Your reaction to rising assets

[Dawg52]

Another thing I don't have to worry about, children. Don't have any.

Don't have any family either. No siblings, parents dead. Aunts and uncles dead. Cousins mostly dead or close. I was a late born only child. Wife dead.

Very happy to have a girlfriend -

So, not only did I not retire as early as possible (and stacked more cash as a result) I do not have dependents. Just Lucy the dog.

I've cried a lot of tears, had a lot of grief and felt a lot of pain. Now I'm gonna make myself smile as much as possible!

Similar with me. Parents, brother, aunts & uncles and some cousins gone. Never married. I do have nephews and a niece I see occasionally. One of my nephews has a son so I play the role of grandpa which is kind of cool.

My thinking is similar to yours on spending. I do pretty much what I want as long as the portfolio is holding up. I do have an itemize budget as a guide to live by, but don't track my expenses on a spreadsheet. But I have a pretty good feel how I'm doing. And I know whenever I do pull the lever on my SS checks, I will only need to pull 1-1.5% from my funds to live on. So like you, I'm pretty confident......even though I'm a wuss.

 

[DrRoy]

SS/pension or without, if one draws just a small amount from his stash, say 1 or 2% each year, then he's golden. It's hard to see how one runs out of money that way, unless some cataclysmic events happen, then it does not matter anyway.

Talk about budgeting, it may mean different things to different people. When I was still working, I always underspent what I made, so I had no budget. As long as I had money left over at the end of the month, I was fine. Instincly though, I knew that if I went out and bought a Jaguar for myself and an Audi for my wife, we would not have money left over, or might even be short. By living below our means, I did not have to count every penny.

I still do not budget in the sense of counting money and allotting money in every category. Rather, I look at the big picture, the total annual expense, and see if I should pile on some discretionary spending, such as a Europe trip late this year or not.

This is so close to my situation that it's spooky. If I want something big, I usually wait until the bank account has the cash to cover it, then buy. Same for travel. Banking cash now for Norway next month.

 

[Lsbcal]

My reaction is to look at the AA and be conservative about rebalancing. So equities are 62% right now and I want to get them down to 60%.

Very soon I should sell that 2%. Might just buy 1 year Treasuries with it as they are very safe and liquid (example from the VG site shows yield to worst bid/ask = 0.619%/0.590%). I want to keep it in my IRA at Vanguard and intermediate bonds feel a little rich at this point (plus have plenty intermediate investment grade). Treasuries at 0.59% might make up for some of the next year's inflation but certainly not exciting.

Any better thoughts on near cash places to stick VG money?

Another reaction is to spend on wine, women and song.

 

[GravitySucks]

I've cried a lot of tears, had a lot of grief and felt a lot of pain. Now I'm gonna make myself smile as much as possible!

Great attitude, I'm with you Robbie!

 

[RobbieB]

Thanks.

I'll tell you true, I think losing my wife was what it took for me to "loosen the wallet", all those plans, the scrimping and saving for what? An early grave. Or in our case ('cause we're cheap) early ashes.

I'm not gonna make that mistake again. Imma gonna order up some more caviar next month too. Maybe "caviar of the month club" -

 

[GravitySucks]

That's what got me to retire early. Wife passed away, 3 friends and coworkers got cancer. Why am I sitting at this desk wasting my life?

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[RobbieB]

It's good I was working when it happened. Two years of cancer treatment and max out of pocket both years. I was 55 when she died, so work was actually good for me, kept my mind busy with other than tears.

Yup. No one knows what the fates have in store for you. Smile while you can -

 

[NW-Bound]

Here, it could have been me who ended up 6 ft under, 4 years ago.

I wonder what my wife would do if that happened.