Some Thoughts On Profit Making

[Lon]

When I was in my 30's 40's 50's & 60's, Profit Making was a goal that was a regular part of my planning, both with my homes and investments. At my present age Profits no longer occupy my thoughts or planning. I now live on Pensions and Profits that have already been made from investments. Yes, with recent market down turns my investments are down about 4%, but no big deal. My only financial planning at this stage of my life is to make sure I have sufficient assets to take care of this aging body until they cart me off to the creamatory.

HOW ABOUT YOU? Do you think about or plan regularly on making profits?

 

[Bullie76]

When I was in my 30's 40's 50's & 60's, Profit Making was a goal that was a regular part of my planning, both with my homes and investments. At my present age Profits no longer occupy my thoughts or planning. I now live on Pensions and Profits that have already been made from investments. Yes, with recent market down turns my investments are down about 4%, but no big deal. My only financial planning at this stage of my life is to make sure I have sufficient assets to take care of this aging body until they cart me off to the creamatory.

HOW ABOUT YOU? Do you think about or plan regularly on making profits?

I dislike seeing the downturns, but its all part of it if you hold stocks and bonds. I'm 61 with no SS or pension, so I do think about maintaining a dividend and interest income stream. But once I start receiving SS and maybe buying a small SPIA, I doubt I will worry about it that much. Will maintain a very conservative asset allocation and let it ride.

 

[Underock1]

When I proposed to my wife, my prospects were slim. I said " We will never have a house, we will never have a car.", but she said "Yes" anyway. :rose: We did have a plan. Invested in the first mutual funds. Saved 2000. Put it down on a house and lived on the razor's edge for five years. We ended up with a debt free house, garden, and two cars. We did it by doing without in the early years, becoming debt free, and enjoying the simple things. We eventually had some nice vacations and three day get-a-ways, but butterflies are free.
I was never interested in "achieving" anything other than the happiness of my family. Worked as a Property/Casualty underwriter for almost fifty years. Purposely avoided climbing the corporate ladder wherever possible without losing my job, in favor of enjoying my wife and kids. We had a great time. Never regretted it. Never made more than 38,000. in my life. My wife jumped in at some critical moments, and again after the kids were grown. She saved our lives a few times. I am now living comfortably in my mortgage free home with a debt free auto in the driveway. Doing just fine on Social Security and a small pension. I have a comfortable IRA, all in cash now at 82. I only withdraw my MRD. I actually come out ahead at the end of the month.

 

[Lon]

I understand completely Bullie. Getting a small SPIA later could be a good move and the nice thing is that the longer you wait to buy a SPIA the higher the monthly benefit

 

[Charlie]

Hi there. Regarding the question "Do you think about or plan regularly on making profits?" Here's my answer. I sold my CPA firm in 1996 when I was 50. Since then I've started and sold a few businesses and done some consulting. Right now, at age 68, I enjoy buying certain items and re-selling them on Amazon. I've also developed a trick that helps people increase their credit scores and make some extra money every month. I don't charge for it. I just enjoy being able to help people.

For me, business and making money has always been my passion, starting with kool-aid stands in grade school. It's just in my blood.

 

[Lethe200]

Our portfolio is currently split in half as we just inherited a family member's portfolio. Hers were in a Balanced allocation and ours are in a Moderately Aggressive (a designation in-between the Balanced and Highly Aggressive allocations at our CFP firm). We focus on long-term and are fine with the MA allocation.

In 40 yrs of working we have seen serious recessions and wild market swings, watched RE prices go up, down, up, down, and currently up again. Good financial planning, done holistically to manage risk in ALL aspects of your life, smooths out those wild swings. We were able to take early retirement in 2010 even as RE tanked and the markets dived.

We live on a generous state pension that is well-funded, not taking SocSec yet. Also have good retiree health benefits, a real rarity. The portfolio is 'play money' to us. The inheritance is allowing us to spend on a remodeling project, one that of course is turning out to be bigger than expected due to that dreaded but inevitable "project creep". LOL! But it's keeping us busy at home and not traveling, so we're saving quite a bit of money to offset the remodeling expenses. And we're very happy with how everything is (slowllllyyyy) turning out, thankfully.

We are in our early 60's so we do feel it's a good idea to remain in the market for now. However, we have already planned for eldercare expenses due to personal morbidity/mortality concerns, so we don't need to make a profit to be financially secure should either or both of us need homecare or skilled care nursing.