Retirement planning - where do you see yourself

[Edward64]

I've got a long ways off before retiring but am going through an exercise to figure out where I want to be and what I will be doing. Figure better to start planning now.

House paid off, kids done with college.

Somewhere on the beach. Hawaii would be nice, possibly Caribbean. Standalone cottage or upper floor condo with a view. I know Hawaii would be expensive but am thinking possibly the less popular islands. View and access to beach is key for me.

Used 36ft (?) sailboat that we could live and sail in for half the year. Visit other places in the south pacific. Have to take sailing lessons. Start writing my epic fantasy series.

Anyone else have plans?

[Nogram]

Retire at 50.

Build dream house in mountain community.

Peace and quiet.

[sterlingice]

Being as I'm 31 and convinced that we'll screw up our economy in similar ways to 2008 repeatedly before they either fix it or we really destroy our economy for good, I'm good for any plan that doesn't require me to work beyond 70 or be the guy running from crazy cannibals in a post-apocalyptic world.

Oh, and I have a 401k at work

SI

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Being as I'm 31 and convinced that we'll screw up our economy in similar ways to 2008 repeatedly before they either fix it or we really destroy our economy for good, I'm good for any plan that doesn't require me to work beyond 70 or be the guy running from crazy cannibals in a post-apocalyptic world.

Oh, and I have a 401k at work

SI

This is the key for me. Judging by the boom-disaster cycle we seem to be in, the next big economic crash will be right when I'm looking to maximize the value of my 401k and really starting to plan an exit. So either make enough money before then that I don't need to worry too much about losing it all down the drain (very unlikely) or hope that I have the foresight and good judgement to do something about about it.

I don't need a yacht or a beachfront property, the key for me is enough money to take a decent number of vacations every year and doing it justice. Make up for all the years I've basically taken one trip back home a year and haven't seen any of the world while I was young. Peace and quiet and somewhere not so hot also sounds pretty good.

[Nogram]

If you are convinced there will be wide-spread economic disaster, educate yourself and take control of your finances. When the disaster starts to hit, SHORT, and profit, when it recovers go long and profit again.

[MacroGuru]

I have rebuilt my savings once, when I was hit by the dot bomb...

I am now rebuilding it with what I am going through (The move to Buffalo, loss of business and marriage)...

However, my goal that keeps me going is to retire to Roatan and run my web based businesses from there...I was on pace to achieving that goal until I took the risk off the business and moving here to Buffalo.

Once I get everything finalized I will be working back towards it.

The other things obviously that I am still paying into right now are the Roth Educational IRA's for my kids for College.

But really..I just want to be able to enjoy life without having to work hard...I will always run a business or be involved in a venture of some sort until I die, that is just my nature.

[Ksyrup]

I hope to retire before I die. That's my long-term goal. I'll probably need to live at least until 75, though.

[lordscarlet]

I don't have anything that clear. I am kind of in the opposite mold from some people, I think. I'm just stockpiling 401k/savings and I'll figure it out when I get there. I would hope to have a home that I owe out-right (I'm currently on a plan to finish the 30 year mortgage I started this year in 15 years). The 31 year old (today) me would love to be living in the city, perhaps with a modest beach home within a couple hours drive. Other than that, I just want to be able to travel, enjoy life, and have fun gadgets.

[lungs]

Most likely, I'll never truly retire. My grandfather helped out here and there on the farm into his 80's and at 86 while he can't physically help anymore he still gets on his John Deere Gator and drives over several times a week to see what's going on.

My dad (62 years old) and I have an unwritten agreement. He doesn't plan on retiring either but he can go on vacation any time he wants or pretty much show up whenever he wants. He enjoys maintenance and cobbling things together so that's what he'll do until he doesn't want to or can't anymore. He's still majority stockholder and President of the farm but he works at a much more leisurely pace these days.

I'll probably follow the same pattern if everything holds true. I'd get bored retired. When you work your whole life to build something up that started small from your grandfather, it'd be hard to just completely walk away from it at any point. Unless the bank is forcing me to walk away

[DaddyTorgo]

I've started to think about purchasing a "retirement property" somewhere before I purchase my primary residence, and renting in the medium-term for my primary residence. This would of course necessitate my "retirement property" being somewhere where I could vacation and also rent it out while I'm not using it as my primary residence. Perhaps the Caribbean.

It's just a thought right now, and I have to number-crunch to see how feasible it is I guess. But the advantages would then be retiring into a place that's fully paid off, having a vacation destination where accomodation isn't an extra cost, etc.

[DataKing]

Make it through the rest of my life without getting snared by a woman, thus allowing me to keep my share of my company's Profit-Sharing Trust. That's the plan.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by DataKing

Make it through the rest of my life without getting snared by a woman, thus allowing me to keep my share of my company's Profit-Sharing. That's the plan.

+1 on this.

Also - get a 401k setup as soon as I get my profit-share this year.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by DataKing

Make it through the rest of my life without getting snared by a woman, thus allowing me to keep my share of my company's Profit-Sharing Trust. That's the plan.

+2

[Swaggs]

I'd just hope to own our home outright (we are on a good track there), hope that my wife and child(ren) are healthy, get my child(ren) through college, and continue our current lifestyle comfortably.

I'd sprinkle in that I'd like to take a few more vacations, have good season tickets to WVU football and basketball (and the ability to travel to a number of away games), and possibly dabble in some property rentals and/or rehabs.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Nogram

If you are convinced there will be wide-spread economic disaster, educate yourself and take control of your finances. When the disaster starts to hit, SHORT, and profit, when it recovers go long and profit again.

What are your thoughts on blackjack?

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

+1 on this.

Also - get a 401k setup as soon as I get my profit-share this year.

Just to be a little bit annoying... Don't wait. Start it now. Put in whatever you can, even if it's $10 or $100 a month. Since it's pre-tax it doesn't hurt you at all. You should try to at least get to where you're contributing up to the max of your company's matching.

[Flasch186]

since starting this business I cant see past the next 2 years. I understand thats a problem but without making it past then I cant plan for anything longer with any real confidence. BTW I once asked how low you'd be willing to go in reserves, when starting a business, before you started to freak out...any thoughts on that while we're talking finances?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

Just to be a little bit annoying... Don't wait. Start it now. Put in whatever you can, even if it's $10 or $100 a month. Since it's pre-tax it doesn't hurt you at all. You should try to at least get to where you're contributing up to the max of your company's matching.

Oh I know I should get it started up now. That probably should have read "get a 401k setup once I establish a monthly budget." And frankly, I've been in my apartment for like 7 weeks now - I should have enough data to compile a monthly budget. Just need to sit down with Mint.com and crunch the numbers out.

My company might not match - there's just 3 of us . So I guess the decision on if we will is partially mine...lol.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

since starting this business I cant see past the next 2 years. I understand thats a problem but without making it past then I cant plan for anything longer with any real confidence. BTW I once asked how low you'd be willing to go in reserves, when starting a business, before you started to freak out...any thoughts on that while we're talking finances?

My partner sold off his vacation house for like 750k, maxed out his HELOC and pretty much maxed out the line of credit on the rental property he owned, and took no money out of the business for almost 5 years.

Of course it should start beginning to pay off this year. And he's liable to be a lot better off during the divorce proceedings because he doesn't have all those assets.

Not to scare you or anything. And with Real Estate your sales cycle is nowhere near as long as ours, so it shouldn't take you that long.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

since starting this business I cant see past the next 2 years. I understand thats a problem but without making it past then I cant plan for anything longer with any real confidence. BTW I once asked how low you'd be willing to go in reserves, when starting a business, before you started to freak out...any thoughts on that while we're talking finances?

My wife is very conservative with finances. I really don't see me being able to even make the leap into running my own business.

[Poli]

I'm starting Dave Ramsey's Finance Peace U. tonight.

[Nogram]

Originally Posted by Logan

What are your thoughts on blackjack?

Perfect.

Toss your money into mutual funds or ETF's. They are a safe long-term bet, just like real-estate will be going forward in a deflationary environment.

Just ask Japan, the market always comes back, so investing for the long-term is the way to go.

The only person you can trust with your money is yourself. The challenge is that to know what you are doing is a MAJOR time commitment, and sadly beyond the reach of most of the population.

On blackjack, I love when I can find a $0.05 video blackjack machine in Vegas, I can play for hours on $10, enjoy a number of free drinks while playing a rousing game of 'spot the hooker' with my wife and our friends.

[Autumn]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

since starting this business I cant see past the next 2 years. I understand thats a problem but without making it past then I cant plan for anything longer with any real confidence. BTW I once asked how low you'd be willing to go in reserves, when starting a business, before you started to freak out...any thoughts on that while we're talking finances?

Depends a lot on the context I suppose, but in our small business I"ve had plenty of months where we had no reserves at all. Obviously that's not the goal, but that's been my experience.

[jeff061]

Dumping a fair amount into 401k. 45 is a possibility(so people keep telling me), but I'm preparing for 60+.

Edit: And no, I don't know what I'd do at 45 and not working. I'd probably keep working anyways, depending on what I was doing. Consulting as I currently am would have to be a thing of the past, it's a health risk .

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Poli

I'm starting Dave Ramsey's Finance Peace U. tonight.

I'm in the midst of this now. A pretty good program. I'm hoping that some of what I'm learning now can be extended to my children, as some of the biggest lessons are to start saving early. Too late for me to start early, so now I'm just looking to be wise now and into the future.

[Greyroofoo]

I plan on spending my retirement 6 feet under.

[lynchjm24]

Originally Posted by Nogram

If you are convinced there will be wide-spread economic disaster, educate yourself and take control of your finances. When the disaster starts to hit, SHORT, and profit, when it recovers go long and profit again.

So time the market? No problem, that's really easy.

[lynchjm24]

As for retirement, I'll be on a golf course in Tampa or Scottsdale.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Nogram

Perfect.

Toss your money into mutual funds or ETF's. They are a safe long-term bet, just like real-estate will be going forward in a deflationary environment.

Just ask Japan, the market always comes back, so investing for the long-term is the way to go.

The only person you can trust with your money is yourself. The challenge is that to know what you are doing is a MAJOR time commitment, and sadly beyond the reach of most of the population.

On blackjack, I love when I can find a $0.05 video blackjack machine in Vegas, I can play for hours on $10, enjoy a number of free drinks while playing a rousing game of 'spot the hooker' with my wife and our friends.

Mutual funds??

You can get a good broad-based ETF for much cheaper as far as fees go, and the performance of your actively-managed mutual fund isn't going to be that much better over the long term - particularly when you factor in the fees.

One of the key problems with mutual funds is that all your mom+pop investors flock to the hot names that have good performance, completely ignoring the phenomenon of mean-reversion.

I'm on the verge of recommending carte blanche to everyone i talk to to just go passive with ETF's replicating indexes, maybe a couple commodities ETF's or that sort of thing.

[lighthousekeeper]

this thread will be sad to revisit after the zombie apocalype hits in a few years.

[molson]

I can never get the nagging thought out of my head that it will be all for naught one way or another (my own death, zombies, or something as pedestrian as a complete currency re-evaluation or something).

But I save a bunch, as I've been told to do. And my little house should be paid off by the time I'm 40, sooner if I'm lucky. And I have very modest expectations about lifestyle. The simple life is good. If nothing crazy happens, I can certainly afford comfortable simplicity.

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by molson

I can never get the nagging thought out of my head that it will be all for naught one way or another (my own death, zombies, or something as pedestrian as a complete currency re-evaluation or something).

But I save a bunch, as I've been told to do. And my little house should be paid off by the time I'm 40, sooner if I'm lucky. And I have very modest expectations about lifestyle. The simple life is good. If nothing crazy happens, I can certainly afford comfortable simplicity.

+1 When I was 16 I declared all I needed for the rest of my life was a pet dog and the latest video gaming system. I never thought that would actually end up being true.

[Marc Vaughan]

I'm not really planning on retiring, I enjoy my job so why bother? (although I might cut back to say 50 hours a week ).

[Nogram]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Mutual funds??

You can get a good broad-based ETF for much cheaper as far as fees go, and the performance of your actively-managed mutual fund isn't going to be that much better over the long term - particularly when you factor in the fees.

One of the key problems with mutual funds is that all your mom+pop investors flock to the hot names that have good performance, completely ignoring the phenomenon of mean-reversion.

I'm on the verge of recommending carte blanche to everyone i talk to to just go passive with ETF's replicating indexes, maybe a couple commodities ETF's or that sort of thing.

I was joking.

Mutual Funds and ETF's are a good way to make very very little money.

The only decent ETF out there right now would be a single leverage (no leverage) ETF focused on natural gas plays. I would bet that 5 years from now natural gas will not be $3.75.

As far as timing the market, yes you can. It is not hard at all once you put in the time and effort to figure things out. No get rich quick schemes, no pre-packaged systems, you have to understand it and figure it out.

Reading list:

Way of the Turtle - Faith
Trend Following - Covel

If someone was to ask me where the market would be 10 years or 10 months from now, I have no idea. But where it is 10 days from now, is not hard to figure out with some sense of accuracy (not 100% but better than 50-50).

That is all from me on this.

[sabotai]

I see myself dying young, so I'm not planning for retirement......not that I make enough to plan for retirement even if I wanted to....

[Apathetic Lurker]

Smoke for 25 years.....drink moderately..... uncontrolled diabetes for years.....
Andro in 30's.......heart attack in late 30's......quad bypass at 42.......retirement?...yeah right....

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by Apathetic Lurker

Smoke for 25 years.....drink moderately..... uncontrolled diabetes for years.....
Andro in 30's.......heart attack in late 30's......quad bypass at 42.......retirement?...yeah right....

+1.

Although I havent gotten to the late 30's heart attack, that's probably where I'm headed based on my early 30's issues.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Nogram

I was joking.

Mutual Funds and ETF's are a good way to make very very little money.

The only decent ETF out there right now would be a single leverage (no leverage) ETF focused on natural gas plays. I would bet that 5 years from now natural gas will not be $3.75.

As far as timing the market, yes you can. It is not hard at all once you put in the time and effort to figure things out. No get rich quick schemes, no pre-packaged systems, you have to understand it and figure it out.

Reading list:

Way of the Turtle - Faith
Trend Following - Covel

If someone was to ask me where the market would be 10 years or 10 months from now, I have no idea. But where it is 10 days from now, is not hard to figure out with some sense of accuracy (not 100% but better than 50-50).

That is all from me on this.

ETF's are much better than mutual funds for passive broad-market exposure. Fees and liquidity are much better.

I mean if you're not going to be actively playing the market on a day-to-day (or week-to-week) basis with individual stocks.

[Kodos]

Wow. Lot of pessimistic people in this thread.

We're steadily pumping money into our 401(k)s. Not where we want to be, but better off than virtually all of our friends, who seem to have no plan whatsoever for the future and no will to save money.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Wow. Lot of pessimistic people in this thread.

We're steadily pumping money into our 401(k)s. Not where we want to be, but better off than virtually all of our friends, who seem to have no plan whatsoever for the future and no will to save money.

Part of the reason I'm even considering the idea I mentioned above (although again I don't know how feasible it will actually be - I need to number crunch) is so that I have a "get out of US" plan available, just in case

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by jeff061

Dumping a fair amount into 401k. 45 is a possibility(so people keep telling me), but I'm preparing for 60+.

Edit: And no, I don't know what I'd do at 45 and not working. I'd probably keep working anyways, depending on what I was doing. Consulting as I currently am would have to be a thing of the past, it's a health risk .

Does anyone know of a good calculator out there? I've tried a few and all seem to fall a little short. I'd like to be able to put in

a) my current net worth stuff (retirement, savings, etc)
b) how much I save each month/year (and goddammit let me do flat amounts, not stupid percentages -- I max out, I don't put in a specific percentage of my salary)
c) how much in today's money I would like to pull out each year in retirement

And have it give me an idea of when it thinks I can retire and how long the money will last me.

[sterlingice]

Wouldn't another huge consideration be how much is the dollar worth then versus today?

I mean, great, my parents could have been excited in 1970, if such a calculator existed, to be pulling $10K per year out. Turns out that doesn't go nearly as far as it did then.

You can plan to, say, spend $50K per year then. But if, in 2050, $50K is worth what $10K is now, the calculation isn't worth a whole lot.

SI

[Kodos]

Still, $50K is likely to be better than $0K.

[sterlingice]

Well, absolutely. I don't think anyone is saying $0K (well, maybe someone is) but we can't fully know how much it's going to be worth. Having a calc that assumes for, say, 3% inflation would be handy. You can assume (somewhat crudely) that if your investments go up at, say, 5% you might want to figure in 3% inflation so you're really only gaining 2% per year (roughly) and not 5%.

SI

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Wouldn't another huge consideration be how much is the dollar worth then versus today?

I mean, great, my parents could have been excited in 1970, if such a calculator existed, to be pulling $10K per year out. Turns out that doesn't go nearly as far as it did then.

You can plan to, say, spend $50K per year then. But if, in 2050, $50K is worth what $10K is now, the calculation isn't worth a whole lot.

SI

That's why I said, "how much in today's money I would like to pull out each year in retirement." I would then expect the calculator to take inflation into consideration and tell me, in today's dollars, what my situation was -- but let me know that it assumed (or let me enter) a certain rate of inflation.

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Well, absolutely. I don't think anyone is saying $0K (well, maybe someone is) but we can't fully know how much it's going to be worth. Having a calc that assumes for, say, 3% inflation would be handy. You can assume (somewhat crudely) that if your investments go up at, say, 5% you might want to figure in 3% inflation so you're really only gaining 2% per year (roughly) and not 5%.

SI

There are a ton of people saving $0k. Really, there are a ton of people just going into greater and greater debt.

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

....


There are a ton of people saving $0k. Really, there are a ton of people just going into greater and greater debt.

I'd wager that zero is closer to the norm, than the exception.

[DataKing]

Why bother saving, when the welfare state will take care of you?

[Apathetic Lurker]

Originally Posted by SteveMax58

+1.

Although I havent gotten to the late 30's heart attack, that's probably where I'm headed based on my early 30's issues.

I didnt know I had a heart attack until 3 weeks before my open heart surgery..Had the surgery after the stress test showed a problem and the angio confirmed it....

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Wow. Lot of pessimistic people in this thread.

If I'm pessimistic, it's because of experience and observation.


On a serious note, I am thinking about retirement. I have 0 debt right now, other than what I put on my CC every month (I pay it off every month). I don't have much in way of monthly expenses due to living a rather minimalist lifestyle along with being single and childless (and the "childless" part will stay that way if I can avoid any 'accidents'), so I can put most of what I make into savings and retirement.

I just have no idea what the hell to do. Some people say IRA, some Roth IRA. Some say stocks, others say mutual fund or ETFs. Some say stick in a mattress, others say one word, plastics.

At the moment, I'm building up a nice emergency fund so that if anything happens, I'll be able to live off it for a good while, but after I have that built up, I'll have some studying to do.

[Nogram]

Originally Posted by sabotai

but after I have that built up, I'll have some studying to do.

Bingo. No one knows how hard you worked for your money than you do.