How are you living with consequences of not planning for future?

I found out that the big mistake is estimating how long you are going to live after retirement.

If you retire at 65 the estimate is 15 years.

I spent too much having fun at first but now have settled back into a routine.

The sad part is that you can't earn any money after retirement. It has to come from pension income.
 

at 65 life expectancy is far greater than at birth . at 80 there is still a 62% chance a male will be alive

a 65 year old couple has an 89% chance of one of them seeking 80 and a 73% chance of one seeing 85. we can't use statistics from birth anymore once we are in our 60's so life expectancy is much greater once you make it that far .

i am 65 and still earn a bit of an income. i was fortunate enough to really like what i did so i still do technical training for my old firm 1 day a week . i also got back in to my drumming and have been doing some studio time , my wife and i are also in to photography and we get a few bucks from that too .

so all in all we are doing what we enjoy and the fact it pays is even nicer
 
mathjak107 said:
at 65 life expectancy is far greater than at birth . at 80 there is still a 62% chance a male will be alive

a 65 year old couple has an 89% chance of one of them seeking 80 and a 73% chance of one seeing 85. we can't use statistics from birth anymore once we are in our 60's so life expectancy is much greater once you make it that far .

i am 65 and still earn a bit of an income. i was fortunate enough to really like what i did so i still do technical training for my old firm 1 day a week . i also got back in to my drumming and have been doing some studio time , my wife and i are also in to photography and we get a few bucks from that too .

so all in all we are doing what we enjoy and the fact it pays is even nicer
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First, with your photography, what kind of photography do you take that sells?

Once we move, my wife will still have an easier time finding a part-time job than I will. Along with her Accounting experience, she now has some years working in both banking and insurance. Her Bachelors Degree is old (1997), but at least she has it.

Due to my past surgeries, I can basically only do desk work, but am very good on a computer/data entry.

In both “employment like” and the “retirement years”, one major word talks a lot.....money!
 

we do a lot of macro photography as well as we tend to sell photo's of local sights here in ny . they tend to do the best . we just sold a file of a local castle for 2 uses for 250 bucks . they are promoting weddings there and wanted to use the file for a bridal show .
 
fmdog44 said:
Before the tech bubble burst in the mid 80's I was on chat rooms with young people that were stating how far they were going indebt to buy internet stocks and funds. They were signing up for as many credit cards as possible so they could buy more. As a seasoned investor I pleaded with them to stop but they responded that I was a stupid old man that knew nothing and that I was jealous of them and they were all going to be young multimillionaires on internet stocks alone. I did not get through to a single one of them and then it burst. After the crash I could not find any of them online. I often wonder how they made out but I'm certain it was not good. So much for get rich quick.
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Funny - I was in a perfect spot to cash in on that stuff. My friend was one of those guys who is always the smartest guy in the room, but is his own worst enemy. Anyway my buddy, with his MBA, CPA, Masters in History and experience as a global financial analyst for Motorola, at the time, decided the Internet was a "fad." We missed out on the entire wave.

I still remember reading trade magazines at work (Computer business) where Mark Cuban had a Tech Stock Column. If only I'd listened to him, instead...

Back to original topic, I found a place on a couple acres for 14K! Needless to say, my wife nixed that one even before I told her we'd have to haul our own water!
 
mathjak107 said:
as long as your draw is low enough from your savings no reason you can't do okay with no equities .
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When one is totally debt free it's easy [at least for me] to live comfortably on SS alone.

I have not and don't plan to use my nest egg for day to day living expenses.
 
ClassicRockr said:
To a point, it’s no wonder I couldn’t save money or live a more descent lifestyle.

Unfortunately, once my wife retires, semi-retires most likely, and we move, we most likely won’t have the lifestyle we currently do.
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Mr X said:
I found a place on a couple acres for 14K! Needless to say, my wife nixed that one even before I told her we'd have to haul our own water!
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I was a single mother when I was working, making decisions and saving for retirement.

Does a spouse help [as in a second income] or hinder [as in a second spender and decision-maker] planning/saving for retirement ?
 
KingsX said:
When one is totally debt free it's easy [at least for me] to live comfortably on SS alone.

I have not and don't plan to use my nest egg for day to day living expenses.
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boy , how nice is that . unfortunately that would never work here in nyc for us , we would starve lol .... in fact i grew up in a nyc housing project . today you can still qualify at 69k a year in income to put cost in perspective .
 
KingsX said:
When one is totally debt free it's easy [at least for me] to live comfortably on SS alone.

I have not and don't plan to use my nest egg for day to day living expenses.
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Just what is “debt free” today? Only kidding, but many, many Senior retirees would never be able to live “debt free”. Way to many cool things to do as a Senior.
 
mathjak107 said:
boy , how nice is that . unfortunately that would never work here in nyc for us , we would starve lol .... in fact i grew up in a nyc housing project . today you can still qualify at 69k a year in income to put cost in perspective .
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The irony is... here in Texas, as a single working mother, I was able to buy two houses [and paid them both off], saved enough money necessary to retire early [age 55] from my 26 year corporate job and never came close to earning 69k a year [my best annual salary before I retired was in the mid-50k]
 
KingsX said:
Does a spouse help [as in a second income] or hinder [as in a second spender and decision-maker] planning/saving for retirement ?
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Haa - both! She doesn't make a lot working for school district, but benefits are great. She is also why we are in this spot. When I was single (circa 1990) I got yelled at by payroll at work for having 11K in un-cashed paychecks in my desk. Fast forward to present and we have a better income than most, minimal debt, a mortgage that's less than a nice apartment yet we live check-to-check.

Rather than get into the whole "start saving now" thing again, I'd really like to get back to the original question - let's hear from more folks living without a pension, savings or retirement plan. It seems quite doable with no mortgage and low property taxes, but maybe I'm wrong.
 
mathjak107 said:
money may not buy happiness but it can certainly buy choices at times .
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Unless bad choices make you bankrupt.

I have a friend who always earned more money than me. But while I saved, she spent.
Currently she gets more SS income than I do. But she is not able to hold onto money.
She doesn't have a lot of material things. But somehow she manages to squander a lot
of money. When she sold her paid off house she blew through all that money in a only
a few years... and now has nothing to show for it.
 
Mr X said:
Interesting how old habits die hard. Our search for a new place has degenerated into looking at listings for properties that aren't going to save us much money.

It went from seeking a place we could support on a Walmart greeter's salary, to wondering why we'd move to some backward, toilet of a town, in order to save $300/month.
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$300 per month can mean a whole hell of a lot if you don't have it! And define "toilet of a town," please. You may need to seriously lower your expectations now if you expect to be able to live decently in retirement.
 
KingsX said:
Unless bad choices make you bankrupt.

I have a friend who always earned more money than me. But while I saved, she spent.
Currently she gets more SS income than I do. But she is not able to hold onto money.
She doesn't have a lot of material things. But somehow she manages to squander a lot
of money. When she sold her paid off house she blew through all that money in a only
a few years... and now has nothing to show for it.
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we are talking about choices in life that are not financial choices . if you make bad financial choices than you have no or little money and hence no choices
 
mathjak107 said:
we are talking about choices in life that are not financial choices . if you make bad financial choices than you have no or little money and hence no choices
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In the long run, life choices are financial choices. Where you live and how you live directly affect finances.

For example, before she retired, my friend moved and bought a house near the beach [a life long dream.]
But living near the beach can be quite expensive. For example, she has to maintain three insurance polices.
The kind most people have on their house... plus extra wind and flood insurance [and they aren't cheap.]
 
choices in life can always cost money and likely will where choices are available . that is what money buys . but as i said if you make bad financial choices then you have no money and no choices .

i learned how important choices in life were as a kid . i grew up in a nyc housing project and ran with a bad crowd . well one night the guys were going to do something that i and a friend decided we did not want to be part of . so we did not go . well things went bad and not only were my friends arrested but so was the friend who did not even participate .

his family was just over the limit for legal aid and his family could not afford a lawyer . rather than risk a jury not believing that he was not there he was going to plead guilty and plea bargain for something he never did .

i was blown away that because he couldn't afford a lawyer he would have no choice but to plead guilty even if innocent . not having a choice because you had no money was a horrible thing . it was a situation i swore to myself i never wanted to be in .

at the last minute a relative took a heloc and got him a lawyer . he was found innocent but that served as a life long lesson for me . the more money you can have the more choices you can have and growing my money as best as i could and making sure i always had money to invest become a life long goal . there were times i had 3 jobs going on to fill in the gaps .
 
I've been at the same company for 13 years. Started out making something around 30K/yr and now up to 45K/yr. I didn't join the 401K until about 6 years ago because I started getting scared about imminent old age. My savings is at 22K, due to inheritance $ I saved while the payments came in from the sale of my Dads property over 10 years, and my adding to it at about $100/mo. from my paycheck.

Visited with a financial adviser last September. BEST THING I EVER DID to save my sanity about my situation. The outfit I used (recommendation from a co-worker) was Edward Jones. The guy sat with me for an hour, asked all sorts of questions (mtg payment, car payment, bills, do I want to travel, etc), used his software to give me a picture of where I'm at and he said I was actually doing quite well. I was shocked because you read on the net that you need XXX amount of your current pay saved to retire. I think mine came out to like 100K. I have nothing near that! I highly recommend going to an adviser, just might make you feel better about your situation. Plus, the gentleman I met with didn't charge me for an hour of his time/services.
 
KingsX said:
The irony is... here in Texas, as a single working mother, I was able to buy two houses [and paid them both off], saved enough money necessary to retire early [age 55] from my 26 year corporate job and never came close to earning 69k a year [my best annual salary before I retired was in the mid-50k]
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My husband always says it is not so much how much money you make, it is how you manage the money that is critical. KingsX, you are an example of what he is talking about. You managed your money carefully and did that for many years. Congratulations!
 
Butterfly said:
$300 per month can mean a whole hell of a lot if you don't have it! And define "toilet of a town," please. You may need to seriously lower your expectations now if you expect to be able to live decently in retirement.
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I agree, if you are managing carefully, $300 a month is great! Interesting this amount got mentioned. Some years ago, my husband was thinking of retiring. If he waited three more years, we would get $300 more a month, for life. Even though his job situation was no picnic and he had to work a lot of overtime, we stayed the extra years. Now, we are glad we did. $300 buys more than you might think.
 
KingsX said:
Unless bad choices make you bankrupt.

I have a friend who always earned more money than me. But while I saved, she spent.
Currently she gets more SS income than I do. But she is not able to hold onto money.
She doesn't have a lot of material things. But somehow she manages to squander a lot
of money. When she sold her paid off house she blew through all that money in a only
a few years... and now has nothing to show for it.
Click to expand...

Sometimes I think the ability to manage money must be a gift from above, like so many other gifts. Some just don't have it! BUT! We can all learn to do better at things we are not "naturally gifted" at! Don't you think?
 
RiverUp said:
Sometimes I think the ability to manage money must be a gift from above, like so many other gifts. Some just don't have it! BUT! We can all learn to do better at things we are not "naturally gifted" at! Don't you think?
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Definitely a gift from God.

Many people who earn less than $50,000 live comfortably.
Others who earn over $100,000 can't make ends meet.

The solution for many is to increase their income, not reduce
their spending. But if there are no limits to spending, no amount
of income can compensate.
 
KingsX said:
Definitely a gift from God.

Many people who earn less than $50,000 live comfortably.
Others who earn over $100,000 can't make ends meet.

The solution for many is to increase their income, not reduce
their spending. But if there are no limits to spending, no amount
of income can compensate.
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I agree!

Your post reminds me of this old commercial.

 

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