Retirement ramblings

[jeff kushner]

Yes, when you croak(brutal isn't it?), will you plan to leave money for your kids? Some folks structure their retirement funds to benefit their kids and some set them up for max benefit now, not so much to be inherited by anyone.

There is no "right or wrong" and certainly no judgements from me but I find myself often at odds with "general thinking" so it makes me curious to hear other folks opinions and ideas and why they think that way.

I ran into this subject as I am planning to leave work. My kids know as long as I am alive, their "safety net" will always be there, but don't count on Daddy making you rich. At least that is my thinking today, it may change over time.


One of the other aspects of Retirement is duration..................how long do you expect to live? New on the scene is an AI program touting the ability to nail down the year/month you will croak....excluding injury. Do you really want to know? Financially, what if you were to take the $$ and live like a King or Queen for the 7 years it says you will live......then it's WRONG? Also it brings up the option for those who cannot afford to retire for 30yrs but know they will only live two years so they do it anyway!


There is also the 1% charged by the Fiduciary firm handling your accounts. Seems like a lot of money when their avg client is 1.4mil. 14 grand, per year to do what exactly?
I admit though....every time I've put myself against the pros in the markets over the years they beat me every time....not by much.... 2.5- 5% better than I can do on my own.....it's isn't much of a delta but it's enough to cover their costs.



General mindset
I've never much worried about it since I really never envisioned myself in this position but now the chickens are coming home to roost aren't they? I will know in the 22nd if I can actually afford to retire or how much of my savings I will have to burn through if I choose to....we are going to see the $$ guy next Friday to learn how to funnel the various funds from my various jobs into usable income at this point. We will soon see.....LOL

Obviously I have not invested much time or effort into "making money for retirement". You have to understand where this comes from because I don't think that I'm a stupid person, I may be one of conviction though. I have hated money my whole life....I see it's evil, it's attraction and the bad things folks do to get it but we won't delve there now. So with that kind of thinking, I admit to being lax in seeing to it that I was well covered, now we'll see if I did "enough" w/o SS.

The 1 year goal is to sell my home in April or May, pay hers off with the proceeds to avoid Capital Gains and be able to cover all our costs on my income so when Kerry and I marry in March. Her money/income/pension is to be hopefully all separate and our "mad money" fund. SS would simply be a bonus if I'm really lucky. We'll see how it all plays out though.

If not....then what? Well, Kerry and I are getting married in March so I'll likely still retire and begin moving stuff and getting ready to sell my home..............and burn though some savings. I may only be in the red till my home is sold in 6 mos provided the market doesn't tank again but I can't control that so I don't worry too much.

SS kicks in 6-8 months from now when I'm at full-retirement age. I will get the max $$ tier benefit and TODAY it's enough to live comfortably on .....but I imagine in 20 years, it may only buy a doz eggs. I'm sure we have plenty of members who have lived with that scenario sadly I'm afraid.

It's cool.....I have faith that things will all work out................LOL


Life sure is fun...........like Gump's "box of chocolates"............


For me "Retirement" is;
It's very scary, a little overwhelming with all the things that need to be done but very exciting too! I think if I can convert a little more of that fear into excitement, I'll be ok. I keep pretty close tabs on my mental state so I don't go off the rails because when you move at supermans speed, even a couple of seconds off of the rails can have you in a real ugly mess!!



I know a bunch of you guys are further down this road............................I will appreciate any insights you share....

 

[wellington]

First, ask about your capital gains idea. Paying off a house from the sale of yours, I don't believe will stop you from paying capital gains. We sold our 3 flat and paid the house off we live in. We still had to pay the capital gains.
As for when hub and I kick the bucket, my one and only child will be well off. I'm not purposely saving and going without so he will be set. It's as of now, he will be. Who knows what will happen down the road that might eat it up or what I might decide I want to do or buy lol.
I don't pay anyone to manage our finances or to tell me how to use it. I'm pretty good at it and don't see the sense in paying someone. I have always been one to save and one to have extra, just in case.
Because I don't like the way nursing homes and Medicare/Medicaid make sure you are poor if you end up in one of them, we have done what we could to not have our money sucked in by them. My hub would be the only one that would go to one. I have another plan if I ever get to that point.
I have thought about wanting to know when my number was up many times. I have not decided if it would be good or not. It's a double edged sword.
The important thing to remember when retired, even throughout a life, but more so when retired, is to live within your means. I know a few that can't manage that one.
Another one is too move. Move like your life depends on it, because it does. So many take sitting in a rocking chair seriously and they last a couple years tops and they are gone.
Good luck figuring it all out.

 

[Yvonne G]

I don't have any money to leave. Once my kids moved out on their own, all strings to mom were cut. I have paid for my cremation, and there's a bit of insurance to take care of any bills (which there aren't any right now). My kids will have to do it all by themselves.

 

[wellington]

I don't have any money to leave. Once my kids moved out on their own, all strings to mom were cut. I have paid for my cremation, and there's a bit of insurance to take care of any bills (which there aren't any right now). My kids will have to do it all by themselves.

That's the way it should be. I don't believe anyone is obligated to leave money or anything to their kids. My siblings and I always told our parents to spend it, enjoy life, we don't need or want it.
My kid is just kicking out, maybe, I'm not dead yet lol

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Its kind of grim. But I did retire. Now I'm working so that my wife and her kids will have a paid off house with a ton of equity and money in the bank when I finally bite the cheese.
My health is to the point that I no longer think it's realistic to look at anything concerning me in the long term.
My goals have totally changedm.
But now im also pretty heavily insured.

 

[SuzanneZ]

Its kind of grim. But I did retire. Now I'm working so that my wife and her kids will have a paid off house with a ton of equity and money in the bank when I finally bite the cheese.
My health is to the point that I no longer think it's realistic to look at anything concerning me in the long term.
My goals have totally changed

Yes, when you croak(brutal isn't it?), will you plan to leave money for your kids? Some folks structure their retirement funds to benefit their kids and some set them up for max benefit now, not so much to be inherited by anyone.

There is no "right or wrong" and certainly no judgements from me but I find myself often at odds with "general thinking" so it makes me curious to hear other folks opinions and ideas and why they think that way.

I ran into this subject as I am planning to leave work. My kids know as long as I am alive, their "safety net" will always be there, but don't count on Daddy making you rich. At least that is my thinking today, it may change over time.


One of the other aspects of Retirement is duration..................how long do you expect to live? New on the scene is an AI program touting the ability to nail down the year/month you will croak....excluding injury. Do you really want to know? Financially, what if you were to take the $$ and live like a King or Queen for the 7 years it says you will live......then it's WRONG? Also it brings up the option for those who cannot afford to retire for 30yrs but know they will only live two years so they do it anyway!


There is also the 1% charged by the Fiduciary firm handling your accounts. Seems like a lot of money when their avg client is 1.4mil. 14 grand, per year to do what exactly?
I admit though....every time I've put myself against the pros in the markets over the years they beat me every time....not by much.... 2.5- 5% better than I can do on my own.....it's isn't much of a delta but it's enough to cover their costs.



General mindset
I've never much worried about it since I really never envisioned myself in this position but now the chickens are coming home to roost aren't they? I will know in the 22nd if I can actually afford to retire or how much of my savings I will have to burn through if I choose to....we are going to see the $$ guy next Friday to learn how to funnel the various funds from my various jobs into usable income at this point. We will soon see.....LOL

Obviously I have not invested much time or effort into "making money for retirement". You have to understand where this comes from because I don't think that I'm a stupid person, I may be one of conviction though. I have hated money my whole life....I see it's evil, it's attraction and the bad things folks do to get it but we won't delve there now. So with that kind of thinking, I admit to being lax in seeing to it that I was well covered, now we'll see if I did "enough" w/o SS.

The 1 year goal is to sell my home in April or May, pay hers off with the proceeds to avoid Capital Gains and be able to cover all our costs on my income so when Kerry and I marry in March. Her money/income/pension is to be hopefully all separate and our "mad money" fund. SS would simply be a bonus if I'm really lucky. We'll see how it all plays out though.

If not....then what? Well, Kerry and I are getting married in March so I'll likely still retire and begin moving stuff and getting ready to sell my home..............and burn though some savings. I may only be in the red till my home is sold in 6 mos provided the market doesn't tank again but I can't control that so I don't worry too much.

SS kicks in 6-8 months from now when I'm at full-retirement age. I will get the max $$ tier benefit and TODAY it's enough to live comfortably on .....but I imagine in 20 years, it may only buy a doz eggs. I'm sure we have plenty of members who have lived with that scenario sadly I'm afraid.

It's cool.....I have faith that things will all work out................LOL


Life sure is fun...........like Gump's "box of chocolates"............


For me "Retirement" is;
It's very scary, a little overwhelming with all the things that need to be done but very exciting too! I think if I can convert a little more of that fear into excitement, I'll be ok. I keep pretty close tabs on my mental state so I don't go off the rails because when you move at supermans speed, even a couple of seconds off of the rails can have you in a real ugly mess!!



I know a bunch of you guys are further down this road............................I will appreciate any insights you share....

 

[SuzanneZ]

It is impossible to calculate the dates of our deaths. Bank on it.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

It is impossible to calculate the dates of our deaths. Bank on it.

I'm a gambler.
I'm thinking I've got about 6 or 7 years

 

[SuzanneZ]

I

I'm a gambler.
I'm thinking I've got about 6 or 7 years

I hope you have far more than that.

 

[SinLA]

Definitely review about capital gains. The rules have changed over the last few years...

 

[Cathie G]

My son's want me to just have fun. And I'll do that. If I can leave them some money I will but I refuse to make them pay for my funeral. I don't want them saying goodbye to me in a funeral parlor anyway. I'd rather they throw a family get together and be done. When I was deciding whether to work or not, I found that a lot of my money was being spent on being able to get to and from work. I thought I'd be able to get things done easier but I'm just as busy if not busier. How'd that happen now I wonder how I was juggling both I'm glad I did retire though . What I do at home I can do better now. I really didn't need all the extras either. It's just more crap to clean up and deal with etc etc etc.now I have more time to do things that are truely important to me. and Joe my pet

 

[jeff kushner]

As Z points out, our priorities can and do change for many of us due to conditions beyond our control. I admire you for seeing the bigger picture in what you are doing. I wish you well with that. We all face it, not of our own choice, but how we face it, is. Not too bad for a big old motorcycle rider....not bad at all buddy!

It's exactly for that reason that I've never mortgaged today for the hope of tomorrow. Plan, but don't make bank on it. Apparently, I'm now concerned "not enough bank" was saved. I've run the #'s a hundred times over the years....it says we'll be ok but until you hear someone else say it.....know what I mean? I guess I need the validation. I'm human, mostly.

I will ask the guy about the capital gains stuff, we discussed it briefly on the phone and he didn't mention "tilt" but we'll know more next week.

I told my folks to spend every dime too, smart kids Ms Cathie!

dang, the laundry is done.....the things we do in the middle of the night.

 

[TammyJ]

As Z points out, our priorities can and do change for many of us due to conditions beyond our control. I admire you for seeing the bigger picture in what you are doing. I wish you well with that. We all face it, not of our own choice, but how we face it, is. Not too bad for a big old motorcycle rider....not bad at all buddy!

It's exactly for that reason that I've never mortgaged today for the hope of tomorrow. Plan, but don't make bank on it. Apparently, I'm now concerned "not enough bank" was saved. I've run the #'s a hundred times over the years....it says we'll be ok but until you hear someone else say it.....know what I mean? I guess I need the validation. I'm human, mostly.

I will ask the guy about the capital gains stuff, we discussed it briefly on the phone and he didn't mention "tilt" but we'll know more next week.

I told my folks to spend every dime too, smart kids Ms Cathie!

dang, the laundry is done.....the things we do in the middle of the night.

It's hard for me in my situation to imagine doing laundry in the middle of the night! My doing laundry involves me outside the house in the bright hot 88 degree morning, on a chair bending over a plastic tub of soapy water, using my hands and washing the clothes, rinsing them also by hand and squeezing them out, then hanging them on the clothesline in the sun and hopefully, breeze too, so they dry quickly before the almost inevitable afternoon rain. As for retirement...that's when I "croak"! No work, no money! BUT. Not complaining! I am very lucky in many ways

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I

I hope you have far more than that.

I don't want to live past my ability to not need someone else to take care of me.
And I'm pretty sure I won't.
There are several relatively dire health issues going on.
I'm trying to think realistically.
Retirement was a goal.
Done.
Now I've set new ones.

 

[Cathie G]

It's hard for me in my situation to imagine doing laundry in the middle of the night! My doing laundry involves me outside the house in the bright hot 88 degree morning, on a chair bending over a plastic tub of soapy water, using my hands and washing the clothes, rinsing them also by hand and squeezing them out, then hanging them on the clothesline in the sun and hopefully, breeze too, so they dry quickly before the almost inevitable afternoon rain. As for retirement...that's when I "croak"! No work, no money! BUT. Not complaining! I am very lucky in many ways

I hate to see that it's that hard to wash your clothes. I used to use an old timey wringer washer. Even though I had rinse tubs too, I would time my hanging so the clothes would get a rain water rinse also. They would still dry quickly in the breeze. That is still my favorite way to do laundry. I wouldn't even know how to find a washer like that now. And the new ones actually suck because they added computers to them. I really don't need a computer to tell me how to wash my clothes. It's ridiculous.

 

[Cathie G]

I don't want to live past my ability to not need someone else to take care of me.
And I'm pretty sure I won't.
There are several relatively dire health issues going on.
I'm trying to think realistically.
Retirement was a goal.
Done.
Now I've set new ones.

Really, I think your knowledge is so important to young people. And I've seen some of them really enjoy helping because of the person they're helping and they're experience.. I did it so I know how important the elderly are to some young people. Those few are worth trying to help. So live as long as you can.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I hate to see that it's that hard to wash your clothes. I used to use an old timey wringer washer. Even though I had rinse tubs too, I would time my hanging so the clothes would get a rain water rinse also. They would still dry quickly in the breeze. That is still my favorite way to do laundry. I wouldn't even know how to find a washer like that now. And the new ones actually suck because they added computers to them. I really don't need a computer to tell me how to wash my clothes. It's ridiculous.

The mechanical timers are actually outlawed. Though I'm not sure what type of political nonsense did that. The justification.

 

[jeff kushner]

I find myself dealing with some anger, but not really sure where it's directed! I wake at night "angry at work"...really? What for? This has been a great gig to have and I did it well, taught others and had fun with it.

I went to bed at 7 last night, woke at 10:30 "pissed off" and was up till 1:00AM, then fell back asleep, alarm woke me at 4am for the 2nd or 3rd time all year. Very disjointed sleep.....stress.

I think my stress in all this is caused by me being unable to separate my general disgust for owners and rich folks from the guys upstairs whom I worked for. I've known them for nearly 40 years. I like both of them, I hate what they are. I am soon going to leave them. I refuse to leave "angry" but something keeps percolating up.....not sure what it is. I have no reason to be angry at anyone.

Maybe it's similar to the immature thing I used to do with relationships....once you decided to break up with her, she became disgusting to you & ugly.


My outlook on the rat race;
I see "the game" for what it is, a mad scramble for riches and it's what I saw at 15 and yes, that disgusts me as much as it ever did. I always was revolted by the "rat race" but I had to join if I wanted to raise a family so I rolled over and played the game along with you guys.

Maybe I'm angry that I had to do it> but that doesn't make sense, I could have chosen to be a bum and not get sucked up into it all but I didn't choose that route.

Maybe I'm just so damned excited that I can finally and figuratively display that middle finger to "work" and it's causing all kinds of random synapses to fire in my brain, confusing my train of thought?

I dunno but I got a week to sort it out......

 

[Cathie G]

I find myself dealing with some anger, but not really sure where it's directed! I wake at night "angry at work"...really? What for? This has been a great gig to have and I did it well, taught others and had fun with it.

I went to bed at 7 last night, woke at 10:30 "pissed off" and was up till 1:00AM, then fell back asleep, alarm woke me at 4am for the 2nd or 3rd time all year. Very disjointed sleep.....stress.

I think my stress in all this is caused by me being unable to separate my general disgust for owners and rich folks from the guys upstairs whom I worked for. I've known them for nearly 40 years. I like both of them, I hate what they are. I am soon going to leave them. I refuse to leave "angry" but something keeps percolating up.....not sure what it is. I have no reason to be angry at anyone.

Maybe it's similar to the immature thing I used to do with relationships....once you decided to break up with her, she became disgusting to you & ugly.


My outlook on the rat race;
I see "the game" for what it is, a mad scramble for riches and it's what I saw at 15 and yes, that disgusts me as much as it ever did. I always was revolted by the "rat race" but I had to join if I wanted to raise a family so I rolled over and played the game along with you guys.

Maybe I'm angry that I had to do it> but that doesn't make sense, I could have chosen to be a bum and not get sucked up into it all but I didn't choose that route.

Maybe I'm just so damned excited that I can finally and figuratively display that middle finger to "work" and it's causing all kinds of random synapses to fire in my brain, confusing my train of thought?

I dunno but I got a week to sort it out......

When you leave you'll be missing the rat race at first. Then you'll eventually start doing stuff you couldn't and wonder how you ever kept up with it all in the first place. the truth is you couldn't. Now you get to do all those things you wanted to. When all it really means is you're older. That's probably why you're mad. I'm mad too. By the time I reached retirement age I'm too tired to do it all. But at least I'm allowed to take my time now somewhat..

 

[jeff kushner]

Thanks Ms Cathie, another friend here reached out yesterday to remind me that I don't have to pretend I'm flying this rig down the road.....when jeff drives, bad things happen.

It's very calming for me to remember that........I don't always need to "control" it.

It also lets me say
"Not my fault, God's driving"