Retirement?

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10b4me

Mountain climber
Retired
Mar 4, 2017 - 06:03pm PT
I'm retiring in 12 weeks. Minnesota Teacher and i'm grabbing my SS as soon as I turn 62. The numbers cross over when I turn 80. I'm risking less money with the assumption that I'll have more fun at 62 than I will at 70.

I took my SS last year when I turned 62. The way I look at it, I may not be here at 70.


I'm in a good place but many many are not. If 50% of the population rely on SS for 50% or more of their income I'm thinking we should reinforce that program as much as possible.

Agreed


Does anyone else here feel like the 600 Billion that we sink into defense is wasteful?

Yes, of course.

I'd like to see Trump start acting like an adult.

Wouldn't we all.
10b4me

Mountain climber
Retired
Mar 4, 2017 - 06:09pm PT

No. It's always easy to criticize this sh#t when you're sitting high on the hog, isn't it?

"We don't need another aircraft carrier group, we have enough already and nobody attacks us anymore."

Until they do.

You're precious SS money wasn't spent on Defense, we already have a specific, dedicated budget for that. Your SS money was squandered by our Gov't in many other ways.

#DrainTheSwamp

The Gov't needs to be reigned in at all levels. It's f*#king spending is out of control.

So let me ask you. What does having more nukes, more ships, more planes get us?
This country can decimate any other country on earth. What does that get us?

Blurring, you are completely ignorant of geopolitiks.
i-b-goB

Social climber
Wise Acres
Mar 4, 2017 - 06:12pm PT
jgill, I hope you put in way many more years in retirement than you worked!!! : )
Moof

Big Wall climber
Orygun
Mar 16, 2017 - 01:30pm PT
Worth 15 minutes of your time:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/
Savings at 10% means you will working for 55 years before your investments can safely cover your spending, or you'll end up mostly living on SSA after working into your 60's.

Save 40% of your income by being frugal and you will be able to live off your savings sustainably after about 20 years. I wish I had done better earlier on, I am setup to have to work for 25 years total.
hobo_dan

Social climber
Minnesota
Mar 16, 2017 - 06:30pm PT
I used to fantasize about those investment scenes where the money doubles every 7 years. And then one day you're a zillionaire. But you need to be aware of the relationship between your age and your risk. In 2000 and in 2008 many investments were cut in half- This puts another 7 years on your plan just to get back to where you were in '08. I think there is a suggestion that you subtract your age from 100 and that is the percent that should go into stocks the rest in Bonds--But now the bond market is at about nothing so what to do with that?
Wish I had a crystal ball- the great investor was asked what his secret to success was and he said "I always sold too soon"
Good thing all the things I like to do are free.
Moof

Big Wall climber
Orygun
Mar 16, 2017 - 08:33pm PT
Way to go Locker!
skitch

Gym climber
Bend Or
Mar 16, 2017 - 10:33pm PT
I'm 38 and all I can think about is retiring (what a life). My wife & I are putting ~25% of our pay into 457 plans and plan to start putting a chunk into traditional iras. We both have school loan payments for another 7 years...but I'm hoping that we can quit working when I'm 50-52. We'll see, maybe I'll hit my head just right and turn into the kind of person that likes work...but if anyone is interested in evaluating my retirement scheme, here it is:

Currently we have a combined $80k in our 457 plans (50% each), we are going to max out the 457 limits till retirement. Our school loans are based on our AGI, so if we also put money into a trad. Ira then our school loan payments will go down. We are government employees, so hopefully Calpers doesn't flop. I'm in the 2% @ 55 group, my wife is in the 2% at 62 group. We both have a little more than 4 years in the system. If I retire at 50 then I'll get 17.6% of my pay. My wife can start collecting retirement at 52 years old, which will be 16% of her pay. I'm assuming that we'll get something from SS when we are each 67, assuming $800 a month each. We combined gross $140k, and our school loans combined are $1100 per month now. I'm assuming that we'll continue to live on what we are living on now into retirement, but we'll sell our house and leave California ASAP.

Hopefully we can put up with bishop for another 12 years...

MikeL

Social climber
Southern Arizona
Mar 16, 2017 - 10:41pm PT
Reilly: Any well run property should net you at least a 7-8% return which is about the most you can possibly hope for from equities these days.

I believe a statistical analysis of, let’s say, 30-40 year investment periods would show that equities will out-perform everything. There are surely down times, as well as up times.

You could be unlucky, but it is almost an impossibility to outperform any random walk down the broad market repeatedly.

In addition to real estate, buy indexes, hold them, and quit worrying.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Mar 16, 2017 - 10:50pm PT
Mike, history supports yer thesis but we're in a brave new world. Fear not,
I'm not forsaking equities and bonds but good solid income real estate is
arguably a less volatile investment in these times. That said, in the last
two months I've moved about 20% of our equities into bonds and cash (mostly
the latter). These next few years are going to be interesting, and likely
not in a good way.
hobo_dan

Social climber
Minnesota
Mar 17, 2017 - 05:52am PT
Skitch- the 457 is a good idea--If you really are unhappy you can quit your job and access your money before you're 59 1/2. If you can, start a 403b also to put more money away.
We built our own home and so we never had a mortgage-we were able to live on one income and we invested the other. When the kids were twelve my wife quit working and held the house/school/family together.
My advice would be to watch your investments closely and don't be too greedy. Take money off the table when things are going great (like now). This way when things shut down you'll have money to invest when prices are cheap.
FWIW here is where we put our money:
Health care---the demographics point to lots of old people-it's weird right now with the ACA and the republicans rewriting it
Telecomm- the Cellphone is gonna be around- Verizon and ATT smoke everyone for $40/month
Energy--7 Billion people and they like to move around. 90+ of transportation is based on petroleum.
Right now I'm mostly cashed out.
Read about investing
12 weeks for me.

HD
Jan

Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
Mar 17, 2017 - 07:59am PT
I agree with the philosophy of don't be too greedy.

I got out of the market before the 2001 crash when I had heard Greenspan say "irrational exuberance" one time too many. My friends thought I was stupid for giving up all that potential profit. When the markets crashed a few weeks later, they lost 50% or more of their total savings and I lost not one penny. I agree with Hobo Dan that we are in a similar situation now. Probably it's ok to hang on until we see what kind of a tax bill Trump is going to send to Congress, but I would be out of the market before next fall.

Moof

Big Wall climber
Orygun
Mar 17, 2017 - 11:30am PT
Mike, history supports yer thesis but we're in a brave new world. Fear not,
I'm not forsaking equities and bonds but good solid income real estate is
arguably a less volatile investment in these times. That said, in the last
two months I've moved about 20% of our equities into bonds and cash (mostly
the latter). These next few years are going to be interesting, and likely
not in a good way.
You can look at any era, or any year and identify huge world changing events, yet over long spans that include several of those events stocks have performed quite well. How about buying right before the 1929 crash? 1928 to 1958 was up almost 9x after inflation. Sitting in cash would have put you down 38%.

Money I am saving today will have at least 20 years to ride out the gyrations of the market before I need it. Time and again the biggest factor for getting good returns is to let your money soak in the stock market untouched for as long as possible.

Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Mar 17, 2017 - 03:28pm PT
Moof, read Robert Shiller's Irrational Exuberance* and then tell me about letting yer
money 'soak' through the next 'correction'. If there isn't one within 2 years it will be a miracle.
Most people's portfolios will take 3-5 years to get back to par, depending on yer equity/bond
ratio.

*Be sure to get the new edition.
Bad Climber

Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
Mar 17, 2017 - 05:28pm PT
@Tad:

I take some solace in the fact that Cali is one of the biggest economies in the world, which should count for something. Also, my wife and I are downsizing to a double-wide in Bishop to be close to everything that matters. We have a decent investment portfolio that will be very much juiced with most of the proceeds from the sale of our current house, so pensions aren't everything. If STRS and Pers go, the state will be in desperate straights indeed. If I spend too much time worrying, I spend less time climbing.

Eight weeks for me.

BAd
DonC

climber
CA
Mar 17, 2017 - 06:11pm PT
Bad - I'd be interested in your search for a place in Bishop and what you found the options to be. I'm hoping to find a place in the next year, likely a mobile home (as a second home), maybe in the Highland Seniors section. I'm on the Board of Directors of ESIA, the non-profit that helps run the visitor centers in Lone Pine, Bishop, Bristlecones, Mammoth, Lee Vining, and others.

send me an email if you are open to a brief email exchange about your search and experiences
dc dot nc at verizon.net
Moof

Big Wall climber
Orygun
Mar 17, 2017 - 06:29pm PT
I soaked through the last one. I was down by 50%, it came back after 4-5 years. My strategy is to not touch it.

Fidelity did a nice writeup of which of their investors did the best, it was folks that forgot about their accounts or died. The less you f*#k with things and try to beat the market or time things the less you f*#k up. I am 80/20 now, aiming for 60/40 long term. The more you listen to charlatans and cranks the more you are prone to worrying about 3-5 years instead of sticking to simple and more success prone buy and hold of BROAD index funds. Boring, but hard to beat.
Jan

Mountain climber
Colorado & Nepal
Mar 17, 2017 - 07:34pm PT
I've read that historically, people who buy in November and sell by March 1 every year are better off than those who buy and hold. Stocks go into the doldrums during summer, crash almost always in the early fall, get pumped up again by the Santa Claus effect on into the early New Year thanks to the federal budget and tax refunds.

I followed that method for many years and it worked for me. Of course I could afford to do it because my pension fund (TIAA-CREF) allowed up to three free movements of funds per month. In addition to Greenspan's irrational exuberance, it was also early March when I sold just before the crash.
Bad Climber

Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
Mar 17, 2017 - 08:38pm PT
@DonC:

I'll send an email tomorrow.

@Tad:

Yeah, we're pretty excited. Our current main home is in Tehachapi, and, amazingly, we never had to put it on the market. A friend liked it so much that she jumped on the chance and made us a very reasonable offer. We're actually going over docs this weekend as we hang in Bishop. Not much climbing even with the great weather--battling a cold, a gift from one of my students, no doubt. We'll probably be fully moved by the end of May. Hard to believe. Freakin' me out a little. But I'm READY!

BAd
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Mar 17, 2017 - 09:55pm PT
Sounds like collective bargaining ain't so bad- after all.
WBraun

climber
Mar 17, 2017 - 10:22pm PT
There is no such thing as retirement.

It's never ever been done nor will/can it ever be done.

The living entity in its original constitutional position is always active in this life and the next .....
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