Tips from a couple who retired to early article

[shotgunner]

On the MSN homepage today.


Tips from a couple who retired too early One couple retired in their mid-50s, only to encounter the reality of the recession.




Does this headline make any sense? What are the tips?

An airline pilot retires at 58, two years ahead of mandatory retirement age. The mandatory retirement age is bumped up to 65 after he made his decision.

US Airways goes bankrupt and he loses his pension but a reduced amount from the Pension Guarantee Corp plus a tax credit equal to 65% of his health care premiums.

The stock market tanks in 2008 but he says he kept investing and has gotten back to where he was.

Then he picks up a P/T gig doing golf club demos

At the end of the article he says "But when I'm sitting here on my back porch, the sun's shining, and I'm going to go play golf at noon, I'm going," "You made the right move!"

I guess the tip is you can only make decisions based on the information you have at the time and things generally work out for the best.

 

[Bestwifeever]

He does say this: "I bought stocks when I thought we had to be somewhere near a bottom. I got back into bank stocks when they took a beating, and I looked heavily into stocks and ETFs that pay dividends. Those have come back very well." Those could be tips, I guess. But interestingly, although there's a writer's byline, the body of the story shows the first question being asked by Ameritrade, the only mention of Ameritrade other than the site being sponsored by Ameritrade. Hmmm--a subliminal tip perhaps?