Where do you feel you need to be career wise before you retire?

Also - attributed to (Willie Nelson I think???) Every mans to biggest fears:

Outliving his money or his pecker. So PLAN, but don't waste too much time STRESSING about it. It's in our DNA.

z31maniac wrote:

Zomby Woof wrote: What are you disagreeing with?

That you can have a two income household AND keep yourself from spending like a two income household. His neighbor's hypothesis is that the more you make, the more you spend. All it takes is a bit of self-control. My point is that you can have two incomes and not treat your lifestyle as such, while still enjoying yourself.

My wife and I are a good example of this. We decided when we hit 30 and 35 respectively that we would try living on one income and saving the other. It took a few years till we got it all figured out but we have been doing it since then. We also planned to be free of any major debt by the time I was 45 (actually beat that by a year)

By learning to live within those conditions I was able to retire the first time at age 50 (I did get another full time job for another 5 years). And the wife retired completely at age 55.

In reply to Hal:

Hal, so you are retired at 55 now, how is that working out?

I have to say, since becoming debt free, life has been quite a bit easier. I hope to maintain this status, aside from a house payment. I'm reading through Ramsey's Money Makeover book; how sound is his prophecy?

I have about 30 more years of working before I'll retire. Trying to take better care of my body than I've seen my parents do. The rest, I'm figuring out as I go along. Not saving everything, not spending everything, either.

I figure I've got about 516 years to go before I need to worry about retirement. I try not to put the cart before the horse, it just pisses off the horse.

Teh E36 M3 wrote: I skipped over anyone who wrote more than two lines. Retire from the military and all is yours. I'm five years out, pretty berkeleying cheap, and don't need much.

I am there. I took a bonus so I owe Uncle Sam another 1 year, 97 days hour 22 minutes and 20 seconds as I typed it.

But its not like I have an iPhone app or anything.

Literally 6 months ago I was thinking of entering the sleazy corprate grind, and that way if I hated it, I could move onto new horizons. Wife and I are on track to be debt free this year and if we're honest, we live pretty darn well. We take trips, we have fun, I have toys and she spolis our nephews and soon to be niece.

But as a good buddy said "I had 10 good years in the military, unfortunetely I was in for 12."

I have had 21 good years, unfortunetely, I have been in for 22. Right now I am learning a very painful lesson about overstaying your time. Everyday is a chore. Yesterday I literally, not figuartively, literally beat my head on my desk becuase it was better than the frustration.

Have a plan, but realize you may come to resent the same plan that provides. And thats what hurts the most, I am starting to hate what I used to love.

Right now, if I could leave tomorrow I would get a job mopping floors at Autozone and be estactic about it. I will work becuase I hate being bored but a job with simple expectations and no responsibility sounds like a blessing right now.

Now having said that, should another job come open at GRM (even if its mopping the floors)....

I was raised with the expectation that I would have to put myself through university, so I would have to learn to save money for it.With the exception of one year I have saved money ever since graduation.I have never lived up to my income, or over it. I'm 61 and retired for 4.5 years now. I made the decision to retire when a detailed analysis showed I had enough to continue living at the same level as when I was working. I do what I want ,when I want.The hardest part is going from a saving mentality to spending the savings.We still owe about $100K on the house, but no other debt. Spending savings still bothers me a little,but at our current spending rate I'll run out of money when I'm well into my nineties. I don't miss the work, but I do miss the people I worked with. You do need something to occupy your time and give you something to do. I'm currently rebuilding my Miata suspension. After that there's a GTI that's been sitting in the garage for a decade. I'm pretty content.

pinchvalve wrote:

SVreX wrote: I've recently changed my thinking on this. I spent a lot of my life living carefully, following all the financial gurus and squirreling away enough that I could one day retire. Life changes the last few years have made that impossible. I am no longer at a stage where I can save enough and count on compounding interest to build up enough to live on when I retire. But then I had a revelation... I realized the point of having a retirement account never was to have a retirement account. It was to have the revenue stream coming off of it. And I found a method that taps into my skills and gifts that should be able to generate that revenue stream indefinitely regardless of how much I have not saved. So, we are transitioning all of our money from the retirement accounts, paying the required penalties, putting it into this business plan. It's a little scary, but freeing. It will let me live as I was created, instead of living in drudgery hoping for a respite at the end of the career. So, 6 months ago it was apparent I would never be able to retire, now I expect to do it within 2 years. I'll quit my job in a few weeks in pursuit of it. But retirement is no longer the same thing for me. It used to be this moment when you drop out of the productive workforce and live off whatever money you have put aside. Now, it's more like a re-deployment. The goals: de-stress, enjoy what I am doing daily, spend lots of time with my family, and get rid of all the extra stuff that is cluttering my life, demanding my time, and requiring my attention- Yes, this includes extra project cars that I'll never get to.

Let us know what you are doing. I don't have much money, but I try to spend what I do on GRM advertisers. Same concept applies...if you are doing something board members need, we'd support you. (OK, I can't speak for the other members, but you know what I mean)

I wasn't trying to hide it, but I was trying to avoid over playing it because, honestly it's not for everyone. It's just a good fit for me. Plus, I was trying to stay on topic.

I have spent my life building houses for other people. Now I'm taking everything I've got and putting it into rental real estate. I found a good place I like, a devalued neighborhood which is on the recovery side of the economic crash, and I am investing what I've got in it.

I will no longer have a 401K or retirement account. I will be the owner of rental houses which will generate enough positive cash flow to live off the rents. Indefinitely. No extravagant living, but I'll get by.

It's pretty simple, but it primarily works for me because it's what I've done my whole life, and I'm pretty experienced and talented at it. And I enjoy it.

The only difference is now I will be the owner (and sometimes have partners). My career will be building for me, not others. Oh, and the beach is near!

But it is truly not for everyone.

The on-subject answer for me is that where I need to be career-wise is not subservient to a career.

SVreX, congrats! My dad did that for years and did quite well for himself (and us).

Glad it's working out for you SVreX :)

I'll be there on the 18th checking out the places we're closing on in June if you happen to be in town.

carguy123 wrote: Keep in mind there are 2 types of retirement. 1) quit everything and die soon thereafter. (the stats back that up) 2) Change. It's really like changing jobs when you were younger, only this time you do what you want. Also just like poopshovel said, don't put off doing everything till you retire. LIVE!

I've decided that in the last year or two before I retire, I'm going to take night classes and become a certified mechanic. Then I'm going to tinker on cars for a living. Yeah, I'll be a crusty old man making $10 an hour doing oil changes and tire rotations at a Ford dealership. But I don't care, because I actually like doing that stuff.

Sky_Render wrote: I've decided that in the last year or two before I retire, I'm going to take night classes and become a certified mechanic. Then I'm going to tinker on cars for a living. Yeah, I'll be a crusty old man making $10 an hour doing oil changes and tire rotations at a Ford dealership. But I don't care, because I actually like doing that stuff.

Sure, you like doing it now, but when you're 65 with a bad back it might be a different story.

mtn wrote:

Sky_Render wrote: I've decided that in the last year or two before I retire, I'm going to take night classes and become a certified mechanic. Then I'm going to tinker on cars for a living. Yeah, I'll be a crusty old man making $10 an hour doing oil changes and tire rotations at a Ford dealership. But I don't care, because I actually like doing that stuff.

Sure, you like doing it now, but when you're 65 with a bad back it might be a different story.

Maybe, but my point was that after I "retire," I'm going to get a job doing something I actually like doing.

SVreX wrote: I have spent my life building houses for other people. Now I'm taking everything I've got and putting it into rental real estate.

Ding. I always joke that I am going to be a slumlord. What I mean by that is inexpensive, NEW, well maintained condos will always have a base rental price here where I live and have always been in demand, even through the worst financial crisis in decades. I start this year by buying my first condo to live in. My plan is to buy a property every 5 years. This would be accelerated if I did something silly like find someone that would allow me to put a ring on her finger lol.

Lucky for me, my pension will pay out ~$5k per year alone from my job when I retire at (if I want to) 55. Not to put all my eggs in one basket, I'll obviously have some sort of retirement plan, but my family has been in the business long enough and my father and I have enough experience that it shouldn't be too bad. I see a lot of people who own rental properties, and as long as they have the right renters, there is very little work besides cashing the cheque and doing checkups.

I really wish I could get mama on board with the rental property gig. I'm all about something that generates predictable monthly income with minimum effort; just being the guy that has the cash or can get the financing to get it rolling. The older I get (LISTEN KIDS) the more I realize that those rich guys I've envied aren't any smarter than I am; in fact, a lot of them are downright lacking common sense...but they made a couple wise financial choices here and there, didn't necessarily listen to what the "experts" were saying, and made big, calculated risks.

We're 34 now. I'm assuming with a large enough chunk down (CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG) you can get a 30 year on rental property. If not, I could still probably afford to buy, rent, and flip to the point where I could use the profit from the first sale to finance the next, and so on, and by 65 own a good chunk of rental property free and clear.

I posted earlier in this thread that I don't care where I am in my career, it is the financial feasibility that is the issue. I'll go ahead and post my "plan". I want to retire by the time I'm 50. I don't think I will, but I want to.

I currently put away a fair amount of my salary into the company's 401k--5% pre-tax and 20% post tax. I also put away 40% of what is leftover after the 401k/insurance/tax deductions into a brokerage account. There is also a very good pension plan with my company--I want to stay here at least 5 years to get in on that, and if I were to stay 30ish years I'd be getting something like 40% of my highest 5-year average.

In addition to this, I have a second job nights and weekends that brings in ~5-7k a year. In the past I was paying for college with it. This past year it has been my "beer money". Next year (starting in August) I plan on devoting that income to a Roth IRA, and diverting slightly less money into my 401k/brokerage account.

My (long time) girlfriend will hopefully have a job by September--seeing as by that time she'll have BS, MS, and RD after her name there is good chance of it, and good chances of it paying a respectable amount. She is "horrible" with money--she doesn't spend it like crazy, but she just doesn't understand it. Doesn't undersand interest, investing, etc. I plan on setting her up with a similar plan as mine, with variances for where she ends up working, and also working to pay off her (really pretty small) credit card and loan debts. Assuming that we end up married, we'll have a comfortable living and hopefully be able to put away more than 50% of our combined incomes. Obviously if (well, when) kids happen it will change drastically.

Then the housing front. The ideal situation in my head would be that I buy a house within 2 years and have a friend room with me/us. I figure that if I were to have 2 bedrooms filled, I could have a mortgage more or less for free. At that point I could likely buy another and rent either one out, providing more income. Unlike others here though, I'd like to get out of the rental market by the time I'm retired save for a home or two.

This is just a basic outline though. I'm only 23, and the girlfriend 24. There are too many variables to have anything set in stone. Sure, we've been dating for 4.5 years. I'm extremely confident we'll spend the rest of lives together, but I'm sure my cousins (now divorced) felt the same way. So we'll plan for both of us to be able to do it on our own as well, or at least I'll plan for a way to do it on my own. Then she doesn't even have a job yet. I could get fired tomorrow. I could get a raise tomorrow too. I could win the lottery. We could have octopolets. Like I said, just a basic plan for now, but one that I'm working on--I'm young, I have time on my side. I'm trying to take advantage of that.

poopshovel wrote: I really wish I could get mama on board with the rental property gig. I'm all about something that generates predictable monthly income with minimum effort; just being the guy that has the cash or can get the financing to get it rolling. The older I get (LISTEN KIDS) the more I realize that those rich guys I've envied aren't any smarter than I am; in fact, a lot of them are downright lacking common sense...but they made a couple wise financial choices here and there, didn't necessarily listen to what the "experts" were saying, and made big, calculated risks. We're 34 now. I'm assuming with a large enough chunk down (CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG) you can get a 30 year on rental property. If not, I could still probably afford to buy, rent, and flip to the point where I could use the profit from the first sale to finance the next, and so on, and by 65 own a good chunk of rental property free and clear.

From talking to people who own rental properties, I have heard that getting mortgages for them can be more involved, and you have less options when it comes to refinancing, tax deductions, property taxes, etc.

I'm not trying to talk you out of it; rather, I am simply pointing out that you need to do lots of research beforehand!

Commercial/rental real estate definitely does play by a different set of rules than residential for sure. Not insurmountable, just different.

poopshovel wrote: I'm all about something that generates predictable monthly income with minimum effort;

That minimum effort part may be tricky...owning, maintaining and managing rental property can be a ton of work.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Duke wrote: If I could retire right now, I would put in my notice on TODAY.

My sentiments exactly. I like my job most of the time but if I didn't need it - I wouldn't have it.

Agreed with both (after the correction). I am not a "corporate ladder climber". I'm a "supporting cast member here to put in my time. I will do all I can to make the company money, but a title doesn't matter to me any more than a Brand name.

stuart in mn wrote:

poopshovel wrote: I'm all about something that generates predictable monthly income with minimum effort;

That minimum effort part may be tricky...owning, maintaining and managing rental property can be a ton of work.

tr00f. That's why we are managing my dad's stuff through a property management company.

fasted58 wrote: In reply to Hal: Hal, so you are retired at 55 now, how is that working out?

Actually I will be 70 in October. I did work a part-time (20 hours a week) until I was 62 and could start drawing SS. And I am loving it, time and money to do most anything I want.

Poopshovel: There's a Rich Dad, Poor Dad tour going on right now around the country. I think it's free or very cheap. You have nothing to lose by checking out the possibility of slum lording. Take the Mrs. It's one idea that seems to work for some. You are smarter than most wealthy people I know and more fun to drink with.

Military guys. I just retired as of 1 Apr 13. I'm unemployed and things aren't looking good with sequestration in the DC Metro. I have a FRESH clearance and a kick ass resume. Federal job hiring can suck it. I have nearly had it with that system and I have people on the inside. Contractors are doing damage control to keep from laying off, let alone hiring amazing talent like me. I hope you guys are planning ahead and have all your degrees, certs, AT LEAST 3 months base pay or MORE cash sacked away, get your network started now and canvas the entire country. Your tax advantages will disappear soon! Did you figure for that?!? Mental, I'm pretty sure you know what OK is going to do to you with taxes. Boeing is bringing many of the Wichita jobs to your area. That should help maybe? Not sure what field you're in. We are living on savings for the next couple months and have expanded our search to tax friendly states since Maryland eats balls for military retires. I also stayed a year too long. Tricare rules have changed too for Prime enrollment, look into it. Dental is a $120 a month and you can't make a claim for 6 months. Oh yeah, they effed up my first check and can't fix it until next month.

Quality of life is paramount now that I'm retired. Too many days on the road while on active duty make me shudder at the thought of giving up hours of my day (equates to time away from family) on a commute to a job that sucks just to pay the bills. I'm looking into relocation. Money isn't everything. Tax relief can almost be like a second job. Relocation is second nature for military but your family will still love you in the next state while you enjoy a better lifestyle.

Live within your means. We haven't and are paying the price now. Get debt free.

Didn't even answer the question! Find YOUR sweet spot for pay/responsibility/happiness ratio. Only you can answer that.

Hal wrote:

fasted58 wrote: In reply to Hal: Hal, so you are retired at 55 now, how is that working out?

Actually I will be 70 in October. I did work a part-time (20 hours a week) until I was 62 and could start drawing SS. And I am loving it, time and money to do most anything I want.

congrats, good that it's working for you

I'm soon to be 55 and thinking of my exit strategy, sounds like you did it right.