60+ year old thread.

Don't look at the 401K you can't control for now. DO LOOK for someone you want handling it. We chose a firm than handled my wife's money from her Mom, after that particular lady left the bank that did. I put mine with her. It is NOT splashy, and we semi-joke about a little risk now and then. What stocks there are are so buried, it doesn't matter - what does is that whenever the market goes up or down, down is very delayed and not so bad. Up, is a little quicker, and more better than I could ever do. They charge only 1%. Never thought I would "ask for conservative", but as long as I am patient, they have made back most everything I have taken.

If you leave that persons office believing you can trust them, do it. But you have to be honest and realistic too. Do you realize how many too cheap boats are for sale on FB Market Place? I spent too many late nights with a drink and looking! We are NOWHERE near any water either!

 

no one will handle my money.
I don’t trust anyone of them.
I’ll stuff it in my mattress and bury it in the back yard.
And yes I had 5 grand buried in the woods for 10 years until the work tanked many years ago.

I never figured I’d live this long..
So I’m good..

 

I didn't PLAN on living this long, until about a decade ago. Oops.
If you can do well with your money, so be it! If I knew how to handle how much I saved, I would have had a job in money in the first place!

 

my mother says I’m tighter than bark on a tree..
I keep thing a long time. Cars, boats, bikes.
Bought one house... still in it..

 

I don't know if we are too cheap to move, or I hate packing and cleaning too much!

 

All of the above .

 

Yea, but you probably didn't have a SSN for the first few jobs. Heck, I didn't get one until just before I enlisted, you needed it so they could start taxing the miserable pay we got. Now you get one at birth so they can tax you from the day you are born.

 

Oh, I had one, but those were strictly cash enterprises! Like most teens back then. Back when delivery was on bikes or walking...

 

Good morning, all!!

I started delivering morning papers when I was 12. At 16 I went to work in the plant where my Dad worked - he was an electrical engineer - cleaning metal extrusions for power supplies, working the warehouse and making local deliveries and pick-ups. At 17 I worked for a gas station/garage pumping gas and helping the mechanics when things got busy. In my senior year of high school I would open the station at 6Am, work until I had to go to school and then go back after school to work until I would close the place up at 11PM - did homework when it got slow later at night. Looking back, I'm glad I did it all.

We have 3 different people managing our investments at this point - just added the third when I retired from the college and we'll watch him and the others to see who is performing for the lower fees - will shed one of them by next year I'd guess. Having my military retirement is a bonus, of course and a luxury.

We moved 22 times in our 26 years in the Army. The next move I'm making is into the ground.

 

Mark: You earned your military retirement. Thank you for your service. My first social security paying job was pumping gas at an ESSO station. Worked 3 nights a week after school and on Saturday. The pay was a whopping $1.25 an hour plus tips. I also did oil changes and lube jobs. The first raise I ever received was in retail from $1.60 an hour to $1.65 an hour. That raise motivated me to seek a better job with security. It also sent me back to school. I am happy with the way my life turned out and have few regrets.

 

All this talk about teen jobs got me thinking back on what was my first SS paying job. The mom & pop corner store was cash I think, as were the odd jobs I did for neighbors. Later I took a job as a gopher for the local newspaper, that was definitely a paycheck and before I had my license because my folks ferried me back and forth. That was probably it.

 

All the talk about jobs when we were young got me looking back on my careers. Shoveled snow in the winter, collected newspapers for recycling, delivery boy for local butcher shop, and gas pump jockey all before 16 years of age. Didn't have the financial responsibilities I had when raising a family and life was good then. 50 years later I threw in the towel and collected SS and Medicare and don't regret it. Life is good when your retired. I just look at the Grand kids and wonder if they will get any SS?
But on a different note, Have A Great Day All!!

 

The last time we "refunded" the SS was during Reagan admin. Fraction of a percentage point increase adds literally decades of funding to the future. A country of 320 million has enormous economic power - especially one as strong as ours.

 

My first job at 10 years old was cutting and trimming neighbors front lawns. I’d walk around the neighborhood and offer to cut (with a non motorized push lawn mower) and trim with a pair of hand shears for $1. Next I got a paper route, then I got a second paper route. That was tough for a kid, 7 days a week no matter the weather, vicious dogs trying to take a bite of me. And then we had the people who would skip out and not pay me at the end of the month. Then was a warehouse/stock boy for a large hardware/department store. Then in high school I worked 2 nights a week and Saturdays in a gas station where we pumped gas and did car repair. I was a pretty good “mechanic “ and got to do a lot of the repairs myself.
In college I had a dozen different jobs from working in an ink factory, fruit canning factory, metal stamping factory etc. Some guy hired me to guard his giant laundromat at night from lowlifes and vandalism in a very bad part of town from 7 to 10pm. I’d head down there with my books as I studied while there and I brought a baseball bat. Only had to get physical on 3 occasions. Hard to believe today but back then I had a known reputation around town of being a bad dude so few messed with me.
A lot of hard jobs but fond memories

 

Oh the memories -- cut grass, shoveled snow (before school they never seemed to close schools back then) , paper route of 125 papers (tips were good at Christmas -pays to put the dam paper on the porch, all of this was before 16. Then driving drove a truck to deliver lumber and building materials (actually had to join the Teamsters union to get this job -it paid well) , next 3 summers laying tile and carpet. Off to college to major in partying -that didn't work too long. Joined the USAF to "get a trade" -this worked well as I used the electronics training the rest of my life , although I went back and got a degree on the GI bill. Nice life -GREAT wife (52 years) -still hangin in there!

 

Just joining the 60+ party here. I only read the last dozen pages, I'd die of old age trying to go through the whole thread. Came in about where Mark was showing his balloon pics. great looking balloon, what size envelope is that?

My ex-brother-in-law was a balloon pilot, took me for a ride on my 40th birthday. hard to believe that was 26 years ago. His was a 96,000 cubic foot envelope, it and the three-cornered gondola were built by what was then The Balloon Works, in Statesville, NC. That's one of the most fun things I've ever done, we did a splash-n-dash in Lake Hickory.

I won't kill a nonpoisonous snake unless my wife finds it near the house, and even then I try to bag it and dump it in the woods, but I won't tolerate a poisonous snake anywhere in the yard if i see it. Don't want the dog to get bit, and I surely don't want to step on one either. I had a copperhead at the back door a couple of years ago, killed it with a flat-point shovel. My gun of choice would be either a .38 with shotshells, or a .410 shotgun with #8 shot.

I retired just in the nick of time for this COVID crap. I retired a year ago, mid August, after 36 years as a Registered Nurse. I haven't been idle, though, since retiring. I work 4 days a week, about 4-5 hours each day with a landscaper friend; we do lawn maintenance (no mowing), soft and hardscapes, irrigation systems and outdoor lighting. I love getting to work outdoors after 36 years inside a hospital. Right now I'm helping him build an addition on his house, so getting a good dose of carpentry work. Part of my Nursing career was in the USAFR as a Flight Nurse for 8 years, served in Just Cause, Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

I drive a 2011 Tacoma I got 2-1/2 years ago, love the thing. I've always been a Toyota fan, this makes the 8th Toyota I've owned since 1976, starting with a '76 FJ40 (see my avatar). In addition to that, had a '76 Celica GT, three Camry's, a Sienna and the RAV4 and Taco we currently have. One Camry didn't last too long, got broadsided by a drunk driver after owning it two months, but the other two made up for it, both went over 300K, and the Sienna is still going at 465K, my older daughter has it now. Oh, and both daughters have or have had Corollas.

I like gardening, and love to shoot and reload, but I don't hunt any more. My Taco:

 

Started working in my dad's garage when I was able to walk there by myself. Have always had a job doing something in the transportation or mechanical field. Been working somewhere for over 50 years.

In 38 days I will join the ranks of always Saturday people after 25 years working in state government.

Not sure if I will be able to collect anything from SS. Even though I paid in enough years to be vested. My pension from the state penalizes me.

 

After we mowed and trimmed, I needed my minerals for the day.



Bro lean! 5 pea gravel, 6 river rock, and 4 more egg rock to go with 6 I unloaded this morning . Ate them all up too! Now that I'm done, time for pool and a

 

Ken: Your Tacoma is really nice looking. Welcome to the Over 60 thread. Lots of drinks in the cooler and there is a coffee pot around here somewhere.