Retirement?

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Majid_S

Mountain climber
Karkoekstan, Former USSR
Mar 17, 2017 - 10:24pm PT
You buy couple or even more properties to rent at local rate outside of US then you move there and with whatever you get from SS, (if any) you live like a king. I got three friends already done using this system and they are happy. Asia, Eastern Europe,whatever but not north America.

The retirement game is over in USA. unless you got min 2 mil in the bank, paid-off property and good SS coming, the medical bills will kill you.

WBraun

climber
Mar 17, 2017 - 10:39pm PT
Americans are not worried.

They have been told they will all be replaced by efficient robots who will drink all your oil, gas and electricity .......
Lollie

Social climber
I'm Lolli.
Mar 18, 2017 - 04:42am PT
You buy couple or even more properties to rent at local rate outside of US then you move there and with whatever you get from SS, (if any) you live like a king. I got three friends already done using this system and they are happy. Asia, Eastern Europe,whatever but not north America.

Yeah, been thinking that too. Not doable in North Europe (most expensive places on earth) but am actually looking at the Caribbean. There's EU islands there, so health care isn't a problem. Gonna keep my vacation home for summers at home, but spend the rest of the year in barefoot paradise. At least, that's the plan at the moment. The Canary Islands are an option too, as is Morocco. Plenty of time yet.
Gunkie

Trad climber
Valles Marineris
Mar 18, 2017 - 06:21am PT
I plan to work forever only because I really like working, at something. I like building businesses. I like working with people. Right now I want for nothing. I'm a contract consulting engineer at one of the most hated telecom firms on the planet (Philadelphia). I'm on a fixed 40 hours per week contract. No overtime. So I crank out my work in 40 and go home and don't look at emails outside of that time as I'm not getting paid for that. And this is a well understood fact with contract employees. I've been offered full employee status a few times and have turned that down a few times. Fortunately I have become a change agent at this firm and a source of truth at this company because as a contractor there is no 'career path' and that provides a huge amount of freedom from the office political ecosystem.

Just did my 2016 taxes (S-Corp) and I'm quite pleased with my top line number considering that this is a pretty stress-free, intellectually stimulating and enjoyable gig that doesn't take any time aside from those 40/week and I like the people I get to work with. And the train ride commute is always fun; it's like playing the lottery. You never know who you'll get to sit next to. Sometimes it's the really really big guy that just sucked down a couple of cigarettes (blech!) or the pretty lady who smells nice.

Will be working forever.

YMMV
Bad Climber

Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
Mar 18, 2017 - 06:45am PT
Sounds great, Gunkie. And I'm not being sarcastic. We all try to maximize our time on this earth in our own ways. After nearly 30 years in the classroom, I'm getting pretty burnt out. I could post chapter and verse about the "snowflakes" as they are called these days, but I think I've done my duty to help them along--the few who pass anyway. One thing that has eaten at me year after year is getting access to the great outdoors during the best time of year--fall. That, of course, is when I'm back in the classroom. No more. This fall, I'm a free man! Also, my job kept me some distance from the mountains--doable on weekends and breaks of course, which has been a huge gift--but now, 9,000ft trail heads will be 20 min. from my front door. Ever since I was 15 and understood what real mountains were, I've wanted to live in a place like Bishop. At least for this last part of my life I can realize it. I'm young enough to enjoy it for a while, too. Retirement? More pitches climbed, miles hiked, roads biked. Hell, we may even take up fishing!

BAd
MikeL

Social climber
Southern Arizona
Mar 18, 2017 - 08:01am PT
Reilly: . . . we're in a brave new world.


Yeah, I guess so. I’ve heard this before, and it always seems to be true. Good luck.

I’d like to know just how successful folks here have been actively managing their portfolios. We could run a little test to see who’s been beating the market.


Duck: There is no such thing as retirement.

There appears to be a lot of truth to this statement. I guess my wife and I are retired right now, and in some important ways, it doesn’t look so very different to me. I still teach a course now and then (at AU), so maybe that influences my mind. My wife still can’t believe she stopped working professionally at 51, but she’s almost as busy with volunteering and assisting her folks who now live in our area. Being fully self-directed without having to respond to the demanding calls from others can be a little unnerving to Type A’s such we are / were. “What should I be doing now that I could do anything?” can become a probing existential question. As the phrase goes, “no matter where you go, there you are.” It’s still the same world, you’re stuck with the same mind, and now you have an over-abundance of what seems to be time. Some people go into shock for a little while.


You know, after a while, just about anything can become a dull routine.
Moof

Big Wall climber
Orygun
Mar 18, 2017 - 10:17am PT
My goal is to track the market, not beat it. Most hedge funds these days can't match an S&P 500 index fund over any reasonable period of time.
Lynne Leichtfuss

Trad climber
Will know soon
Mar 18, 2017 - 01:51pm PT
Agree with Werner. Really, what is retirement? My humble opinion....it is a transition from one thing to the next. If there is no next, what is life?

As far as funding your future life, please remember the future is always uncertain. You can have the best plan in place and then the perfect storm comes along. It happens....it happened to me. But a wonderful life adventure gradually unfolded, is still unfolding for me. It is exciting and a little scary, but I feel alive plus the fact that life awaits the searcher. Jess my 2 bits. :)
Splater

climber
Grey Matter
Mar 18, 2017 - 04:20pm PT
"The retirement game is over in USA. unless you got min 2 mil in the bank, paid-off property and good SS coming, the medical bills will kill you. "

Does not apply if you retire from the state, county, or city in Kaliforny, in which case the government will not only give you a ludicrously generous pension, but will also pay most of your health care bills in retirement.

http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2015/budget/retiree-health/retiree-health-benefits-031615.pdf
Rick A

climber
Boulder, Colorado
Mar 20, 2017 - 11:11am PT
The question of when to start taking social security payments is a difficult one, mainly because most cannot accurately predict the most important variable: the date of one’s own death.

I always thought that the smart move was to take the payments at the earliest possible time, for me at age 62, four months. I had colon cancer a few years ago, but both my parents lived to the age of 89, so there are facts to support an expectation of a shorter than average life or a longer one, in my case.

However, I read a book entitled, “Getting What’s Yours”, about the complexities and nuances of the Social Security system. In the book, the authors argue that the smart move, if you can afford to wait, is to put off starting payments until age 70. Their logic is that the financial worst case scenario is to live a long time, into age 90 or more. Since the amount of SS monthly payments increase 8% each year, from age 62 to 70, by waiting until 70 to draw payments, you would be hedging against the financial misfortune of a longer than average life.

They argue that one should think of SS as insurance against financial hardship caused by a longer than average lifespan. Even if you die early and don’t come out ahead of where you would have been if you had drawn early, you would still would have gotten the benefit of this insurance by protecting yourself against the worst case scenario.
Moof

Big Wall climber
Orygun
Mar 20, 2017 - 02:54pm PT
The question of when to start taking social security payments is a difficult one, mainly because most cannot accurately predict the most important variable: the date of one’s own death.
...
I'll see when I get there. A couple things to keep in mind from my own digging:
1) If you are pretty sure you and your spouse will die before eighty-few, take it early.

2) If you are not sure when you are likely to die, waiting as long as possible serves as insurance against living a long time in poverty. Better to burn through your IRA to the end before triggering SSA than taking it early to preserve your remaining IRA balance. Being 80-few without death in sight with crap income leaves you no options. More SSA means a better "home" to be stuck in as you run out the clock, or maybe even getting to spend longer in your own home before you can no longer afford to buy the extra support to live on your own.

3) Old people vote. SSA reductions are an easy target until the AARP trains their sights and their horde of old bitties with nothing better to do in November except go vote on a politician. SSA will not likely be reduced for anyone already paying into it any time soon, too much backlash. At some point the younger set will get screwed out of it (just as my full retirement age is 67.5 instead of 65 for folks who retired a while back), but probably not for anyone already in their 30's or older.

4) If you are a spend-thrift sort, waiting is also better even if you die before 80. Call it forced savings. If you hit 70 with no nest egg and only your age 62 SSA benefit you might end up on the street being unable to afford rent and cat food at the same time. Getting more net money out of the system is useless if spend it early as well.
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Mar 20, 2017 - 03:32pm PT
Taking SS before 70 is a no-brainer; if you take it you've no brain. Just
kidding! Some people don't have a choice. If one does and you're feeling
yer mortality then take it and enjoy it! The 'amortization' point varies
with how long before 70 you start but that doesn't factor the enjoyment
factor. Sure, you'll have less to live on when yer in yer upper 70's and
on but by then yer gonna be happy with a bowl of apple sauce and I Love Lucy
reruns so who cares? If you don't really need to take it then it is a hell
of an investment and you can really woop it up when you turn 70 and buy
that killer set of shuffle board sticks! Me, the wife nixed a Z06 so I'm
gonna wait til 70 and get a ZR1 and spite her!
Bad Climber

Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
Mar 20, 2017 - 03:34pm PT
Good post, Moof.

@Locker: Boooyah!

Me: 53 days and counting. Gulp.

BAd
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Mar 20, 2017 - 04:01pm PT
Retiring from work was an easy decision....did it at 62 and never looked back. Climbing is different.....they will have to wipe the chalk from my cold dead fingers.
i-b-goB

Social climber
Wise Acres
Mar 20, 2017 - 09:29pm PT
I've been retired a year at (61 now) the end of this month, and they say that it takes 10.5 years to use up your portion in the system. I was a third level supervisor at the power company, and just last week I took a city test, written and climbing a tree to become a Tree Surgeon to start all over again! I don't need to do it and I like being retired and sleeping in! I won't get the results for a month but I did good and will most likely get an interview down the road! I don't know if I should go back to work and double dip or just stay retired, crazy!
jgill

Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
Mar 20, 2017 - 09:36pm PT
^^^^ Fortunate dilemma, i-b.

;>)
Bad Climber

Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
Mar 21, 2017 - 06:45am PT
Hey, Lockster. Are you into other fitness stuff, too? I'm always hiking/biking/etc., and having an open schedule is going to make that so much easier. I'm looking forward to reading stuff other than crappy student essays, too. LOL.

Our finances should be okay, but we are taking a pretty big pay-cut to make this happen, so adjustments will be in order, which is fine. I don't need no new BMW every year, not that I could ever afford that anyway.

BAd
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Mar 21, 2017 - 06:51am PT
Bad Climber.....aside from my morbid preoccupation with climbing I enjoy long hikes in the mountains AND I have discovered how much fun a packraft is....check it out!
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Mar 21, 2017 - 07:34am PT
Taking SS before 70 is a no-brainer; if you take it you've no brain.

Hmmm...my brother loves to remind me that all of the males on both sides of the family are dead by 65.
ontheedgeandscaredtodeath

Social climber
SLO, Ca
Mar 21, 2017 - 08:07am PT
Interesting discussion. I never give it much thought to be honest.. I just make the maximum allowable 401k contribution and pay my SS tax. We own a rental property that would already support me if I just want to chillax at a point break in South America until I die. It's 20 more years before retirement is a reality and I like working so hopefully it all works out.

I plugged in my numbers on the SS website and the difference in my monthly payment if I wait until I'm 70 to collect is $1600 per month! (in today's dollars). That's a big difference!

The calculator:

https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/benefit6.cgi

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