Do We Have 10+ Year Retirees?

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rianne -At any point did you have to curb your spending? -How did you adjust your portfolio during 2008-2012? <SNIP>

Retired in '05.

No curbing of spending though we have adjusted based on perceived value (see inflation thread).

We didn't change anything during the great recession. We were about 30% stock from beginning to now. Still up from where we started (full disclosure, small pension and now on SS). YMMV

[retiresumtime]

Great thread. Thank you retirees, I will be a retire April 1st, your insight and wisdom are very valuable to the ones that are in line to start this journey [emoji6]

[street]

Quote:

Originally Posted by street I'm about 30 months into retirement and have 21% larger portfolio after living from these investments. No pension and no SS or other income.

I lied but not un-purpose, I did forget my wife is taking SS, so we do have some income from her. I'm sorry just was thinking of myself with no SS yet. Very sorry for that error on my part. The rest should be correct. LOL 75/16/9

[adrift]

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Originally Posted by audreyh1 From 1999 it makes a big difference. It's more like up ~60% in real terms since retiring. Inflation since retiring is up around 50%. Something that cost $1 when we retired now theoretically costs $1.50.

It depends on what you buy. A new VCR will cost a lot more than 150% to buy now than one did in 1999.

Even this 1999 VCR Postage Stamp will cost a lot more than 150% of its cost in 1999.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by adrift It depends on what you buy. A new VCR will cost a lot more than 150% to buy now than one did in 1999. Even this 1999 VCR Postage Stamp will cost a lot more than 150% of its cost in 1999.

Now why would I buy a VCR today?

Other things are cheaper in real terms. CPI is just a general broad metric, use it with your eyes open. See the thread on budgeting and inflation to get good real world examples.

However, if someone has been retired for a few years and is tracking “how they’re doing” in terms of growth they should inflation adjust their result. CPI is the generally accepted metric for that. There really aren’t alternatives.

[jasg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by meleana I think it would be helpful to know if many of the people who say their investments have quadrupled have pensions and are collecting social security over the 10 years. That makes quite a bit of difference.

No pension, SS for last six years. That and taxable portion of portfolio (now zero) kept us going until RMDs this year.

Inflation adjusted pre-tax portfolio is up by 2.7x since market low in March 2009.

[Souschef]

Small pension, ($1200/mo), SS at FRA 15 years ago, 401k rolled over in 2009 worth 4X now

[yakers]

Retired in March 08@57.5 yrs old. Portfolio has crept up and been regular until 2 yrs ago when we sold a house, bought a condo and received an inheritance when MIL passed. So had to start all over for the calculations. DW now taking RMDs but using them for QCDs.Nice to have a portfolio and analyze options but serious throat cancer 3 yrs ago changed spending inclinations. Not that I have a lot of money but I have less time than money so spending dough on home improvements for DW and a new car for me. Previously drivinging junkers was fine for me but now I might as well enjoy what I saved.

[kcowan]

We are so lucky! We stayed the course through 2008 and have so much now that we are definitely Blowing Some Dough. In 2007, we bought a snowbird condo and the reduced equity served as well during the downturn. Now we are doing it again. doubling our condo investment, forcing us to sell equities once again at all time highs (so far).

[Rianne]

Have to thank posters for valuable personal experiences over the years. All seem positive, even through scary times (2008-2012).

Through our losses ($80K++ if you include moving, updating house for sale in 2012), then big expense updating new house ($70K ++ with some added home improvements), also in 2012, the ACA was a blessing. We are still in good shape, have not touched original portfolio. Have not taken SS. Have not taken small ($12K) pension. We had a nice cash back up to get us through those awful years. I think that's a lesson. Now look to laddered CD's for future cash to hold us over until 65 when SS and pension will kick in. Also, must beware of ACA cliff. I realize many on Medicare in this thread. The wisdom and strategy help us all understand the big picture going forward.

[youbet]

Fully FIRE'd 13 years ago as of this June. 58 yrs old at that time. No working DW. No part timing (or as some call it, "semi-retired"). No hobby income. No maintaining rental property. Just retired. Started with DW's pension and later added my SS and pension.

Quote:

-At any point did you have to curb your spending?

Haven't curbed spending a bit during "tough times" and we're so very glad we made that decision. Some of the traveling, outdoorsy experiences and activities we continued with would not be possible for us to do today so giving them up would have meant never having experienced them.

Quote:

-How did you adjust your portfolio during 2008-2012?

The deep drop in the value of our equity allocation in 2008/09 shortly after FIREing was a serious concern. But our 60/40 AA kept us from even being close to "needing to sell equities in a downturn" (as the annuity salesmen call it). We didn't change anything. In retrospect, it would have been nice to buy equities low at that time but I'm satisfied that we at least didn't sell.

Our biggest lesson over these years is that the fear of needing to "sell equities low" is primarily a sales gimmick, at least for folks who FIRE'd conservatively, have some income sources beyond passive investment returns and a well diversified portfolio.[/QUOTE]

[zippy2020]

We both retired early - me in 2006, DH in 2009. The only reason I was able to convince him to retire was that unless he retired and could assign his pension to me as beneficiary, I had no real income.

I would get his 401k fund but that was all. My much smaller retirement fund went bye-bye way back in 1992 when we were trying not to file bankruptcy (which failed, and we of course should have filed before doing that, instead of throwing good $$$ after bad).

His pension is sufficient to live on, plus we have reasonably priced retiree medical.

It helped immensely when his mom died unexpectedly - all of us, even her doctor, were shocked, we thought she was healthier than we are! - and DH inherited her portfolio.

We used the same financial adviser so just combined accounts under our RLT. Funds are invested in Balanced/Balanced Growth portfolio allocations.

House is paid off; we have excellent LTCi policies. Expensive after several premium increases but the peace of mind is worth it. DH suffered a major stroke at age 50 so we learned you don't take ANYTHING for granted.

Starting to research senior living facilities but may simply move to condo rental and rent out the house. The LTCi policies allow us options most seniors can't afford unless they have max $$$$$$$$.

Considering we never made much money (and didn't start saving seriously until our early 40's), we were very, very, very lucky it turned out so well. Good planning (we started in our late 40's after the bankruptcy) made the big difference for us.