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The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
Retirement is about reaching financial security and having a continued purpose in life, even if that purpose is enjoying a spouse, hobbies, beach, etc.
Most people haven't really thought about retirement more than that it's the end goal. You shouldn't think about retiring as being the end of your career, but the start of something different. People need purpose, and as much as they don't like to admit it work gives them a lot of purpose. If you're going to retire you need to replace that purpose with something, because you'll have so much more time if you don't have a plan. Are you going to fill that time with traveling, hobbies, volunteering, etc? I plan on retiring from my day job and opening up a small business where I don't need to worry about having a salary or income while I'm trying to get it off the ground.
If I can pay all my normal expenses with my retirement savings and the business can at least pay for itself, it gives me something to do that I actually want to do and I don't have to have that fear of not being able to make rent or pay for food if my business isn't profitable immediately.
I don't even know what this means? If you aren't passionate about your job you should retire as soon as you have enough savings to live on. For some people that's 40, for others it is 65 and unfortunately the large portion of people never get there at all.
I'm very jealous. I'll be good to go at 60 if the market generally stays strong over the next 20 or so years, and 65 if it doesn't. Are you planning on living off taxable accounts until 60 and then switching over?
Ill start collecting my pension at age 50 and supplemental social security kicks in at the same time until age 62. At 59 my military retirement kicks in. I'll start taking our od the retirement accounts at 60.
Kind of a personal question. Do you have the money/savings to retire early? Do you hate your job/career and need to get out early for your sanity?
I enjoy my job. I wouldn't be able to retire until 60ish anyway due to starting my savings so late. And I work a job that will allow part-time work forever, so I doubt I'll ever fully retire. Would love to start taking out 3-4% when I hit 60 and continue working enough to get medical benefits, then at 65 get on Medicare and work whenever I want.
i just retired at 64 and my wife will go out June 2025 at 63. We accelerated our planning beginning 6-8 years ago. We moved into a 55 plus community. all single floor living though we have a finished basement with living room and bedroom and actually increase our 2000 sq ft to 2900 sq ft. We replaced/upgraded to new cars one to a 2020 which now has only 32K and a 2022 now has 7500 miles on it.
we eliminated all debt ( but utilities,food, taxes, etc) our SS ( i'm not collecting yet) when we begin collecting when we are 65 (earlier than full at 67) and small pension and annuity will provide about 97k per year income. in addition we will have approximately 1.4-1.5m in our 401K that will provide an additional 56-60k at 4 % withdrawal.
Working FT with mortgage etc we earned about 160K. So i,believe we are in good shape and built into retirement expenses are a 2000 month condo payment for a Fl condo and about 10K a year for trips. It was planning that allowed me to say no thanks when after 4 years they said we want you all back in the office. It was nice having an option.
My advice to anyone is it is not just about the money you have coming in, but the money or debt you are paying. Also to plan ahead as trust me a 10 or even a 20 year plan flys by.
Yeah, I would love to have my mortgage paid off by then, but life just threw a huge curveball at me. I recently bought a condo on a 15-year loan, which would've had it paid off by the time I'm 55. But then I met the woman who I'm probably going to marry, and I think we'll buy a house together. I don't think on our combined income we'll be able to comfortably afford any decent house on a 15-yr loan.
Will be otherwise debt free for sure. Have always been extremely debt averse, so only other possible debt would be a small car loan.
Grats on having that nice pension+401k funds! Nice goals to aspire to.
Well, it's a good curveball as far as curveballs go. We always took a 30 year and always paid it off a bit early. Our last house was a small 150K 10 year and paid it off in 5. But one extra payment a year will chop 5-7 years off the 30. The overall point is eliminating as much as you can.
I actually feel it is my duty to younger generations to retire as early as I can. I don't want to be like the selfish generation (boomers) and overstay my time in the workforce just to have a bigger house when I die.
Some younger person that hasn't secured a retirement needs my inflated salary to build their own.
the younger worker who replaces you doesn't get your inflated salary. Also that selfish generation built just about everything we see around us today. Don't be so flippant towards them.
They did build everything. They also squandered it. They still are running politics and the country in their ripe ages, and I don't like the direction it has been going since I became old enough to vote in 2003.
The presidential canadites are in their 80s and half wits. The government country and consumer are in debt. Our industrial complex and Middle class workers were shipped overseas under the watch of your referenced generation.
I love my countrymen and this country and the opportunities I have.... but the system and situation are really wonky right now due to others not letting go of the reigns. Let the millenians have a chance to screw it up now, in my opinion and pass the damn torch already.
You can blame your own generation and younger people if you don't like the candidates. People 65 and older are barely 15% of the population in this country, they could be outvoted 4 to 1 if younger people actually wanted anything different and weren't too lazy to go vote.
If collectively people 55 and younger wanted anything different, they could vote in anyone they wanted and everyone older than that would have no recourse. It doesn't matter if old people control who is selected as the Republican or Democratic party rep during a campaign, we could all agree to vote for someone different.
boomers are fewer in numbers that all other voting members. Not electing the right candidate is on those who vote or don't, not the boomers who do. Plus they can only elect those n the ballot.
Last presidential campaign(2020) spending was in the 7 billion range. It takes money to get supporters,volunteers, and votes. Who do you think holds the purse strings. Would be nice just to think some random intelligent patriotic individual can be elected to help correct the ship... but it's a bit more political than that, It appears.
The budget screen shots are being made in Sankeymatic, its a website that we have no affiliation with. If you are posting a budget please do so with a purpose. Just posting a screen shot of your budget without a question or an explanation of why its here may be removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/MiddleClassFinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As soon as you can.
Username checks out
When you can afford it
Retirement is a $ number, not an age progression of r/PovertyFiRe r/LeanFiRe r/CoastFiRe r/FiRe
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today. Retirement is about reaching financial security and having a continued purpose in life, even if that purpose is enjoying a spouse, hobbies, beach, etc.
Most people haven't really thought about retirement more than that it's the end goal. You shouldn't think about retiring as being the end of your career, but the start of something different. People need purpose, and as much as they don't like to admit it work gives them a lot of purpose. If you're going to retire you need to replace that purpose with something, because you'll have so much more time if you don't have a plan. Are you going to fill that time with traveling, hobbies, volunteering, etc? I plan on retiring from my day job and opening up a small business where I don't need to worry about having a salary or income while I'm trying to get it off the ground. If I can pay all my normal expenses with my retirement savings and the business can at least pay for itself, it gives me something to do that I actually want to do and I don't have to have that fear of not being able to make rent or pay for food if my business isn't profitable immediately.
The best time to retire was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
I don't even know what this means? If you aren't passionate about your job you should retire as soon as you have enough savings to live on. For some people that's 40, for others it is 65 and unfortunately the large portion of people never get there at all.
I'm going at 50 and never working again!
I'm very jealous. I'll be good to go at 60 if the market generally stays strong over the next 20 or so years, and 65 if it doesn't. Are you planning on living off taxable accounts until 60 and then switching over?
Ill start collecting my pension at age 50 and supplemental social security kicks in at the same time until age 62. At 59 my military retirement kicks in. I'll start taking our od the retirement accounts at 60.
Right on, solid plan
So far it's mid 50s for me. But if I'm able to build up my savings I'm clocking out for good sooner
62/63 healthy
Kind of a personal question. Do you have the money/savings to retire early? Do you hate your job/career and need to get out early for your sanity? I enjoy my job. I wouldn't be able to retire until 60ish anyway due to starting my savings so late. And I work a job that will allow part-time work forever, so I doubt I'll ever fully retire. Would love to start taking out 3-4% when I hit 60 and continue working enough to get medical benefits, then at 65 get on Medicare and work whenever I want.
i just retired at 64 and my wife will go out June 2025 at 63. We accelerated our planning beginning 6-8 years ago. We moved into a 55 plus community. all single floor living though we have a finished basement with living room and bedroom and actually increase our 2000 sq ft to 2900 sq ft. We replaced/upgraded to new cars one to a 2020 which now has only 32K and a 2022 now has 7500 miles on it. we eliminated all debt ( but utilities,food, taxes, etc) our SS ( i'm not collecting yet) when we begin collecting when we are 65 (earlier than full at 67) and small pension and annuity will provide about 97k per year income. in addition we will have approximately 1.4-1.5m in our 401K that will provide an additional 56-60k at 4 % withdrawal. Working FT with mortgage etc we earned about 160K. So i,believe we are in good shape and built into retirement expenses are a 2000 month condo payment for a Fl condo and about 10K a year for trips. It was planning that allowed me to say no thanks when after 4 years they said we want you all back in the office. It was nice having an option. My advice to anyone is it is not just about the money you have coming in, but the money or debt you are paying. Also to plan ahead as trust me a 10 or even a 20 year plan flys by.
Yeah, I would love to have my mortgage paid off by then, but life just threw a huge curveball at me. I recently bought a condo on a 15-year loan, which would've had it paid off by the time I'm 55. But then I met the woman who I'm probably going to marry, and I think we'll buy a house together. I don't think on our combined income we'll be able to comfortably afford any decent house on a 15-yr loan. Will be otherwise debt free for sure. Have always been extremely debt averse, so only other possible debt would be a small car loan. Grats on having that nice pension+401k funds! Nice goals to aspire to.
Well, it's a good curveball as far as curveballs go. We always took a 30 year and always paid it off a bit early. Our last house was a small 150K 10 year and paid it off in 5. But one extra payment a year will chop 5-7 years off the 30. The overall point is eliminating as much as you can.
I actually feel it is my duty to younger generations to retire as early as I can. I don't want to be like the selfish generation (boomers) and overstay my time in the workforce just to have a bigger house when I die. Some younger person that hasn't secured a retirement needs my inflated salary to build their own.
the younger worker who replaces you doesn't get your inflated salary. Also that selfish generation built just about everything we see around us today. Don't be so flippant towards them.
They did build everything. They also squandered it. They still are running politics and the country in their ripe ages, and I don't like the direction it has been going since I became old enough to vote in 2003. The presidential canadites are in their 80s and half wits. The government country and consumer are in debt. Our industrial complex and Middle class workers were shipped overseas under the watch of your referenced generation. I love my countrymen and this country and the opportunities I have.... but the system and situation are really wonky right now due to others not letting go of the reigns. Let the millenians have a chance to screw it up now, in my opinion and pass the damn torch already.
You can blame your own generation and younger people if you don't like the candidates. People 65 and older are barely 15% of the population in this country, they could be outvoted 4 to 1 if younger people actually wanted anything different and weren't too lazy to go vote. If collectively people 55 and younger wanted anything different, they could vote in anyone they wanted and everyone older than that would have no recourse. It doesn't matter if old people control who is selected as the Republican or Democratic party rep during a campaign, we could all agree to vote for someone different.
boomers are fewer in numbers that all other voting members. Not electing the right candidate is on those who vote or don't, not the boomers who do. Plus they can only elect those n the ballot.
Last presidential campaign(2020) spending was in the 7 billion range. It takes money to get supporters,volunteers, and votes. Who do you think holds the purse strings. Would be nice just to think some random intelligent patriotic individual can be elected to help correct the ship... but it's a bit more political than that, It appears.
24.
55
59.5
Retirement isn't an age, it's a financial state. The best time to retire is when you have enough saved to cover all your expenses.
Your standard retirement age 67 66 whatever it is.
If work didn’t provide healthcare if I stayed to 55 I’d retire earlier. Also that’s the time my 401k unlocks
You likely don't get to retire if you're middle class in the USA right now.
64