Asklemmy

No, I imagine they will come a point where I've decided I've had enough and just end it.

Ha ha ha ha, no. We do have savings so at least some cushion but I took years off when my kids were born, got a late start in college, started a career later, I would say I got the time when I needed it I guess. But not likely to have enough to take time off paid work again at the end.

Most people don't get to decide, they get disabled or laid off & cannot find work and are forced into retirement. I'm in good shape and work in an office so probably can keep going as long as jobs last for me, and our life will be better if we keep working.

Yes, I’ve got a detailed plan and I’m sticking to it. In 12 years from now, my youngest will be 15 and I can start winding down. I can’t imagine doing nothing, but with some part time work I think my wife and I can stretch to make it work. Requires that the oldest self-fund through university, which I had to do, so I’m ok with that.

Currently 47, which is probably substantially older than most people here. The concept of “retirement” (winding down) seemed so far away (didn’t start saving for it until late twenties) but compounding interest really is the most powerful force in the universe.

Of course if the stock crashes, plans may have to change. I’m slowly moving towards a stronger bond mix but that lowers return and pushes dates out. It’s a hard balance.

I think I’ve accounted for everything that one can plan for; late life care costs, risk of both my wife and I living to 100 (in a financial sense, we should all be so lucky), higher spend until 75, then lowered. There’s a risk that the UK removes universal state pensions, which would drastically alter my plans.

https://imgur.com/a/MAWe4eq

I don't think think I'll ever "retire" in the traditional sense.

My thought was to always have a severe mental breakdown around 50 and run off to the woods to build a log cabin and grow my own food. My wife knows of this plan but I'm pretty sure she thinks it's a joke. It's not.

I'm putting enough money away that I see myself retiring. At minimum, I would transition to a less stressful job about 10 years away from retirement and ride that out as I go to work less and less.

That said, I know I'll kill myself if my health degrades too much. I haven't decided what would happen if I run out of money.

Yes. I'm not in line to inherit a fuck-you amount, but it's substantial, and if I move to a poor country and live modestly I should be able to make it last indefinitely.

I'd invest if I was above the poverty line, income-wise, but I'm not. Downward mobility is a bitch.

If there were a steady growing economy and no crazy events for the next 20 years, and no major health issues, my Roth 401k would probably be enough for a modest retirement.

I was just wondering what the penalty would be to withdraw everything before 59, so I could figure out if it would be enough to immigrate somewhere with reasonable healthcare and a social safety net that would take those worries out of the equation. I think since it's Roth it would just be 10% of gains + one-time capital gains tax?

It might be enough. Simply having a lump of $ makes so many more countries welcome to immigrants.

I started maxing my Roth Ira out when I was earning $10/hr. Avoid spending money on things that don't literally matter and save for the things that do. Pay attention to where every single dollar/pound/Euro/shekel goes. Stay out of debt. Keep drug/alcohol use reasonable. Most of the time folks who are concerned about retiring/money have no idea how much they spend on what. Saving for retirement is easy once you start doing it and get used to it, but you need to start early and you need to invest in the stock market. Avoiding chronic illness or accidents or long periods where you aren't earning income are probably necessary too. Staying out of legal trouble is probably necessary as well.

Nope because I'll never afford it. I'll be at my desk on the phone listening to my BPD patient scream in my ear for the millionth time that she absolutely must come off the medication she needs to stay alive that she's been on for 20 years because it's giving her a rash (not possible and shes doing this for attention), and I'll quietly expire into an exhausted puddle.

Edited to add: I have an excellent pension but it still won't be enough. I have zero savings thanks to my SO wrecking my finances.

I'll be surprised if I make it to retirement age, but if I do, lol no.

I enjoy working in my field, but as other commenter said, I have no interest on working until death for shareholders to be happy. I do plan to work until I'm dead, incapable or just tired, but I'm planning to enjoy it while it lasts.

Independence for me would be not having to respond to a higher up, just me, my craft, and peaceful money earned by not overstressing my ass. I'm building my own house now, after I have a place to live without rent, I have no more ambitions than eating, sleeping and be with my loved ones. I don't need to overwork my ass to death to get that. Maybe 4 hours a day, or two-three days a week should be enough.

I think most people would do the same if they could, most people like working, they just despise the oppression of this rigged system.

I intend to. I refuse to die in old age, wasting my life working to support shareholders. Have a good few decades left to even be close to that though and I hate it.

Never took the blue pill in the first place. I worked to live only not lived to work. Then Cancer retired me permanently at 42.

Nope, never. My retirement plan is a ditch with a nice view of the Rockies in Colorado and a bottle of gin on a cold winter night. Everything I've saved into (SS, TSP, retirement accounts) will inevitably disappear before I can access them/hit the age requirements. I don't trust the system at all (I didn't trust it before the election outcome either). I'm fucked. We're all fucked. Might as well live it up now while I still can.

Retirement sounds great till you try it. The expression is "even your garage can't get any cleaner". This refers to the boredom retirement can be for some. The solution that I found was a part time job, not for the money, but doing something I enjoyed. You no longer have the pressure of a "real" job. The best job that you will ever have is the job that you really don't need.

No.

Existence had grown exponentially more expensive in my lifetime, well outpacing what a 401k or pension will realistically ever be able to achieve. At best, it might buy me 5-10 years after I am physically unable to work; if I mentally decline too soon due to age (quite likely in my family), I will die in poverty.

That isn't even touching on the possibility of a habitable climate or war, and assumes the survival of the current economic system.

Yep, about to turn thirty and have been paying into an Ira, a Roth Ira and a 401k, I want to retire as soon a possible and do things that actually make me happy.

yes. by staying in europe

My workplace has a defined benefit pension and they announced that all employees will be losing this pension (even those who are a couple years from retirement).

We will be switched over to a defined contribution pension and our previous contributions will be converted retroactively.

I don’t foresee this new pension lasting more than 5 years before they cut it completely. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they’re able to keep our pension contributions retroactively, fucking everyone over.

I already did somewhere in my 20s like 3 decades ago.

But today, with maybe "just" one good academic salary, the minimum rent, no car and saving nost of everything? Difficult. Especially if you maybe wanna live while waiting for retirement. Maybe even have a car or travel.

And if you want a great retirement, you need Hobbies and hobbies cost money. Considering that mayve the government-paid retirement is probably gone or reeeeaaally bad in another 30yrs...you gotta save a looooot AND invest it furiously but safely. Which is work too.

World is fucked.

Yep. My wife and I are in our thirties and have good whole life insurance policies that will supplement our retirement accounts nicely in our old age. I’ve been paying into mine for almost two decades (maybe longer, my parents started it for me and locked in good rates when I was young), my wife’s is newer. We also both have matching retirement accounts and are making sure we hit our matching totals each paycheck to draw as much from our employers as we can.

It’s not ideal, but with good planning (and stable income) you can still do well. Now, stable income is the important part. I’m a software developer, my wife works for a non-profit, so my income is generally a bit more stable than hers.

I recommend finding a financial advisor. Our life insurance guy is great and because he gets commission on the life insurance plans he doesn’t charge us for advisory services (and also doesn’t try to sell us on other stuff, he actually recommended we NOT move our old 401ks from other jobs over to him because we’d end up paying him more than we’d make, he recommended we roll them into our current employer plans).

Yep. I just always put money in my 401k, I don't know what a paycheck without 15% going to retirement looks like. I've still got at least 30 years to go.

I'm barely into my 30's so it's far too early to say what I'll be doing. I aim to be debt free within 10 years and have no major life goals after that. Another 10 years and pension should cover my living costs 1:1, so monetarily I should be fine.

No. Retirement age is already higher than the age I'll probably reach, considering hereditary bad stuff. Aside from that, I have no skills and keep getting fired. Not to mention our planet will be on fire by then anyway.

My wife and I have pensions plans. We won't retire for another 35 or 40 years but that's the plan.

Barring societal collapse I believe I will be able to retire, but that's only because I've gotten extraordinarily lucky in life.

No. My mother has unretired twice and my grandmother has come out of retirement four times. They don't have the knack for it and I doubt I will either.

Sure. I mean death still comes one to a customer and I'm no different.

Becoming so rich that greeds corrupts me and becoming the villian that I always despised.

Or die.

Probably the latter tho... 😓

Statistically people with depression like me is at a higher risk of suicide so yea maybe I'd be dead. Or since I'm in the US, die due to political persecution. Basically just boils down to "die".

I'm lucky enough to be a state employee so I'll still have OPERS when Social Security is annihilated next year, but I'm not sure that'll be enough.

I will have to cut down on costs but I won't be poor, so yes.

At the speed at which government push back the retirement age, I expect something like 70 with 47 worked years by the time I'll be old enough.

I have an interesting job, mostly in an office, some savings, so I may be able to do otherwise. But yhea, I don't count that much on retirement

Yep! I retire in 5 months. 55 years old. With full pension.

My house is paid off and I have no debt. Since I have no bills, my pension will cover my needs just fine. It's not a huge pension or anything, but I've worked for my state for most of my adult life, and whittled down my bills to almost nothing. So I'll get by just fine.

I plan to just spend my time in retirement doing exactly what I want. I've recently started a local branch of my favorite socialist party, so I'll devote more time to that.

Plus, I'll do a lot of writing, a lot of Lemmy posting, garden more so I can grow most of my meals, and doing DIY solar projects so that I can cut back on my bills even farther. Because fuck the capitalist power infrastructure in my state. My state's BS laws won't let me go completely off-grid while here in the city, but I plan on reducing how much I have to pay as far down as I can go

No, and crying

Yes.

By Planning.

I didn't think it would work for the first 10 years. I just wanted to eat better cat food in retirement.

Pursuing higher paid jobs when I can. Changing jobs periodically. Pursuing higher pay until the pay asked for my soul. Then stepped back, changed jobs, and make way more for less.

Paying down debt when possible. Building up to a constant dollar figure of debit and investment per month. Growing that when I can. I now save 40%+ of my income.

Keeping my spending low by prioritizing my time on free things. Prioritizing the money I spend on high pact purchases.

Planning with 4% rule. Works out to needing 300 times your monthly spend in savings. Driving that number down. A $15 a month expense requires $4,500 invested to support.

A great market runup.

I am glad I did too. My friends are dying. One's 40's are rough.