Retirement

[floam412]

??? Pissed of voters elected Trump. My guess is that a vast majority of them were retirees.

You'll get SS, plan on it. In fact, any other money you "save" may get eaten up in inflation, so follow my "buy a house and reverse mortgage" suggestion.

Sadly, I think you're right about having to stay ahead of the inflation in order to make it to a decent retirement. I'm most certainly not able to buy a house right now (just out of school)... but I think what I need to do is tackle what always poses the most financial risk in terms of "interest". Obviously it would be nice to get rid of my student loans first before I buy a house. What would you say the "interest" would be per year on inflation in general? Never really thought of inflation in this context before.

[Martin Hash]

??? Pissed of voters elected Trump. My guess is that a vast majority of them were retirees.

You'll get SS, plan on it. In fact, any other money you "save" may get eaten up in inflation, so follow my "buy a house and reverse mortgage" suggestion.

Sadly, I think you're right about having to stay ahead of the inflation in order to make it to a decent retirement. I'm most certainly not able to buy a house right now (just out of school)... but I think what I need to do is tackle what always poses the most financial risk in terms of "interest". Obviously it would be nice to get rid of my student loans first before I buy a house. What would you say the "interest" would be per year on inflation in general? Never really thought of inflation in this context before.

Stretch out your Student Loans as long as possible, those are going to have some kind of "forgiveness."

If you're not married, focus on that. Your wife's career will determine where you will live (or your career if it is the driver). Then buy a cheap house kind of near where you work (40 min max). Then have kids as soon as possible. Don't run up bills. If you have some (other than Student) loans, pay those off first, then buy a house and pay it off as soon as possible.

[DBTrek]

That was some sound advice MH handed out.

The student loan part is a gamble though. Remember, when the housing sector hit meltdown there was a bailout ... but mortgages weren’t forgiven. Banks might get another bailout if student loans hit meltdown ... but that doesn’t mean you’ll be off the hook.

[PartyOf5]

Well my inquiry here is trying to make retirement simple. Retirement is just about money, yes? So you earn set amount, and that amount determines when/if you can retire. So the goal should be to earn that amount. Say your amount is $1 mil. Then your goal from 18 til 55 is to earn 1 million, yes? And you have 37 years to do so.

Just a small correction. If you are talking about having money for retirement, better to refer to that as money saved, not earned. When I hear earnings, I think the money you get in your paycheck. The part of it that you put away (either yourself or through a 401k) is typically called retirement savings.

If you are 18, that magic number may be 1 million. A lot can happen in 37 years, and that magic number will likely change over time. Best to save what you can, invest in a home as well. Real estate has its ups and downs like the stock market, but people need to live somewhere, and so real estate will always be a good long term investment.

[PartyOf5]

This thread has me thinking more about my own retirement plans. We have a home that will be paid off before either of us retire. We also have a rental property, 401ks and some other savings. Our savings are in various mutual funds. I've never bought individual stocks on my own, but have thought about that as another avenue to build savings and have a little more direct control over where our money is invested.

Maybe this spins off into another thread, but I'm looking for some advice on buying stocks. Should I get into that on my own or just continue to let the mutual fund and Financial advisers do that work for me? I'm not looking to pull money out of my 401k to buy stocks. More looking at an additional avenue for investment. Is there a preferred app or company to do this through? Where do I start?

[Martin Hash]

This thread has me thinking more about my own retirement plans. We have a home that will be paid off before either of us retire. We also have a rental property, 401ks and some other savings. Our savings are in various mutual funds. I've never bought individual stocks on my own, but have thought about that as another avenue to build savings and have a little more direct control over where our money is invested.

Maybe this spins off into another thread, but I'm looking for some advice on buying stocks. Should I get into that on my own or just continue to let the mutual fund and Financial advisers do that work for me? I'm not looking to pull money out of my 401k to buy stocks. More looking at an additional avenue for investment. Is there a preferred app or company to do this through? Where do I start?

Forget stocks. Forget all the hyped-up ways to make money passively.
Retirement is about not working but you will want to do something. Playing golf is for losers, but here's an idea:
Buy collectibles with that money you have earmarked for stocks, something you collect now. If you collect it, other people do too, and when you're retired, sell off the collection a bit of a time on eBay & at collectible shows. This method of "saving" is fun going in, and going out, plus, collectibles keep up with inflation.

Hint: only collect something that you enjoy collecting: don't make it a job, it's entertainment.

[DBTrek]

Speaking of cool things to collect:

[PartyOf5]

Speaking of cool things to collect:

No, no no. More like this:

[PartyOf5]

Retirement is about not working but you will want to do something. Playing golf is for losers, but here's an idea:
Buy collectibles with that money you have earmarked for stocks, something you collect now. If you collect it, other people do too, and when you're retired, sell off the collection a bit of a time on eBay & at collectible shows. This method of "saving" is fun going in, and going out, plus, collectibles keep up with inflation.

Hint: only collect something that you enjoy collecting: don't make it a job, it's entertainment.

I like that idea. It definitely sounds more fun than trading stocks. There is a lot of risk in collecting as an investment. See sports cards, stamps, or comic books for examples. Some can be worth a good chunk, but most are worth less than what people originally paid for them.

I do have some stuff I've collected (and some I inherited from parents & grandparents) that turned out to be worth something, but nothing to retire on. Maybe what I should collect is property. Real life Monopoly game

[Martin Hash]

Retirement is about not working but you will want to do something. Playing golf is for losers, but here's an idea:
Buy collectibles with that money you have earmarked for stocks, something you collect now. If you collect it, other people do too, and when you're retired, sell off the collection a bit of a time on eBay & at collectible shows. This method of "saving" is fun going in, and going out, plus, collectibles keep up with inflation.

Hint: only collect something that you enjoy collecting: don't make it a job, it's entertainment.

I like that idea. It definitely sounds more fun than trading stocks. There is a lot of risk in collecting as an investment. See sports cards, stamps, or comic books for examples. Some can be worth a good chunk, but most are worth less than what people originally paid for them.

I do have some stuff I've collected (and some I inherited from parents & grandparents) that turned out to be worth something, but nothing to retire on. Maybe what I should collect is property. Real life Monopoly game

Life is for your entertainment. If you are entertained by collecting, and take pride in it, then all it has to do is nothing, and if does something, then that's a lot better than spending a bunch on money on drinks and trendy food. Most "investing" is just inflation and collecting does the same thing with the same results.

p.s. Obviously, don't collect trendy items.