What's the worst piece and the best piece of retirement advice you've ever received?

Youngster

Youngster

Member
For me, the worst piece was to work until I was 65 even if I could afford to retire early. The best was to retire as soon as I could afford it. I took the latter advice and retired early. I have no regrets. In fact I consider it one of the best decision I've ever made.
 

More excellent advice I received: Do plenty of research using expert, credible sources (know-it-all brother-in-laws and low-level bureaucrats don't fall into this category) before deciding exactly when and how to apply for Social Security benefits.

Being paid in cash may seem good at the time, but can be disastrous in the long run. Avoiding taxes, including SS taxes, make people plenty sorry when it's time to file for benefits. Employers who don't make you pay taxes are also not paying their share on your behalf, nor are they paying disability or worker's comp insurance.

Babysitting neighbors' kids for cash as a teenager is a lot different from a lifetime of being paid under the table.

An acquaintance now in her late 60s was a lifelong waitress/bartender in high end restaurants and bitterly attests to this. As was typical of that profession, she declared almost none of her tips. After decades of working on her feet, she is no longer young, adorable, perky and energetic, so can no longer waitress, but her SS is so paltry that she's stuck working a hotel front desk night shift for little more than minimum wage. Unmarried, no children, no savings, doesn't own a home. No safety net to speak of.
 
That's a good one, if too late now for most of us here.

There is a lot of resentment among lifelong "side hustlers" who resent what they love to call the "entrepreneur tax." You'd think to stay out of trouble they'd have used tax accountants to set things up, file, etc. and at some point an accountant would have explained the facts of life to them.
 
StarSong said:
More excellent advice I received: Do plenty of research using expert, credible sources (know-it-all brother-in-laws and low-level bureaucrats don't fall into this category) before deciding exactly when and how to apply for Social Security benefits.

Being paid in cash may seem good at the time, but can be disastrous in the long run. Avoiding taxes, including SS taxes, make people plenty sorry when it's time to file for benefits. Employers who don't make you pay taxes are also not paying their share on your behalf, nor are they paying disability or worker's comp insurance.

Babysitting neighbors' kids for cash as a teenager is a lot different from a lifetime of being paid under the table.

An acquaintance now in her late 60s was a lifelong waitress/bartender in high end restaurants and bitterly attests to this. As was typical of that profession, she declared almost none of her tips. After decades of working on her feet, she is no longer young, adorable, perky and energetic, so can no longer waitress, but her SS is so paltry that she's stuck working a hotel front desk night shift for little more than minimum wage. Unmarried, no children, no savings, doesn't own a home. No safety net to speak of.
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I would agree. Working for cash under the table may seem like a good idea at the time. It's one of the worst things you can do if you expect to collect SS when you retire. Here's an article I wrote which helps drive that thought home.
The Six Stages of Retirement
 
Worst is AARP's life reimagined garabage. Those ads set my teeth on edge with their false impression that we can all retire to be jet setters or some damned thing as healthy, able-bodied and energetic as a 20 yo which is the exception, not the rule, for us seniors. And often feature a change in career. That's not retirement. That's a career change. That series of ads/commericals made me cancel my AARP membership. I am so not missing them. They really aren't good for much. That would be my retirement advice. Don't join AARP. They will take your money and not do anything for you.

Best is to hang in there and not give up. Your disability will be automatically denied. They force everyone to appeal that. This is disheartening but honest advice. I don't think this is right. People who can't work after often decades of working (I worked close to four before becoming too disabled to work and I'm not alone) are often literally dying awaiting their hearing. Ooh, they make it retroactive when they finally grant it. That's so not helpful. I fortunately had two things: a daughter living with me and a State pension.

Without those two things, I'd have starved for being able to pay the rent and nothing else. Without daughter, I'd have got HEAP and food stamps but HEAP you have to go to some central office and they only hand out so many and if you aren't one of the first hundred or however many it is they grant in line, you can forget about it. I was too ill to work. I couldn't jump those hurdles.

My last year of work, I used up all my leave for either being too sick to go into work or unable to get over snow and ice to the bus stop to get there until my daugther took to driving me to work and picking me up from it which limited her available hours in the retail work she did. I was given a warning that I was about to be formally disciplined for using the tons of leave that I had accumulated because I rarely took time off in all the previous years and only did when they maxed out.

I took my birthday off every year but it's in late February and when New York State went to President's Day instead of two holidays of Lincoln and Washington, they gave us a floating holiday to take when we wanted so I'd take it for my birthday. In a 38 year career, I have never worked on my birthday. But I'm definitely not a time abuser so I still resent, 13 years later, being treated like that.

But I kept being told to hang in there and not give up. The denial was automatic, they do it to everyone and I was sure to get granted the disability on appeal at the hearing. I did though I would not have made it without daughter (and grandson but he was a kid at the time) and my State pension.

I don't know how anyone makes it on Social Security alone. If I lost either pension, I'd be lost. I raised a child alone on a secretary's wage without child support or welfare. There was nothing left over to save.

That's the other worst advice. Get an IRA or other reitirement account. That's good advice for those that have extra to do so with but it isn't for those of us who don't. In a related note, I never heard of long-time care insurance until I was too ill and disabled to buy that. No one's selling me either that or life insurance. The risk is too high.
 
Blaze Duskdreamer said:
Worst is AARP's life reimagined garabage. Those ads set my teeth on edge with their false impression that we can all retire to be jet setters or some damned thing as healthy, able-bodied and energetic as a 20 yo which is the exception, not the rule, for us seniors. And often feature a change in career. That's not retirement. That's a career change. That series of ads/commericals made me cancel my AARP membership. I am so not missing them. They really aren't good for much. That would be my retirement advice. Don't join AARP. They will take your money and not do anything for you.

Best is to hang in there and not give up. Your disability will be automatically denied. They force everyone to appeal that. This is disheartening but honest advice. I don't think this is right. People who can't work after often decades of working (I worked close to four before becoming too disabled to work and I'm not alone) are often literally dying awaiting their hearing. Ooh, they make it retroactive when they finally grant it. That's so not helpful. I fortunately had two things: a daughter living with me and a State pension.

Without those two things, I'd have starved for being able to pay the rent and nothing else. Without daughter, I'd have got HEAP and food stamps but HEAP you have to go to some central office and they only hand out so many and if you aren't one of the first hundred or however many it is they grant in line, you can forget about it. I was too ill to work. I couldn't jump those hurdles.

My last year of work, I used up all my leave for either being too sick to go into work or unable to get over snow and ice to the bus stop to get there until my daugther took to driving me to work and picking me up from it which limited her available hours in the retail work she did. I was given a warning that I was about to be formally disciplined for using the tons of leave that I had accumulated because I rarely took time off in all the previous years and only did when they maxed out.

I took my birthday off every year but it's in late February and when New York State went to President's Day instead of two holidays of Lincoln and Washington, they gave us a floating holiday to take when we wanted so I'd take it for my birthday. In a 38 year career, I have never worked on my birthday. But I'm definitely not a time abuser so I still resent, 13 years later, being treated like that.

But I kept being told to hang in there and not give up. The denial was automatic, they do it to everyone and I was sure to get granted the disability on appeal at the hearing. I did though I would not have made it without daughter (and grandson but he was a kid at the time) and my State pension.

I don't know how anyone makes it on Social Security alone. If I lost either pension, I'd be lost. I raised a child alone on a secretary's wage without child support or welfare. There was nothing left over to save.

That's the other worst advice. Get an IRA or other reitirement account. That's good advice for those that have extra to do so with but it isn't for those of us who don't. In a related note, I never heard of long-time care insurance until I was too ill and disabled to buy that. No one's selling me either that or life insurance. The risk is too high.
Click to expand...
I'll check myself into long term care when I start shitting my pants. By then I'll be so out of it I won't care. I don't expect any of my family to wipe my ass for me.
 
Best advice - Don't cash in your DB pension and you will have a pay check for the rest of your life, and if I die, then my wife will get it.

Worst advice - cash in your pension, then after a huge tax bill, give the money to a financial planner and they will do better than the pension administrators will.

I took the "best advice" and have an indexed pay check deposited every month.

Two co-workers I know, took the cash and one of them had to go back to work because his financial guy lost a lot of money in the market. The other one tells me every time I see him, he would have been much better off keeping the pension.
 
...while having a cigarette outside on break, a co-worker told me: "you should make an appointment with a retirement board specialist, you'll probably have more coming than you think". She was right, I put in my retirement request shortly after that...unfortunately, the gal that encouraged me to retire couldn't afford to, for a couple more years.
 
dilettante said:
That's a good one, if too late now for most of us here.

There is a lot of resentment among lifelong "side hustlers" who resent what they love to call the "entrepreneur tax." You'd think to stay out of trouble they'd have used tax accountants to set things up, file, etc. and at some point an accountant would have explained the facts of life to them.
Click to expand...
We own our own business and always paid taxes. Our accountant of some 25 plus years is completely on the up-and-up, exactly what we want.
 

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