When you retireFollow

I plan to live with, and off, my kids. Cultura Latina!

So if I read this right, Flea'jo (both parts) have no plans for what to do with their time. (Other than pester family)

Is that accurate Flea'jo?


Also, Flea, you may want to get cracking on that 'kid' thing. Those eggs don't last forever you know.

I am not currently saving for retirement for a couple of reasons.
1.) I am a stay at home mommy.
2.) I have a nice, big student loan to pay instead.

In 7 years, I'll go back to work and then kick the retirement savings into high gear. They pay teachers well, don't they?

Hah!

My house is worth 800K now with a 500K mortgage, and the mortgage will be paid off at just about the time I am ready to retire. Sell the house, live off of the proceeds. I have a 401K and a pension too, though they are very small at the momnet.

Oh, Mr. Tare has investments and RRSPs, as well as having the dubious distinction of being the only breadwinner. So he's looking out for our present and future.

Go, Mr. T!

The idea of saving for retirement doesn't sit well with me. I still have a 401k to store funding in, mainly as a temporary tax shelter -- anything contributed to it is tax free, and you can withdraw it without penalty to cover "hardships" or certain special events in life (like making a down payment on a house or paying for college, I think). I treat it like a piggybank.

Male life expectancy in this country is 77 years of age. In order to qualify for Social Security - our version of retirement benefits, which may not be around forever anyway - we must wait until we are in our 60s. You can draw limited benefits at age 62, regular benefits at 66, and better than normal benefits if you defer until you're older (69, 70).

That's all well and good if you happen to live that long. If you die before retirement age, all that saving means nothing. Even if you live to retirement age, all you're getting is an estimated ten years of "leisure" (living on a fixed income) when you're already long past your prime. And you're getting it in exchange for having worked for The Man for nearly half a century. (I started work at 16.)

Better; my family has several cases of diabetes, a few types of cancer, a person or two with heart disease, and I'm overweight. I can't say I'm the best candidate to live forever. I'd probably be saving money and wind up dying before retirement age anyway.

This sounds like a bad plan to me. I reject it.



So instead of socking money away for my retirement, I spend it on me and live a full life. I do things I enjoy. ***** the system and ***** the people who want me to contribute.

Maybe I'll get rich long before 65 and quit working for other people. I'm in tech, so it's always a dream. Maybe I'll work 'til I'm 65 and have nothing to show for it, at which point I can start robbing banks or living off my family or something. Maybe I'll die at 46, maybe I'll live to 90, maybe I'll get bored of it and suicide at 50 in despair.

It's a bit early to tell.

I still don't find retirement planning to be particularly useful in my life. To each his own, though! If it makes you happy, go for it. ;)

Unless all of the funds you are funneling to this are after tax dollars then you are in for a big suprise.

Yes you do not have to pay the 10% penalty if you withdraw the money to buy a house or other circumstances but if it was pre-tax dollars that will get added to your income and bite you in the ***.

The 10% penalty does apply however if you are under 59.5 or 55 with different circumstances.

Heh, forget to mention that I only have an IRA currently that my employer and I contribute to, my wife has a 403B she contributes too as well as a teacher retirement fund.

edited to add my situation

Edited, Wed Apr 19 12:12:50 2006 by Kronig

Your points are valid, which is why I actually have a little different definition of 'retirement'.

For me retirement will come when the following criterion have been met;

1) Kids are grown, completed University, are working and have a starting point for their adult lives
2) I have far surpassed the point of working to pay debt, and I am working to build assets.
3) Assets have attained a point that will increase themselves every year, and still leave enough left over to live the way I am planning to. (It is very important to factor this in otherwise the cost-of-living inflation will deteriorate the pot over time)

Whatever age that occurs at will be when I retire in a perfect scenario. If that's at 50 years 60 years, etc. so be it. I do not live by the definition of "you're not done until you are 65".

Husband will be getting a pension from the government when he retires from the Navy after 20+ years. The military benefits for health, dental and vision are all I care about for my family. The pension money itself is just a nice bonus. He has also been contributing to the government TSP program, similar to a 401(k). If he kicked the bucket before me, I will get 1/2 of his military pension payment and whatever he has contributed to the TSP program, minus the withdrawals and deductions.

Myself, I have my own IRA. I use a simple IRA so I have the contributions as a tax deduction. I will covert to a Roth IRA when I get a bit older.

Together, we regular invest in our savings, a few different mutual funds, and some stock, all of which, we reinvest whatever income, gains or dividends come off those. We also have life insurance policies that will pay out to our children in trust if something untimely happens to both of us.

We started our savings/investment stuff one year after we got married, mainly because I work in the legal field where I deal with probates and estate planning. I have seen the horrors of what happens when you don't plan for retirement. I see that by taking care of myself and my husband financially before my death is the final act of love I can give my family. I don't want them stressing upon my passing.

I even have goodbye letters to each of them in case I die in an accident.

Puh-leaze. If the name tells you anything at all, it should tell you we plan to adopt. As for me, I'll just cut to the chase and adopt Jophiel Jr.

My plan is to live off of my inheritance after my dad passes.

As of right now, it's enough to live for 20 years at twice my current salary. That should be good enough.

In the meantime, I plan to spend as much as I can at the Bunny Ranch.

Makes sense, I wasn't too sure on how those worked, being Canadian and all. I was toying with the idea that they were like savings bonds, which in Canada are basically touted as investing in your country with a safe return. The thing they do not explain is that they are guarenteed returns because you only see like 6% of the return and the government takes the rest.

401k does refer to the tax-deferred status for retirement accounts. The accounts are privately held but are typically administered by someone at the company you're employed by; plan administrators have to make sure folks are warned about the tax penalty for withdrawing funds before retirement age.

The 401k programs I've taken part in (four of them now) have allowed employees to choose how their 401k withholding will be invested. Usually we're given a list of mutual fund plans administered by a large financial group (like Principal for example). Matching funds are sometimes contributed in cash (up to a certain percentage) but publicly traded companies tend to contribute a matching value in their own stock.


Essentially 401ks are just a way to skip out on taxes while throwing money at a mutual fund. What kind of return you get depends largely on the performance of the market itself. If you stuff all your 401k money into a single fund and the fund tanks, you lose; if you diversify properly and hedge your money against market fluctuations, you stand to gain over time. Just like any other mutual fund, really.

Edited, Wed Apr 19 13:41:44 2006 by Wingchild