Scott Burns: The Critical 50’s

[Martha]

Originally Posted by Martha

But the percentage divorced between the ages 51 and 61 is fairly low.

Disabilities interfering with the ability to work is a big problem. *
http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=6018&sequence=0


CBO found that those men and women who had left the labor force even though they were not yet old enough to receive Social Security retired-worker benefits did so for a small number of reasons: The most frequent reason they offered for not working was that they were disabled--accounting for almost two-thirds of the men who were not in the labor force and two-fifths of the women. Most of the other men said that they were retired. Most of the other women said that they were retired, caring for others, or not interested in working.



People talk a lot about baby boomers working long past 65. After all, people are living longer. Well they are not necessarily healthier and living longer isn't that much longer.

Man oh man oh man. I have been trying to find this link for the past 6 months and couldn't for the life of me find it. Thanks for bringing this thread back up again!

[Texarkandy]

Originally Posted by REWahoo

According to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, there is a 69% chance of someone between the ages of 51 and 61 experiencing at least one of these events:

A major medical condition - 41.3%
A health-related work limitation - 33.7%
Severe disability - 6.9%
Enter a nursing home - 3.4%
Job layoff - 18.7%
Divorce - 2.3%
Widowed - 7.3%

Well, I guess if you are already FIRE by age 51(as I hope to be), then #2 & #5 are kind of N/A.

[megacorp-firee]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

does one of those new penile replacements count?

it sure didn't take long for this thread to hit the gutter
... I'm now officially lowering my expectations.

[ItDontMeanAThing]

Originally Posted by haha

To where? Alone or with SO?Ha

My plans are at http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ths-36361.html . No SO in tow because that would interfere with my acquiring one along the way.

[kumquat]

Originally Posted by ItDontMeanAThing

No SO in tow because that would interfere with my acquiring one along the way.

Better include that in your plan. They can be expensive.

[Helen]

I've been thinking about this a lot as I get closer to retirement. I'm 51 I can't take retirement until age 56 at the earliest. What is amazing is how much different my financial status should be within the next 5 years.

If I bailed now there is no way I could live off my investments. However, hanging in there five - six more years should make a huge difference.

It's amazing after working all these years, the critical years are the last five.

[FIYes]

A major motivation for early retirement for me (as if work wasn't motivation enough, ha, ha) is that I want to get out while I have the health and the energy to enjoy. my retirement. There are just too many things that I want to do. I love to travel and can't see that as fun unless I have both health and mobility.

[Want2retire]

Originally Posted by Martha

Man oh man oh man. I have been trying to find this link for the past 6 months and couldn't for the life of me find it. Thanks for bringing this thread back up again!

Fascinating information about early retirees between 50 and 61 years old, in 2001. It brought up the following information for these retirees:

median family income: men $29,600, women $34.500
median net worth including home equity: men $230,800, women $217,600
percentage with an IRA, 401K, or Keogh: men 47, women 33

The size of net worth seems shockingly low, but this was in 2001 so there has been some inflation.

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by mathjak107

does one of those new penile replacements count?

Only if they botch it.

[Moemg]

It's a little scarey that more people are widowed in that time period then divorced !

[Frugality_of_Apathy]

Originally Posted by Moemg

It's a little scarey that more people are widowed in that time period then divorced !

Once you've been married that long it's easier to passive-aggressively double their portions of bacon and half the serving of orange juice at breakfast than to fillout divorce papers.