How the hell are we supposed to retire?

Norm said:
I read a little bit of this and will read more after my next call. But something I heard recently is that more than half of retirees die with more money in the bank than when they retired. Talk about saving up for nothing!
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My first thought is that while half die with more money than they retired with, what about the other half? It's only saving for nothing if you are in the first half.
My next thought is that people are living long enough that retirees are inheriting from 90 year old parents. People born before 1970 married at age 20; if they live to 85 their retired offspring inherit after retirement and end up wealthier than when they retired.
My final (for now) thought is Duh, we are measuring this in dollars, not purchasing power. I bet if we measured instead how many months I can afford the nursing home we would see a more sobering result.
 
Fire Lord Jim said:
My first thought is that while half die with more money than they retired with, what about the other half? It's only saving for nothing if you are in the first half.
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Doesn't mean the first half runs out of money, just that they have less at the end. This should be the goal.
Fire Lord Jim said:
My next thought is that people are living long enough that retirees are inheriting from 90 year old parents. People born before 1970 married at age 20; if they live to 85 their retired offspring inherit after retirement and end up wealthier than when they retired.
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Yup.
Fire Lord Jim said:
My final (for now) thought is Duh, we are measuring this in dollars, not purchasing power. I bet if we measured instead how many months I can afford the nursing home we would see a more sobering result.
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The average stay in a nursing home is less than 14 months.
 
Fire Lord Jim said:
My first thought is that while half die with more money than they retired with, what about the other half? It's only saving for nothing if you are in the first half.
My next thought is that people are living long enough that retirees are inheriting from 90 year old parents. People born before 1970 married at age 20; if they live to 85 their retired offspring inherit after retirement and end up wealthier than when they retired.
My final (for now) thought is Duh, we are measuring this in dollars, not purchasing power. I bet if we measured instead how many months I can afford the nursing home we would see a more sobering result.
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All fair thoughts. Though your 3rd one about purchasing power needs to be balanced against what the user can & wants to do. This is semantics. But 90 year olds do not go on 2 month ski tours in Europe. As an example.
 
Norm said:
All fair thoughts. Though your 3rd one about purchasing power needs to be balanced against what the user can & wants to do. This is semantics. But 90 year olds do not go on 2 month ski tours in Europe. As an example.
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My in-laws were doing stupidly expensive cruises into their mid-80's. Also got to add a medevac rescue to one for my FIL. My 84 year old mother just did a solo trip to Croatia, though I think she'll probably outlive me. But, how people spend varies drastically. As Executor of my MIL's estate and Executor of my mother's family trust I know they each had/have similar savings. The amount one spent compared to the other is ridiculously different.
 
Bike N Gear said:
The mayor, who definitely has higher political aspirations, wants to grow Metuchen as big as possible without any regard to how it affects the residents. His goal is to draw people into town to spend. The current big push is the new Metuchen Arts District. They already purchased the Forum Theater and some of the properties across the street. They are taking the closed gas station and as of last night they want the property of University Radiology and it's neighbors. The theater is going to be completely knocked down and rebuilt to a larger theater for performing arts, concerts and what ever else they can use it for. They want more bars, restaurants and galleries if possible at the corner of Main and Amboy. To have sufficient parking, another 5 story parking deck is going up across the street behind the cemetery with additional retail and apartments.

All of this is less than 100 yards as the crow flies from my house. We can already hear everything that goes on downtown at night so my wife is EXTREMELY concerned. As a Construction PM, my wife has offered to help the mayor and has attended a bunch of behind the scenes meetings. The problem is their M.O. is to start something, spend a bunch of money on it and then introduce it to the public for comment knowing it is already too late to turn back. Government at its best. Bigger or more schools don't help their goals so they are ignored.
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I can only go off the articles I found and the accompanying pictures but I'd rather have a spruced up downtown area than a decaying gas station but that's just me. I live in my town's central district and it's terrible. I'd love if they repurposed the old doctor's and attorney's offices into something productive for the community.
 
Cassinonorth said:
I can only go off the articles I found and the accompanying pictures but I'd rather have a spruced up downtown area than a decaying gas station but that's just me. I live in my town's central district and it's terrible. I'd love if they repurposed the old doctor's and attorney's offices into something productive for the community.
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That gas station has been an issue for years. It's really the only eyesore. It needs remediation that the owners never wanted to pay for. The town wanted to take the property but didn't want to pay for the remediation either. There is a pending lawsuit. Either way the town is going to take it. Across the street are a bunch of 100+ year old victorians that will be demolished to make room for new mixed use space. Originally they proposed putting the 5 story parking deck right on the corner. Now it will be moved further back off Main Street. All the new mixed use spaces will need to find tenants when there are already numerous vacancies.

Our roads can't handle the traffic as is and it will only get worse. I used to be able to drive downtown and pick up dinner, be home in less than 10 minutes, now it's a solid half hour since it's just bumper to bumper traffic. All the food delivery drivers just double parking everywhere doesn't help, but that's a whole other issue.
 
Norm said:
All fair thoughts. Though your 3rd one about purchasing power needs to be balanced against what the user can & wants to do. This is semantics. But 90 year olds do not go on 2 month ski tours in Europe. As an example.
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hold my cane.
wait, I can't even ride a bike for an hour and I'm only 61!
f. I better start spending.
 
Bike N Gear said:
That gas station has been an issue for years. It's really the only eyesore. It needs remediation that the owners never wanted to pay for. The town wanted to take the property but didn't want to pay for the remediation either. There is a pending lawsuit. Either way the town is going to take it. Across the street are a bunch of 100+ year old victorians that will be demolished to make room for new mixed use space. Originally they proposed putting the 5 story parking deck right on the corner. Now it will be moved further back off Main Street. All the new mixed use spaces will need to find tenants when there are already numerous vacancies.

Our roads can't handle the traffic as is and it will only get worse. I used to be able to drive downtown and pick up dinner, be home in less than 10 minutes, now it's a solid half hour since it's just bumper to bumper traffic. All the food delivery drivers just double parking everywhere doesn't help, but that's a whole other issue.
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So, has your taxes gone down yet?
 
Bike N Gear said:
Doesn't mean the first half runs out of money, just that they have less at the end. This should be the goal.
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Probably not just "less at the end" but nothing at all. Since a large percentage of retirees are living solely off Social Security.
Bike N Gear said:
The average stay in a nursing home is less than 14 months.
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Average... after a stroke in 2019 that basically left her immobile and non-communicative, my aunt was in an assisted care facility for about 5 years. I have adjacent knowledge of the costs as for some reason, my aunt made my mother her POA instead of any of her own children - all of whom are at least 5 years older than me - probably because my cousins are... well... not the sharpest tools in the shed. But thanks to my grandfather and Medicare, money to cover care costs was not an issue. And... being in rural western NC where care may not be the best you can get, but it's somewhat more affordable.
 
Ian F said:
Probably not just "less at the end" but nothing at all. Since a large percentage of retirees are living solely off Social Security.


Average... after a stroke in 2019 that basically left her immobile and non-communicative, my aunt was in an assisted care facility for about 5 years. I have adjacent knowledge of the costs as for some reason, my aunt made my mother her POA instead of any of her own children - all of whom are at least 5 years older than me - probably because my cousins are... well... not the sharpest tools in the shed. But thanks to my grandfather and Medicare, money to cover care costs was not an issue. And... being in rural western NC where care may not be the best you can get, but it's somewhat more affordable.
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Our CFP was really pushing Long Term Health Care insurance but it costs about $7500/yr and limits the payout to like two years of care. Seemed too much for the possible payout. We’re just putting an additional $7500 into SPY and hoping for the best. Thanks to trump, hopefully we won’t need that any time soon.
 
Bike N Gear said:
Our CFP was really pushing Long Term Health Care insurance but it costs about $7500/yr and limits the payout to like two years of care. Seemed too much for the possible payout. We’re just putting an additional $7500 into SPY and hoping for the best. Thanks to trump, hopefully we won’t need that any time soon.
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My mom has LTC through John Hancock. $9000 a month coverage, no time limit. She pays $4700/year, but has had the policy for 20 years.

I was told about age 55 is the best time to buy before rates start to skyrocket.
 
Carson said:
My mom has LTC through John Hancock. $9000 a month coverage, no time limit. She pays $4700/year, but has had the policy for 20 years.

I was told about age 55 is the best time to buy before rates start to skyrocket.
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Well that makes sense my price was for two of us. We could have bought for a longer payout, but that just increased the cost.
 
Anyone have a recommendation for a good retirement calculator? Trying to figure out how our withdrawal's will change once my SS, then wife's SS, then RMD's kick in if I live that long. Still pushing my wife to try and pull the plug next year.

Also, anyone using the Marketplace for health insurance? I'd like to throw those numbers in the calculator too as our expenses will be higher for the next 3-5 years.
 
Bike N Gear said:
Anyone have a recommendation for a good retirement calculator? Trying to figure out how our withdrawal's will change once my SS, then wife's SS, then RMD's kick in if I live that long. Still pushing my wife to try and pull the plug next year.

Also, anyone using the Marketplace for health insurance? I'd like to throw those numbers in the calculator too as our expenses will be higher for the next 3-5 years.
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We couldn't find a calculator, so we made a monthly cash flow spread sheet to cover the the years as things change. Cobra/maybe marketplace/medicare/ss are all in play.
Also have some kid stuff still

More of a cost side. Then used a generic calculator with our needs and assumed growth/draw on investments
 
Patrick said:
We couldn't find a calculator, so we made a monthly cash flow spread sheet to cover the the years as things change. Cobra/maybe marketplace/medicare/ss are all in play.
Also have some kid stuff still

More of a cost side. Then used a generic calculator with our needs and assumed growth/draw on investments
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Did you try Boldin or MaxiFi or any other type of software? Trying to get a headstart before our next meeting with the CFA.
 
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