60+ year old thread.

Morning all:
Exactly Dave, but a lot of them are going to hit the lottery big!
I don't know if you read my post about my buddy going to a retirement seminar. The first question to them was: how many here have their home paid for, he was the only one that put his hand up out of about 50 people. Mind you, these were all older people that were looking into retiring.

 

Good morning all.

This is exactly why I like this thread ... You folks have a way of keeping stuff in perspective.

 

I hope they don't forget us little people when they hit the big time!

Carl, I went back a few pages but didn't see that post, sorry. I see the same thing among my peers though; talking about retiring, still paying a mortgage. 10 years ago some of them were living large; nice new car, new furniture, trips to exotic locales. I thought to myself "how can they afford that stuff - do they really make that much more money than me?!?" Now that the housing bubble has burst they're not making those kinds of purchases anymore. And they still have mortgage payments.

 

I think I posted about that quite awhile back.

Another friend of mines wife mentioned how her sister and BIL had so much more than them, and they got a lot of money back from the IRS every year. She said that she and her husband got very little back, or had to pay in.
I told her: that's simple, they're in debt up to their ass and getting a ton of write offs.
The couple I was talking to had their home paid for, and probably had no other debt other than normal bills. They both worked for most of their lives and were living a decent middle class lifestyle.
They are both now on pension and living comfortably in SC.

Of course it's a lot cheaper to live in SC-----------------except if you need to buy baby stuff!

 

When I was working, I would sit down and talk to my staff one on one, about saving for retirement. We had a decent 401K plan and they were making pretty decent money. I also told them there is only 1 thing worse than being old in America and that was being old and poor in America.

In todays America a young worker needs to start to save for retirement with their first job. That is not easy to do and might seem like a waste. I would show them hard facts of how systematic investing of $40 a week at 5% for 40 years would be worth $265,000. When you are young $40 a week may seem like a lot but really is investing in ones self. As you age and start to invest more per week it really is pretty easy to have accounts total in excess of $2,000,000. Nothing beats time and compounding interest.

If you put 25% of any raise or bonus into retirement you will have a nice account to retire into.

This of course assumes that you will not drive an expensive new car every 3 years or live in a McMansion that you cannot afford.

 

That baby stuff is a killer! There go my retirement savings!!!

 

Baby stuff is expensive. When they get older it gets MORE EXPENSIVE.
Glasses and operations.
Toys, toys, and ahhhhhh toys.
But when he looks at you and smiles..
You melt.....

 

We started at 40 But have done ok. But that was with the help of Family that knew what they were doing with $$ .
Now we are on the 40 yo kids in the Family To start putting something away. They are doing good making the $ but still spend more then they make. That killer house, new cars & vacations on the plastic are big $ now days

 

Never had anyone mention retirement saving until I was about 35 and had just gotten divorced.... had lots of debt and didn't know how I was gonna pay it off. A friend put me on a budget and got that stuff paid off in a year and thankfully have stayed out of debt since then. Mentioned to my dad one time "wish you'd taught me to save" and it was like I'd punched him. He responded "wish I'd had the $ to teach you with"

 

I didn't start saving untill my 30's. Not that it makes any difference. You save and save and realize you can't do what you want due to your age or health. Enjoy yourself while your young enough cause when you are older you may have money but not the physical ability. So you have money and sit on your ass or in bed. Could of ,would of ,should of. I don't have much per say. Enough to get me buy a few years if I ever did retire. You end up with nothing in the end anyway. Ill start thinking of it when the house gets paid off. Then I'll have to get rid of it because I can't do anything...
Some get lucky. Things fall into place. Health is real good. Took chances with money decisions and won.
Me.. Ain't gonna work that way....

 

I blew my first retirement nest egg on my son's college tuition. The financial guy wanted me to put the account 'on margin' (I think that is what he called it), basically borrow from myself betting that the value of my savings would increase and I would not have to pay myself back. I was too 'conservative' (read: chicken bawk bawk!) to do that so I just cashed it in. Started over. Like I said earlier, a lot of my contemporaries were buying cars and taking vacations and I was wondering how they could afford it. That was when I was paying down a 15 year mortgage and rebuilding my nest egg. We still did stuff, went on vacations and bought cars, just not as fancy. Honda Fit versus Lexus.

I'm with Mike though - you have to find that happy place between enjoying yourself while you are young and healthy, and making sure you don't wind up a pauper at 75. There seem to be two schools: spend it now and worry about tomorrow later, and save every nickel you possibly can. I don't see any financial advice on finding the balance between the two.

Sue, I hear you too regarding debt. I have a buddy who is a bike rider like me. One day years ago he was showing me the new custom paint job on his bike. I asked him "didn't you just have to get the transmission rebuilt in your minivan?" Yes, he said, but he put it on plastic and was paying that off monthly. I blew my stack a little and gave him a lecture about throwing $400 at a damn paint job when he's paying 28% interest on his credit card debt. I was all like "TWENTY EIGHT PERCENT INTEREST - do you know how bad that is?!?" He's a great guy, smart and hard working. He just didn't think about money the same way as I did.

 

Morning all:
Cute little guy Mike!

Reading the above posts and can relate to some, paying 28% interest is not on my agenda. I've pretty well done what I wanted to all my life, not what others said I should do. When Beth. Steel shut down I was already prepared for that. When the good money was there I managed it, and when the good money stopped, I had money to manage. ----- If that makes sense!
I don't think any of us thought that interest rates on savings accounts, money markets, or CD's, would be as low as they are now. I'm sure that put quite a few people that had a nest egg and were considering pension on hold.
My theory: EVERYONE wants my money, so it must be some important stuff and I'm going to try to keep as much of it as possible!

 

i have a base week pay in mind. Anything over goes into a emergency fund. I still spend it when I need it but it covers stuff like parts for the cars,maintenance, sale item etc. so when it's real slow in the winter, I still have a normal base pay as I skim out of the fund. Has worked great except for the last 2 years when work has sucked so bad I couldn't hit it on a good week. This year seems a little better so far but time will tell. My body is shot. I can't see myself doing all these things you see on the retirement ad's.
Win the lottery. Hehehe what would you do with all that money? I told my friend I'm not selfish. If I had enough after the tax to pay off the house and a truck I'd be happy. I don't need millions. It can't buy you happiness. It can make you an asshole real quick...

I guess the only thing you can hope for is the chance to be at ease in your own mind. I pretty much know how it's going to be for me. So I try to have fun now between fishing and helping with the race cars etc. The clock ticks. And it never stops. I just try to use it a little more wisely......

 

Did you open his eyes and get him to change his ways?

My younger son came to me 8 or 9 years ago and asked if I'd put his credit card balance on a zero balance card and he'd pay me, instead of the bank. After years of me ragging on him, he realized it would take him 30 years to pay the balance off at the minimum payment - his interest was right in the 28% range. We made up a contract and he actually paid the debt off early. It really opened his eyes how much interest he was paying and how slow the principal was going down (that's what opened my eyes when I got divorced). He (they) are finally making decent incomes and are paying off student loans and starting to save. He also got his wife out of her debt, too and opened her eyes to how nice it is to not have to pay $$$ to different companies.

I'd never had any financial classes and the ex was always like, if you want it, get it, we'll pay for it later Was young and dumb and didn't think about it

on savings rates!!!

I'd love to win the lottery, too... I like to think I'd spend it all wisely.... Pay off the house, do a few improvements,.... Don't want millions, brings the leaches out of the woodwork.

 

Finally the truck has had its winter grime removed. Wash, wax, restore the black. Cleaned interior.
4 1/2 hours. My shoulders are dead.

Had a good am fishing. Left a Pepsi on a co workers dock. Never saw me...
Tomorrow is mulch day.

 

Motrin is your friend

 

Oh yea.
A little fun yesterday.

 

And a lot of work today..

 

Later never gets here.

 

Tell me about it