The only thing I regret after ~6 years of ER

[Markola]

I’m pretty frugal with most stuff, so that I can blow that dough on the stuff that matters to me, like saving and investing and travel. DW is reasonably frugal but she doesn’t care about personal finance and wants to blow that dough on the house, which gets expensive fast. We’re both “right”, and our assets are shared, so we got a low cost advisor to help us negotiate and stay on track with a plan. That plan projects we’ll spend down our assets more than I’d personally want to if I was solo, until max SS comes in. But I guess in spending them down we will be ensuring we are consuming the most while we are healthiest, we hope.

 

[GTFan]

Agreed.

The definition of spendthrift, is "a person who spends money in an extravagant, irresponsible way".

We knew what you meant though!

This is one of the stranger words in our language, given that thrift is the opposite of spend.

And why do you park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?

But I digress.

 

[Major Tom]

This is one of the stranger words in our language, given that thrift is the opposite of spend.

It had me fooled for a long time. I am constantly learning new words, or discovering the correct meanings and pronunciations for words that I *thought* I knew. English is quite a fascinating language.

 

[BigNick]

This is one of the stranger words in our language, given that thrift is the opposite of spend.

This arises because "thrift" originally meant wealth (it is an old noun form of the verb which in modern usage is "thrive").

Later on it came to mean "the process of accumulating wealth", which of course doesn't involve writing a lot of checks, as Bill Gates famously said on The Simpsons.

But by then the word spendthrift, meaning someone who spends their wealth, was established, and didn't change when "thrift" drifted off to become a synonym for frugality.

 

[KarenF]

I've retired ~6 years ago at age 54. It was a great decision although some members here suggested I may not have enough. A bull stock market made me even richer. Looking back, there is one thing I keep regretting.

I was an antithesis of [edited later] a spendthrift. I spent money on cheaper wines, traveled on a budget, didn't donate to charities much, etc.. For what? So that I could have saved 1/100th (guessing) of my liquid/asset at retirement. I lived a Spartan life (moneywise) for what amounts to a few more months at work. If I were to do it all over, I would have "enjoyed" my money more before ER.

Of course, if the last 6 years were a big stock market bust, I would be singing a different tune.

We took several BIG vacations with our kids, that they remember to this day. We also sponsored several kids to play travel soccer. We flew with these kids to tournaments, and never met some of their parents. I felt guilty about some of this spending, but my husband was wiser than I - it is all things that our kids remember and treasure, and we were still ok for ER.

 

[arch57]

Welcome to the "Blow That Dough" club. Never too late to join -

+$100

 

[RxMan]

We just put a deposit on a big BTD opportunity back at the end of March even though we’re still about 7 years or so from retirement. We ordered a new Class B RV.

It’s expensive and I’m nervous about spending this kind of money but when it’s finally built and delivered I’ll be happy. We’ve had plans now for a while to retire and tour the country in an RV. We finally asked ourselves why wait until retirement to do it?

I want us to have the opportunity for spontaneous trips even if they are short weekend getaways. With an RV we can go and take our two dogs which is always a complication for traveling.

I know I’ve already made financial mistakes in my life that have cost me some numbers on a net worth statement. This RV deposit will turn into the largest discretionary purchase by far in my life but I think the experiences will be worth it.

I can only speculate because I’m not yet retired but I get the impression that my retired self will value experiences and time with loved ones more than material items. That will inevitably impact our spending habits in retirement.

We’ll see how everything works out but I am blessed to be in the position I’m in which is relatively close to what appears to be a very comfortable and enjoyable retirement. That seems like a nice way to ride into the sunset of my time on this earth.

 

[marko]

The hell of it is that you don't know how long you'll live.

Just as an example: Spend $X% a year (at the higher end) and you'll die rich at age 95, spend $X+2% and you'll be broke in 12 years. (it's an example ok?! take the spirit of this comment, not literally) It can be a real needle threader.

 

[Perryinva]

We never lived well below are means. We lived at our means. Save first, spend the rest as needed or wanted. We were lucky enough to have enough income to do that, at our level. We don’t have the kind of income many here do, but it is still more net than I was taking home, by far, when I was saving & working! We had plenty of nice vacations but now I wish we went more often to more different places. We bought a TS in Grand Cayman and used the heck out of it scuba diving, but now wish we had hit more places than we did (we dove a few other islands) now that DW can no longer dive.

 

[1242Vintage]

We retired 18 months ago at age 57 right as the pandemic closed everything down.

Before retirement wife and I did some serious financial planning and set a target retirement income. Once we hit the target, we were done working and made the leap into retirement.

Have zero regrets.

Everything is truly better in retirement!

And on Monday headed down to Cancun again to enjoy some quality time at the swim-up bar with my lovely bride (we’ve been married 35 years and every day of that a honeymoon … I’m a very lucky man).