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Make no mistake...
If I knew when I was gonna croak I'd spend it ALL.
Every last dime.
I agree, HOWEVER, since we don't know when that day will be, many of us tend to be a little conservative with our funds.
And, as was also mentioned by someone else, my wife and I are also childless, therefore we won't have anybody to help us out, should we live long enough to become dependent on others, for our daily existence. Therefore, we'll need to keep a little "in reserve", so we're not living on the street, in our old age.
They are spending. They just were good at saving and don’t spend as much as they thought they would. So their money keeps growing instead of shrinking. Good for them. Just because they can afford to spend 500k a year but only need to spend 100k doesn’t make it some sort of problem for others to be concerned about.
It's not completely silly. Another take on the article. My mother in law refuses to spend money for things she could afford to spend it on. She has a concern over long term care. She doesn't want to have to go to a nursing home but would rather make sure she could afford in home care if she would need it.
Now might she simply die of a sudden heart attack and it all be moot? Of course BUT it's her money.
Now a thought........what if we invested in health care as opposed to wall street? If she knew she had a health safety net would she spend for that new television? Yeah, she very well might. Does she have a well deserved healthy distrust of the financial markets? She does.
What if we quit creating financial bubbles to boost the markets and did things to make people feel over all more secure and they simply spent to boost the markets?
Changing from savings to spending mode is not easy. Having lived through many bear markets with long recoveries, I am hesitant to spend money. I'm not living what most would call a frugal live, but I know I could spend more money than I am currently spending, and still have adequate assets for the remainder of my life. My Fidelity retirement planner tells me that. My DH told me that. But overcoming decades of training by my parents to be "careful" and then employment volatility, spending does not come naturally to me.
From the article posted..
"a client in her early 80s who wanted to give much of her wealth to family members but worried she wouldn’t have enough money if she ended up in long-term care. So he set aside $150,000 of her money for long-term care and put it in safe investments. Knowing there was a dedicated pool of money to pay for care allowed her to make bigger gifts to family members."
"“We don’t have any clients that come to us and say, ‘I want to spend everything and not leave anything to our children,’” says Van Zutphen. “All of them want to make sure they don’t run out of money before they run out of life. And none of them want to be a burden to their children.”
Does legacy giving to family or charities play in to anyone's decisions not to spend down? I isn't often mentioned as a primary motivator or consideration in these kinds of threads.
after savings all my working life maxing out 401's, SEPA and accounts IRA's i cant spend!
spending is hard and even with investment income over 100k, ss and 3% draw on funds. its does not feel right - finally bought a new car for the wife but after selling her old one it cost only another 25k -
we are going to set up 509 accounts for the grandkids and match the same amount to our daughter that has no kids yet. i drive a 2007 truck but cant seem to pull the trigger on a new one that cost 80k!
agree 100%.
After 40 years of being careful, planning, and advice...retirement has finally come thru...
sort-of.
No where, no how, no who, no why to spend retirement money.
I even applied for a parttime job yesterday-just to do something other than play with the trading accounts and be home to irritate DW.
LOL! Well hopefully you can stay out of her way. I can't imagine. My days have always been 10 pounds of stuff in a 1 pound bag - I have SO many things I enjoy and want to do so I am chomping at the bit to be relieved of my workday so that I can get to that other 9 pounds!!!
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