Retirement is something everyone seems to look forward to. But the reality of that retirement may not be as idealistic as we dream.
For many of the “Baby Boomer” generation, our retirement fund consists of whatever we’re going to receive from Social Security and nothing more.
When it comes to retirement, most of us are worse off than our parents’ generation was.
So Why Is This So?
First of all, our average tenure working for a company is less than five years, meaning that we’re not even minimally vested for retirement. That’s a huge difference from our parents’ generation, where many worked for a company for 20 or more years, and then went on to work another 10, 15 or 20 years for another company.
Secondly, we’re notoriously poor at saving for retirement. More than half of us have no savings whatsoever when we retire. Averaging the entire population we barely reach $200,000 in retirement savings and investments when it’s time to retire.
Related: 5 Ways Prepping Has Helped With My Retirement
Finally, our biggest “investment” our home, doesn’t have the equity value that it should, because we tend to move before paying it off. The average time a homeowner spends in their home is eight years; and that’s actually up from a decade ago. Only 37% of homeowners have been in their homes for more than 10 years.
If you look at any amortization schedule, you’ll see that unless real estate prices have increased drastically in the city where the home is, the amount of equity only equals about 15% of the cost of the home. What this all means is that most of us can’t really afford to retire.
Experience
Personally, I’ve worked in a variety of fields, including engineering, being an overseas missionary and now as a freelance writer. Although I worked long enough to be vested for retirement at both of the companies I was an engineer for, I only have retirement coming from one of them, as I cashed out the other one to start my own business.
The other company’s retirement fund will be paying me a grand total of $112 per month, when I reach retirement age in a few short years.
It’s not that I wasn’t a good employee, by far. I was an excellent employee. Between those two companies, I garnered a total of five promotions in 15 years, going from junior technician all the way up to engineering manager. I’ve also been successful in my missions work and my writing career, although I can’t say the same for my earlier business ventures.
I know; I know; I should have been putting money into a 401K all those years I was a missionary and self-employed. That’s an easy thing to say; but a lot harder to do, when you barely have enough money coming in to make ends meet. So, while I might be able to look back and tell myself “You should have,” it wasn’t a practical reality at the time.
Related: Government Lays Groundwork To Confiscate Your 401k and IRA: “This Is Happening”
So what am I going to do? For that matter, what are all the other “Baby Boomers” out there, who are in a similar situation going to do?
Since few of us have savings worth speaking of or any retirement coming from the companies we worked for, how are we going to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table when it comes time to retire? Allow me to throw out a few possibilities.
Keep Working
The easiest thing to do, in order to make sure that you have enough money to live on, is to just keep working. If you’re able to do your job now, what’s to keep you from doing it a few more years, until your health makes it difficult?
Staying on the job for that extra time may help to increase the retirement you receive, when it does become necessary to retire. Of course, not all companies are willing to keep older people on the payroll.
Related: 7 Ways To Make A Decent Living Even If You’re Retired
There’s a definite move towards companies trying to have a younger workforce, mostly because they can pay those younger people less money.
So your company may actually push you into retirement. But even so, that doesn’t mean that you have to retire; you can always go to work someplace else.
Reinvent Yourself
Going to work someplace else may mean reinventing yourself and changing what you do, at least to some extent. That may mean becoming a consultant, especially if you’re highly skilled in a very specific field.
Companies don’t usually mind older consultants, because there’s a natural tendency to believe that those older experts have lots of years of experience.
An alternative way of handling that is to join the gig economy and work from home as a freelancer. Companies pay billions of dollars per year to freelancers, to do a wide range of tasks.
Many of these companies are smaller ones, who don’t need a full-time staff member to do that particular task or who have that particular skill set.
Hiring freelancers allows them to hire the expertise they need, without having the financial burden of a full-time employee.
I’ve been a freelancer for 11 years now and I have no intention of stopping when I reach retirement age. Oh, I’ll probably slow down a bit, becoming more selective in the work I accept. But I’ve been at this long enough that I’m already pretty selective of who I work for and what jobs I take on.
But that’s not the only thing I’m planning on doing. I’ve always been an entrepreneur, either as my full-time job or as a sideline. I’ve also been a bit of an inventor, having an engineering background.
Related: The Best 7 States to Retire In
So I’ve got a couple of projects in the works, which I’m hoping will grow into small businesses, essentially making products from recycled material. If those work out, they’ll be able to augment my retirement income at least to some extent.
The other way I’m reinventing myself is to turn my hobby into a sideline business. I’ve been a woodworker all my life, and as I’ve grown older, my projects have become more artistic.
I’m currently working on “building my brand,” making upscale handmade wood products and turning my hobby into a business. This will help me to cut down on my writing hours, doing something I enjoy and still being able to make money off it.
Lower Your Cost of Living Now
If you know that your retirement income and your living expenses don’t match up, then just maybe it’s time to change your cost of living. I don’t mean waiting until you retire to do so; I mean doing so now, so that by the time you retire, you’re already living within your means.
My wife and I just bought a house in a small town near here.
While it might seem a bit strange to buy a house when you’re reaching retirement age, interest rates are low enough that our house payments are lower than a comparable sized rental.
They’re actually on par with what we’ve been paying for a small apartment and two storage units, one of which was my workshop.
Based upon our combined income, we could have qualified for a loan that was twice what we ended up spending on our home. But that wasn’t our goal. Rather, our goal was to find something that we would be able to afford in retirement.
By buying a house in a small town, we saved $100,000 over buying it here in the city and we ended up with a much bigger lot. We literally own ¼ of a city block, giving us room for a larger vegetable garden, raising chickens and putting in a fish pond.
It may not look like it makes sense, but downsizing can save you a lot of money, especially if you can do like we have and downsize to a lower cost of living area at the same time. Housing and energy are typically our biggest expenses, so going for a smaller place might be all you need to do, in order to make your retirement budget work.
I’ve always done a lot of things for myself, rather than paying others to do them for me. That includes everything from cooking to remodeling projects to replacing the engine on my car. It’s a great way of saving money and has allowed me to live above my income, simply because I’m not paying someone else to do things that I can do myself.
Part of that is that I’m adding solar power, wind power and solar hot water heating to our home. While I don’t expect to power everything that way, I hope to cut our electric bill by 10 to 20 percent. I’m also hoping to grow all our own produce, cutting down on our food bills.
Move In With Your Kids
Once upon a time, it was normal for grandma and/or grandpa to move in with their kids, when they couldn’t make it on their own anymore. They’d help around the home in whatever way they could, contributing to the family. While we don’t do that so much anymore, it’s a tradition worth bringing back.
When my first wife divorced me, my youngest daughter and her husband invited me to move in with them. That was fortunate for me, as I couldn’t pay my ex the amount of support I had to (while waiting for the divorce to finalize) and still have enough to live on.
But it also allowed them to move into a bigger place, as I was contributing to the household income. So we weren’t crowded in their original home.
Related: Worst 5 States for Preppers to Retire
Now that I’m remarried, that same couple is asking when my wife and I are going to retire and move back in with them. They want us there, especially now that they’re having their first baby. We get along good and really don’t have any of the power struggles of two couples living in the same home.
Live Like You Did In Your Youth
If you don’t get along well enough with your kids, so that you can move in with them, perhaps you could do what many of us did in college or in the years thereafter and get a roomie. My brother, who is a year older than me and is already retired has a roommate that he’s lived with for several years now.
They were buddies in high school and have managed to maintain their friendship through their various marriages, divorces and living out of state.
Living alone when you’re retired probably isn’t a good idea anyways, especially if you’re single. Not having anyone there when you fall or have health problems can be outright dangerous.
On top of that, there’s the problem of being so alone. We need social interaction to survive; and having a housemate or apartment-mate can help provide that social interaction.
Final Words
So, those are my ideas. As you can see, I’m already working on several of them, even though I still have a few years before I reach retirement age.
I’m not waiting till the last minute, as I figure it will take some time to prepare. Which ones of those will work for you?
Or do you have any other ideas that will work to make retirement financially possible? If so, I’d love to hear them. Maybe your idea will make my own retirement a little bit better.
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As a personal choice, I have always lived comfortably below my means and that gives one many options as one looks forward to retirement. There is no reason to fret, no reason to downsize, no reason to relocate, no reason to do without those things one really needs or enjoys. My biggest expense has been for education, not mine but my children’s, and before I invested one dollar I looked to see what kind of return I would get on that investment since I considered it an important part of my retirement account. Many a financial planner would roll in their grave knowing one would chose to invest in the education of their children rather than one’s own retirement savings account, but that pays off in spades when they are then in a position to help you later on in life. One thing to remember when offered advice about big retirement plans, in every transaction someone makes money and that someone may not be you.
CC: Well said. niio
Living beneath our means is they key and one of the ways to do that is to downsize (as you mentioned) and then paying off your mortgage (which I have done).
I have been debt free (credit cards and loans) for 30 years and never put anything on a credit card that I can’t pay off immediately.
Utilities can be lowered simply through selective usage and groceries can be drastically cut by growing your own and canning or preserving in some way (which I’ve been doing for years).
Also, having an emergency cash fund for those expenditures that become a big surprise.
I love your blog and read 90% of your posts. Thank you so much for your sage advice in so many different areas.
I retired 7 years ago at the age of 48 from the military. It’s ironic but it occurred to me while I was in I really had a problem with authority. So I aggressively saved and invested enough $ to ensure that when I retired I could live off my modest pension plus investments. No more working for “The Man.”
I have plenty of advice for young people who want to retire early. (Tldr version: Google the Financially Independent Retire Early “FIRE” movement.) But if you’re a Boomer and you haven’t figured out retirement now you’re really screwed unless you’re already pulling down a high 6 figure salary and can work at least another 5 years. Even that will take some serious scrimping and saving plus a little investing luck.
Corporate greed coupled with high taxes + very high health care premiums (and costs) prevents me from retiring.
I will live in poverty till the day I die.
IMPOSSIBLE for me to do otherwise unless I win the lotto jackpot.
Why two thumbs down for crazy squirrel’s lament? Having a peevish day? Mad at the world? Some people work like a naavy all their days and die in harness. Poverty had little to do with hard work. Sometimes it is the region in which you were born. If you live in Appalachia, there is a good chance you would be in crazy squirrel’s shoes. There are other states where life sucks and then you die.
While I lived frugally and conservatively, for the first half of my working life, after military service I had a job that paid very well. I made $50,000 a year when $50,000 a year was considered the income of someone who had it made. I did that by dint of working long hours in a job that paid well. I had a job where I could work as many hours as I wanted, limited only by physical endurance.
Crazy squirrel may live in a region where work is seasonal and scarce even then. Construction used to be the summer job of school teachers and college students. I don’t know about other states, but in the PDRK today, construction is the job of immigrants. If you want to be a construction foreman you had better have construction Spanish as a well-versed second language.
With medical care being extended to anyone lucky enough to get across the border, office work in a medical office dictates that you have Spanish as either a primary language or a strong second language.
Some folks have trouble learning a second language. For examples I always point to Henry Kissinger and Madeline Albright. They both were born in eastern European countries coming the the U.S. in grade school. Both were schooled in the U.S. from grade school through the doctorate level. Madeline Albright spoke flawless, unaccented English. One could not distinguish her speech from a native born English speaker. Henry Kissinger, certainly not lacking in brain power, always spoke English, as we used to say, like he just got off the boat.
So being unable to find work in your chosen field just might depend upon being able master a second language fluent in the idiosyncrasies of your chosen field.
Blaming the location for a retirement problem is like blaming the weather. “High taxes” are the clue that crazysquirrel is probably not a victim of circumstance.
@left coast chuck I’m not one of the crazysquirrel haters. He or she may be well and truly screwed by the hand life dealt them. And I can’t tell what hand they got to know for sure. But I do know there’s a big trend – especially on Twitter, Facebook, etc. – to spend more time belly achin’ than trying to work harder/longer/smarter. So maybe there’s a reaction to that from preppers. If you’re a prepper you decided consciously or unconsciously it was up to you to prepare for whatever disaster comes down the road. Not be a victim permanently waiting for government assistance that either may not come or may come with a hefty price. It may be harsh of them to rush to judgement but it is what it is.
I agree with what you have written. Poverty is an economic term. When I was a kid I never considered my family as rich or poor. I was content being outside as much as possible and retiring to my small bedroom after a humble meal.
Your life is probably full of rich love and caring and modest things you want to do.
We all eat slave slop at night. Listen to the radio and sing your ass off. Be happy.
The greatest obstacle to “simply work longer,” is the rampant, pervasive, and demonstrable ageism in our society. It is horrific to contemplate – but Biden is planning to raise the retirement age for Social Security…while doing NOTHING to encourage or even mandate employers to retain older workers.
Quite the opposite: We are being either reduced in grade, salary, or just plain fired (or all three by turns)…therein to take jobs at Wally World. Yes…even for those with doctorates, engineering degrees, managerial experience…getting hired on at 50+ much less 60+ in-field is well-nigh impossible.
While I am fortunate enough to have built a nest egg that truly will allow a modest retirement…the squeeze on us as a generation has long been “on.” It is FAR past time for a national movement against this demonstrated and active discrimination.
When you are an employee and paid a set salary the rules do get fuzzy when it comes to over time. Here in the big city, many folks are thrilled when promoted to VP only to find out that at that level, they are no longer able to get OT, and the boss expects them to be available 24/7. Corporate sweat shops! Many lower level positions where one could work their way up or rebound to for some extra dollars later in retirement years are now outsourced and those companies prefer to hire foreigners simply because they can get away with a lot. Mainly low pay, no job security, no benefits. Honest work for a days pay is not only a country side problem. Take heart Crazy Squirrel! You’re not that crazy!
Hawk: While is is absolutely, undeniably true that many corporations practice ageism against their long time employees, it is a double-edged sword. Too many employees start to coast after a certain number of years on the job. Having been an employer for 50 years, I had a chance to see it from the other side of the fence.
Let me give you an example. The son of a very dear friend of mine recently lost his job after fifteen years of employment with the same company. He was stunned. He told me they said it was a realignment of the company that forced his firing. I was surprised. He struck me as the kind of guy who followed company procedure without question and was a “good employee”.
I decided to see if his company was having financial difficulties or was in the midst of a hostile or even a friendly take-over. Going on line to look at their company website, I immediately saw the reason why this “good employee” was let go. He had spent 15 years in the same job without advancement. The company website said that they have a policy of up or out. I suspect that he never made himself available for overtime. He never took any courses for self-improvement in his chosen field. He never took any management courses. He never did anything to improve himself and make himself more valuable to the company. He had reached the end of the line. Were he not such a steady employee, he probably would have been let go five years ago or perhaps even ten years ago.
He loyally showed up for work every scheduled day. He performed his job adequately but never went beyond that adequate performance. The company invested 15 years in him and he never did anything to advance his value to his employer. I am torn. I don’t know whether to let him in on the reason he was fired or not. He is only a casual acquaintance to me, even though he is the son of a very dear friend. I don’t want to lose the dear friend by telling the son where he fell short and why he was let go.
He left the Marine Corps after 12 years which is three enlistments. I have a feeling that it was the same situation with the Marine Corps. He just showed up every day and did his job. He didn’t put any extra effort into his job and he was dissatisfied with his progress in the Marine Corps which instituted up or out when I was in, back in the days of the 30-40 Kraig, leggings, campaign hats and 17 inch bayonets. Well, that’s a slight exaggeration, but it was a long time ago, so I know the up or out policy has been in effect the whole time he was in The Corps. There are no more 30 year privates in the Marine Corps as there were when I was in.
They were an interesting breed of men. There isn’t room for them today and I suspect a lot of them are the homeless we see in SoCal. They didn’t want to advance in rank. If promoted against their will, they did some minor offense to get them reduced in rank. They were content in life to just coast as a private or a private first class. They were invaluable in wartime because they had survived so many campaigns, at least when I was in. All of the career privates that I knew had been through the battles of WWII as an infantryman and also through the years of the Korean War. They might have survived the Marine Barracks attack in Beruit and were probably among the first waves ashore at Danang. The platoon sergeant In Vietnam who probably had never heard a shot fired in anger relied on them to be the backbone of his squads. But not any more. Up and Out has forced them out of the military service.
In addition, an attitude I noticed in many long term employees is the “this company can’t exist without me” attitude. In almost 100% of the cases that is absolutely not true. The company can get along perfectly well without that employee. In fact, in many cases, the company can get along much better with new blood and a fresh outlook on the business.
So while I agree with your basic premise, I would urge anyone who is having difficulty finding work as an “older worker” to evaluate their own attitude toward employment. Did you do anything to improve the job skills you offered your employer? Did you take any outside courses that might lead to management positions? Did you use every single day of sick leave every year? Did you regularly refuse overtime? Did you ever think about your job and offer suggestions to improve work flow? Did you refuse reassignment because it meant you would have to move? Worst of all, did you have the “the company can’t operate without me syndrome”? Did you have the attitude, “the pay here is lousy so I am only going to put in minimum effort”?
All through my employment years and when I owned my own businesses I never approached a job with that attitude. I always gave the best I had to offer at every job I had. On more than one occasion I didn’t even interview for another job, my boss where I was currently employed arranged for me to have a better job or I was solicited by someone to join their company based on my reputation for work ethic.
Then there is the tendency to not accept jobs that are not what you want or are accustomed to. The longer you go without working, the more employers or H.R. departments suspect that there is something wrong with you.
A neighbor of mine was one of the country’s foremost experts on heat shielding. He worked for McDonald Douglas in their aerospace program, developing the heat shields on the re-entry space vehicles. I believe he had a Phd in whatever field was involved. McD-D had a cutback in the space program and he was laid off. He had a very specialized, unfortunately narrow field of expertise. Everywhere he went he was told he was overqualified for the job they were offering. He had three small kids. He needed income. He finally took a job pumping gas back when gas station were actually “service stations” as opposed to self-service stations, until he managed to get a job with one of the tire companies in Ohio and moved there from SoCal. I am confident once back there he was able to make valuable contributions to developing better heat resistance in tires. Did he want to pump gas? Hell, no! Did it get him a continuous employment history? You betcha.
As a prospective employee, you give off a different aura in the job interview when you already have a job than when you have been unemployed for many months. I have sat across the interview desk on more occasions than I can recall and there is a detectable difference in the interview process.
Now is not the time to be out of work. Unless all the media is lying once again, jobs are going begging. If you are not employed now, it is because you are approaching employment with entirely the wrong attitude. Do you interview for jobs that pay less than what you were getting when you were fired? Why not? Beneath you? Maybe not. Maybe your former employer decided, based on your job performance that you weren’t worth what he was paying you. Did you ever consider that?
As a strictly economic consideration, you have to generate more income to the company than what you cost the company otherwise you are a liability rather than an asset. Your salary is only the tip of the iceberg. There are all the governmental costs involved. Workers compensation coverage is a very expensive part of payroll in many jobs and jurisdictions. Do you have health coverage? That is an expense to the employer that has to be covered in income produced by the employee. Vacation? Federally mandated benefits; state mandated benefits all are part of your cost to the employer.
Workers compensation is based on payroll. The more you get paid, the more the workers compensation insurance costs your employer. There is no upper limit as with social security and other governmental “benefits.” Did your contribution to the company where you were laid off cover your expense to the company? Were you an asset worth keeping or were you a liability that has been kept around longer than economically feasible? The biggest failure of older employees is to adapt to newer electronics. They resent having to learn a new computer program or having to actually learn how to operate a computer. They are constantly on the phone to IT for instructions on how to do a simple step in the company program. They think because they joined the company when carbon paper was state of the art they shouldn’t have to learn some new fangled electronic thing-a-ma-jig. They then are stunned when let go. They forgot all the grumbling and bitching they did about having to add something new to their daily routine. They overlook the fact that younger employees come in knowing how to operate the computer system from day one on the job.
Just some unpleasant facts to mull over as you castigate employers for age discrimination. I sincerely hope you didn’t see yourself in my article. If you feel that you were discriminated against solely based on your age, the courts are open to you and there have been many successful age discrimination law suits won against companies in such lawsuits. Instead of cursing the darkness, light a match. Sue the Bastards!
There are some advantages to starting a second “career” as a retail worker.
1) Many retail businesses offer an employee discount. Although the average is about 20% with some restrictions, in some stores it can be as much as 50% off. Since you definitely won’t be getting rich off your salary, the savings add up and can be a real help.
2) Networking. In retail, you will meet people from all walks of life. EVERYONE needs to buy toilet paper and food, clothing and other essentials. A casual conversation can lead to an outside job, leads on further ways to make ends meet, and sometimes you can make a really good friend.
3) You won’t be isolated. Even if you don’t have many close friends on the job, if you miss your shift your employer will be concerned. You can create an additional safety net by asking your job to call authorities to do a wellness check if you don’t show or call in, which is helpful if you live alone.
4) Many small businesses will give employees first pick of discounted or discarded/ damaged merchandise, which can then be upcycled and resold. Broken stuff can often be fixed relatively easily, and while it can’t be then sold by the store, you can have a great yard sale.
5) You can also be first in line for in store sales and clearance. While many larger businesses restrict access to sale items by employees so customers get first crack, if you have a good friend or relative they can get the items. This can be helpful if the items are high demand/low supply, too.
6) You can have a lot of flexibility in your schedule, and have time to pursue a hobby craft (making items to sell), working in your garden, hanging out with family, etc. View it not as being underemployed, but as flexibly employed.
7) You will often hear of news items that you might otherwise not have. If you are isolated in an office or a factory, unless you have a radio going or someone calls you, you might not find out about a news flash until you are going home or until you get home. I’ve found that people love to spread news, especially bad news, but as preppers we can take that information and use it to our advantage.
I need to be clear and evidently failed to be so. I am not discussing fitness for work, my own situation, or even the situation of highly competent staff (i.e., someone like me who generates significant intellectual property for BigCo and is in no danger whatever of being let go – irrespective of my age now or ten years from now).
I do however wish to point out the obvious – if retirement eligibility continues to rise (as stated, the Biden Admin is mulling this and will almost certainly have to make it so) for Fed benefits, AND many employers – not all – continue rampant and unchallenged discrimination against the older set (whether or not they become ROADies is a separate issue yet) then those facing such forced retirements/layoffs, etc. will truly have no place to go.
It was suggested by others that I sue – well, I have no need to, but such suits despite massive evidence are virtually always fruitless (witness one BigCo cutting pension benefits, pay bands, limiting promotions, and more for those retirement eligible (meaning, those older than 50)). Said another way the protections borne by those of color and female are NOT borne by those above a certain age…period.
I will do just fine at my current employer, the companies I own for myself, and other income streams. That said, the impact to the US in whole (and government budgets in particular) of the dichotomy between rising edibility limits and practice in some/most of today’s workplaces must be acknowledged and managed to.
This dovetails, nicely I think, with the “preparedness,” theme offered by the site owner, and the comments are made in that spirit.
Most employers are keen on keeping the best employees, regardless of age. Getting hired when you’re in your 60s is different entirely.
Longevity is great, but you’ve got to keep your skills up to date and continue to do the work you were hired to do without slowing down because you’re old, you have to continue to be productive.
Especially if your job involves tech, keeping those skills up to date is a challenge for seniors, even though most of us have been using computers for 25+ years.
My parents lived through the Great Depression and many of their procedures to save money rubbed off on me. I live the use-up, wear-out lifestyle. I buy new cars but then I drive them until the cost of a single repair is higher than the high blue book value of the car. That usually is in the high teens as far as car age is concerned. I have lived in the same house for 53 years. On a 20 year mortgage that means that I have lived without a house payment for 33 years. Actually, I paid off the loan when it had three years to go because the interest was no longer deductible as it fell below personal deduction.
And I never took out another mortgage or took out the equity to blow on some luxury like a cruise to some third world country port and back.
The only good thing about living in the PDRK aside from the weather is Proposition 13 passed almost 50 years ago to protect old geezers like me from the specter of every increasing property tax. Homeowners insurance is now the biggest housing cost aside from repairs and upkeep. And while property tax continues to creep up faster than the Social Security ( joke, joke joke) C.O.L.A. monthly increases, it still is capped and isn’t unbearable yet.
Today I am going to throw away a ten year or older pair of shorts because in addition to a patch on the leg and a patch in the right hand pocket, the left hand pocket has developed a hole. I didn’t formerly carry my pocket knife in a protector and the knife wore a hole in the right hand front pocket. I didn’t formerly carry my keys in a case and they finally wore a hole in the left front pocket. I now use cheap sheaths from either gun shows or smokey mountain knife works to protect my pockets from abrasive cargo. I hang wash on a clothes line in the yard to either dry them completely or on those rare days when there is moisture in the air, to pre-dry them before going in the clothes dryer. That saves me $50+ a month on my electric bill.
I use an antenna for television. I can’t see paying $50 a month for re-runs and shows that I wouldn’t watch anyway. I dislike Sillywood politics and refuse to support them with my money. I haven’t been in a motion picture theater in more than 20 years. I think the last motion picture I viewed in a theater was My Greek Wedding (or was it My Italian Wedding? It was about some Mediterranean country style wedding. You can see how memorable it was. I can’t even remember the country)
That doesn’t mean we live without pleasure in our lives. We traveled extensively in this country. We visited Japan. We toured via tandem bicycle and river boat in Europe. Fortunately we did that before ill health besieged both of us. Most of our touring in this country and all of it in Europe was via tandem bicycling and either camping or with camping bicycling tours in various states. Many states have week long tours in the summer time where one can visit small towns on backroads and byways. If you have kids and want to do economy touring with the family, I really recommend researching bicycle touring. The Bike Across Kansas ride is a family oriented ride and when we did it almost 20 years ago was a very well organized, well run tour through rural Kansas. The Tour de Wyoming was another family oriented ride. Much smaller than BAK. The Great Iowa Bike Ride is a party ride and if you are single and like partying, that is the ride for you. The Oregon Bike ride is a week long bike ride. It is a deluxe ride and more expensive than the other three I mentioned but it is worth the extra money if you an afford it. I highly recommend using the tent service if you do the Oregon ride. The food and accommodations on the Oregon ride are fist class. The meals are really deluxe. Most rides have limited enrollments, so you need to watch for opening date of reservations and move quickly. The Oregon ride is limited to 1,000 riders if memory serves me correctly. BAK is now limited to 800 riders and TdW is about 250 riders. Oregon ride gets great support from the state. The state even closed one lane of the cross-state interstate and had it patrolled by extra OHP the day we used the interstate as part of the route. OHP also provides a roving patrol along the route of the ride every day.
I have been retired since 1999. I did taxes for H&R Block for one year and didn’t like their lack of ethics. I noted a couple of years after I worked for them they agreed with various attorneys general not to engage in the practices I found unethical even though they didn’t do anything wrong (so they said) and to thank the various attorneys general who pointed out a deficiency in their ethics, they agreed to donate several hundreds of thousands of dollars to sundry state general funds. I continued my tax work for seven more years with AARP and VISTA until the IRS started telling us how we had to handle tax returns contrary to our clients’ wishes. I wasn’t working for the IRS, I was working for my clients. If they wanted a paper return, they got a paper return. The IRS could cram it. The poobah from the IRS advised us to encourage forgery on the tax returns in order to meet the top brass’s desire to increase electronic returns. I’m sorry I didn’t have a cell phone then. I would have recorded her importuning the commission of a felony and gotten her at least embarrassed. Well, maybe not. I doubt that bureaucrats and politicians are capable of embarrassment.
I worked for Target one Christmas season and saw what joke their management is. The problem with at least Target, and I suspect since they all go to the same MBS (that’s not a typo due to predictive. you all know what BS is so an MBS is a master’s degree in BS which has nothing to do with science) schools, so I suspect the other retail chains suffer from the same lack of good sense management style. It was an interesting education in bad management.
Well, once again I have managed to wander off topic. Sorry about that. Someone smarter than I is quoted as saying, “Manage the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.” That has been my money management stye since I earned my first dollar delivering milk for the milkman. A dollar a day and anything I wanted to order from the fountain for lunch. As an 11 year old I was living high.
It’s really a shame now that it is almost impossible for a young man or woman to work at casual jobs such as helping some tradesman in his work, fetching tools or digging holes or whatever unskilled job is available in all trades. It would be so much better for their lives as opposed to sitting glued to their cell phones all day long. While, in principle I am opposed to oppressive child labor, as in so many things that politicians and bureaucrats create when they address problems they really have no business addressing, they have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Yes, young people are protected from work exploitation — it is impossible for them to do part time jobs at all and with the pandering the politicians are doing now, it will be impossible for any person limited job skills to find any kind of no skill or semi skilled work. Without job experience no one will hire. How to get job skills if no one will hire? Live on welfare. Vote for the party willing to keep you in serfdom to the welfare system for the rest of your life. Wow! really got off topic at the end. Sorry to rant so early in the morning.
The one thing I gladly took from my father was a semi frugal lifestyle. I have all my life, lived without the frills most people think are necessary for life. I have bought my cars with cash and drove them till the wheels dropped off. Even though living in the desert of Arizona … I use A/C sparingly … and since living on my own, never had an evaporative cooler. I even avoided A/C in my car. I always thought that living in the desert, you should adapt to your surroundings … if no A/C or swamp cooler is available, a lot of people in the desert would die. I did without but never needed anything … always saving for a rainy day, and now retired I am making investments I didn’t allow myself while working for a living. Bought a newer vehicle that will probably last me as long as I live. Have an emergency fund, prepared for many SHTF scenarios … and living more comfortably than I did while working for a living. I’m actually pretty proud of how things have worked out.
I am currently retired and have sold my home to reduce my expenses and I have been living off grid. I rely on natural resources for power and heat.
1st job lasted only 4 years, needed more money as the first wife was pregnant. Worked two long term jobs that both closed on me but being union jobs have pensions. Retired 4 years ago after getting both knees replaced over 6 months while I had insurance with the 4th and last job. The job before that about a year after I started let union people join the 401K program. Over almost 14 years had enough in it when I liquidated it to pay off the mortgage and the taxes because of the early withdrawl. No credit card bills but what we spend monthly and no outstanding loans. New A/C with 14 year warranty, new roof with long term warranty, boiler only 5 years old. Live near a city but not in the city. Biggest thing is planning ahead – you must. The best thing they should teach in schools but don’t — plan ahead.
Always plan ahead and try to take that well into consideration as you make decisions in life especially those related to retirement. Simple. Yet so many fail to do that! Major retirement transitions are generally not the answer. Test the waters first. Lots of the smooth talkers out with tempting retirement offers may be looking to tap into your savings and feather their own nest. Bottom line – We make our plans as best we can while life happens. It’s good to know God’s in charge!
My plan is to die while I’m working so my wife can pick up my last check and collect on life insurance. Now that’s a plan.
What a good article. When my wife turned 62 the company she had worked for for 30 years gave her a 25% pay cut, but no 25% cut in responsibility. No matter what old Suz Orman or the Government or whoever says, you should plan your retirement for 60, planning also to have a skill that allows you to pick up part time work on your own. Few companies want to pay ‘old’ people, fewer want to hire them in the 1st place.
We never liked fancy clothes or cars, big vacations, a house that makes a statement, expensive restaurants. We put all our money in the bank and one day 30 years ago bought a little house on 10 acres, which is what this article has to do with Prepping. Getting your economic house in order is the biggest step you take toward security in this kind of scary world.
Judge: She should have followed my advice above to Hawk, sued the bastards. While I am not a lawyer and don’t portray one in the entertainment media, I have hung around courts long enough to know a good cause of action when I see one. You don’t say when she had the pay cut. There is always the statute of limitations that one runs up against. If it hasn’t expired, you should investigate litigation. You might be able to add a couple more acres to your homestead after the lawyer takes his cut and you pay costs of litigation.
Currently moving to a location where my money will stretch… buying 30 acres and a nice house and then get self sufficient as possible, at 59. Didn’t sell my business, but am taking it with me and will continue to service any customers that stick with me, thus keeping income flowing. Renting to my two daughters who will work and come with us, and they are all in on getting more self sufficient… crazy times will continue and I fear the fallout, but IF your prepared, then it will be less invasive.
THANKS EVERYONE! I really enjoyed this article and all the comments. Bless y’all!
As a prepper, retirement planning is high on the to-do list. As a pessimist, whatever I have saved for retirement will be taken from me, or taxed so high that it will not be worth anything. Even precious metals will be tough to use in a cashless society.
No matter your age or your skill set, the government “will take care of you”. If you are young and useful, you may find yourself assigned to jobs that are not exactly desirable; and if you are old and a burden to society, then you may be among those that pray for death. I am not as old and well rounded in experience as some, but I ain’t no spring chicken either. I am what I consider to be a “tweenager”.. i am between old and useful, so I do not know how I will be classified in the coming hard times. I have taken steps to not be in a big city, so I have some breathing room to further prepare, but, I am also sitting on land that may be desired by others.
I, like everyone else on this board, will die. How I die is unimportant. How I live is determined by desire, needs, and situations. I refuse to live in fear. I hope to instill a desire for a quality of life over a quantity of existence to my children/grandchildren. Just because you are alive doesn’t mean you are living.
Prepper In Training:
You are quite right in pointing out that older folks are more likely to be made redundant, however the way the economy is going EVERYONE may be either out of work or forced to take whatever job they can find. (Except the Elites, of course.)
To me, having savings will only be useful in the short term – the devaluing of the dollar will continue unabated until the economy is completely collapsed like Weimar Germany and Argentina. Using your money now to stock up on non perishable items that will hold their value for trading and personal use may be the best way to ensure your survival over the next few years.
Use the time we have left to expand your knowledge and skill set. Sewing is useful, so is knitting, crochet, leather working, gardening, pottery, wood working, plumbing, electronics, book keeping, cooking, medical care (even basic first aid, nevermind more advanced skills like midwifery, elder or invalid care, surgery, dentistry) Any skill that provides a material product or a specialized service will have value, and knowledge can’t be stolen or destroyed.
And strengthen your relationship with God or whatever higher power you worship. Faith will keep you going beyond what would normally be your breaking point.
I thought that everything I did, the education, hard work & sacrifices, would pay off for me later in life. Fifteen years ago, I was extremely financially stable. I enjoyed my work, had good benefits, and was even in a pension plan. When I say that my finances were good, I mean both in terms of salary & assets. Then I made one stupid mistake that I am not sure can rectify. I foolishly got married to someone with negative assets. Life was good for a long time. Not that it was perfect (I overlooked the negatives). I trusted this man enough that I sold both homes I owned to move across the country. We are now approaching 15 years of marriage. My assets are now joint assets. He’s been enjoying the company of other women for about 3 years now. Off & on. He even moved out for a day. I no longer work. He has a very good job. If I choose freedom, I will need to relinquish my asset growth. Hard pill to swallow. Oh, and live on SSI! Yes, I have options. But one of them is not returning my career. Not even a remote possibility.
Advice? You bet! Don’t commingle assets!
Thanks for useful article!
Really interesting article, I became interested in this topic when I was studying the FIRE movement. But I’m surprised that a lot of young people are interested in it now, now I’m in college and a few of my classmates are investing in the stock market. Recently, at a lecture, we had a discussion with our professor about the pension savings of today’s students. This lecture was a great success and it was decided to hold several such lectures. Using the service https://papersowl.com/buy-apa-research-paper, I agreed to write my scientific paper on this topic so that I could later discuss it with my professor. I was very surprised when I learned that several students are also looking for similar material to write their essays. I like it when education can be useful, because at such lectures we exchange experience and the solutions that we have found. I believe that in my generation the problem of retirement will not be so strong.
Hi Guys
This is an old post, but still relevant. So I’ll throw in my 2 cents.
Becoming a millionaire is the easiest thing in the world. You can get there by being cheap, downsizing, cutting corners and coupons, ect. However in the end you will still be cheap.
How my wife and I did it was simple, but not easy. Borrow 1 million to purchase rentals, then let the renters pay it off.
Essentially that’s what we did, we retired with a 7 million net worth. If you have over 1M to invest you are an accredited investor, opens up a greater quantity and quality of investments. You can 1031 your rentals into triple net leases or DST’s.
If we did it, anyone can. Neither of us have a college degree. We’ve not inherited it, or stolen it. We’ve never risked jail time by skirting the law.
Death
In 2017 The PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE created a RETIREMENT TASK FORCE to Study How well Citizens were preparing for Retirement. NOTE this was BEFORE The economy went to hell; INFLATION went through the ceiling; GAS prices soared; and we are threatened with a $51 TRILLION NATIONAL DEBT; a Depleted Fuel reserve; BUSINESSES failing; and PROPERTY TAXES INCREASING.
In 2017 ( and this PA RESULT mirrors the NATION) 40% of RETIREES are living on SOCIAL SECURITY ONLY, which averages $20,000 a year ( today).
WHAT is disturbing is most employers are NO LONGER OFFERING any retirement plans, or pension, or guidance.
FOR those who do, 20% of employees DO NOT PARTICIPATE.
This has likely gotten WORSE When Families are living paycheck to paycheck and Employees must Chose between eating, property taxes / rent, medical bills, etc and NOT Grasp how vital it is to start Saving early for retirement.
THE TASK force Strongly suggested retirees must have accumulated and saved a minimum OF 12 TIMES their age 65 Yearly income in a RETIREMENT PLAN in order to RETIRE, and Along with Social Security ( or similar programs) be able to be able to financially survive another 35 years to age 100.
THE FACTS ARE, OF the vast majority of the population who DO NOT have a EMPLOYEE PLAN, ONLY 5% OPENED an IRA AND RELIGIOUSLY contribute to it.
THE MEAN worker today has $0.00 saved for retirement, including ages 50-65. FOR THOSE who do save the A erase is only 1 years SALARY saved.
It TAKES DECADES of saving and investing for COMPOUND INTEREST to do its magic. RULE OF 72 – divide the INTEREST rate into 72 to determine .how many YEARS it takes for your investment to DOUBLE. BANKS AT .01% interest takes 7200 years to double…. A JOKE.
DO YOUR HOMEWORK