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Isn't this true ubiquitously - whether the advice is about majors for college-students, navigating careers for young professionals, pointers for first-time house-buyers, investment-portfolio advice and so forth? Then there are the platitudes about the basics already being enough - namely, properly observe the forehead-slapping obvious stuff, and the minutiae and subtleties will take care of themselves?
I'd aver, that the main problem isn't one of actual plans, of actually what to do and what to attain, but of psychology. Do we FEEL that we're doing the right thing? Do we have enough basis for self-justification? Are we haunted by self-nagging remonstrations, that this or that is broken, inept, falsely beheld? This is why, it's possible to amass several million dollars, but to still feel strapped and deficient; or to muddle along on Social Security alone, but to feel contented.
For me personally, retirement isn't "retirement" per se, in the sense of a lifestyle change or insurance for the future, but a transition in self-appraisal, from that of a person who obtains money in exchange for labor, to one who obtains money merely as a consequence of already possessing money. At what age this happens, is more a matter of investment-prowess (and of course luck!) than career-success. And from that viewpoint, it is actually preferable to be single, however crass and insensitive that is, because a single person feels vindicated from solely personal efforts, not sharing the credit for doing well, or the responsibility to keep doing well. The self-patting on the back, however sophomoric, is more straightforward for the single person.
So what to make of advice, of corny and condescending and bromide-advice? Advice is offered by scriveners, paid by the word, or by the click. What else could we expect? Maybe focus on the psychology, before that term even existed. Read the classics. Start with Plato, end maybe with Boethius.
Doing a google search on "retirement advice for singles" almost everything was of the type "5 great tips...":
....
So super basic, half a dozen things in a 2 screen article - nothing in-depth...
I did a quick google search for 'retirement planning for singles' and found quite a few of articles. I'd think that some of the 'tips' can be quite helpful for people who retire alone.
Talking to a financial advisor (I did a whole year-long assessment with a FI) just isn't enough. That's just you and one other person speaking. Might as well be in a bubble.
Renee/Susan, I'm a life-long single so I can relate to some of what you say.
But I confess, I really don't understand what it is you really want.
And I don't know what FI means, in this case. FP s financial planner. FA is Financial Advisor. What's F-I?
If you (a person in general, not specifically one of you) -- meet with a financial advisor for a year and don't get enough or anything out of it. That just wasn't the person for you. But you should have gotten a plan designed for YOU. What were the two of you talking about for a year?
You're the one who knows the kind of lifestyle you want to live, and how much you might want to travel or where you might want to live. How much you make now. how much you save now.
You're the one who can project how much your living expenses might be.
YOU have to decide whether you want to pay for Long Term Care Insurance. (after researching the issue, of course)
Do you want advice and counsel on those kinds of things?
Do you want advice and counsel for the projections part of the arithmetic of saving and investing?
If you want someone to put together a financial roadmap for you to follow after you give them your goals, that you'll have to pay for. OR......you can educate yourself and DO IT yourself. Create your YOUR OWN plan.
The financial and retirement threads here on CD alone provide and education: about all the topics you could imagine. Heck the personal stories of others....those alone are educational, and provide what TO DO or what NOT to do advice.
Forgive me, but I just don't get what you want.
You say you want advice just for singles....such as?
The thing I've been trying to find out is: how much is needed for one in retirement? Of course, every situation is different, but the general notion I've found is that a million+ is necessary for retirement. Well, is that for one or two? It seems to always be for couples, but I have to ass-ume, because the article/etc isn't clear.
I mean, would this number they throw out be halved (or not)? Or some other fraction based upon some figure about 2 living as cheaply as one? Then there's the more modest sum that I've seen spoken of: $500k. Again, that seems to be for couples. So if single, then is it $250k?
I just want some round figure that is clearly for singles, the way that the round figure is thrown out for couples. I'm not talking about percentage of income; that's out there. I'd like to know their best guess for the "final" sum.
What's so hard about doing the math and halving the number for couples. OR if it's been cited that couples live at about 160% of the cost of singles, just take 75% of the couples number.
If the article says 2 million for a couple, presume 1.5 mill for a single.
Presuming we're talking about the couple and the single retiring at the same age. Because if not -- and if the couple retired at 60 -- and you as a single plan to work until 70. That's not apples to apples anyway.
[quote=BellaDL;49077593]I did a quick google search for 'retirement planning for singles' and found quite a few of articles. I'd think that some of the 'tips' can be quite helpful for people who retire alone.
Thank you Bella...I've only skimmed 2 so far, and it is helpful. I wonder what I was googling before I gave up.
Edited to add: well, not all are helpful. One was already linked here as unhelpful. But I'm still reading.
Last edited by crusinsusan; 08-04-2017 at 02:11 PM..
Being 64 I was grandfathered the recent SS law change where I can draw my Ex spouse SS as long as I don't remarry which I plan to do and let mine grow to 70.
Since I met the requirements of being able to draw from my ex's social security (married at least 10 years and never remarried) I also had planned on drawing on his benefits until I was older and could have a higher benefit. However, when I checked into it I was told that because my benefit is higher than his I must use my own benefit. Even though his amount would have been smaller I could have lived on that for awhile. Unless I was given the wrong information, it appears you cannot automatically draw from an ex spouse if your benefit is even a little higher then theirs when you want to begin receiving social security.
Think I would want a 2nd opinion. From everything I read we should be able to file on our Ex SS once we reach FRA and let our SS continue to grow. This is supposed to be true for everyone born before 1954. You do have to wait till FRA.
Please help us then....
What do you feel you didn't get from the financial planner? You met with him/her over the course of a year.
How did you not get a plan? Or at least some projections?
First I guess I should ask what did you say you wanted him/her to provide? What did you tell him you wanted to get out of you two working together?
Do you want advice on how to get to your goals? Or projections for how much you'll need in retirement? That last one depends on you. If that's what you want, if you give them your likely lifestyle choices someone can do that for you -- at a cost of course. Or you can do it yourself.
So again, what kind of advice or numbers to you feel you haven't found yet?
I did a quick google search for 'retirement planning for singles' and found quite a few of articles. I'd think that some of the 'tips' can be quite helpful for people who retire alone.
Thank you Bella...I've only skimmed 2 so far, and it is helpful. I wonder what I was googling before I gave up.
Edited to add: well, not all are helpful. One was already linked here as unhelpful. But I'm still reading.
I found a lot of these in my earlier search upstream in this post...again - most are lists of a few very obvious tips that are really not specific to singles and have been covered in many other "Cosmo" style "articles. They are the kind that feel like - "here's a whole issue of advice, we'd better put in a little something for the ladies". I guess the term to describe it would be "patronizing".
Frankly, the idea that maybe I'd never done a search is a little
Please help us then....
What do you feel you didn't get from the financial planner? You met with him/her over the course of a year.
How did you not get a plan? Or at least some projections?
First I guess I should ask what did you say you wanted him/her to provide? What did you tell him you wanted to get out of you two working together?
Do you want advice on how to get to your goals? Or projections for how much you'll need in retirement? That last one depends on you. If that's what you want, if you give them your likely lifestyle choices someone can do that for you -- at a cost of course. Or you can do it yourself.
So again, what kind of advice or numbers to you feel you haven't found yet?
Frankly, the planner didn't tell me a thing I didn't already know. Didn't already have in mind. I suppose what I wanted from him was expertise that I didn't have. Which was the whole point of hiring him.
Please don't misinterpret him as incompetent, because he's not. He's highly regarded in his field. He just didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and I feel I wasted $1200.
Moreover, and perhaps this is more important, I think most financial advisors deal with people in financial situations much different (higher; I'm hanging onto the bottom of the middle class) than mine, so there was that feeling while in meetings with him that he saw my situation as dire - which it's not. In fact, the success rate for me is 95-100%. But his Mercedes and multi-million dollar house kept him from seeing that as sound. Yet he's the one who decided upon the success rate...which I suppose is a nice figure to have, so I did get that from him.
I suppose it's a let down when you go to the experts for advice, only to find that you're the expert anyway, and you wasted money.
And re an earlier post, wherein it's stated that a single person needs 75% of what a couple needs, I'd like to see several links/articles that bear that out.
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