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That's not the case any longer. Now they average your best 35 years of income. Also, they don't credit you for any more than the ceiling ammount. This year for example it's about $97000(?). So Trump's SS won't be any more than mine, about $2200 mo in today's money. He and I are both maxed out. A person free of debt could do on $2200 except for health care costs. That's the killer.
Doesn't it cheer you up to know that you get the same retirement that Donald Trump has?
Absurd. Myopic. We are not all given the same opportunities. There are health problems, divorces, kid problems (oh wait, maybe you don't have kids!) lay offs, contract cancellations, law suits, market collapses, and an endless number of things that can take everything you have worked all of your lifetime to accumulate in an instant. Thank God you have made it to a comfortable place. Many have not.
Nothing absurd about it. And the only myopia is failing to plan, something you cannot seem to admit.
You're absolutely right about one thing. We're not given the same opportunities. But actually planning ahead has a way of helping you avoid most of those bumps in the road....
Health problems? Yeah, granted. Even then, supplemental health insurance is a sensible precaution. My wife and I have a policy. Do you?
Divorces. Hey, who says that the application of hard work and common sense doesn't apply to marriages as well?
Layoffs. Why do you think you save money? My wife and I both lost our jobs eight years ago at the same time, and we have managed to claw our way to this point since then. So there goes that theory of yours.
Kids. We have three, thanks. However, our kids don't walk around with a continuous sense of entitlement that they somehow deserve the latest and greatest of everything, including $2000 summer camps, iPods and $200 blue jeans.
Market collapses. Invest prudently, diversify your holdings, and stock market drops are nowhere close to fatal. My mutual funds have done quite well over the past 7 years, all because I did my homework initially on performance and kept reassessing results. For example, I held a lot of bank stocks until a year and a half ago. Then I looked at the oncoming credit problems and bailed.
Contract cancellations and lawsuits. I own my own business, thanks. I know all about these. I never stop pitching new business, which insulates me from client whimsy, and I've always fulfilled my client requirements to the letter. Plus I have some pretty good insurance, both E&O and general business.
In short, you haven't refuted my argument that being conservative and prudent with your money makes retirement entirely possible--And my wife and I stood at the brink of financial calamity seven years ago, and dug our way out to financial security in the same amount of time.
In short, you haven't refuted my argument that being conservative and prudent with your money makes retirement entirely possible--And my wife and I stood at the brink of financial calamity seven years ago, and dug our way out to financial security in the same amount of time.
The difference will be in your other income streams.
Yeah, I know. However, it doesn't cheer me up to know that all my other income streams combined don't equal what he has paid to one divorce lawyer.
On second thought......maybe that does cheer me up.
... On second thought......maybe that does cheer me up.
I hear you.
My pension is around half of the SS max.
I do have my investment portfolio [MFRs], though I gutted it when I took money out to use buying our land. It is growing slowly once again now, but can not provide me with any capital.
My Dw is working part-time, to provide us with capital to build our house. We are living in it, as we are building it.
We do have a small farm income. We grossed $800 last year. You have to start somewhere.
Our farm gives me something to do. I enjoy spending time at Farmer's Markets selling organic eggs and veggies.
I have read many opinions on here. I have heard people saying they should worry about themselves and not their children. I concur to a certain point. One of the things that has created wealth for many families in our country is the concept of inter generational wealth or legacy money. Should it not be a goal to leave a tidy sum for you children and grand children to build on? Don't you wish you had inherited a tidy sum? If your parent died prior to retirement did they have a good size term life insurance policy to help you? It does and has worked for many families.
I have read many opinions on here. I have heard people saying they should worry about themselves and not their children. I concur to a certain point. One of the things that has created wealth for many families in our country is the concept of inter generational wealth or legacy money. Should it not be a goal to leave a tidy sum for you children and grand children to build on? Don't you wish you had inherited a tidy sum? If your parent died prior to retirement did they have a good size term life insurance policy to help you? It does and has worked for many families.
The book: "The Millionaire Nextdoor" polls a lot of affluent households, and shows interesting trends. It seems to be thought among the affluent that giving children a large trust fund sets them up for defeat in life.
My grandparents lived into their late 90s, their late in life medical problems consumed most of their accumulated wealth. Their long term plans never factored in modern medicine and treatment. They assumed that once they were old they would die of old age or get consumption and be put on morphine. It was not planed that doctors could step in and prolong their lives, which consumed their assets. The money that did become inheritance skipped their children, skipped their grandchildren and went to the great-grand children.
My parents today are alive and in their late 80's. I do not anticipate seeing any inheritance from them. If an inheritance does happen it will be when I am in my 60's or later.
If you are going to give your children something, it needs to be done at a set age.
18?
21?
25?
30 maybe?
My Dw was orphaned and grew up with her cousins. Her uncles and aunts collected a sum of money to be given to her and her sister when they had each gotten married. This 'collection' was held over them for years, that they needed to behave to get it when the 'time was right'. After five years of marriage, and a big family fight, the one surviving uncle finally conceded that the 'time was right'. So it turned out that the 'collection' was $500. They had put it in a safe deposit box in 1970, and there it sat, until 1985 when it was given to these two sisters.
If you are going to do that kind of thing, you need a plan.
My grandparents did set aside $50 each year at my birthday, into a savings account, for my 'college fund'. One year my father decided to invest it in the stock market. When I was 20 it was given to me. I had been told about it all of my life, and how important it was. At the time when I finally got it, it was less than a one week's paycheck.
I do not know what the right answer is.
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