Learn From Older Retirees?

[yakers]

This is of course the Early Retirement board and I have seen some decidedly young (envious, in my case) but I wonder about what we have to learn from our older posters about their financial, social & health issues for our own long term planning. The folks I mean may have retired young some time ago or more recently and not so early. Or would these folks just find other boards than this one?

Any 70+ posters here? Any insights for those of us approaching retirement?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Here is a link to an older person who makes the case to not blow your nestegg...

http://www.analyzenow.com/Free Pubs/Appeal for better planning/an_appeal_for_better_planning.htm

It's not just living too high on the hog...Sometimes life throws you a few zingers such as big medical expenses or supporting your grown children.

Just maybe your FIRE planning should include some extra room for such unexpected things.

 

[haha]

Here is a link to an older person who makes the case to not blow your nestegg...

http://www.analyzenow.com/Free Pubs/Appeal for better planning/an_appeal_for_better_planning.htm

It's not just living too high on the hog...Sometimes life throws you a few zingers such as big medical expenses or supporting your grown children.

Just maybe your FIRE planning should include some extra room for such unexpected things.

I predict  that this artilcle is going to be very popular around here. 

Ha

 

[cj]

My dad has been retired for 10 years.  He retired at age 65, so it wasn't an ER for him, and he's not too sure about me retiring at 51.  I ER'd last week, and so yesterday I called him and asked him, what do I do now??  We like to kid around, so it's fun.  He & Mom are just now beginning to slow down.  They haven't had any problem at all filling their days.  

When I called him yesterday, he was supervising the workers who were resurfacing the private road he lives on.  There are 20-30 homes along the private road, and he's the president of the road committee.  Self-appointed I think.  I also think the other people along the road love that he takes care of it so they don't have to.  He & Mom are good examples of keeping busy after retiring.

CJ

 

[yakers]

I predict that this artilcle is going to be very popular around here.

Ha

Oh boy, Just what I didn't want to hear but maybe need to hear to make sure that I do the best planning I can. The article is good in that the people described sounded like reasonable people who were not living high. I do have couple things going that help relative to the difficult cases cited in the web link; I have two sons (so no daughters to show up looking for support). Older boy did come "back" a live with us a while but now has grad degree/job/wife/our grandchild. And I should be getting the now less common COLAd pensions. My wife has a "partially" COLAd pension, starting next week (!)

But we do have one expense not so common for retirees: one son still at home in high school, should be starting college in 1 1/2 yrs.

 

[wabmester]

Well, having your kids ask for money (or other financial zingers) isn't much different for a retiree or a working stiff, is it? Surprises happen. That's what insurance and off-the-table assets (like your house) are for.

 

[Cut-Throat]

Here is a link to an older person who makes the case to not blow your nestegg...

http://www.analyzenow.com/Free Pubs/Appeal for better planning/an_appeal_for_better_planning.htm

It's not just living too high on the hog...Sometimes life throws you a few zingers such as big medical expenses or supporting your grown children.

Just maybe your FIRE planning should include some extra room for such unexpected things.

I have always maintained that you should have twice of your non-discretionary spending for emergencies, or market pull backs etc. - So, if you have to cut spending, you can.

But the people that ran out of money at age 80, were obviously not paying attention.

I cannot imagine 'suddenly' turning 80 and discovering they don't have enough financial assets? Didn't they take a look when they were 70? As for handing out money to children. This has bigger problems than consuming up a retirees nest egg.

The author of this article kept saying that the retirees were 'using plans' that depleted their portfoilios on the day they died. I know of no 'Plan' that is able to do that kind of forecasting! - Plans should be revisited. I would venture to guess that most of these 80 olds never planned at all, but had Non-Cola pensions and continued to spend 'It all' with very little savings. Maybe TH would like to tell us the backround of this author and find out what his objective is?

Also, if these people's nest eggs (if they even had one) were growing during the 90's bull market, they had to have been overspending to depleat their portfolios. They must have plugged in 25% portfolio gains into their financial calculators for 'future returns'

Jarhead - What do you think, after you've reached the 'magic age' ?

 

[Nords]

Any 70+ posters here? Any insights for those of us approaching retirement?

I think Jarhead is our most experienced ER.

Mikey & Cut-Throat just pretend to act old & grumpy sometimes, but they're really not.

My father is 72 and has been ER'd for nearly 20 years. He went back to work "part time as a favor for a friend" for a year or two but quit when he noticed that "part time" apparently was a number higher than 40 hours/week. During the rest of that time he's happily been hiking the Rockies to the tune of 40-50 miles/week and roaming several states' worth of National Parks. He gave up golf & fly-fishing as "too boring" (sorry, guys). For all I know he has hot & cold running babes through his apartment and goes hiking just to escape their constant demands for wild sex, but he seems happy.

My parents-in-law are also in their late 60s/early 70s and would be delighted to discuss all the nuances of ER with you-- especially the excruciatingly gory details of how all of your cited issues have been screwed up one way or another by the current administration. Please let me know how soon you can get here and we'll throw you into rotation on the very next shift!

 

[Jarhead*]

My father is 72 and has been ER'd for nearly 20 years.  He went back to work "part time as a favor for a friend" for a year or two but quit when he noticed that "part time" apparently was a number higher than 40 hours/week.  During the rest of that time he's happily been hiking the Rockies to the tune of 40-50 miles/week and roaming several states' worth of National Parks.  He gave up golf & fly-fishing as "too boring

Nords: When I reach the point where I can no longer be competitive in tournament golf, (I take this a year at a time at this point), I'll join your father, by taking hikes and visiting Nat'l Parks.

Until then, it's left arm straight, right arm tucked at impact, and "Grip it, and Rip it."

Best of health to your father.

Jarhead

 

[sgeeeee]

Mr. Henry K. "Bud" Hebeler's Profile
http://www.analyzenow.com/

Mr. Henry K. Hebeler is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from which he has three degrees. Most of his working career was at The Boeing Company where he began as an engineer, worked his way through financial analysis, procurement, sales, corporate long range planning, and ultimately became president of Boeing Aerospace Company in Seattle, WA. For six years he was Boeing’s chief forecaster and planner reporting to the chairman. He has taken courses from Nobel prize winners in economics. He has been on advisory committees to the U.S. Congress, Departments of Interior, Commerce, Energy, and Defense, an economic advisor to the Washington State governor and a member of Washington's Economic Development Council. He has served on the Board of Governors of MIT's Sloan School and other colleges. Mr. Hebeler has been working with retirees for many years, developed special material for their use, and given numerous seminars on retirement. His current focus is dissemination of sound financial planning information that applies to a wide range of personal investment, economic and income situations.

 

[unclemick]

UW, Boeing Aerospace(1960's), 63 this summer.

I don't even listen to myself - psst Welesley, rent!, etc.

Now!! - Where's my stinking curmudgeon badge?

Preferably printed on a recycled dryer sheet - suitible for framing.

first cup o' coffee post - heh, heh, heh.

Crap! - I once lived in Kent, WA also. AND I have a sister near Kent who hasn't listened to a bit of my retirement advice in over thirty years. Learn from older retiree's?? heh heh heh sigh!

 

[slepyhed]

Bud would have us believe that his friends are going broke because they were not conservative enough - they should have started with a lower withdrawal rate.

I suggest that his friends were too conservative - too many bonds.

His friends presumably had so many bonds because they couldn't stomache big market fluctions. Instead, they got a sure-fire ride straight to the bottom in 21 years.

Bud also needs to look up the meaning of the word "decimate".

 

[HFWR]

Must not have have any Nobel laureates in vocabulary... :

Or is that the Pulitzer Prize??

"They oughta give me the Wurlitzer Prize, for all the nickels I let slide down the slot..." Waylon Jennings

 

[haha]

Bud also needs to look up the meaning of the word "decimate".

I recently read that decimate originates in a Roman Army custom. Say a group or platoon or whatever was deemed to not have fought ferociously enough. After the dust all settled, they were lined up for review, and every tenth one of them shot.

More of that old tough love.

HJa

 

[SteveR]

I recently read that decimate originates in a Roman Army custom. Say a group or platoon or whatever was deemed to not have fought ferociously enough. After the dust all settled, they were lined up for review, and every tenth one of them shot.

More of that old tough love.

HJa

Not to put too much of a fine point on it (Doh!) but I don't think they had a means to "shoot" someone back in that era. Stab, slash, hack, amputate, skin, and pin cushion but not shoot.
OK, I will go back and lay by my dish.....Good Boy!

 

[haha]

Not to put too much of a fine point on it (Doh!) but I don't think they had a means to "shoot" someone back in that era.  Stab, slash, hack, amputate, skin, and pin cushion but not shoot. 
OK, I will go back and lay by my dish.....Good Boy!

Very good point! When I originally read it, it was a Russian general in WW2 who did it to a unit. Supposedly it came from the Roman Army, but as you say, I doubt there was much gunfire back then. Probably a messier process in those days.

Ha

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm

To repeat: De Gaul and the Norewgian widow ride on!

To paraphrase Snoopy - 'Curse you IRS.' 'AND your stupid RMD!'

Forget spreadsheets, Monte Carlo and all that junk - once you retire - you ain't an En-ga-neer no more.

heh heh heh heh heh heh heh - psst Wellesley - so there.

 

[yakers]

Hmmm

- psst Wellesley -

One of the things I learned or became pursuaded from reading this board and unclemick2 in particular was the selection of Wellesley for my wife's IRA. I had planned on a Target Retirement fund and generally like the intellectual prospect of indexing, but there is something compelling about that long track record of safe payouts.

 

[Nords]

once you retire - you ain't an En-ga-neer no more.

Au contraire, UncleMick, I'll be an engineer until the day I die.

I just have to be careful not to accelerate the process by thoughtlessly applying an engineering analysis to some spouse project or action...

 

[LOL!]

It seems to me like the Hebeler article has been addressed by the recently discussed Guyton and colleague article in the Journal of Financial Planning and by Scott Burns and L. Kotlikoff in their consumption smoothing treatises. So if we follow all these gurus's advice, we are all set and have nothing to worry about.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Not to put too much of a fine point on it (Doh!) but I don't think they had a means to "shoot" someone back in that era.

Arrows anyone?

My american archer certificate (signed by Richard Nixon!) says that not only can I shoot you with an arrow, I can do it from 100 yards away!

 

[Nords]

It seems to me like the Hebeler article has been addressed by the recently discussed Guyton and colleague article in the Journal of Financial Planning and by Scott Burns and L. Kotlikoff in their consumption smoothing treatises.  So if we follow all these gurus's advice, we are all set and have nothing to worry about.

Except that Hebeler is the only one who seems to be retired, and IMHO he's working awfully hard at it...