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Does your wife get a pension too? Two pensions coming from the same company is a heck of a risk, IMO. That alone would make me lean toward a lump sum for one of you, at least.

Apart from the ubiquitous filler noise "like," the phrase that makes me want to take a knife to my ears lately is, "The thing is, is..." Lake Superior State University publishes a "banished words" list every year. Many of the suggestions in this thread are already on it. :-) Lake Superior...

There's no way I'd voluntarily put money into a pension system with a huge shortfall, no matter what the system's math suggests. My DH is in the same situation in our home state (Ohio). After switching jobs a few times, he can buy back years and theoretically get a cushy retirement, but has...

Agreed. Any time I hear someone say "the government" should do/fund X, Y or Z, I find that what they really mean is "other people". :nonono:

I agree with you that Roths are likely advantageous to you. I doubt they'd be taxed either, but I half expect a VAT to be introduced in the next 15 years or so, and a national sales tax like that would hit your Roth dollars from the other side. Still, a Roth would be better to have in that...

@OP: You haven't specifically said whether your strategy is to live off of dividends when you retire early. Is that the case? Because that will probably have an effect on the type of advice that would be most helpful for you.

Another problem Gen X has: they're a small generation. When it comes time to vote on who will pay more taxes, or who will gets their benefits cut, Gen X will ALWAYS be on the short end of the policy stick because those who are older (Boomers) and younger (Millenials) vastly outnumber them...

The key to solving your problem is more clarity. You and your SO need more concrete joint financial goals than "saving aggressively for retirement and continuing to live below our means." That's not a goal at all, it's a lifestyle choice. WHY are you doing that? Not only do you need to spell all...

Thanks! From personal experience I would also add peas to this list. I can't tell the difference with them either.

I had the privilege of visiting Cuba for a few weeks with a religious organization back in 1991. Havana, Matanzas, Playa Azul, et. al. I too keep up with it in the news. In a nutshell, yes, I think it will open up in the next 25 years or so, and I believe that when the change occurs, it will...

A good balanced blame-free video on the need for pension changes in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands. About 25 minutes total. Pension Plan Evolution – A New Financial Reality - Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

Here's another calculator to play with: SmartMoney Retirement Planner - SmartMoney.com

+1

Agreed. This is her original proposal, for any who haven't read it before: http://www.sharedprosperity.org/bp204/bp204.pdf

Good luck, kyounge1956. I believe if it were me, I would take the lump sum.

Try using this: SmartMoney Retirement Planner - SmartMoney.com

I went to a dividend portfolio in my Roth IRA earlier this year to get my feet wet with this type of investing. I found these two sites to be the most helpful: Dividend Stock Analysis and Dividend History - dividata.com Income Investing, Retirement Investing and Dividend Stocks - Seeking Alpha

Yes. No one in this country wants to hear that anything is their own flipping fault. You can almost hear some people mentally straining whenever they talk about their problems: "Must... blame... something..." I'm sure this isn't a revelation to anyone here, but I discovered a few years ago...

I found this touching in a sad sort of way. :(

I don't agree with means testing. It turns SS into welfare, and that would eventually kill it. If we're going to have SS, the rich need an incentive to participate. Or, due to the fact that they are grossly overrepresented in Congress, eventually they will simply choose not to. I am in favor of...

To me this is less about rudeness and more about a nation that gets less homogeneous every year. Once upon a time there was a shared definition of polite, rude, civility, incivility, right, wrong, etc. Now it seems there are a thousand mini-cultures instead of a single American perspective. If...

Theoretically, someday, I will get a pension. However... I'm in my 30s. Like most everyone else in my generation (X), I now have zero faith that anything "promised" will ever be mine (pension, Social Security, tax freedom of a Roth, etc.). In order for me to have ANY real financial security, I...

@OP: My husband and I are about your age. We invest more aggressively than you seem inclined to invest. To answer your question, I think it is possible (probable, even) to get those real returns, but only if a portion of your portfolio is in physical real estate (not just REITs, although some...

My IRA: 45% US Growth Stock ETF 10% Emerging Markets Growth Stock ETFs 20% Real estate company & REITs 10% Gold ETF 5% Oil ETF 5% S&P 500 Short 5% Cash This is my growth account, if you will. I also have a 401k full of plain vanilla index funds and will receive a pension.

My husband and I are looking at the same timeline for FIRE... somewhere between 7 and 13 years. The closer we get, the more excitement and anxiety I have. :-/