Better money strategies to consider

[Brookswood]

good for you .

but us little people need investing in equities to take the little bits and pieces we managed to save and grow it in to meaningful wealth .

i have been investing since 1987 and markets have taken my plain ole fidelity funds and grew it in to more than i ever imagined

Well said.

I have a friend who is worth many many millions. She has sold all her stocks and lives off of SS, retirement savings, rental income and very healthy interest earned on CDs and treasury securities. Inflation could cut the value of her investments by 70% and she will still have more than the other 95% of us.

But, I also have a friend who retired with SS and about 400,000 saved. If not for the stock market he would not be in good shape. He has taken over 50K out of his investments in the past two years and still has more total dollars than he did when he first retired. Recently, he took some of his ample 2024 profits to lock in his 2025 withdrawal needs while the market is near an all time high. Smart guy.

 

[mathjak107]

Well said.

I have a friend who is worth many many millions. She has sold all her stocks and lives off of SS, retirement savings, rental income and very healthy interest earned on CDs and treasury securities. Inflation could cut the value of her investments by 70% and she will still have more than the other 95% of us.

But, I also have a friend who retired with SS and about 400,000 saved. If not for the stock market he would not be in good shape. He has taken over 50K out of his investments in the past two years and still has more total dollars than he did when he first retired. Recently, he took some of his ample 2024 profits to lock in his 2025 withdrawal needs while the market is near an all time high. Smart guy.

historically cash instruments have had negative real returns after inflation and taxes .

even lower inflation can take its toll so for any given income level you will need a much larger balance without using enough in equities.

in fact a mere 4% inflation adjusted draw date has failed to last 64% of all the rolling 30 year retirements we have had since 1871 .

that is pretty scary .


one would have to reduce the draw a lot to use just fixed income .

to me that is very inefficient use of their money .

all my life i worked for my money

now its time for my money to work for me and i dont want it to have some low end job