Very happy to report after 35+ years, still happy to be married. So, the question to plan for is where can we move that is close to a Wal-Mart and a hospital that is NOT in Maryland or any other place where the population is so disrespectful of their fellow man. As we own our house, being a one-floor grade level, I expect to stay here until I retire or get hauled out on a slab. Probably about the same time with the economy. I expect no "intermediate" house, but from here to a retirement apartment. I figure about two years after retirement to figure it all out. That makes it about 70 if our health holds. My wife was already involuntarily retired. Can't even get an interview as the discrimination against over 60 is rampant. They prefer to hire 20-somethings who text all day over experienced workers who work all day. For every year she can't work, I guess I have to work another myself. So much for my plans of retirement at 62. The real joke was how the "experts" back when we were in our 20's were telling everyone how they could make 10% savings and retire at 55 as a millionaire. Expected life was only 82 on average. Now it is more like 88 and you had better plan for 95. Well, a million NPV barely raises you from a trailer in Arkansas eating dog food. Then get sick just once! A really scary thought is the last years. You save enough for a nursing home to cover two years. Stats say about 18 months. But modern drugs, that length is expanding to three or four years, parked in a wheelchair in front of the communal TV and running out of money.
Yea, old age stinks, but I don't like the alternative. To add insult, in the last year I have noticed a bit of my top end hearing giving up. When I was 20, I could hear well over 20K. I have done by best to protect it over the years. I was testing a tweeter the other day, and was not sure I could hear it at my normal test levels above 17. Of course, I bet the average ear-bud, car stereo generation can't hear above 12 by the time they reach 30. I know several for sure. I don't know what I would do if I could no longer really enjoy listening to music.
Yea, old age stinks, but I don't like the alternative. To add insult, in the last year I have noticed a bit of my top end hearing giving up. When I was 20, I could hear well over 20K. I have done by best to protect it over the years. I was testing a tweeter the other day, and was not sure I could hear it at my normal test levels above 17. Of course, I bet the average ear-bud, car stereo generation can't hear above 12 by the time they reach 30. I know several for sure. I don't know what I would do if I could no longer really enjoy listening to music.
tubelab,
Have you thought about a recumbent bike with a suspension? I switched to an upright traditional with front suspension and a seat shock tube. If I watch how I stress my knees, it lets me get out and around the neighborhood. I am not bent over too far (lower back issues all my life).
Have you thought about a recumbent bike with a suspension? I switched to an upright traditional with front suspension and a seat shock tube. If I watch how I stress my knees, it lets me get out and around the neighborhood. I am not bent over too far (lower back issues all my life).
Perhaps one reason marriage is not so popular these days. Divorce on the other hand
It puts you in too much of a vulnerable position. The continual debasement of marriage in this country is quite to blame for this. I see the future of the institution being bleak, at least among those with half a brain.
After I got divorced I put a deposit on a house that cost £58K.
After 3 years I sold it and moved to the nearest city and with the profit bought a house outright. I was incredibly lucky, bought just before house prices rocketed in my area, while in the city prices were stagnant.
Better get a plan "C2" then...
If your out of work in the UK at 55 your going to have a tough time getting a job and then you might live to be 90 ish...
If you have managed to build up enough for a state pension you won't be able to get it until your 70 or older..
So whats NZ's gift to the retired?
Regards
M. Gregg
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Better get a plan "C2" then...
If your out of work in the UK at 55 your going to have a tough time getting a job and then you might live to be 90 ish...
If you have managed to build up enough for a state pension you won't be able to get it until your 70 or older..
So whats NZ's gift to the retired?
Regards
M. Gregg
Over here you can get the pension at 65, about $360 a week after tax, so not really enough to even pay rent if you live in one of the larger cities, if you own a freehold home you could maybe scrape by.
My real plan is saving 20% to 30% of what I earn each week and just stockpiling it in a high interest account, in the meantime I'll keep buying the lotto tickets and wearing fancy deodorant, just in case
Government/State pension ? (Gold card lottery winners in NZ)
(maybe the general idea should be to take care of the retirement financing yourself)
Well, I am taking a 43% hit to my retirement, and expect I won't be able to save more than another 15% trying to make it up. That said, by the time I retire I will have my house paid off and in good shape to sell. I expect the market to be in better shape by then and if I downsize 30% I can add the excess to my savings.
I plan to move out of the city to the county where taxes are less (I pay both in the city).
Hopefully I will be able to have a water well dug, and avoid that as a cost for gardening. A 10M x 10M garden can substantually reduce my food cost, and since I have gardened every year since 1978 I think I know enough to make it work.
Throw in a dozen guinnies for eggs and occasional one for dinner and I further improve my standing. Then there is fishing in the summer and hunting in the fall and winter.
The biggest question is health, and none of us can predict how that will go. Take care of yourself and do the best you can.
Life is a crap shoot, and no one gets out alive.
I plan to move out of the city to the county where taxes are less (I pay both in the city).
Hopefully I will be able to have a water well dug, and avoid that as a cost for gardening. A 10M x 10M garden can substantually reduce my food cost, and since I have gardened every year since 1978 I think I know enough to make it work.
Throw in a dozen guinnies for eggs and occasional one for dinner and I further improve my standing. Then there is fishing in the summer and hunting in the fall and winter.
The biggest question is health, and none of us can predict how that will go. Take care of yourself and do the best you can.
Life is a crap shoot, and no one gets out alive.
Took early an retirement/voluntary redundancy offer from a large international IT company when I was 52. Didnt want to go but my wife convinced me that the offer wouldnt get any better and she was right. Over the next year the dept I worked in went down from 11 to 2 and the package terms were far less generous. My package helped me
pay off my mortgage which was the best thing I did. I had worked for the company for 26 years and early on took the decision to go for the Contribution version of pension plan
which saved me financially though it was difficult to do at the time.
Tried to get a similar job but at my age no chance. Then a year later I was asked to go back under contract. Did this for a year then decided I prefered retirement.
Since then Ive done a fair bit of audio design consultancy which doesnt pay very much but keeps the old (Im now 74) brain ticking over.
But the most important thing is that both me and my wife have been pretty healthy
though she has given me a few scares from time to time !
pay off my mortgage which was the best thing I did. I had worked for the company for 26 years and early on took the decision to go for the Contribution version of pension plan
which saved me financially though it was difficult to do at the time.
Tried to get a similar job but at my age no chance. Then a year later I was asked to go back under contract. Did this for a year then decided I prefered retirement.
Since then Ive done a fair bit of audio design consultancy which doesnt pay very much but keeps the old (Im now 74) brain ticking over.
But the most important thing is that both me and my wife have been pretty healthy
though she has given me a few scares from time to time !
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It's actually more like a bond with deferred interest payments, and no principal payment at maturity -- i.e. just a future annuity stream. So what you have to do is take the present value of the annuity stream at your retirement age, and discount that back to "today".
There is a method of investing called "couch potato investing". The idea is you buy shares in companies that pay a dividend and most important in companies that increase that dividend every year or almost every year. Unfortunately the number of companies that have long term growth and increaseing dividends are far and few between. In Canada they are generally the banks, oil, gas, and pipeline companies. There are more in the US and Europe. I don't look at foreign companies too much as taxes get very complicated very quickly. Also if our dollar goes up/down so does the foreign income. Here some companies pay large dividends but they don't increase the dividend and inflation slowly eats away. One of the big pipline companies Enbridge has in the last 10 years increased their dividend from 44 cents per share to $1.40 a share, (about a 3x) while the share price has gone from about $12 to $52 a share. Pretty good if you can wait. You can google the big companies in your country to see which ones have the best dividend performance over a period of time. Remember don't put all your savings into one firm, bad things happen to the best. Typically no more than 5% of your savings into any one company.