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Old 02-05-2020, 07:16 PM   #21
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And I think we should pat ourselves on the back and recognize our hard LBYM work.
While most of us were focused on saving and LBYM, the others were spending everything they made. Enjoying new cars, McMansions, extravagant vacations, etc. So, yes, the harder thing to do was LBYM and save, and we deserve the benefits of doing so. Were these people worried about anyone else while living the high life?
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Old 02-05-2020, 08:02 PM   #22
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I agree. People either get it, or they don't. I am in a "transportation" phase right now where I am driving a $1300, 18 year old car with two dirty dogs in the back. (I have 3 antique vehicles worth collectively maybe $125k, and DW has a nice fairly new ride). I chuckle at myself from time to time when I pull into a gas station and I see people glance at me in my dirty old car thinking, "do they think I am a multi-millionaire?".

The fun part is that I really don't care. I will wake up every single morning for the rest of my life and ask myself, "Well what do *I* want to do today"
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Old 02-06-2020, 03:56 AM   #23
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Originally Posted by HNL Bill View Post
LOL. Every day at lunch time, I walk past the 60-70 year olds still coming to downtown, still w$rking in an office, and I wonder how many of them really need to, or how many could have FIRED.
Hey! Some of us 60+ YO employees are still working because we were lucky enough to find a career that is both fulfilling and that we love. I will be leaving the workplace, for good this time, in early Summer at age 64. And my Financial Planner keeps reminding me at every meeting me that he had everything all set for me to retire 4 years ago.

But as I was telling a 57 YO co-worker yesterday, each of us only has so many good years left. Regardless whether or not we love our jobs, we need to retire to allow ourselves to enjoy as many of those remaining years as possible. Not forgetting that all future financial projections contain an element of error risk. My plan to mitigate that risk was to work a few years past the identified "retirement is doable" date.
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Old 02-06-2020, 04:52 AM   #24
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The story said the cause was divorce and business failure. Not the same as never saving anything for decades.
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Old 02-06-2020, 05:00 AM   #25
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Better houses, cars, and vacations come to mind for most of my friends who have next to nothing saved for a comfy retirement. I get the standard answer "i'll never be able to retire" when I ask about it, and tell them I plan on going early.

I have lived on our paid off farm for 25 years, driven my 1996 truck for 9 years now, and love going camping (no exotic destinations). We live simply, frugaly, and stress free.
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Old 02-06-2020, 05:05 AM   #26
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Every story is different of course.
I retired at 57 yo. and always saved every year, but not to the level of LBYM which some folks did on this site.
We cut our expenses around 60% over a course of 3 years near retirement, including moving from a HCOL area to a MCOL.
Luckily, I had a high paying job. OTOH, I paid out between almost 600k in divorce payments between house and cash.
Lots of different ways to get to the promised land.
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Planned early retirement does not suck
Old 02-06-2020, 05:28 AM   #27
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Planned early retirement does not suck

Tuesday – six month mark for retiring at 58 with planning and saving for over 30 years. Showered and put on long pants before 0830 – and for crying out loud it wasn’t even Sunday! I thought about shaving, but that is for corporate hacks. Dress up (with a really nice t-shirt and sneakers) was to see a Fidelity Rep to ensure we would not be eating cat food in our 70’s. (DW said cat food is far too expensive – it would have to be dog food.)

Our Fidelity ‘guy’ wore a blue suit with white shirt and red tie, held our hands and in solemn tones said that we would not have to eat cat food at 70 or live under a bridge in a box at 80 because we had planned well and saved. Dog food dinners always remain a remote possibility in a black swan event. Andy is about 32 years young and we are old enough to be his parents. Nice guy, but he probably has more experience receiving allowance from mom and dad than working for wages.

To celebrate a future without cat food, we stopped at a high falutin furniture store on the island for ideas when we win the lottery. Next stop was at the Salvation Army where we dropped of a bazillion old table cloths and bed sheets. Some of these were old enough to have been purchased with S&H Green Stamps. Then we went to Publix and actually bought several steaks and laundry detergent (on sale). DW commented on what a fun date I was.

A neighbor cornered us after the Publix registers and challenged me to take DW on a lunch date; challenge accepted. The Citrus Grill café on the beach with blue sky and pounding surf was a perfect setting. Turkey bacon sandwich and Salmon on rye accompanied by Pino Grigio were great meals. There, DW found and chatted up an old acquaintance and compared the lives of our respective adult children. Back home, DW buckled down and did work for the church. I am so proud of her ministry work.

On the other end of the morality scale, I fortified myself with a rum and coke and plunged into the solar heated pool to repair an underwater light fixture (and pondered how friends and family north of the Mason Dixon Line were fairing this winter). Downing another rum and coke, it was time for the power tool portion of the show. As a sobriety test, I successfully sorted the recyclable trash to ensure that I would not cut off opposable thumbs with the demolition saw that the wife in chief gave me for Christmas. Passing the test, I cut the suction pipe of the pool pump in order to double whammy wrap the pump inlet threads with Teflon tape and stop an air ingress leak.

Back in the kitchen, DW was making delicious chicken burritos. My culinary contribution was to shred the chicken, using a pair of forks after failing to see a safe way to employ the demolition saw. A late dinner with some TV preceded my snoring.

Yes – With a little luck, advanced planning and saving, retired life does not suck at all.
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Old 02-06-2020, 05:37 AM   #28
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DrRoy View Post
The story said the cause was divorce and business failure. Not the same as never saving anything for decades.
+1 Some of these stories feature people who make irresponsible decisions others feature
people for whom sh** happens. I can understand people struggling to keep a business they love alive and making what is clear in hindsight was a bad decision. I knew guys who lost their jobs in their early 50s and struggled to recover. Anyone can get slammed by a devastating illness. Like others here, I was always a bit paranoid about the future and socked away everything I could. But it is easy to see how things could have gone south.
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Old 02-06-2020, 06:16 AM   #29
Recycles dryer sheets
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Originally Posted by Walt34 View Post
This is the case, at least for me. For example, I completely fail to comprehend how someone cannot plan ahead for something as essential, inevitable, and readily foreseeable for something like a new roof.

They think the current one is going to last forever maybe?

They think they're immortal? That they'll never get seriously sick or injured? That what happened to their parents and their friend's parents cannot happen to them?

I just don't get it.


Seems to me the same applies to planning and preparing for one’s inevitable and readily foreseeable death...sometimes (often?) people are simply overwhelmed by the thought.
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Old 02-06-2020, 06:37 AM   #30
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Originally Posted by atmsmshr View Post
Tuesday – six month mark for retiring at 58 with planning and saving for over 30 years. Showered and put on long pants before 0830 – and for crying out loud it wasn’t even Sunday! I thought about shaving, but that is for corporate hacks. Dress up (with a really nice t-shirt and sneakers) was to see a Fidelity Rep to ensure we would not be eating cat food in our 70’s. (DW said cat food is far too expensive – it would have to be dog food.)

Our Fidelity ‘guy’ wore a blue suit with white shirt and red tie, held our hands and in solemn tones said that we would not have to eat cat food at 70 or live under a bridge in a box at 80 because we had planned well and saved. Dog food dinners always remain a remote possibility in a black swan event. Andy is about 32 years young and we are old enough to be his parents. Nice guy, but he probably has more experience receiving allowance from mom and dad than working for wages.

To celebrate a future without cat food, we stopped at a high falutin furniture store on the island for ideas when we win the lottery. Next stop was at the Salvation Army where we dropped of a bazillion old table cloths and bed sheets. Some of these were old enough to have been purchased with S&H Green Stamps. Then we went to Publix and actually bought several steaks and laundry detergent (on sale). DW commented on what a fun date I was.

A neighbor cornered us after the Publix registers and challenged me to take DW on a lunch date; challenge accepted. The Citrus Grill café on the beach with blue sky and pounding surf was a perfect setting. Turkey bacon sandwich and Salmon on rye accompanied by Pino Grigio were great meals. There, DW found and chatted up an old acquaintance and compared the lives of our respective adult children. Back home, DW buckled down and did work for the church. I am so proud of her ministry work.

On the other end of the morality scale, I fortified myself with a rum and coke and plunged into the solar heated pool to repair an underwater light fixture (and pondered how friends and family north of the Mason Dixon Line were fairing this winter). Downing another rum and coke, it was time for the power tool portion of the show. As a sobriety test, I successfully sorted the recyclable trash to ensure that I would not cut off opposable thumbs with the demolition saw that the wife in chief gave me for Christmas. Passing the test, I cut the suction pipe of the pool pump in order to double whammy wrap the pump inlet threads with Teflon tape and stop an air ingress leak.

Back in the kitchen, DW was making delicious chicken burritos. My culinary contribution was to shred the chicken, using a pair of forks after failing to see a safe way to employ the demolition saw. A late dinner with some TV preceded my snoring.

Yes – With a little luck, advanced planning and saving, retired life does not suck at all.

Love this story. Sounds a lot like the wife and me.
We never had children but the rest sounds like our every day decision making. We often hem and haw for an hour while on the road about stopping for lunch and then convince our selves to just go home and make our own!
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Old 02-06-2020, 07:54 AM   #31
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Of course unfortunate events can devastate your finances. For sure.

For most of us, it is hard to imagine routinely spending 150k per year. But it is easy. Eat out all the time. Buy new $70K SUV every 2 years. $15k vacations are easy to attain. Etc.

I appreciate the "experiences not things" trend. But... Some "things" save you money, like a few simple cooking appliances so you can cook your own meals. Can't have them in the "no things" world, the counter must be clean.

The price of restaurant meals has really gone up. It would kill us to go out every meal -- which a LOT of people do. Every. Dang. Meal.

DW and I enjoyed vacations here in the USA, driving to national parks, going to our local or regional attractions, etc. All for a fraction of the big trips.

And we can go on. LBYM after all is the #1 umbrella topic on this forum.
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Old 02-06-2020, 08:37 AM   #32
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Easily avoided if I pat your back, and then you reciprocate.

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Old 02-06-2020, 09:04 AM   #33
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Got to know a customer who made a GS15 salary (six figure) and was still working well into his late 70's. His pension would EASILY carry his living expenses.

BUT he was on wife number 5 and ex-wife #4 latched onto the only thing she could ... his pension. And he swore "she'll never see a penny" .... so he continues to work.

Can't make this stuff up!
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Old 02-06-2020, 09:30 AM   #34
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Originally Posted by JoeWras View Post
Of course unfortunate events can devastate your finances. For sure.

For most of us, it is hard to imagine routinely spending 150k per year. But it is easy. Eat out all the time. Buy new $70K SUV every 2 years. $15k vacations are easy to attain. Etc.

I appreciate the "experiences not things" trend. But... Some "things" save you money, like a few simple cooking appliances so you can cook your own meals. Can't have them in the "no things" world, the counter must be clean.

The price of restaurant meals has really gone up. It would kill us to go out every meal -- which a LOT of people do. Every. Dang. Meal.

DW and I enjoyed vacations here in the USA, driving to national parks, going to our local or regional attractions, etc. All for a fraction of the big trips.

And we can go on. LBYM after all is the #1 umbrella topic on this forum.
True enough.
OTOH IIRC, there are perhaps 15-20% on this forum who spend or reduce their portfolio yearly by 120k+ (At least ones who responded to a poll).
If 3% of my investment assets equaled 150k, I would have no issues spending that kind of dough.
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Old 02-06-2020, 09:35 AM   #35
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True enough.
OTOH IIRC, there are perhaps 15-20% on this forum who spend or reduce their portfolio yearly by 120k+ (At least ones who responded to a poll).
If 3% of my investment assets equaled 150k, I would have no issues spending that kind of dough.
Either would I.

We're finally taking those $10k vacations as our portfolio can afford them. If I could spend 150k, a new car would be in the works to replace the over 10 year old versions we have. It is really unbelievable how much you can save when you have decent automobiles and don't replace them constantly.
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Old 02-06-2020, 10:44 AM   #36
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Divorce needn't be a complete financial disaster. I divorced in 1997 after 20+ years of marriage. We both had professional jobs and we just split assets 50/50. I was soon able to max out retirement contributions and eventually retired just fine, possibly a few years later than if the divorce hadn't happened, oh well.

I imagine the situation could be quite different if only one of the couple had a decent employment history, so don't let that happen to you...
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Old 02-06-2020, 11:18 AM   #37
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not uncommon

some people spend every gol darned dime they make
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Old 02-06-2020, 11:26 AM   #38
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I read the post about potholes in life and trying to steer your kids around them because they lack experience.

Then I read all the posts about people making foolish decisions - likely because they never had role models/parents to show them that some people don’t spend all their money.

It is hard to change your behavior after many years. So is it luck/responsibility or early learning?
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Old 02-06-2020, 11:26 AM   #39
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My ex and I always lived below our means. We had a million saved. When we divorced after 22 years he had managed to hide all but 150 k. Looking back I should have hired a private investigator before I left him.
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Old 02-06-2020, 11:38 AM   #40
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It is hard to change your behavior after many years. So is it luck/responsibility or early learning?
My parents were born in the 20s so growing up frugal and saving is just the way we were raised. I turned out not that frugal but did end up saving a lot after I started working and paid off my bar tabs.
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