Yea but if make it to 70 then your body may not allow you to do what you could of done when you were in your 50's and if you retired at that age.

It's a give and take, for me I am going to retire early and enjoy life and travel

Debt on depreciating assets is seldom a good idea. So much $ into vehicles, not enuffs left to save. "I paid my car off" is too often followed by "look at the low interest rates on new cars". Eating out is expensive. Saving first is a HUGE key. Too many fail to understand you need to be better off in five, ten years and so on than you are right now. It does not just automatically happen. It's not what you make, it's what you keep.

Got my Social Security Statement in August of 2020. Caught off guard that it indicated, "Your retirement would be about $3,187 a month at full retirement age". I did not think it would be that much. It also indicates, "The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2035, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 79% of scheduled benefits." Hopefully, I'll be 75 in 2035. Maybe it's just me, but my bet is our brothers & sisters up there in DC will utilize inflation to lower their burden when honoring future Social Security benefits.

RedRanger is thinking correctly above. Somes wait way too long.

There is only a benefit if you live past 81. I'll put it this way. If one guy starts his Social Security at 65 and the other one waits until 70, and they both die at 81 years old. They will have received the same amount of benefits. The government plans for all of us to die at 81. Either way it won't be there when I get there.

I needed mine early more than I need it now. I had a daughter in law school and only one pension. It was too early to start drawing on my IRA. I now have RMDs and two pensions. I could get along just fine now without my social security. Love Medicare.

I didn`t think social security would be available when I retired, but I will get my first check in 10 days. They have said it would run out ever since I can remember.

I think it will always be there. If it were to fail they could not collect the money for it and they love collecting money . I think people receiving social security will get taxed more and employers and people paying into the social security fund will have to pay a larger % also.

Bill speaks for me on this. Similar situations.

There is something that I should share with you. When I was in the trading business, there was one thing you needed and one thing you wanted. The thing you needed was your ‘fired box’, which was a cardboard box you kept in the trunk for when you got fired. The thing you wanted was your FIM number. That’s the amount of money you have saved that is large enough that you can say “F___ it” and quit. Always save money as fast as you can to hit the FIM number as soon as you can. Hitting that number is the day that you are no longer a slave to the paycheck. And you can then retire if you wish. It really is a calm happy feeling.

I shared that concept with both daughters. One went to saving and one went shopping. Some years later, one is retired and the other (older one) is still working and hates her job. You guess which one hit the FIM number.

I am a real believer in the FIM concept, and it did come from the trading days. We had a one year contract, renewed annually at the employers option. It pushed you to save as much as you could to prepare for the day you might not get renewed.

FIM means “F___ it Money”, if you need the whole acronym.

I think this is spot-on and what lots of people don’t think about in enough depth.
The FIM is a good index- especially if you are open to relocation. If we were to sell everything we own now, we could move to small-town Alabama or Mississippi or Oklahoma and never need to work again. Would we miss Texas? Sure.
But with no kids in the school system and Amazon Prime, we can be happy just about anywhere.

Look south of the border or a boat and anchor out............I could be homeless in the USA and it never would bother me.

You will be just fine if you know enough to ask. "You'll be fine and dandy just like cotton candy."

My retirement long term concerns.

Obviously health care costs.

And In 25 years will Texas be California? As far as taxes go. Will the state legislature turn left as our population grows. I believe the answer is yes.

Some of you seem as if Medicare is not in the mix. Sixty years ago people were saying that some of the benefits would soon be gone.

dont worry, Joe will take care of you

I have two friends who recently retired to Lake Chapala Mexico. One speaks no Spanish, he went for a year to try it. He loves it and is building a house.

Weather is 75 degrees everyday.

Like has already been said " IT'S NOT WHAT YOU MAKE BUT HOW MUCH YOU SAVE". Ask any 30 to 50 year old if he or she has any savings account of any type of their own doing? Not talking about company 401K or SS, that can disappear over night. I have a buddy with a degree that worked for 25 years for a certain company, got to work along with bout 500 other employees on a Friday morning and was told "company has folded, here is your last week's paycheck" . Your 401k money will be sent to you within a couple of weeks, He got his 401K check of $800 a week later.

Remember Enron?


https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/29/...-as-suitor-cancels-plans-for-merger.html

That story makes no sense. A 401K does not work that way.

Here is what really happens in a bankruptcy situation.

http://www.401khelpcenter.com/401k_education/bankruptcy_and_401k.html

I belive Enron utilized an ESOP which of corse was all Enron stock.

We came within a hair's breath of getting involved with them, back in the day. My brother (company prez) even took a tour of their "operation" in Houston. He was all in. By the Grace of God, it fizzled out.

x 2

Enron...I worked there as a trader. They bought the company I had been working for. It seemed fashionable at the time for big companies to have their own trading companies, so they bought us. I went from working for and with real traders to working for risk averse gas company people. Not a marriage made in heaven. My last year or so there, they had an optional Deferred Bonus Plan, a precursor of a sort to the 401k, which didn’t exist yet. I thought I’d try it out, so I put $10k in it and the bigger part in investments (and gave the wife $5k to shop with. She loved bonus time). I promptly forgot all about that $10k in the DBP, and quit the company later (I thought they were nuts). Some years later Enron folded, and I didn’t care, till I got the letter. The $10k had grown to $40k and then, with the bankruptcy, went to 0 dollars. I was shocked, but no sweat, I’ll just put it against capital gains. But I couldn’t do that. The DBP was “deferred income”, which meant I never got actually got it. It was just owed to me by a company that no longer had the money.

Note that a 401k is money owed to you, but that you haven’t actually received. Should you be nervous? Talk to your accountant and see what he or she says. Might be smarter to roll it into an IRA. We have some investment guys on the forum. Let’s see what they say.

I dont beleive this story

Waiting until your 70 or really any age past 62 doesnt make sense to me. Start drawing at 62 means you have already been drawing on ss for years before you draw your first payment putting it off. Draw eqrly while you got your health instead of using it to sit in front of the TV

Not right, 401Ks are completely protected, they don't fold when company does, pensions on the other hand are generally not protected though they may be PBGI insurance covered to a max of $5B Companywide if I'm not mistaken.

How are 401ks protected? It certainly money owed you that you have deferred taking due to keeping it untaxed. What does happen when the company stock falls to zero? But, on the other hand, if the money has been put in the hands of a company like Fidelity, then it should be safe.

My experience with Enron made me suspicious.