Younger people shouldn’t save for retirement

[dixonge]

I'm curious about how you handled the severe swing in spending habits. If you had debt AND weren't saving anything, you were spending all (and more) of your income. How did you make the switch from that to spending so much less? It's impressive to say the least seeing as your habits were likely well formed.

It came in stages. Stage 1 was awareness. DW ran across something stating that most people would earn $1M or more in their lifetime. We accessed her SS statement and discovered that it was true! Then we looked around at what we had to show for it. House, cars and motorcycles were all financed. No savings, just the pensions, which we couldn't access at that time. We felt like there should be more. It was mystifying as to where all the money had actually gone. We obviously had disposable income, and dispose of it we did, just not on anything lasting.

Within a couple of years we ran across ER concept and started the old debt snowball. Seeing it all on a spreadsheet gave us motivation and helped us stay on track. We started viewing our possessions as an anchor, a burden. Our house was something we had to have to store all our stuff, and w/ less stuff we wouldn't need it.

After we were debt-free we used the debt-payoff money to fund a nest egg. We took a 10-day vacation to central Mexico. As the savings climbed, our dissatisfaction w/ our work environment increased. We moved into an apartment for a year, then we quit our jobs and walked away.

Theoretically we should have had money piling up in our checking account even *before* we started paying off debt. At our peak we earned around $125k in a LCOL area. I still can't tell you where it all went. But I also don't feel like we made huge sacrifices to turn it around. We had functioning, reliable vehicles, short commutes, a nice house, etc. We probably ate out less at the end. But without the ER goal I don't think we would have ever made the switch. We'd still be there or maybe just now retired and pinching pennies to keep up our lifestyle...who knows?

 

[athena53]

Theoretically we should have had money piling up in our checking account even *before* we started paying off debt. At our peak we earned around $125k in a LCOL area. I still can't tell you where it all went.

I think that's where a lot of people are. Much of it seems to be "easy monthly payments" that add up- expensive cell phone contracts (including the cost of "free" phone upgrades), multiple streaming packages, Sirius in the car (a friend got a free trial when he bought a new-to-him used car and got hooked), and of course car payments themselves. Then there are the mindless trips to Wal-Mart to buy one thing that lead to $200 in more Stuff (well, it was on sale) and Amazon one-click ordering.

At least the two of you sat down and analyzed your situation and got out of the trap- and you were partners who worked together at it. Great story!

 

[Koolau]

It came in stages. Stage 1 was awareness. DW ran across something stating that most people would earn $1M or more in their lifetime. We accessed her SS statement and discovered that it was true! Then we looked around at what we had to show for it. House, cars and motorcycles were all financed. No savings, just the pensions, which we couldn't access at that time. We felt like there should be more. It was mystifying as to where all the money had actually gone. We obviously had disposable income, and dispose of it we did, just not on anything lasting.

Within a couple of years we ran across ER concept and started the old debt snowball. Seeing it all on a spreadsheet gave us motivation and helped us stay on track. We started viewing our possessions as an anchor, a burden. Our house was something we had to have to store all our stuff, and w/ less stuff we wouldn't need it.

After we were debt-free we used the debt-payoff money to fund a nest egg. We took a 10-day vacation to central Mexico. As the savings climbed, our dissatisfaction w/ our work environment increased. We moved into an apartment for a year, then we quit our jobs and walked away.

Theoretically we should have had money piling up in our checking account even *before* we started paying off debt. At our peak we earned around $125k in a LCOL area. I still can't tell you where it all went. But I also don't feel like we made huge sacrifices to turn it around. We had functioning, reliable vehicles, short commutes, a nice house, etc. We probably ate out less at the end. But without the ER goal I don't think we would have ever made the switch. We'd still be there or maybe just now retired and pinching pennies to keep up our lifestyle...who knows?

I often tried to explain this process (getting out of debt, building reserve, funding retirement) to my BFF who is currently 78 and half a mil in debt. He seemed to understand it but just could NOT do it. He still spends the same way, financing as much as they will let him get away with. YMMV