Article - 35% of Millionaires won't be able to retire

[NW-Bound]

My parents bought their home near the state university so that we could stay at home while going to school. The thought of applying to another school never occurred to us.

My parents also went through some hard economic times. Being the eldest son, I worked during the weekends in a factory to make money to help with the bills. Finished my BSEE in 3.5 years. It was only in grad school that I was able to get part-time technical work that paid good money.

 

[Badger]

I appreciate the underlying "live below your means" message but I very much doubt Robert Shiller is following his own advice. Maybe Yale students have a higher standard living then we did at midwestern state universities. I lived in a house that should have been condemned - spongey floors, no insulation, threadbare carpet, vomit stained couches rescued from the curb, a rusted out unreliable car, and a diet of ramen noodles and mac & cheese. If your income is so low that you need to live like that to save for retirement then you wasted money on a worthless degree.

Not much different than my experiences in grad school only it was a one room efficiency apt with a falling apart couch/bed and broken dresser. Meals were biscuits and pinto beans. Ten years after graduation came a divorce and I was back to biscuits and beans and sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag and no heat for a few years. It didn't kill me. What it gave me was confidence in myself and taught me I could survive in adverse conditions. I also continued with being frugal after I got back on my feet. I didn't think it was such a big deal to be concerned. It was a great learning experience that I have relied on a few times until retirement.

Cheers!

 

[JoeWras]

Robert Shiller is very smart and everyone should live within their means and save, but I find this advice a bit objectionable. He teaches at an elite university, tuition is greater than the median yearly income in the US, and most students come from upper-middle income families. It’s easy to tell people that are already well off that they should save.

I went to university so I wouldn’t have to live like I did during those same years.

I lived like a student for 3 years after I graduated on a good engineering salary.

I never had a girlfriend during this time. I don't think it was a coincidence.

I'm not saying young women are gold diggers, but, you know, a young man who has a 11" black and white TV set up on a cardboard box may, just may, send up a few flags.

 

[Ronstar]

I remember going back to the campus about 5-10 years after graduation.

The bookstore and the student center were full of brochures and applications for credit cards.

Never occurred to me to rack up some credit card debt, enjoy more restaurant meals, summer trips, etc.

I don't believe the banks were marketing that heavily to college students when I was in school. I'm sure some students took out credit cards on their own but it would have been a small minority.

We had a part time finance professor who was a CFO, and he hated the fact that colleges promoted credit cards. While we were taking an exam, he took a stack of credit card apps from the student center, filled them out with the college dean's name, and mailed them in.

 

[aja8888]

I lived like a student for 3 years after I graduated on a good engineering salary.

I never had a girlfriend during this time. I don't think it was a coincidence.

I'm not saying young women are gold diggers, but, you know, a young man who has a 11" black and white TV set up on a cardboard box may, just may, send up a few flags.

Cardboard box? Heck, I was high class using cinder blocks. Wines of choice back then were Ripple and Night Train Express. Livin' good!

 

[TheWizard]

I lived like a student for 3 years after I graduated on a good engineering salary.

I never had a girlfriend during this time. I don't think it was a coincidence.

I'm not saying young women are gold diggers, but, you know, a young man who has a 11" black and white TV set up on a cardboard box may, just may, send up a few flags.

I used the cardboard box that the TV came in as its stand.
But it was a 19", so higher off the floor...

 

[JoeWras]

Cardboard box? Heck, I was high class using cinder blocks. Wines of choice back then were Ripple and Night Train Express. Livin' good!

 

[Koolau]

Robert Shiller is very smart and everyone should live within their means and save, but I find this advice a bit objectionable. He teaches at an elite university, tuition is greater than the median yearly income in the US, and most students come from upper-middle income families. It’s easy to tell people that are already well off that they should save.

I went to university so I wouldn’t have to live like I did during those same years.

I guess I wasn't the only one thinking this. I was thinking "the NERVE of RS!" School is now a luxury, put on "credit." The only way I could afford university was to live at home and commute daily. I made $1.25/hour the summer after HS and saved enough for tuition, books and meals in the Union bldg. I took no loans and I worked my tail off (Lost 18 pounds first semester running all over campus, skimping on meals and then w*rking during week ends and some afternoons to cover dating and gas money.)

Yeah, I "lived" like a student. Today's students live like their parents - everything on credit! (Sorry, probably too harsh.)

 

[marko]

Yeah, I "lived" like a student. Today's students live like their parents - everything on credit! (Sorry, probably too harsh.)

SIL is a real estate broker in Boston. She says you wouldn't believe the number parents that come in, drop $800k for a condo for junior to live in while going to one of the universities. Times have changed I fear!

 

[JoeWras]

Yeah, I "lived" like a student. Today's students live like their parents - everything on credit! (Sorry, probably too harsh.)

Not really too harsh. Maybe spot on. A big difference I've noticed from my time 40+ years ago and now is the need for a car. We got plopped down and lived off the Uni or shops at the "campus town." Now so many have cars, and they are used for frequent trips home. Cars are a major expense.

Home? Hell, we were glad it was just a little bridge too far away. Pass me a beer, please(cheap of course, maybe a PBR). Don't tell mom.

 

[Gumby]

I was gainfully employed when I first graduated from college, but I still lived with three roommates in a house we rented together. Our living room decor was the TV on a carboard box full of college textbooks, a cooler and 4 lawn chairs. At one point, the lady across the street came over and asked us if we would help her carry her 30 year old living room furniture out to the curb so the garbage men could pick it up. We just kept on carrying it right across the street to our house. The sofa cushions were worn and ripped, so we just put a blanket on it.

Although I moved three times in the two years after that, I always made sure to have roommates to share the financial burden. Heck, a week after I got married, I had to deploy again, so my new young wife just moved in with my roommates until I got back and we got our own apartment. And she and I "curb shopped" for our furniture until well after we bought our current house and established ourselves in our professions.

 

[NW-Bound]

Any time now, a Yorkshireman will drop in to say

"You guys went to university? Pfft... I worked as a janitor at the university during the day, and went to a community college at night"

 

[Car-Guy]

I was gainfully employed when I first graduated from college, but I still lived with three roommates in a house we rented together. Our living room decor was the TV on a carboard box full of college textbooks, a cooler and 4 lawn chairs. At one point, the lady across the street came over and asked us if we would help her carry her 30 year old living room furniture out to the curb so the garbage men could pick it up. We just kept on carrying it right across the street to our house. The sofa cushions were worn and ripped, so we just put a blanket on it.

Although I moved three times in the two years after that, I always made sure to have roommates to share the financial burden. Heck, a week after I got married, I had to deploy again, so my new young wife just moved in with my roommates until I got back and we got our own apartment. And she and I "curb shopped" for our furniture until well after we bought our current house and established ourselves in our professions.

Okay, you are leaving us hanging.... Is this anything like the TV series "Three's Company"?

 

[Gumby]

We were three guys living in a 3 bedroom house at the time. Harry bought the house and Tom and I paid him rent. We were stationed on three different submarines, so we were rarely all there at the same time. For most of the several months the young wife was living there, it was only her and Harry. She cooked for him and helped him paint the house while I was at sea. My deployment that time involved, among other things, taking my submarine from Groton, CT to Bremerton WA. Shortly before we arrived at our new base in Washington, the young wife left Harry, flew out there and got us our first apartment.

Interestingly, after 6 months in Washington, I got transferred to another submarine homeported in Groton, so we moved back to Connecticut and got another apartment (in Mystic). Then, due to a series of Navy issues, I didn't see her again for almost an entire year. She lived alone with the cat that had adopted us back in Washington. I think she would have been happier living with Harry again.

For those keeping count, for the first two years of our marriage, the young wife lived with another guy almost as long as she lived with me.

 

[Car-Guy]

All's I can say is, "interesting"....

 

[Koolau]

Okay, you are leaving us hanging.... Is this anything like the TV series "Three's Company"?

Heh, heh, I wouldn't have left DW in the company of Jack Tripper (or any other guy) had I been "called away."

 

[GaryInCO]

Drug companies provide coupons or have programs for those high priced drugs, but they may have income ceilings for the patients.

They didn't ask you to provide information about your financials?

Nope. I don't even know what the process was. My oncologist said they'd take care of it, and *poof* free drugs. Can't complain.

 

[braumeister]

Nope. I don't even know what the process was. My oncologist said they'd take care of it, and *poof* free drugs. Can't complain.

Most likely a clinical trial. DW takes a $500 pill every day (and will for as long as she lives) but being enrolled in a clinical trial means the manufacturer provides them at no cost.

 

[Car-Guy]

Nope. I don't even know what the process was. My oncologist said they'd take care of it, and *poof* free drugs. Can't complain.

I know two people that are getting some uber expensive (>100k yr) long term drugs for free.... Neither of them had to to provide any personal financial info. I understand there are a number of "charitable foundations" that work with some doctors, drug and insurance companies to greatly reduce or in some cases eliminate the cost of some of these crazy priced drugs... Makes me wonder if that's why some drugs cost so much.

 

[Samsung4321]

Any time now, a Yorkshireman will drop in to say

"You guys had TVs? Pfft."

I had camp fires and short wave radio at night between exploring for uranium, iron, nickel mineralisation by day. 6 weeks in the bush on tinned dog and 1 week in town to wash off the dust.

Nothing to spend money on so savings rate was 90%.

Had I known the relationship between savings rate and time to financial independence, I could have retired after 2.5 years and lived on feral camels and donkeys for the rest of my life.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I appreciate the underlying "live below your means" message but I very much doubt Robert Shiller is following his own advice. Maybe Yale students have a higher standard living then we did at midwestern state universities. I lived in a house that should have been condemned - spongey floors, no insulation, threadbare carpet, vomit stained couches rescued from the curb, a rusted out unreliable car, and a diet of ramen noodles and mac & cheese. If your income is so low that you need to live like that to save for retirement then you wasted money on a worthless degree.

Well, I guess there are different ways to live in college. Like I posted earlier, one of our kids lived in a very nice complex near the beach in a trendy area with a lot of nice restaurants and bars, in the same complex some of the instructors from the university lived in. I wouldn't have minded living there. And I furnished a lot of it from thrift shops, but my favorite thrift shop was down the street from stores like Neiman Marcus so the used goods were in quite nice condition. We provided enough money for healthy groceries. They had a paid internship that actually paid pretty well for spending money.

 

[Winemaker]

SIL is a real estate broker in Boston. She says you wouldn't believe the number parents that come in, drop $800k for a condo for junior to live in while going to one of the universities. Times have changed I fear!

Well, I can't say that's all bad. DW and I dropped $8,000 on a down payment and closing costs to buy a duplex for DD and her girlfriend when she went off to college. It opened up my eyes to the real estate investing and started our empire!

 

[street]

Cardboard box? Heck, I was high class using cinder blocks. Wines of choice back then were Ripple and Night Train Express. Livin' good!

LOL!!! Yep cinder block and a couple of 2x10's and Boones Farm must have been cheaper that was to wine drank most commonly. OMG those were some interesting years.

 

[bigcmagor]

We were three guys living in a 3 bedroom house at the time. Harry bought the house and Tom and I paid him rent. We were stationed on three different submarines, so we were rarely all there at the same time. For most of the several months the young wife was living there, it was only her and Harry. She cooked for him and helped him paint the house while I was at sea. My deployment that time involved, among other things, taking my submarine from Groton, CT to Bremerton WA. Shortly before we arrived at our new base in Washington, the young wife left Harry, flew out there and got us our first apartment.

Interestingly, after 6 months in Washington, I got transferred to another submarine homeported in Groton, so we moved back to Connecticut and got another apartment (in Mystic). Then, due to a series of Navy issues, I didn't see her again for almost an entire year. She lived alone with the cat that had adopted us back in Washington. I think she would have been happier living with Harry again.

For those keeping count, for the first two years of our marriage, the young wife lived with another guy almost as long as she lived with me.

I'd say both you and Mrs. Gumby were both quite, well um, flexible.

 

[grasshopper]

Cable spools for tables. I got a scholarship from grandpa to pay for my books.

Everyday after class, I would call to find out the location of the gas station I was in that night. Hop on my 305 Honda scrambler and off I would go. $5 an hour not bad for a 20 something kid. Only was robbed once and not at gunpoint.

Later on between a GF my "62 VW Bus, Route 1 beaches that's what I called home. Shower at the school gym.