doug said:
Being a newbie - alot of the folks on this board LBYM to get to FIREd....myself included. My question is how many wish to live a luxury retirement lifestyle (definition subjective), so that you can reap the benefits of all the hard earned/years saving/investing, etc.
Certainly, I would like to have a lot of money, travel, buy whatever strikes my fancy, etc.
doug said:
My idea of retirement is not to just not work, but to live in a standard probably above what one is normally used to during all the saving/working years. Why work so hard then?
I believe what you were trying to say in that last sentence was "Why else would you work so hard?". The problem is that if you want to live with a standard above your saving/working years, that means more saving/working years. It's just how money works. I could have an incredibly opulent lifestyle if I continued working until I was 65.. but I have no plans of working nearly that long. It is generally a simple sliding scale: More money = more work, less money = less work.
So no, I don't intend to be rich in retirement, because I plan on quitting as soon as I'll be "ok". Now, if I retire and some hobby makes me a lot of money, I'll just consider it a bonus.
doug said:
Also we don't plan on or believe in leaving much if any to any kids, so we are free to spend accordingly.
There is a lot written about the trouble that inheritances (and kids who expect inheritances) can cause. I think that helping kids through college is good, but leaving them enough to retire on is not good. Like someone said, "Leave the kids enough to do whatever they want, but not enough so that they can do nothing".
If my wife and I do end up having kids, we'll also plan on leaving nothing for them (except for possibly some vacation property that has been in the family for ~100 years, although currently my parents still own it
. I figure parents need to get kids to their adult stage, and kids need to help the parents reach the death stage.. hmm.. not too pleasant
doug said:
Is this realistic given the years and 'habit' of LBYM?
Are you saying that you might get into a habit of saving? Sure, but habits are easy to break. Now if you're happy taking walks in the woods all day, don't feel like you need to start spending. But if you really enjoy foreign vacations and you have the money, it'll be easy to get into the habit of travel