindling savings that way without resorting to Medicaid, but none of what was offered, including a brand new one-bedroom apartment in an over 55 community, was good enough for her.
So she's followed her "boyfriend" ( who really needed the care at the ALF) to the ALF, with the plans of using up the money in her annuity ( she had about $18,000 left, not much so it won't take long) to pay for her spot there monthly, and they say they will help her apply for Medicaid when her funds get low enough. Her choice, we told her there was no way we could pay her ALF expenses. So be it.
I think there are lots of folks in that same boat. With folks living so much longer now than they did in earlier days, the possibility of running out of one's savings is very real, and again, I see it as a matter of "there but for the grace of G-d...." I hope I'd be ok till I was about 110 years old, but you never know. If I were to try and keep my mother off Medicaid (especially with her champagne tastes) I'd be there myself before I knew it.
I still wish we could divide this forum into pre-retirement planning and retirement. Those who want to know how to make more money and are still able, could hang out primarily in the pre-retirement planning. Those of us, rich or poor, who are already retired, could have our own forum where we accept what we have in life and discuss what applies to US, not to people who are ten to twenty years younger and not retired.
I always thought the Retirement Forum was for retirees, older people who are retired. We're different from the middle aged folks who have middle age issues. Since we're all lumped in together and the emphasis is on money and planning--which simply do not apply--I hang out more in my state forum, the gardening forum, the genealogy forum, the frugal living forum, etc.
I wonder what other retired people do on CD? Do you get weary of all the financial-planning-for-retirement discussions and find yourself gravitating toward other forums instead? Do you scan the internet looking for a real retirement discussion group? (Has anyone found one?)
I'll raise my hand as one who has no special interest in strategies for accumulation, portfolio allocations and so forth because I am one of the lucky ones with a fairly decent pension and I was all set financially when I retired from full-time work ten years ago at the age of 61.
But, perhaps paradoxically, I have no desire to see the Retirement Forum split into two or more parts because it is so easy to not click on any threads that I see I'm not interested in. Most thread titles are descriptive, allowing us to do that, although there are a few exceptions.
I am more interested in the "lifestyle in retirement" sort of threads. And even the relocation threads are sometimes interesting to me, even though I have no interest whatsoever in relocating, because people's stories are interesting, and their different preferences are interesting.
But I think one broad roof is O.K. for all of us to fit under.
A lot of other forums have a general theme and then break it down into smaller categories. Kind of like sub-category folders like the Windows Directory, which is then further broken down by the individual threads. That can sometimes help with where the direction of the conversation is going. The Early Retirement forum is set up that way.
On CD, all we can do if we want to demonstrate different levels of interest is perhaps try and keep alive certain threads that address a particular subject. There have been a few like that. Maybe there should be a separate "status" category, where when a thread has reached a very high number of comments for a long period of time (which probably denotes interest in the subject matter), it get's put into that hall of fame box.
i think we need a seperate retirement financial sub forum. maybe retirement and our money .
Yes please, administrators.
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