Retire the Retirement Plans?

[peggy]

From here: Article by Roger Schlesinger

My thinking is simple: pay off your house, whatever price it is, and that will be all the retirement you need! Now you can start objecting.

And

You most likely will not change your shopping habits when it comes to clothing and other merchandise, and you probably won't take more trips than you normally take. Even though you put additional monies away in a retirement plan, those dollars earmarked for the aforementioned activities might not ever be spent in your leisure years.

In essence, he suggests funding 401(k)s to get the match (only if there's a match, as I read it), paying off debt and mortgage and then (presumably; he doesn't spell it out) building liquid assets for the future.

I'm not sure I agree with his strategy, though his points about spending in retirement ring true.

 

[REWahoo]

I don't put much credibility in the opinion of a guy who thinks retirement is some sort of ‘afterlife’…

“You need to get through life before you can retire.”

…and doesn’t plan to retire until he’s got one foot in the grave…

“When I retire I will be somewhat like the rest of the guys (except I will probably be in my 90’s)…”

The first line of the first comment sums it up pretty well: “Roger's off his medications.”

 

[Scrooge]

You most likely will not change your shopping habits when it comes to clothing

Nah, cheap t-shirts are considerably cheaper than even the extra-cheap white shirts that I buy now, so that will offset the loss of client-provided free t-shirts

 

[Martha]

No time when I worked fulltime to travel around in an RV. Now that I am semi-retired we do it a lot and will do more.

No more suits. No more drycleaning. No more fatty power lunches. No more zoning out on HGTV because I'm too tired to do anything else.

Life does change when you aren't working all the time. Duh.

 

[maddythebeagle]

My thinking is simple: pay off your house, whatever price it is, and that will be all the retirement you need! Now you can start objecting.

he apparently hasnt read the 100 page love letter on this topic between SG and CFB

 

[dumpster56]

maddy

I just love those speed limit signs!

Classic

 

[Nords]

maddy
I just love those speed limit signs!

Reminds me of Dennis Quaid pitching speedballs at the radar in "The Rookie"...

 

[Gone4Good]

I get paying off the house. But once you've done that you still have to eat, right? Did I miss the part in the article where he describes how much you need to save to maintain your current (or any) standard of living?