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What's your retirement plan?
Are you planning on working until you're 60+?
Or maybe selling it all and living in a rural area?
Buying stocks or ETFs?
Or something else?
So what's your retirement plan? At what age do you want to retire and how are you working towards this goal?
I'm 42 and have brain cancer. The doctors say it's not the kind you can cure. I've stopped worrying about retirement plans.
I’m sorry, my friend. I’m currently waiting on some test results right now to know more about what my future looks like.
Thank you. And you have my sympathy. I remember waiting for the results... It's no fun at all.
Did you get the results yet?
I did. Stage 3 rectal cancer (T3N1M0 to be precise). Should be okay long term if all goes well. Gearing up to do chemo -> radiation -> surgery in the next 6-8 months. Hoping for good results.
I hope you’re doing well. If you ever need to talk, I’ll be around. Even if it’s nothing important but you just need to chat with a stranger, don’t hesitate.
I'm sorry to hear about your illness but glad the prospects are good. 6-8 months is nothing if it means you have a good life ahead of you. I'm sure you've got this!
Edit: and I hope it doesn't ruin you financially.
Thanks, you’re totally right!
It’ll be a money setback, but we have some money saved so thankful for that. As always, F the US healthcare system. But, not much I can do about that.
Following the /r/personalfinance flowchart. However my wife and I are lucky enough to make more money than we need so we can save a lot. I believe we are at a 50% savings rate or so. At least we were until we bought a house.
We'll see if we get any social security or other retirement help.
That flowchart is fantastic. Helped set my financial journey straight a few years ago and it's paid off immensely.
You're not alone. Call it what you want, whether it's blissful ignorance, blatant disregard, delusional grandeur or whatever. It's easier to cope with your head in the sand. I just try to do what I can and not focus on the lack of action from those in charge. I hate that this is the solution, but it just feels hopeless to try to tackle anything head-on. But I do give a shit about the future of humanity so it is becoming increasingly difficult to remain ignorant.
Think of the information we have, the perspective on the world at large that we have compared to the average Joe a few generations ago. It's all just so much, too much for the average human to contend with. We evolved as hunter gatherers and subsistence farmers and in the geological blink of an eye we have satellites in space and networks of grids covering the entire globe, it's fucking insane.
And this isn't an excuse either, or an invitation to be a lazy ignorant shit, but holy fuck how are we supposed to cope with * gestures at everything * when we literally aren't equipped to do so?
Honestly, my answers are like your answers minus the sarcasm. It really is that bad.
I'm paying my taxes and will recieve a pension when I'm done working. Not much planning involved.
Although our system is pretty strained so maybe I should have a plan B. Oh well, I can think about that 2 weeks before retirement age lol
Yep, same here.
It’s every day I’m thankful I’m not American. I don’t know what I’d do if I suddenly got cancer or something else and didn’t have free hospital care.
Or one of the million things that can put you in a hospital when you’re aging.
Huh. Am American.
My retirement plan is undiagnosed cancer.
Sorry dude. If you’re lucky maybe America will have some civil unrest that changes things for the 99%
Unlikely. American Liberals are mostly lazy, reactionary, center-right shills. Any real leftist movements are hated and demonized. Our political system is a duopoly designed to prevent anyone who might change things from ever achieving them, unless they benefit capital, and in recent years one half of the duopoly has slid towards open christofascism and active hostility to human life.
The majority of Americans don't make enough money to save any amount that would make an actual difference later in life. They spend it as fast as they get it because rents due and they have to eat. If we want to see people save, then we need living wage laws with real teeth and enforcement, which we're never going to get. A huge portion of us in the lowest income brackets have been indoctrinated our entire lives into believing that voting for even the slightly less morally bankrupt variety of our apparatchik is anti-American and unpatriotic, and even if we can overcome that the slightly better side is only interested in being seen "trying" to fix problems, but not in actually fixing them.
When I got my first "real" job (like the job you actually studied for) the financial crisis started.
Now I was pretty lucky already having a job and working in IT (a field where there's always work).
Anyway, what I saw in my country (Netherlands) is that the pension funds actually are a glorified piramid scheme.
During your lifetime you work and pay for retirement, but that money isn't saved for you. It's used to trade stocks and pay the current group of retired people.
This all works really well until the economy and/or population stop growing.
For me it was the reason to completely do it myself and not use the normal pension funds.
I don't know much about the socioeconomic conditions of Netherlands, but I would imagine it is quite good with how often I see the country being in first place or close to it in global 'happiness and satisfaction' surveys.
As someone who would love to move to Netherlands in the near distant future, would you advise against it? My main point of concern is that I hear in some European countries you are shunned if you are a foreigner.
If you have a good way to acquire residency/citizenship (not necessarily easy) and are decently well off it should be a pretty good place to live. I wouldn’t expect you to get shunned exactly but it can definitely be hard to make strong connections with local people. The Dutch are fairly reserved and even though the majority speak English well, if you don’t speak Dutch you’ll be at a disadvantage when it comes to making friends. This is true to greater or lesser degrees when it comes to moving to any country and there’s a reason expats/immigrants tend to have somewhat separate communities most places. Regardless of how long you live somewhere you will always be a foreigner to some extent but that’s not always a terrible thing.
I've given up that I'll ever retire. I'm saving plenty of money to my 401k, but I know as I get older, the likelihood increases dramatically of me or my spouse needing to go to the hospital. That hospital trip could eat through all of my savings even with insurance and I've come to just accept it and enjoy today while saving money for rainy days.
Maxing out my 401k and IRA, and a combination of cash/investments to bridge the gap between when I'd like to retire and when I can pull from my 401k/IRA penalty-free.
My wife will also have a pension which makes this easier.
Plans change though and it's impossible to predict with any accuracy what will happen in life over the next 20-30 years, so we'll see.
I figure I'll take up base jumping and paragliding when I hit 55-60 and just let nature take its course.
Oh, you're going to start a base jumping and paragliding business right?
Right?
I bought a house cheap before the pandemic. Just paid it off this past week. Next is working on insulation and efficiency to reduce my electrical usage as much as possible. After that solar panels since my usage reduction will reduce the cost of the panel requirements. Then a hydroponics garden to produce income and help eliminate the food bill. Possibly drill a well. If i could figure out a way to get internet for free id basically have no need for money.
Oh, and I have normal stuff like 401k, stocks, and HSA.
Congrats on paying the house off! I got my house during the first year of the pandemic. Not cheap, but not outrageous either. Interest rate is real low, so I'm not too concerned. Had my HVAC system replaced last year and Solar panels put in. The panels will take a few years to pay off, but it will be worth it.
This post was very impressive. Congrats.
My goal!
Step 1: Find silicon
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit
I live in Canada so I will almost certainly end up having to work past 60+ but I guess time will tell. I'm not as pessimistic as Gen Z but the state of our world does make me question the likelihood of having a similar retirement to my parents.
Grew up in a pretty rural area. I have no interest in that. I have a small house in a medium sized city that is centrally located in Ontario. I hope to be able to stay in this house but it was built in the 40s so we shall she how well we can maintain it.
Buying ETFs. Specifically, I buy and hold an all in one ETF. Passive investing beats active investing over long time horizons. I have a plan and try to stick to it maxing out my TFSA each year and catching up my RRSP when it makes sense and I have extra cash. Rates rocketed it over the past year so I have switched to paying down my mortgage for the guaranteed returns.
I own a house, have no debts aside from a mortgage and have about $150k saved towards retirement. I'm 39 so I feel like I'm behind but the reality is I'm probably ahead most people my age. I felt more comfortable about my retirement when I was making really good money at work and my company's stock was high. Now they just cut all commissions and our stock is in the tank so I'm trying to figure out if my salary will cover our bills. My wife is a photographer who doesn't bring in much income and is banking on the new book she wrote but I'm working on the assumption we won't see any real income from her.
So to answer your last question, I have no idea when I'll retire but my wife finally figuring out a way to bring in any type of consistent income would go a long way.
We are in similar spots, albeit different countries. Grand scheme (for either country), we are well ahead of the curve, and yet retirement at a reasonable age is no guarantee. I think it speaks more to the large scale issues than to our strategies, savings, or income. My biggest worry is a poorly timed financial meltdown - 2008 was rough for me, but I was really just moving into the professional workforce at the time, so I've had plenty of time to make up for it. A major downturn in 5, 10, or 15 years? It gets harder and harder to come back from, as you have less time to be productive (not to mention my job is particularly sensitive to downturns, so that kind of keeps me up at night...).
Just FYI, a house built in the 40's will probably outlast houses built in the 2000's. While the older houses aren't as standardized, generally they have beefier structures and were actually well built. Modern houses are just slapped up as quickly as possible, unless you're willing to pay out the nose for real quality.
I'm starting to come to this same conclusion, and have been thinking about selling a chunk of my individual stocks, and moving the money to just a basic S&P index fund.
You're not wrong, both of our countries are grinding the middle class into non-exsistence, the US is just doing a speed run of it.
Canadian regulation meant I didn't really feel the 2008/9 collapse but I also had no savings at that point. I'm weathering the current situation well as long as I don't get laid off, but that's still a bit if at this point instead of a certainty.
And I am hopeful that our house will remain solid. I've been upgrading here and there where it makes sense and we have the money.
You definitely should move into passive ETF investing.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/mutualfund/05/activepassive.asp#:~:text=Passive%20ETFs%20tend%20to%20follow,ETF%20indeed%20provides%20active%20management.
It has never been easier. While you can buy S&P ETFs I would recommend truly diversifying.Dont have all your eggs in just America. They have true all in one ETFs now that having holdings in emerging markets.
For example, I buy and hold XEQT, a 100% asset ETF with holdings in Canada, the US and emerging markets. I'm not familiar with American options but I'm sure you have more. Just make sure you understand your risk tolerance. Couldn't be easier.
Interesting - I appreciate the tips, and I'll certainly be looking into the US equivalent of something like XEQT. I do need to diversify more, and get out of the individual stock game - it just doesn't seem to suit what I'm trying to do at the moment.
Best of luck with the house - mine was built circa 1920 - I can tell you there's a lot of little stuff that always needs touching up, but the bones are rock solid (really overbuilt, structure wise).
I live in Ontario too. I'm 45. I don't own a house, nor do I have any savings. I've got a decent job but it just covers the basics. I'll never be able to retire.
Sadly I'm sure you're not alone. I only own a home due to an inheritance and kind of lucked into my job.
There are more supports for retirement at least but it can be rough with no paid off house. Are you in a rent controlled place? Does your job offer any kind of RRSP match?
I'm American. I realized at a certain point that I needed to do something for retirement, so I got a job in IT tangentially related to my local government. The job comes with a pension and pretax retirement space that I can invest in. I've been saving in their 403b and 457 (nonprofit / government version of 401k) , as well as in a Roth IRA. My husband also has a goverment pension and also chooses to save in an annuity and in a Roth IRA. Our jobs also provide health insurance that we can continue (and pay for) in retirement. We have a two family house, so hopefully we will be able to continue to rent out part of our house to help pay the bills in retirement. We have two kids and will be paying for college at about the time we retire, so we are also trying to save for that, and make repairs to our ancient house. It's a juggle but we feel fortunate for what we have.
Hi there! Without divulging personal stuff, would you mind explaining a bit more about the type of job you have?
Here's why i ask: I'm in IT (but at a big, for-profit company)...i very much dislike working at big companies, but that's almost all that i know across my almost 30 year career thus far. (Well, I did work for about a year at a non-profit, and i had a single big project there that was amazingly fulfilling, but overall the paycheck was way too horribly low. So left that job.) I've worked at big companies because of the relatively better pay, but my retirement plan assumes that when i get older, i couild be fine getting lower paying jobs, and/or maybe even working part-time while half-retired. Hence, if you provide some details (not about pay, more about duties and/or expectations of working at gov. job, etc.), then maybe i can prepare myself for getting such/similar jobs in the far future, when i half-retire. Like, is it even possible/acceptable to work part0time while retired at an IT role for a local gov., etc.? Again, not looking for personal stuff to ensure your privacy, but if you would share generalities that you've experienced, would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I sent you a message.
I retired at the age of 43 after a tech career (big tech made me good money). I'm 46 now.
No financial advisor, I just read a lot. Invested in only index funds.
3% annual withdrawal rate of a properly invested portfolio should be safe. So far so good.
Spent significantly less than my peers while working (and after). Once you make "a good amount", early retirement is easy if you are willing to drastically spend less than your income. So many in the industry inflate their spending as they make more.
Good for you! Preventing spending creep is so key. I use YNAB to average my monthly spending areas to try and avoid that, and increase my investment goals when I get a raise to avoid temptation to allocate it to other areas that are not my “baseline.”
I'm lucky that in recent years I've worked in places with fantastic pensions (my current job has a whopping 21% employer contribution!), so that's my main plan. I'm moving on to a higher paying job in a couple of weeks with a similar pension setup and also looking at setting up an investment with Vanguard this year.
I also dabble in some sustainable/ eco friendly investments - and I really do mean dabble. I'm not expecting that to come to much of anything so I just chuck in £50 here and there, but it's important to me to at least try and put some money behind things I believe in and want to succeed. The biggest leap I've taken with my partner this year is to invest in a co-operative solar park, that's a scarier amount of money so happy to be sharing the burden!
In spite of all that, to tell you the truth I'm deathly afraid. I came from poverty and I'm not wanting to go back at any point in my lifetime. I feel like I have a lot resting on my shoulders to try and help uplift the rest of my immediate family (parents, younger brother) so that they can live in relative comfort and afford to take risks or pursue their passions. I'm particularly frightened for the future my brother's stepping into; it felt hard enough when I was his age but now it feels like ordinary kids don't stand any chance of success.
I'm not sure what age I'll retire at. Just hoping that it's something I have a choice in!
21% employer contribution makes me think it’s probably a defined benefit scheme rather than a defined contribution. Not a bad thing, as DB are usually fantastic, but it’s worth thinking about it slightly differently and more like you’re buying a DB amount for your %contribution.
I just got offered a job back in a state position last week. Get my pension back and my 8 years (only need 20 more). It’s a 9% employee contribution and like 18% or so employer.
But I’ve also been dumping 10% up until I got to the max of yearly IRA contributions.
You should look into voluntary contributions to your ISA and topping up your pension, as both those avenues let you invest tax-free (until you withdraw). Quite a meaningful benefit if you're on the higher tax brackets. Vanguard is great for that as well, low-cost way to own equities.
My retirement plan is a heart attack at 55.
That's very specific. Why did you pick that exact point in your life? How are you going to cause it?
It's half joke, half doomerism.
My family has a history of heart attacks, my job doesn't pay enough for me to save meaningful amounts of money, so my best bet is to take out a large life insurance policy and hope the spouse gets to cash out.
My plan is to die in the revolution. Or the water wars. I'm hoping for the revolution, but the realist in me says it'll be the water wars.
To be more honest, I try to save money when I can, and also some investments. But all this rides on the hopes that our economic system doesn't fail, which it most certainly will. It's just a question of when. Right now, those with money to influence the economy in a big way, only think in short terms. That, coupled with a housing market that demand infinite growth in a very finite system and world, will result in total collapse of society, as the rich rats try to save themselves from the ship they sunk.
I don't think I'm going to retire if I'm honest. That's not a "Oh woe, I have to work in an office for the rest of my days" attitude. That's a "I'm retraining into something I couldn't see me ever getting bored of"
I currently work in Tech and Data and I'm using the cash here to invest AND set my wife and I up for the future. I'm also doing all my certifications to become a qualified psyche. I love helping people and even if that brings in £40-£50 an hour? So be it. I can happily do a few hours here and there when I'm a bit older and avoid having to lump-sum pensions and the such.
Playing the odds. Most likely I won’t make it to retirement age or if I do quality of life will be such that I will go out on my own terms. I’ve never made enough to divert funds into the retirement stock market and I’m about 15 years from the standard retirement age. Enjoy what I can afford and do today instead of hoarding money with an unrealistic hope I’ll be able to enjoy and do these things “later”.
Thankfully I do make a lot of money, so by projections I should be fully on track for the typical FIRE goals before 40. I'm not planning on actually retiring at 35-40, but it gives more optionality to do things I want to do, and to give less of a shit. For what it's worth, I'm fine with my job. It's not like my favorite activity in the world, but I don't dread it, and sometimes I even look forward to it.
Retirement money is in a combination of a 401k, a backdoor roth ira, an HSA, and then a taxable brokerage account with some misc money in bonds and HYSAs.
Not particularly planning on moving for CoL reasons, I should have enough money that it's not really something I'd need to do.
Hopeful plan: my 401k, Roth IRA, and my investment account will grow steadily over the next 20-25 years and both my wife and I will stay employed. By the time we're both in our late 50s, early 60s, the house should be paid off, no other debts, our savings/retirement accounts will be large enough to hold us down from there.
Realistic plan: We both keep working until 65-67, over the next 20-25 years shit happens here, shit happens there, and we're still paying for our house so we have to keep working. We have some savings but they're probably just enough to pay the bills and that's it.
I'm American, so I am not even knowledgeable about what I'm asking, but have you thought of moving to Canada (perhaps for school) and establishing a career there, just for the health care?
I'd like to buy a very small cabin far out with land around, and grow my own food in peace and quiet. Then pass away from what ever I pass away from, without seeing the inside of a hospital.
Normal savings and trying to accumulate wealth that'll still be usable when I'm retiring, a house I can live in even when I'm less mobile than now. Tools and equipment that's still good decades later etc.
My end-game is the hope that euthanasia is legal by the time I get to the point everyone of my older relatives has gotten to - too sick in body or mind to actually enjoy life. I want to go out on my own terms when I'm still sane and mobile enough to make that decision.
I really can't see myself ever retiring, but who knows. I'm in tech, currently a web developer (but I'd like to move on from that), so chances are good I'll make some money. I'm pretty behind, though, because I took a 7 year detour working on my own creative business. Before that I was in tech for a similar amount of time. But with the climate crisis and wealth inequality, I just don't see a very bright future. I don't have kids by choice, so that'll at least aid in a little more financial security. I don't have a plan right now, just trying to live one day at a time. I'd really like to just drop out and live in an RV or van or something and travel. I can work and make money on my own terms, so maybe if I'm able to save some good money from my tech career I can leave again for creative pursuits and just live small and cheaply. I can't see myself ever retiring to just sit around and watch television or golf or vacation. I'll probably always be creating and doing things and hopefully making a little money in the process.
They say my generation won’t be retiring and given life expectancy falling I expect to die before it matters.
As of now I have a pitiful 401k to draw from and maybe eventually I’ll make enough money to make some personal investments but it sort of feels useless. I’m halfway convinced nobody’s retirement plans will matter in 40 years anyway as I expect some sort of global catastrophe but maybe that’s my misanthropic and spiteful cynicism hoping for the worst for everyone since my own prospects seem so weak.
I have a 401k and a Roth IRA. I contribute to both each paycheck. The IRA is a mix of individual stocks, mutual funds, and S&P index funds. Hoping that's stable enough to grow well for retirement for me. Would love to retire before I'm way too old but won't retire until I feel confident I have enough money saved to not have to worry too much about budgeting all the time.
Financially: Following the personalfinance flowchart and bogleheads philosophy of investment, maxing out 401k/IRA/HSA, aiming for retirement in my mid to late 50s. As always in America, health insurance is the main blocker. My husband likes working more than I do so he may choose to work full time until traditional retirement age, in which case we'll both just use his insurance. It's difficult for me to understand how people plan ahead that far when it comes to insurance, since we don't know what will transpire politically in the next 30 years.
Generally: We don't have kids and neither do any of our friends. It's been quite clear that we all are planning on leaning on each other because we have never expected that anyone else will take care of us. My closest friends and I anticipate moving to the Upper Midwest, both because we like it there and because it's an extremely attractive area when it comes to concerns about climate change.
I have everything planned out to retire at 50. That being said, there are a few homes in my area that I would love to own someday. These are all $1-$2 million, so that might push back my expectations a few years.
These comments are depressing but also help me feel not alone. I'll work until I die. I have a touch in an investment account but only enough for about 2 years of retirement. I'd love to use it while I'm alive since I won't be retiring, but there's this what if in the back of my mind. Maybe I won't die young. Maybe the money will grow and I will retire. So there is sits. I'm sure my nibblings will make good use of it when I'm gone.
Depends on how the next few years pan out for me.
Currently 31 years old on a £26k/annum salary, though I recently got a new job that's more relevant to my accountancy studies so that's set to rise.
Unfortunately being autistic, still being a virgin and still living with elderly parents who I feel increasingly like a carer for has made me undateable, so my prospects of being able to buy a house or even rent my own place are practically nonexistent with the way the housing market is. I'd elaborate but I don't want to use a personal finance thread to write a whole novella venting about my flatlined love-life and deteriorated mental health.
Current thoughts are to invest my disposable income into high dividend yield shares or corporate bonds with a high voucher rate, with the intent being to build a secondary source of passive income. I've gone off of the stock market lately because of how bad the economy is. I made several thousand pounds of losses as a result of Kwasi Kwarteng's economic incompetence.
There are probably better and lower risk ways of achieving what I want to do, but a savings account or ISA isn't going to give me the ROI I want.
Also, going to avoid the fuck out of equity crowd-funding platforms like Seedrs in the foreseeable future. I have already lost relatively small investments in three startups and when I look at the financials of many of the companies making pitches on there, the balance sheets and P&L reports are major causes for concern.
Given the way the world is going though, it looks increasingly unlikely that I'll reach retirement age, as we'll either nuke each other, starve each other or continue to exponentially fuck the planet to our impending extinction.
RE: love-life
No need to be so hard on yourself. Everyone has different lived experiences, and you're still growing and improving every day. This can make you a better partner, so it's not all bad.
Much easier said than done, especially when you really want something but the universe is telling you to go fuck yourself.
Nobody tells me why I'm unattractive as a mate, and it's like no matter what I do, whether it's grow my hair out, cut my hair, go to a stylist, moisturize daily, grow facial hair, get a clean shave, lose weight, lift, dress more smartly, get a higher paycheck, etc, ladies still think I shouldn't exist.
A good example is when I went to the club with some friends recently, who promised to be wingmen yet had women throwing themselves at them and outright ignoring my existence. Some of said friends aren't even single and were in monogamous relationships themselves and seeing them reciprocate to women hitting on them, taking them home, getting their numbers, etc frustrates me.
I bring this up because relationships are not just intertwined to my purchasing power in the economy, but are something that affects my overall mental health and energy levels too.
Single men are as good as screwed in today's economy.
I am 65 and still planning to retire at 66.5 when I am eligible for full social security. I also have a pension from my employer that is actually decent.
However, in the last few months I have been diagnosed with pulmonary embolisms and osteoarthritis so I may have to retire a bit earlier.
I had planned to do a lot of traveling but don't know if I will be physically able to do that as much I had anticipated. Traveling is brutal.
In fact at this stage I don't even know if I will make it to 66.5 LOl!
It's hard to say. I have plans (investing, early retirement with periods of freelancing, buying a home to stabilize costs), but real life will throw bad health your way and a LCOL place may not have the same community an unsustainable VHCOL city does.
My primary unknown for the future is that a lot of common investing strategies relate back to constant growth (if modest growth) and, I assume, a world where American dollars are the world's reserve currency. If that changes, I wonder what will come of my retirement plans.
Well, for the most part I am investing in myself now. I am focusing on my career to make sure that I am doing something I enjoy, and something that pays well enough to put money away for later. I am also investing in myself physically by keeping myself fit and limiting my intake of things like alcohol or excessive sugar.
Perhaps naively, I also expect to receive some kind of state pension when I retire on top of my private pension. Most people my age sceptical that this will still exist at retirement age, but until I'm told otherwise, I'll assume that if I keep paying my taxes now, I'll get something back when I'm old.
I work in software. Assuming AI doesn't make me fully redundant by that age, I'd also happily keep working part-time through my sixties.
I'm fortunate to be in a strong financial situation thanks to a well-paying career (so far). I max out my 401k, HSA and Roth IRA and set aside additional funds to meet my goals. I'm fortunate to have started contributing to my 401k at age 22. Not maxing it out at that time, but taking advantage of my company match and increasing as my pay increased.
About 5 years ago, I decided on a retirement goal of $4M minimum by age 60. I took a look at what I already had, assumed a conservative 5% growth rate and calculated what I needed to save annually to reach my goal. That's what I use as the basis of my target, but I actually save beyond that to have the option of retiring earlier.
As a safety net, I don't count my wife's savings towards the goal even though we have it so that she'll also have strong retirement income. She has a pension plan where she works, but also contributes $1k/month to a 403b.
I don't do individual stocks, all funds and ETFs, mostly targeting growth.
So age 60 is pretty much the max I want to go, but as long as my tech career stays as lucrative as it has been (you just never know), I'll likely be able to comfortably retire earlier, or at least change to a more cushy, less stressful job that provides benefits until Medicare kicks in.
I have a very rough retirement plan...
I'm not the type of person who can simply retire to a beach and do nothing in their lives. I have to stay occupied - especially my brain. :-)
Die young, leave a pretty corpse!
But more seriously, DINK, good white collar jobs, low COL area - maxing out all retirement options and investing more beyond in index funds.
Maxing out the Roth IRA, and my wife managed to buy a house before the crazy upswing in the market. Plan is to have the house paid off by retirement so that housing costs are as minimal as possible. Budgeting and trying to be as responsible with my finances (and as environmentally conscious) as possible for my own personal self. Biking to go get groceries and run immediate vicinity errands, etc. It’s tight but doable, for now.
Past that, just hoping and voting for a better future here in the US, currently looks really bleak though. I’m trying to be as responsible as I can with what I have, but it really feels like the systems and institutions in charge of it all at the moment are at best wildly irresponsible and at worst actively trying to steal from the general populace.
Also, climate change is not looking good. At all. Honestly glad I don’t have kids.
Dying early lol
Younger spouse (that is making more than I am currently) + work 'til I'm dead.
Dealing with immediate health concerns, so my retirement plan is more of a broad concept at the moment than something I'm putting active effort into. I am in public service so I'll have a pension, a 401k, and another type of retirement plan. Currently doing the full 401k amount for the match and a tiny bit into the third plan. Pension has a mandatory set contribution percentage and I'd be surprised if it still exists when I get to retirement age, but ya never know.
Employee handbook has a path to early retirement after 20-30 years of service so I'm excited about that. I have my own Roth IRA that I'm working on, too. If I retire at this agency, I'll never get social security, so I need to factor it out of my calculator thingies. Haven't gotten there yet, though. I'll never be able to buy my own place, which is something that's gonna take me a while to come to terms with. No kids, so my plan is basically to use my money to pay for a comfortable situation and hope I still have the faculties to access euthanasia if it looks like I won't be able to make decisions for myself anymore.
Contributing as much as we can afford to our 401ks, attempting to move to Europe in the next few years. No place is perfect, but we're not happy where we are and do not want to stay. We expect to work probably until 60-65 wherever we end up. We're not counting on social security in the US. I have great health insurance through my current company, and now that I've worked on my self confidence, I've started advocating for myself with all of my health concerns. I want to take care of what I can while we can afford it and hopefully make an easier future for myself by doing so. I recognize doing that in the US is difficult, but so far it's working.
Unfortunately we did not buy a house until last year, but we're still hoping we can sell at least at a break even price when we do move. Apparently VA loans are transferable, so we might be able to use that for whoever buys our house eventually (but we'll look into details more when the time comes, that all could change for all we know).
Cigarettes and Alcohol.
I’m saving for euthanasia first. If things get permanently unpleasant at some point I won’t have to endure for too long.
Besides that; lost my savings on health issues. Hope I can start saving again some time 🤷🏻♂️
I'm hoping to have a grabber before 60.
I do have some stocks, ~5k, but other then that, nothing. I've been trying to save anything for a decade but ALL of my money went to rent, food, and entertainment (so as not to kill myself); however, there's also a chance that no one, no one, born after 1971 will retire because everyone will be dead after the oceans die, so, ¯\_( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)_/¯ not too worried about retirement right now. Maybe if we somehow stabilize things... I have my doubts that will happen though.
Late stage capitalism doesn’t have a reverse button.
Things won’t become more affordable. The climate will never change back. People won’t become nicer. Rich people will get richer. This is it - and most likely will get worse. It will never get “better”. Maybe in some areas there may be small, temporary gains but as a whole society we are destined for destruction. There were civilizations before ours and there will be civilizations (maybe) after.
“Retirement” seems like one of the last things to worry about. ☺️
Tbh this post sort of annoyed me. Like, there is a very real, very serious chance that our environment will collapse in a decade, and here everyone is talking about retirement lol. I understand that it's okay to have dreams and goals and whatnot, but at this point it's almost like buying a lottery ticket and thinking about all the things you can do if you win. Like, everyone in this thread, including me, might be dead by July 2033. All of us.
Oddly, as I stare into the gnawing abyss I am heartened a bit to see other people thinking about this. I’m glad somewhat to not be alone in strife.
At the same time, I weep openIy because I can’t believe so many of us are talking about this.
No retirement plan, I expect to work until I drop dead.
My plan? Hahahahahshahahahahahaha(gasp)hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahaha