dex
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2003
- Messages
- 5,105
As far as I can tell those links don't work - can you copy and past the article?
Just to clear the air on the John Galt situation, since I'm the one that keeps bringing it up.
And John, I hope you dont feel like I'm picking on you, you're just persistent in telling part of the story.
The frequently issued post is "I retired on almost no money and dont invest in stocks and I'm doing fine".
The reality is "I retired on almost no money, married a working woman a year or so later, she's paying most or all of the bills, I own no stocks, and I'm doing fine".
The real reality is without the working wife, I would bet John would be dead broke by now. Despite good intentions, ingenuity, brilliant maneuvers, hard work, dedication, and good luck.
Thanks Jarhead. You and Cut-Throat commented that you see the point I'm making, and I appreciate it. John presents his situation in a very persuasive manner and I can see why these kinds of comments would be very appealing to potential ERs:Hey Bob:
I'm sure you noticed that even the 2nd. time around, H----- still missed the point. (Part of conversation is also the ability to listen).
Nobody needs a million to retire. Nobody!
If you gave me, oh say $250,000, and the clothes on my back, I would be fine and my life would not change much. I think this is a major difference in me and the other posters here.
I see so many who need 1 million, 2 million. 3 million or a bazillion dollars before they even consider retiring, Truly, I feel sorry for these people.
I post this so that the wannabees will not be discouraged. Motivation is everything. The million bucks is a distant second.
I guess my ignorance and lack of any planning saved me. Otherwise I would still be working and trying to pile up that magic million so I could ER safely
Anyway, living without risk is impossible, ER or no ER. I quote Al Pacino once again "You can get killed walkin' your doggie!"
Exactly TH:Just to clear the air on the John Galt situation, since I'm the one that keeps bringing it up.
And John, I hope you dont feel like I'm picking on you, you're just persistent in telling part of the story.
The frequently issued post is "I retired on almost no money and dont invest in stocks and I'm doing fine".
The reality is "I retired on almost no money, married a working woman a year or so later, she's paying most or all of the bills, I own no stocks, and I'm doing fine".
The real reality is without the working wife, I would bet John would be dead broke by now. Despite good intentions, ingenuity, brilliant maneuvers, hard work, dedication, and good luck.
In other words, dont be encouraged to bail out on your job if you've got less than a half million unless you have a VERY short horizon, social security and pensions coming to you. Or you really, really like taking risks. On top of that, if your risk tolerance says "no stocks", think long and hard about doing it on less than a million, even with a horizon of 10 years or so.
The math just doesnt work out long term.
But those working wives are better than a COLA pension...lets make sure we acknowledge them for all their hard work and contributions...
I also 2nd that these postinsg are not meant to be critical of JG but to clear up some important points to prospective ERs like myself.Just to clear the air on the John Galt situation, since I'm the one that keeps bringing it up.
The frequently issued post is "I retired on almost no money and dont invest in stocks and I'm doing fine".
Soooooo, is the moral of this story, and the general consensus (SP) is that you CANNOT live comfortably with $1m and the clothes on your back? I think so.
Of course, Paul Terhorst's book, Cashing in on the American Dream: Retire
at 35 is full of absolutely fantastic insights.
In short, do the research, run the numbers, and make up your own mind.
The key as I see it is that he fully retired on an income that is about equal to age 62 SS (with a same-age spouse on the same record). So his "SWR" horizon was 8 years or a little less until SS would take over. It wouldn't take much of an asset base to support that plan...
Regarding your premise that, as a general rule, it would not be wise to retire without at least a "half million" squirreled away . . . I understand your point, but I believe that "half million" would be a risky proposition in today investing environment. I'd think $750K was more like it. However, that's a personal choice everyone is entitled to make for themselves.
I've thought for awhile now that we should break ER financial planning into two stages: from now-to-SS/Pension and from Pension date forward. If you aren't planning for heirs and SS/Pension covers your expenses, you only really need your assets to cover you for the first part, making the job much easier.
I am thinking that differences in these situations/spending as a % of Social Security/pensions/need for excess security are at the root of this and many other disagreements here about how safe we feel with SWR and how much $ we need to ER etc.
ESRBob
Regarding the Terhorsts: I felt the money advice was the weakest part of their book --
Some of you guys are really hard to please. My opinion (and isn't that what the internet is for?) is that no one has a perfect plan for me (probably not even me) but there are good ideas in different people's stories.
All of these people - Terhorsts, Joe D., Amy D., M. Next Door - Specialize in living cheaply and not investing wisely. This part did not appeal to me.
I like the idea of living well (which usually means not cheaply) This usually involves being more investment savvy than making popsicles out of empty jam jars - Yech!
felt no obligation to their non-existant children
Is the only purpose for our existence to increase the rate at which the human race over populates the planet?