What this forum is lacking...

[dex]

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ml#post1003691

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...oup-53336.html

From these two polls my thought is that this forum is lacking in people 65 and older. Without them most of us are feeling our way along in the dark.

retired 65+ 11.38%
all 65+ 7.41%

I'm also surprised that only 162 responded to the age question. How many unique uses are there?

[REWahoo]

Patience Dex. In less than 5 years we'll more than triple the 65+ numbers.

After all this is an early retirement board and it has only been around for 8 1/2 years...

[GregLee]

Consider me to be a precious resource.

[martyb]

Ask the question again in 2 years, when I'm retired!

[Martha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dex http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ml#post1003691 http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...oup-53336.html From these two polls my thought is that this forum is lacking in people 65 and older. Without them most of us are feeling our way along in the dark. retired 65+ 11.38% all 65+ 7.41% I'm also surprised that only 162 responded to the age question. How many unique uses are there?

In looking at the stats, in the last 24 hours 236 members have visited the forum. There are a lot more guests online. So, I think your response rate is pretty decent.

[73ss454]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Patience Dex. In less than 5 years we'll more than triple the 65+ numbers. After all this is an early retirement board and it has only been around for 8 1/2 years...

Yup, now the trick is to keep breathing.

[Nords]

If I wanted to hang out with a bunch of 65-year-olds and above then I'd be over at Bogleheads.org or at M*'s "Investing During Retirement" board. One M* poster was 90 years old. There are several posters at FundAlarm in their 70s, including Ted, who's the posting equivalent of the Energizer Bunny.

If 65-year-olds retired at age 50 in 1995 then Bill Bengen's SWR study would've been one year old. They weren't working with much better tools back then than we have now, so what sort of wisdom would they possess? Maybe instead of looking for more oldsters we'd want to pay more attention to long-time ERs like the Terhorsts (ER'd in 1984), HaHa (1984?), the Kaderlis (1991), and even Greaney & Greenspun. Heck, Vicki Robin is continuing Joe Dominguez' work over at YMOYL's website.

I've noticed that many of the 65-and-over crowd seem to lose interest in posting to discussion boards. Dory is busy with grandkids, Gummy is busy with grandkids, I don't know about Jarhead*. Maybe they feel that they have ER licked and don't need to constantly read/post about it.

In fact maybe we should be worried if this board ever does fill up with 65-year-olds looking to talk about ER...

[heyduke]

you know there are likely a good number of people on this forum who don't remember how old they are...

,,, just saying...

what were we talking about?

[FIREd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dex From these two polls my thought is that this forum is lacking in people 65 and older. Without them most of us are feeling our way along in the dark.

As far as I am concerned, feeling my way along in the dark is the only game in town when it comes to retirement.

With all due respect for my elders, I don't know what insights about my own financial future I would gain from 70-80 year olds who:

1) retired in the midst of bull markets in equities, bonds and real estate.
2) are receiving full social security and medicare benefits.
3) are likely receiving some kind of pension.

Times change. Retirement strategies too. What worked in 1980 might not work in 2010.

Now if they want to share their insights about life in general, I'm all ears...

[Onward]

I usually give extra weight to posts by long-time FIRE-ees. After all, they've been through what I'm about to go through. I don't look to them for financial advice, but more for insights into the experience of early retirement and the years following. For example, if most long-time FIRE-ees said, "I wish I'd worked & saved a bit longer," that would mean something to me. If most of them said, "I should have pulled the trigger even sooner," that would mean something to me, too. Incidentally, most of them do seem to say "I should have retired even sooner than I did," and that definitely had an effect on my decision to retire as soon as I could.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords I've noticed that many of the 65-and-over crowd seem to lose interest in posting to discussion boards.

Many of these geezers stopped being active posters before my time, so I do not know them although I have run across some of their old posts.

But do we really know if they are not lurking? ;-)

[dex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords so what sort of wisdom would they possess?

I was thinking they would be able to offer a perspective on life changes they have gone through over the years. Similar to those of us who have ERd can look back and give input as to how our ER compared to what we thought prior to ER.

Maybe I'm making too much about growing older and there is some wisdom to be gained.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords I've noticed that many of the 65-and-over crowd seem to lose interest in posting to discussion boards. Dory is busy with grandkids, Gummy is busy with grandkids, I don't know about Jarhead*. Maybe they feel that they have ER licked and don't need to constantly read/post about it.

True. I can't believe I've been here 7 years - and with less than 5,000 posts - is some one stealing my post count?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords In fact maybe we should be worried if this board ever does fill up with 65-year-olds looking to talk about ER...

I think that will eventually happen as the SS start date gets raised. ER will be 65!

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound But do we really know if they are not lurking? ;-)

If that's really the case then REWahoo and I are hoping to taunt Jarhead* out of lurkerdom...

Heck, it's even hard to get a response out of Dory anymore.

[rescueme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords If I wanted to hang out with a bunch of 65-year-olds and above then I'd be over at Bogleheads.org...

Actually, I do post occasionally on BH and being that I turn 63 in a month, I find a lot of their discussions are usually concerning subjects about life of a much younger person.

I don't need to talk about buying a home (we've had four), mortgage rates (we have none), home down payments (we've always had at least 20%) college costs (we're past that) and when to retire (I am, DW will be early next year).

Also, financial discussions include Roth IRA/401(k)'s (we did not have access to a Roth IRA till getting close to retirement, and 401(k)'s were not available at all).

What I don't really care for is that some of the poster's on that board "profess knowledge", but don't actually follow their beliefs (such as a poster known as Adrian who constantly spouts off about a formula of what you should do, but in his world is at 100% equities). Others give their opinions about how some should (for instance) manage their $$$ in retirement, yet are not in the same position (a lot of "do as I say, not as I do"), since they are younger (somtimes, I suspect much younger) than the person who is either retired, or close to it.

It's just made up of a different group of folks who worship at the altar of VG, IMHO. Nothing wrong with that, but for me (being multi-denomintal), I do look at other investment companies and don't follow one "religion" blindly. Heck, DW/me do have investments at VG, but then we also have assets at FIDO, along with Kempfer (for an old 403b plan DW has).

Every forum has a certain "flavor", related to the type of individual and the time of life they are in, IMHO. Over at BH's, it seems to be a younger crowd that are hesitant to make any decisions and suffer mistakes on their own in all facets of their life (including investing) and ask "the world" about opinions and directions they should take to ensure success and not have to suffer "real life" problems.

While BH's is "hosted" by two older folks (Taylor/Mel) it seems that the participants are much younger in age.

[Orchidflower]

Well, I'm 66 and have been posting here, because I like the information I can cull from this group...as well as the laughs I can have sometimes from the responses.

[Westernskies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dex I'm also surprised that only 162 responded to the age question. How many unique uses are there?

No option for "currently still working" for any age group.

[Dawg52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 73ss454 Yup, now the trick is to keep breathing.

Yup, I hope I'm still an active alive member at 65.

[HFWR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westernskies No option for "currently still working" for any age group.

Or currently employed, but not working...

[Westernskies]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HFWR Or currently employed, but not working...

...shhhh.... that was supposed to be our little secret.

[dex]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Westernskies No option for "currently still working" for any age group.

The poll with the 162 responses does not ask anyone about working status. So everyone can vote.

http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ml#post1003691