Join Early Retirement Today
View Poll Results: FOR THOSE NOT ALREADY RETIRED:
My outlook/time horizon on (early) retirement HAS changed 54 50.47%
My time horizon on (early) retirement has NOT changed 53 49.53%
Voters: 107. You may not vote on this poll

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-15-2009, 06:08 PM   #41
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Helen's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Portland
Posts: 2,038
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan View Post
A few years back while in England on vacation there was an article comparing UK SS with other EU countries, and just for kicks they added in the US SS which dwarfed everyone else's.
Do you mean the payments dwarfed everyone else's?
Helen is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 03-15-2009, 06:25 PM   #42
Administrator
Alan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: N. Yorkshire
Posts: 34,056
Quote:
Originally Posted by Helen View Post
Do you mean the payments dwarfed everyone else's?
Correct - the average SS recipient in the USA received much more than the average SS recipient in an EU country.
__________________
Retired in Jan, 2010 at 55, moved to England in May 2016
Enough private pension and SS income to cover all needs
Alan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-15-2009, 08:36 PM   #43
Full time employment: Posting here.
hankster's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 649
My hoped for age 59 1/2 retirement is now looking more like age 62. One leg of my "three-legged stool" is a non-COLA pension, so our 401k setback puts the hurt on the inflation protection aspect of our nest egg.

DW and I enjoy traveling around the U.S. so scaling back to a "heat and eat" lifestyle to retire earlier isn't an option. I'm willing to put in a few extra years to help feed our roaming addiction

My pension plan appears to be sound at present, but who knows when a freeze or other change could come to pass?
If that happens, I would have to consider semi ER an option.
__________________
"There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means." Calvin Coolidge
hankster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-15-2009, 09:03 PM   #44
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
SecondCor521's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Boise
Posts: 7,866
I'm still on track to hit FI just past age 47, but only because I have been pretty ruthlessly cutting back on my expenses as my portfolio has shrunk.

2Cor521
__________________
"At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough, and what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events, may in fact be the first steps of a journey." Violet Baudelaire.
SecondCor521 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-15-2009, 09:13 PM   #45
Recycles dryer sheets
Medit8's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 119
The original plan was for this June at age 46. I intend to add one more year. I have about 15 years of cash (actual cash, not equivalents), but would like to add a full year of equity investments at these prices.
__________________
Ty Webb to Carl Spackler: "Got a pond...got a pool and a pond. Pond would be good for you."
Medit8 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-15-2009, 09:18 PM   #46
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
harley's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,764
Quote:
Originally Posted by FIREdreamer View Post
I don't think SS is going anywhere for most people. But as Ziggy said, a lot of us fear that we will be means-tested out of SS. I already hear people on the left say aloud that rich people should not be receiving any SS benefits at all because they don't need it. If you can retire early without a DB pension, I am pretty sure that you'll be considered "rich".
I suspect that unless there is a MAJOR overhaul of the tax system, it should remain possible to not be "rich" enough to be means tested out of SS, even if the huddled masses get their wish. It's not too hard to manage income in a way that makes you appear to be one of the great unwashed, even while you live a pretty comfortable life. Now if they do away with the itemized deductions and significantly increase cap gains taxes, it could be a different story. But to those who can do it, I think getting as much of your IRA money into Roths vs. traditional would be helpful in keeping under the "rich" radar. That fully taxable RMD moving forward is really going to bite some of us in the gluteus.
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
harley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-15-2009, 09:26 PM   #47
Moderator Emeritus
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 12,894
Quote:
Originally Posted by harley View Post
I suspect that unless there is a MAJOR overhaul of the tax system, it should remain possible to not be "rich" enough to be means tested out of SS, even if the huddled masses get their wish. It's not too hard to manage income in a way that makes you appear to be one of the great unwashed, even while you live a pretty comfortable life. Now if they do away with the itemized deductions and significantly increase cap gains taxes, it could be a different story. But to those who can do it, I think getting as much of your IRA money into Roths vs. traditional would be helpful in keeping under the "rich" radar. That fully taxable RMD moving forward is really going to bite some of us in the gluteus.
That would be true if they did means-testing based on income. In that case, even people with DB pensions could be in trouble. But I think that they could start doing means-testing based on assets. They do it already for medicaid, so why not do it for SS too... For example: No SS benefits for people with a net worth exceeding $500K ex-primary residence...
FIREd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-15-2009, 10:14 PM   #48
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
harley's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,764
Well, that would suck. Have to move my assets offshore or something. I WANT MY SS!
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
harley is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-15-2009, 10:40 PM   #49
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,012
Quote:
Originally Posted by FIREdreamer View Post
That would be true if they did means-testing based on income. In that case, even people with DB pensions could be in trouble. But I think that they could start doing means-testing based on assets. They do it already for medicaid, so why not do it for SS too... For example: No SS benefits for people with a net worth exceeding $500K ex-primary residence...
so i guess we shud be buying very expensive houses? doesnt seem fair to us that r living in a place just big enough for us. or us away from the east and west coasts
jdw_fire is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-16-2009, 06:48 AM   #50
Recycles dryer sheets
ratface's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 255
I'm in the SIRE column but have still postponed my target date because of uncertainty and a little greed on my part. The uncertain part was that part-time work was going to be my fall-back in case anything went terribly wrong. Obviously there is much more competition for those jobs now. The greed part is that in August I can add 2.5% to my pension. So I'm treading water for at least another six months and giving the market a chance to make up its mind. Socialized health care is another unknown at this time.
ratface is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-16-2009, 09:08 AM   #51
Recycles dryer sheets
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 68
We had planeed to retire in two years after we both became eligible for subsidized health insurance from our employer. The subsidized health insurance program was discontinued last month. So we will work a few more years to compensate for increased healthcare costs and see how this economic mess plays out.
Sue is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-16-2009, 09:43 AM   #52
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 7,746
I am probably 7 years away from FIRE at this point. Maybe 10. But I have been that way for a few years. We seem to be stuck in neutral, and watching the portfolio and net worth crawl backwards to levels last seen a year or two ago is disheartening. But I know that severe market downturns are typically followed by significantly above average positive returns. And the current market downturn has been worse than all previous downturns (in modern history) except the Great Depression. So from my viewpoint, we will probably have a good 7 years of investing ahead of us.

But changing the market returns from 7% to 15% in the spreadsheet only trims off a couple of years (hence the 7-10 year estimate) since a major component of increases in the portfolio will be new contributions over a relatively short time period.
FUEGO is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-16-2009, 01:01 PM   #53
Recycles dryer sheets
bamsphd's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 337
Definitely postponed. Despite the race between portfolio value and newly sampled luxuries, our net worth was just 5% short of our target at the peak in 2007. I thought for sure we would escape in 2008. Now with no retirement pension or health benefits, and a wounded equity heavy portfolio, it is going to be awhile.
bamsphd is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-18-2009, 04:42 PM   #54
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 4,629
Quote:
Originally Posted by Midpack View Post
Given the audience here, I would expect the results to be overwhelmingly to one side. I was on track to FIRE comfortably in 1-3 years, now I don't expect to retire for X years, my whole outlook has changed dramatically - sigh. I only know of one person here who seems to be overfunded and could stay on track, although I am sure the SIRE crowd will foil my attempt at a lopsided poll (I am a pure FIRE candidate, no pension or retiree health care).
Here's a larger sample: http://forms.sunlife-usa.com/ga/get_...?form_id=19983

Quote:
Because of the current economic environment, do you think you will be working longer than you had planned?
Over half (54%) of current workers say the current economic crisis will delay their retirement plans by one year or more.
Younger (30-39) and older (60+) workers are less likely to say the current economic environment has impacted their retirement plans.
About 60% of the 50-59 age group said they would need to delay at least a year.
Independent is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
incompetent scam attempt Khan Other topics 4 02-08-2008 08:41 PM
Poll: How old ar you? chinaco FIRE and Money 56 03-10-2007 10:45 AM
excellent phishing attempt eridanus Other topics 6 03-21-2006 02:58 PM
Yet another attempt to emulate Value Line Nords FIRE and Money 3 11-24-2005 03:39 PM
ER poll MJ FIRE and Money 21 09-23-2005 10:26 PM

» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:25 PM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.