Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
A rep for a telling post that I have echoed many times for early retirees. (I added the (I thought)..I think that is what you meant) . I fear that all these people saying "I retired at 52 or 56, & I've been retired for 7 years and I will be just fine when I collect my SS at 62 and add the $5000 a year from savings I have left". are going to be in a world of hurt as the COL marches on and leaves them behind, especially if they inconveniently live to their 90s.
Regardless of how low inflation seems to have been, and seemingly no way it could skyrocket, do not bet on it with your life, so when you are an age where there literally is nothing you can do about it, you have no choices. You have to leave plenty of room for options to downsize. I would MUCH rather regret dying with leaving too much behind, then live with not enough to comfortably support myself and my wife in old age. There is NO right answer, only degrees of preparedness. Don't be scared to retire, ESPECIALLY at 70! But go in with eyes wide open, with the math done, and contingent plans. Personally, while "double what you think you need" is a bit extreme on the safe side, if you do the math and predict an average annual 3% COL increase, over a 30 year period, you will be dang close to needing double. The upside to retiring at 70, is that you will not likely need 30 years of funds.
Adding to the confusion, is that people that retired, say 25 years ago, are having their final years in a low COL state of affairs, having had some banner interest rates and market appreciation while they were retired. This makes it seem to many.."See...it's not that hard". Sequence of events can alter that reality seriously. The ones that retired in 1966, and died broke because of that unfortunate sequence are long dead, so we cant hear their warnings. Maybe their grandkids are around to remind everyone.
So many of my relatives live by the "It will work out because it has to" theory of retirement, that I shudder to think about it.
Congrats on reaching it!
You bring to mind the fact that those who retired, say, in 1990 (I know a few) had 15 years of good return on savings alone. They didn't have to even plan on using the stock market to replenish their spending - but could if they wanted to. Interest on CD's equaled, if not, outstripped inflation. They lived "the glory days." That all came to an end in 2009 when interest on savings went suddenly to zero - oh, btw, the banks breaking a contract with impunity - my 6 year CD's with 3 years of 6% interest left were simply cancelled. Boom!
It's important to note that once retired, one must assume, always retired. You don't depend on stuff like the stock market to "replenish" as some people on this site ignorantly refute. Nope. You either have the funds or you don't. I was unusual in that (for some reason) I saw the train wreck coming...I don't even remember why. All I remember was my financial advisor, in early 2008 couldn't understand why I wanted all my funds out of the market. My conversation with him in October 2008 didn't even provoke admitting he was wrong. His "advisorship" was now a joke. Pffft. Another assumption you must be willing to make when letting someone (who has mouths to feed - not yours) run your finances. Burned twice earlier, I learned my lesson early on!
Bottom line, my advice is free, maybe not what you dreamers want to hear, but free, and based on real life experience.
the problem here is that all time frames are dependent on the time frames before them .
it was all well and good we had 17 years of a great bull market that ran from 1987 to 2003 and produced returns that averagted almost 14% a year cagr .
but the time frames leading up sucked . high inflation , poor markets , devastated bonds . very few of us were able to save a thing . even 401k's did not exist .
so it was great good times were here but the amount of money the average person had to be acted upon was dismal because we had awful times prior . same thing happened in 1982 . we had decades that were horrible prior for saving money .
all you here about is the great bull market that started in 1982 and how lucky folks were . but the 20 years leading in were so bad equity's were declared dead as an investment .
what the time frames meant to folks prior is all part of the equation when data mining great years for owning various assets
.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
