ShokWaveRider
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I originally posted this as a response to a Stock Market Concerns post then decided it became off topic and thought I would give it it's own post, sorry if I am repeating myself to some of you.
I for one am not confident in the stock market at all. If I could say one thing about ER that constantly causes me grief, is having to worry about money. I never had to while I was working. Unfortunately I do nothing but worry about it lately. As mentioned in previous posts, I am in fixed income CDs for all of our portfolio and have very little prospects of getting a decent pension from any government by the time myself and my wife are 65/62. We pulled out of the market in 2000 just before things went bad ( a good move for us, this helped with our ER) and never went back in. We were making 6 - 8% in MM and CDs so I thought why bother. Now of course it is different and we are getting 2-3% if we are lucky, and have CDs maturing in Jan Feb and March of 2005. Hence the worry of what to do when they come due.
To add to this difficulty we sold our home recently because of the high home values, and are travelling around for a while (Expenses are very low, but we will have to settle some place some time. My wife is not partial to Mexico, Thailand or Vietnam as a permanent home).
Well of course just as we decided to do this, Bush started spending every penny of available cash, and then some,and the Dollar has gone into a tail spin, that does not seem to ever want to end. So our money abroad is worth less and less, so costs are in an up and up spiral. Yet another worry.
We only have $1.5m in cash instruments ($1.2m after tax and $300k in Pre-Tax). It has to last us for at least 30 years, as I am 51 and my wife is 46. I am loathed to pay a financial planner to loose any of it. I already tried this during my working years and have learnt a lesson.
Am I the only one that worries about money lasting and maintaining value? I read these posts and most of you are invested in the Stock Market. I would worry myself sick. I have tried to put some money in, but never really had the gall to actually do it. I have done some significant research over a 6 month period with a hyperthetical amount of money ($500k) and if I had invested it where I thought it would be beneficial, I would be 8 - 10% down to date. So 3% does not look that bad.
We pay little to no taxes as we have some Investment losses and tax credits that will last another 4 - 5 years. ($3000 max per year investment losses, and about $2000 in tax credits per year) So we can earn $30,000 per year in interest and pay virtually no tax at all for a few years to come. That helps on the inflation front.
We will have to sink about $400k into a home and appliances etc at some point in time. Maybe next year or 2006. So that leaves $1.1m @ say 3% = $33,000 per year. $300k of it is in Pre-Tax so take $9000 off that = $24,000 to live on, to me that is very low. I am loathed to start to deplete our capital until I am at least 60.
SWR
I for one am not confident in the stock market at all. If I could say one thing about ER that constantly causes me grief, is having to worry about money. I never had to while I was working. Unfortunately I do nothing but worry about it lately. As mentioned in previous posts, I am in fixed income CDs for all of our portfolio and have very little prospects of getting a decent pension from any government by the time myself and my wife are 65/62. We pulled out of the market in 2000 just before things went bad ( a good move for us, this helped with our ER) and never went back in. We were making 6 - 8% in MM and CDs so I thought why bother. Now of course it is different and we are getting 2-3% if we are lucky, and have CDs maturing in Jan Feb and March of 2005. Hence the worry of what to do when they come due.
To add to this difficulty we sold our home recently because of the high home values, and are travelling around for a while (Expenses are very low, but we will have to settle some place some time. My wife is not partial to Mexico, Thailand or Vietnam as a permanent home).
Well of course just as we decided to do this, Bush started spending every penny of available cash, and then some,and the Dollar has gone into a tail spin, that does not seem to ever want to end. So our money abroad is worth less and less, so costs are in an up and up spiral. Yet another worry.
We only have $1.5m in cash instruments ($1.2m after tax and $300k in Pre-Tax). It has to last us for at least 30 years, as I am 51 and my wife is 46. I am loathed to pay a financial planner to loose any of it. I already tried this during my working years and have learnt a lesson.
Am I the only one that worries about money lasting and maintaining value? I read these posts and most of you are invested in the Stock Market. I would worry myself sick. I have tried to put some money in, but never really had the gall to actually do it. I have done some significant research over a 6 month period with a hyperthetical amount of money ($500k) and if I had invested it where I thought it would be beneficial, I would be 8 - 10% down to date. So 3% does not look that bad.
We pay little to no taxes as we have some Investment losses and tax credits that will last another 4 - 5 years. ($3000 max per year investment losses, and about $2000 in tax credits per year) So we can earn $30,000 per year in interest and pay virtually no tax at all for a few years to come. That helps on the inflation front.
We will have to sink about $400k into a home and appliances etc at some point in time. Maybe next year or 2006. So that leaves $1.1m @ say 3% = $33,000 per year. $300k of it is in Pre-Tax so take $9000 off that = $24,000 to live on, to me that is very low. I am loathed to start to deplete our capital until I am at least 60.
SWR