How the hell are we supposed to retire?

THATmanMANNY said:
@qclabrat when would you like me to hold down @Patrick and smack this nonsense outta him? lol I don’t know what made me think of this convo on page 25 but two years later RE gone to the moon and it ain’t coming back. If we don’t take chances in life well then that’s just boring AF. Lesson, life is unpredictable. Swing for the fences.
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For the past 2 years I've put out about 20 offers and been past attorney review twice to fall apart for different reasons. In both cases, the sellers were greedy and continued to shop offers. Complete sellers market. I was mostly interested in the Pt Pleasant area but the prices are up 25% every year for the past 3-4 years. No way the homes there are now cash positive for investments. When NYC and North Jersey buyers get in the hustle, prices continue to drive up. They will eventually decide the drive down the GSP in a log jam every weekend sucks and the prices will stabilize. Even Highlands and Keansburg prices are sky high, I'm looking further south now where folks from Philly haven't bought out everything yet.
 
THATmanMANNY said:
Totally. Diversify. Well put. I don’t think putting every cent into retirement is a very enjoyable idea either. I’m not saying look back (shoulda woulda coulda) but at the time you just do what you gotta do never know how things will turn out. Gut luck whatever you want to call it, take some chances.
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I am taking chances - those $1 stocks in the Total Market fund could explode and become Amazon.
I'm also not scared of investing in Tesla at $1200/share because I have so much of it at $50.

Somewhere i did the growth curve, and the problem is that it doesn't seem like a 40yo has enough to retire at 60 (or whatever)
but a couple of growth cycles and boom. boring is doubling a 5 figure brokerage account in 7 years.
i'll take that boring when doubling 6+ figure accounts in that timeframe, helps me sleep.

I play the lottery when it goes over $100,000,000 -
it's funny, the chances of hitting it are 1 in 292,000,000 and a ticket costs $2, so logic says the expected payoff isn't equal to the investment until the lottery is around $600,000,000.
Call me crazy! 😀

PS - yeah, it can't all be saving for retirement - some has to go into the college fund!
 
qclabrat said:
For the past 2 years I've put out about 20 offers and been past attorney review twice to fall apart for different reasons. In both cases, the sellers were greedy and continued to shop offers. Complete sellers market. I was mostly interested in the Pt Pleasant area but the prices are up 25% every year for the past 3-4 years. No way the homes there are now cash positive for investments. When NYC and North Jersey buyers get in the hustle, prices continue to drive up. They will eventually decide the drive down the GSP in a log jam every weekend sucks and the prices will stabilize. Even Highlands and Keansburg prices are sky high, I'm looking further south now where folks from Philly haven't bought out everything yet.
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New York is in Cape May now more than ever.
 
Cape May Borough
Again, you could die tomorrow. Just sayin.
If fortunate, Owning vacation property to enjoy is mentally valuable and healthy living.
 
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tonyride said:
It's reassuring to know then that I'm not the only crazy one... or maybe even on the right path.
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We have similar plans with moving to FL but plan to keep a place in NJ as most of the clan are in the NYC area including my parents. I was just down in FL to recon some places (Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando) and the market there is on par with the Shore. All the homes I was interested in were under contract by the time I drove down 24hrs later. Hanging on till I get offered early retirement will be my biggest challenge. What's considered early now? 60? 62?
 
qclabrat said:
We have similar plans with moving to FL but plan to keep a place in NJ as most of the clan are in the NYC area including my parents. I was just down in FL to recon some places (Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando) and the market there is on par with the Shore. All the homes I was interested in were under contract by the time I drove down 24hrs later. Hanging on till I get offered early retirement will be my biggest challenge. What's considered early now? 60? 62?
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47 - don't tell my wife. 😉

In interesting contrast - you didn't put the money into a home, so i assume it is sitting in a brokerage account and the 2 year return on QQQ is about 75%
sp500 is around 50% -

missed the growth on the leveraged amount of a house, but also didn't have the hassle and the cost.

We are trying to figure out if we'll have a primary residence in Fla, or maybe AZ. We'll see.
 
qclabrat said:
We have similar plans with moving to FL but plan to keep a place in NJ as most of the clan are in the NYC area including my parents. I was just down in FL to recon some places (Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando) and the market there is on par with the Shore. All the homes I was interested in were under contract by the time I drove down 24hrs later. Hanging on till I get offered early retirement will be my biggest challenge. What's considered early now? 60? 62?
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It's still crazy down here. We really lucked out on timing of our purchase. When you make the move, flip drivers license, voter registration and insurance to FL asap, and spend at least 6 months here. Heard a horror story from a guy in our community at our car show last Sunday - he's still a NJ resident and when he retired from his job as president of a hospital in Bergan County, he got a lump sum payout and had to pay NJ $400K in taxes!

Good luck on your search.
 
qclabrat said:
We have similar plans with moving to FL but plan to keep a place in NJ as most of the clan are in the NYC area including my parents. I was just down in FL to recon some places (Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando) and the market there is on par with the Shore. All the homes I was interested in were under contract by the time I drove down 24hrs later. Hanging on till I get offered early retirement will be my biggest challenge. What's considered early now? 60? 62?
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Good question. We have added about 30 years to life expectancy, and as a society, we just append those years to the end. I retired at 55. But I could live to 100. That's a lot of years without a paycheck. We probably should retire from the stressful job, and retire into the fun job, but keep working. It is unrealsitic to think we can save enough for 25 years to finance the next 50.

I pucker up when I read people typing how their investments or real estate are going up. Is that true? Did your home go up in value, or did the price of your next home just get priced out of your range? Your portfolio may have grown 20% last year, but compared to what? The prior year? Here's a test. Look at your portfolio balance at the end of the last ten years. Convert it to gold and oil at the spot prices on those dates. For me, my portfolio returns looks like I am Peter Lynch or Warren Buffet so long as I don't consider what that money can buy. I would have been much better off in oil and gold than in dollars.
 
cassinonorth said:
You could also live to 100 and die super poor because you decided crypto was the safest shit in 2022 and Teslas weren't cheaply made shitty cars.

There's a happy balance to life.
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Yes balance is important. I saw far too many people at my place of work who waited until 65 or even 70+ to retire. Then keeled over within a few years. So sad
 
rick81721 said:
Yes balance is important. I saw far too many people at my place of work who waited until 65 or even 70+ to retire. Then keeled over within a few years. So sad
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That's no way to go but there seem to be people who don't really have much going on besides work. I don't know any of them but I heard a rumor. 🙂
 
rick81721 said:
Yes balance is important. I saw far too many people at my place of work who waited until 65 or even 70+ to retire. Then keeled over within a few years. So sad
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They probably didn't have much going on besides work.

I kind of retired at 46yrs old in 2014. I flipped a few houses and condo's in Florida and Nevada, but I wasn't grinding away. And to be successful, you need to grind!

Played a lot of golf/skied/mountain biking/travel, coached a few and saw just about every one of my kids sports. I got bored. I went back to work in 2019, I didn't want to change my lifestyle, so I needed to earn some income over the next few years, but I also felt like I was losing a step in my mind. I think work that can get the juices flowing or a hobby that uses your brain is the way to go.

I mean, if you can retire with 20 or 30 mil at 45, why not? But, I think retiring at a younger age is a little overrated. Working keeps you sharp, and you get to meet new people and learn things, and get paid.
 
rick81721 said:
Heard a horror story from a guy in our community at our car show last Sunday - he's still a NJ resident and when he retired from his job as president of a hospital in Bergan County, he got a lump sum payout and had to pay NJ $400K in taxes!
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😂

Retiring as the president of a hospital with a lump sum payout large enough to owe $400k in taxes somehow doesn't quite seem like my definition of a horror story.
 
Fire Lord Jim said:
I pucker up when I read people typing how their investments or real estate are going up. Is that true? Did your home go up in value, or did the price of your next home just get priced out of your range?
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Agree about real estate. Unless it is your business of buying and reselling. For those of us owning just homes, having 7 figures in real estate equity is nice but doesn't really do anything else for us. Our kid(s) will benefit tho.
 
Patrick said:
Agree - probably a $4M payout. now i feel bad.... now i'm over it.
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I don't have (many) complaints about my choice of career, but my retirement age co-workers wait patiently and jump on the incredible sum of like $15k as an incentive after 30 years in an engineering job. And we have it good relative to most.
 
Everybody just do you is all. Damn.
You can look at money is everything or money is just a number or somewhere in between.

FIL is losing it since retirement. Work was everything for him to support his family. We send the toddlers over to keep his mind cranking.
FTR, I don't want to live to 100 if I can't walk to the bathroom or wipe my own ass by myself.

EDIT: sadly, wife just texted me someone who retired last year died. She was ill. Can't make this shit up.
 
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