Had an epiphany... I may have over saved

[Global Wizzo]

Congratulations

First well done. We came out better than planned, but the bottom could drop out of the markets, or, or, or and I could what if all day.

One relative is spending $20K per month taking care of his Alzheimer’s afflicted dad.

Better to have a solid cushion and not need it rather than the opposite.

That said, enjoy life!

 

[folly]

I might have over saved. I tell myself if the markets collapses I have a home paid for and hopefully SS will still be around. I would be ok. I worry about my one single adult daughter. She got caught in the generation who has college but no jobs that pay well. I have to resist helping her but she does ok. She is so frugal, drives her deceased grandmother car, works 3 PT jobs. When she told me she had 20k in savings I almost fell over. Every yr I do her taxes and I put money in a ROTH for her, she doesn't know it. She gets a savers credit and I feel like I done something for her.

 

[folly]

My DH and I feel we did without in our younger days in order to save money. No regrets there. We have a senior housing condo that we rent. The people renting it are getting a govt agency to pay for approx 3/4 of the rent. In conversation and background checks, this couple must have spent every dime they made. He retired from the post office on a disability pension. His wife gets a small SS check so she must have worked at least 10 years but not made much money. They asked me to sign a paper verifying their rent so they could get food stamps. They are living a good standard of living, next door to retired people who have saved their money. I wish them no harm, they are nice people but I can't help but feel a bit jealous that they are living a very nice standard of living and must not have saved anything. It makes me wonder if I should transfer all my money to my kid and then apply for all these benefits too.

 

[Gumby]

My DH and I feel we did without in our younger days in order to save money. No regrets there. We have a senior housing condo that we rent. The people renting it are getting a govt agency to pay for approx 3/4 of the rent. In conversation and background checks, this couple must have spent every dime they made. He retired from the post office on a disability pension. His wife gets a small SS check so she must have worked at least 10 years but not made much money. They asked me to sign a paper verifying their rent so they could get food stamps. They are living a good standard of living, next door to retired people who have saved their money. I wish them no harm, they are nice people but I can't help but feel a bit jealous that they are living a very nice standard of living and must not have saved anything. It makes me wonder if I should transfer all my money to my kid and then apply for all these benefits too.

Blanche Dubois may "have always depended on the kindness of strangers." But that is not the life for me.

 

[ychuck46]

No Such Thing

As far as I am concerned there is no such thing as saving too much. The wife has been 11 years into her retirement while I am 6, and we are both now 67. We only need about 1.5% of our net worth on a yearly basis to be all in on our costs, meaning we should never run out of money. But no one knows what the future holds so having as much saved as possible is always a positive. Don't belabor how successful you were at saving; just enjoy it.

 

[ychuck46]

Blanche Dubois may "have always depended on the kindness of strangers." But that is not the life for me.

Nor I. That rug could always get pulled out from underneath you partially as more and more people climb into that boat, or even completely.

 

[athena53]

Blanche Dubois may "have always depended on the kindness of strangers." But that is not the life for me.

Nor I. That rug could always get pulled out from underneath you partially as more and more people climb into that boat, or even completely.

Amen. When the gubmint provides for you, you better not be too choosy. And really, it should be that way- if everyone got a first-class free ride at taxpayer expense there'd be no incentive to take personal responsibility for saving for retirement.

 

[DawgMan]

Dawgman; If you had it to do over again would you really do things differently? I think not. I think you love the belt and suspenders position you are in. I think you loved your business and had no reason to cut the cord sooner. I think you've led the life you wanted too, with very little if any deprivation and still managed to pile up a bundle. Good for you.

I say this because that is exactly what we did. Heck our withdrawal rate has never even approached 1% and probably never will. I recognize your mindset and through your posts over the last few years know that you spend a bundle and can continue to in your retirement. I don't know why you are second guessing your path to wealth.

No second guessing, just an observation. Consciously or subconsciously I think I played my accumulation hand so conservatively, always assuming the worst case "what if" scenarios, to make sure I had the nut I thought I needed/wanted once retiring. As mentioned, once I started looking at the real-time year by year withdrawal strategies, it became apparent I overshot what I thought I really needed. In my case, the little tax impact in having 1/2 of my investments in after tax accounts is what really moved the needle. Would I really have changed anything had I really understood (or chose to understand) the math earlier... probably not.

 

[Oakster]

I can't be all alone here. Like most on this site (I would assume), long time big % saver, always LBYMs, "relative" frugality in my genes, worked the plan with an designed exit at 55 (when kid 4 was out of the nest/independent). I moved the goal posts many times as I dialed in my desired retirement spend (FatFire growing by inflation annually), ran (what now appears to be ridiculously) conservative assumptions (i.e. no SS, all my withdrawals taxable as income despites having 50% in after tax accounts). Fast forward to today, I'm 56, decided on a phase out (still earning income mainly because my biz is still very lucrative even on a very part time/Covid world basis and I need to fill some idle time). None the less, I have started running real calculators that take into account a "real" withdrawal strategy, which includes plugging in my basis on my after tax accounts, tax implications based on our current known taxes, a conservative 75% of SS at age 70, a 6% annual return on a 60/40 AA, and all the models say I will easily double my NW by age 94! Yes, 1st world problems that can be solved thru charity and gifting to kids. None the less, funny how we play Jedi mind tricks on ourselves to motivate us to "get to the number" and then you get there and wonder why you worked like a dog to hit some magical number that was overkill. Anyone else wakeup to this?

I didnt have time to read all the posts, but I did want to leave a comment. I think I, like many others, are trying to plan for the worst case. Where I differ, is that I am not necessarily planning to get out of work early. I love working and love my job. I want to plan to have enough money that I dont really have to worry about market crashes because half of my nest egg will get me through just fine. That way it can continue to grow when I spend, and I dont feel the need to be ultra conservative in give up growth of a nice nest egg. I would like to be able to be very generous in my retirement (hopefully around age 62) and help some people and organizations out a bit.

My biggest worry now is money going all digital and getting stolen by a government that cant stop spending and taxing, or a cyber crook.