There's an ETF which does this -- Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF -- I don't know how dividends on something like this (a US ETF) get taxed in Canada. We were lucky for a few years when they were only taxed at 15% down here.
When I was in HS I won two shares of stock ($8 each) in Duke Power Company. The dividend was something like $.50/quarter. In the 90s I realized they had a stock reinvestment program and deferred dividends to it. I wish I had done that the day I received the stock. Today it is worth near $1000. Had I done that back in 1970, I would have a nice amount today.
I bought a life insurance policy from Prudential when I got married -- when they converted from a mutual company to a listed corporation they sent me 138 shares! The value of the stock was more than i paid in premiums.
In grad school they used to poo-poo the notion of whole-life insurance. The dividends, however, grow free of tax and you can borrow against the increase in cash value when you get to be an oldster, allowing the death benefit to pay off the loan.
In grad school they used to poo-poo the notion of whole-life insurance. The dividends, however, grow free of tax and you can borrow against the increase in cash value when you get to be an oldster, allowing the death benefit to pay off the loan.
Here in the Great White North I believe there is a 20% withholding tax on foreign investments. Forms have to be filled out, calculations on foreign income vs national income, sometimes a foreign income tax form etc etc etc. Real PIA. We have this thing called RRSP Registered Retirement Savings Plan. Foreign money can be held in an RRSP without any withholding tax, but only a small %. Better than nothing.
I took a quick look at Vanguard ETF "VIG". In december of 2012 the share value was about $63 and paid a quartly dividend of $0.50 a share or about 3%. Now its value is $73 and pays a quarterly dividend of $0.33 a share. The dividends are going in the wrong direction. A solid firm does not cut their dividends. During the financial crisis of 2008-09, a number of solid performeres did not cut their dividends even though their share price took a nose dive, thereby protecting the poor joes from taking an income hit.
Example Bank of Montreal "BMO" their share price dropped from the $70 range to the $20 range and still the dividend stayed at $0.70 a share. Their share price has now recovered and they are increasing their dividends. yeah!
I took a quick look at Vanguard ETF "VIG". In december of 2012 the share value was about $63 and paid a quartly dividend of $0.50 a share or about 3%. Now its value is $73 and pays a quarterly dividend of $0.33 a share. The dividends are going in the wrong direction. A solid firm does not cut their dividends. During the financial crisis of 2008-09, a number of solid performeres did not cut their dividends even though their share price took a nose dive, thereby protecting the poor joes from taking an income hit.
Example Bank of Montreal "BMO" their share price dropped from the $70 range to the $20 range and still the dividend stayed at $0.70 a share. Their share price has now recovered and they are increasing their dividends. yeah!
US tax law on dividends changed in 2013, so many companies posted extra-ordinary dividends during 2012.
One of the reasons that so many states and municipalities in the US are having difficulties with their budgets is that they over-estimated how much income was realized in 2012 in anticipation that the tax rates would be dramatically boosted in 2013.
I have been buying shares in my employer for 23 years now via payroll deduction and have yet to sell a share. No fees for the transaction or account maintenance, and the stock has never missed or decreased its dividend for over 100 years. I figure the overall return (including dividend reinvestment) to be about 10% year over year for 20+ years. I can live with that.
I'm 55 now. I was planning on working until 62, but had a major health scare last year. I wound up in the hospital with signs of a heart attack, turned out all three of my major coronary arteries are enlarged enough to consider them aneurysms. The lining of the RCA apparently tore causing a big blood clot. "Spontaneous coronary artery dissection" was the diagnosis. Very rare, especially so in men, 80% of cases are in women. Amazingly enough I didn't lose any heart muscle, but I have had to stop cycling with the local club or otherwise stressing my ticker.
I now plan to retire as early as I can afford to, not knowing when the next 'event' might turn out less well. Luckily I'm used to living on 3/4 of my salary and saving the rest. And I actually get a defined-benefit pension from my employer on top of 401k contributions. Pretty rare in the private sector any more. 60 is sounding pretty good right now. I just may be able to swing it, despite a divorce, 16 years of child support and putting two kids through UC schools (Davis and Santa Cruz).
This is why my audio projects (and automobiles) tend to be on the low budget side...
Bill
Man, I'm in a similar boat. It sucks. I could have retired at 55, but now it looks more like 60+. My new wife wants me retired now, but that's not financially feasible.
Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. You probably had different priorities back then, as did most of us. I'll be happy if my retirement actually materializes, or, in other words, that the money will actually be there when I do retire.
Lots of exercise will eventually cure your health ills, but in your condition you have to start gradually. It's a life style change, for sure, so it's not easy for most people to do.
Firstly. Sorry to hear that has happened to you.
I also just came from an RCA vs BNC thread so your reply made me blink twice..
I took one look at the "Pushing the limits of the TD1543" thread and looked at the resistors/regulators required and flinched when I saw the price of them. So I too am very much into budget projects that are up and running from scratch for less than $100-$200. I also LOVE the K.I.S.S philosophy.
I usually tell people that I'm retired, it helps them understand that way. But it always bugs me that nobody actually knows the truth. Political Correctness is exceptionally annoying.
I personally am 30 and am on Disability for a considerable amount of mental disability and trauma. Something that you never get over, ever. None of which I can tell to anybody because when I do tell them they think I'm a sorry loser and a whinger and think I should be killed or murdered just to put me out of my apparent "misery". At least that was the impression that I got when I've opened up about my problems.
Its hell because its so boring and because people will treat you like **** for being on Disability but not being physically disabled. but I wouldn't trade it for the world because it gives me considerable amounts of free time and a small amount of money to spend on projects and to think. AND to take care of my two elderly parents.
I don't expect to be able to buy my own house or be able to ever work in a job because I'll never be employed anyway. (Been looking for a job for a while now.) This no doubt makes others treat people like me as scum that should be kicked out of a car window. Feared and kept at a distance at all times. Despite there being no danger to themselves or to others.
I've come to accept it as the state of things, because if I didn't I would've gone completely mad and I'm pretty sure that I did quite a few times actually but I got over it, I got through it and shook it off and "carried on". I do work on projects in the vain hope that they will somehow make me money and make me something that I can use/sounds good. but I'm not pushing myself with it for a lack of knowledge or talent, I see others on this forum who are far more talented and sometimes when I'm on a good day I will wonder why or how they managed to do that. But on other days it turns into jealousy.
Jealousy is one of my father's main traits, he destroyed my life with jealousy. I wanted to be a physicist or chemist, nope, he wouldn't have that.
That's partially the reason why I have a beard. People treat you with so much more respect if you have a full beard. I done it because I just don't give a **** about looking immature anymore. So much has been done to me that I don't really care about my physical apperance. I maintain it just enough to keep me out of the psych wards. It used to be a pretty common thing for men in this country to walk around in t-shirts with holes in them and jeans or shorts that date from the 50s but nowday's it gets you cast out from 'modern' society (Don't know how it is over in the US) but keeping good looking clothes on your back these days can break the bank if you're on welfare. They are just too expensive!!
I hate the whole notion that you /must/ keep up appearances despite getting into thousands of dollars of debt which could kick you out of home, just to impress someone. The last few generations are going to have a really bad headache I think once they reach 80 and realize all of the money they wasted on clothes/cars/mcmansions/gadgets.
I Garden, I buy Gold (as an investment), I work on electronics projects, These things make up my existence and I gotta say it is a pretty good existence, I like my life. I might get into woodworking soon too, the tools were given to me by my dad. Maybe one day I will be able to build my own little house on a flatbed trailer.
I thought about asking a guy if he could train me as an electrician but I lack the discipline to do a trade like that and its insulting to me that I have gathered all of the knowledge that I've gained so far in my life and am forced to work by twisting wires together. There is no way in hell that I could be able to do the math side of things so that job is a dead end anyway. This country wants to see my papers before they will let me work on peoples houses. and I'm too moral to do it illegally unlike some people in this country do.
A lot of people are getting laid off once they reach 40-45 anyway nowdays and finding that they cannot get a job because all they've done is worked for the mines so I've got to fight against them too for the same jobs that I'm after. Its hopeless when you think about it.
I haven't really got a point to make I stopped making points early on, why, because there is no point in making points. The only advice that I can give is that patience is a virtue and perseverance is necessary to get you through the toughest times and be stingy with everything, if you think you are stingy now then wait until you need to survive on $500 fortnight.
So I just carry on... It helps to have friends both online and in real life. I go fishing quite often.
If there was a point to this post it was that even at my level I can still invest. It all depends upon just how much money you want when you retire. When you are like me and think $1,000 is a lot of money then $10,000 or $100,000 is actually not that bad of a nest egg. It doesn't matter just how rich or poor you are, you can always afford a cigar.
If you were to ask me to quantify my existence into one sentence it would have to be that "I'm just too smart to be Jesus and too dumb to be a Hippie." or vice versa depending upon your political viewpoints.
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Dirk,
"Lots of exercise" may be how I wound up here. The day before I wound up in the ER / cardiac catheter lab, my Saturday bicycle ride was 53 miles in the CA foothills. Over 23 miles of rolling climbs outbound my heart rate averaged 160 BPM, with a couple of peaks at 175+. The return was a bit easier being downhill, but we took it at full speed in a paceline so it was still a hard effort. At 54 years old my theoretical max HR was 166 (220-age is the old rule of thumb), so I was in good enough shape to do things the books would say I shouldn't have been able to do. Like spending 2 straight hours flirting with my anaerobic threshold.
Years of acting like that are probably why my coronary arteries are now in shaky shape. The hard thing for me is not getting started exercising and ramping up, it's throttling down to a level that maybe won't kill me. The cardiologist's suggestion is 30 minutes of moderate exercise (e.g. walking), 4 days a week. My compromise is to keep my cycling down to usually 30 miles or less, and my HR down to 130 +/- 10.
Bill
Freax: Life is an endless learning curve. We see and hear endless new things we never ever thought of.
Take you for example. All around you there are scriptures like Buddhism and the Vedas and other Western equivalent ones that try to 'teach' one how to face the hurdles of life and remain 'sane'.
It looks like maybe you have never got the opportunity to read these scriptures like the Vedas and about Buddhism. They make millions of copies and have hundreds of lectures every year and just a 'very small' number of people actually achieve anything from them !
You however have achieved a LOT , WITHOUT reading them ! From your blurb it's obvious that you have figured out what works and what doesn't without depending on 'scriptures' or lectures ! That fantastic.
So it's incorrect to say that you haven't amounted to much when actually you have gone BEYOND what most people really achieve. It's not what's in your pocket that ultimately matters it's what in your 'head' ! If we look at humans globally there is a great rush to fill one's pockets at the expense of having an empty 'head' ! Otherwise why would people be killing and maiming each other and doing unspeakable horrible things to fellow humans after over (at least) 5000 years of " intelligent development" ? ' Empty head' and 'full pockets' is the reason !
So look after your parents well. You can't imagine the trauma ( in their head) that they would be going through worrying about you AND they would never talk about it to anyone. Parents are precious. Give them a good time while they are here! Let them not leave worrying endlessly.
I hope people read and re-read your post. It's ILLUMINATING ! You've done VERY well in spite of all the odds.
Wish you all the best.
Cheers,
Ashok.
Take you for example. All around you there are scriptures like Buddhism and the Vedas and other Western equivalent ones that try to 'teach' one how to face the hurdles of life and remain 'sane'.
It looks like maybe you have never got the opportunity to read these scriptures like the Vedas and about Buddhism. They make millions of copies and have hundreds of lectures every year and just a 'very small' number of people actually achieve anything from them !
You however have achieved a LOT , WITHOUT reading them ! From your blurb it's obvious that you have figured out what works and what doesn't without depending on 'scriptures' or lectures ! That fantastic.
So it's incorrect to say that you haven't amounted to much when actually you have gone BEYOND what most people really achieve. It's not what's in your pocket that ultimately matters it's what in your 'head' ! If we look at humans globally there is a great rush to fill one's pockets at the expense of having an empty 'head' ! Otherwise why would people be killing and maiming each other and doing unspeakable horrible things to fellow humans after over (at least) 5000 years of " intelligent development" ? ' Empty head' and 'full pockets' is the reason !
So look after your parents well. You can't imagine the trauma ( in their head) that they would be going through worrying about you AND they would never talk about it to anyone. Parents are precious. Give them a good time while they are here! Let them not leave worrying endlessly.
I hope people read and re-read your post. It's ILLUMINATING ! You've done VERY well in spite of all the odds.
Wish you all the best.
Cheers,
Ashok.
Reminds me --- Preparation is what makes a successful and rewarding retirement. Got to have all your bills paid... house paid and plans for what to do to prevent boredom from setting in. And, a stock of parts. And... eat right and exercise, of course.
If you can...... leave the country (USA)... it is WAY too expensive to retire here. Else where... free medical. No property tax. Lower cost of housing Nice people. Etc.
-Richard Marsh
If you can...... leave the country (USA)... it is WAY too expensive to retire here. Else where... free medical. No property tax. Lower cost of housing Nice people. Etc.
-Richard Marsh
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Got to have all your bills paid - √
Plans for what to do to prevent boredom from setting in - √
And, a stock of parts - double √
And... eat right - triple √
If you can...... leave the country - √
Well just answering the question not the all thread
In the age of 48 i would like to meet the creator in my shop when the time comes . Meaning i don't have plans to retire at least from this work ever
This what i wish to do don't if i will manage
I am 48 been working in this job ( repairing audio) since i was 13 and i think that my appetite for this job is increased more than ever ....
In the age of 48 i would like to meet the creator in my shop when the time comes . Meaning i don't have plans to retire at least from this work ever
This what i wish to do don't if i will manage
I am 48 been working in this job ( repairing audio) since i was 13 and i think that my appetite for this job is increased more than ever ....
At 66, I have no plans to retire. I actually like what I do for a living, which is good, because I also like living in the house my wife and I designed and built 6 years ago... We're underwater on the mortgage, and have no equity. No, we don't want to leave here. Good news, we're reasonably healthy...
I was made redundant at 56 and decided to work freelance at interesting things, with 37 years with one employer I got a partial pension which meets the main bills. Now do some teaching, some wiring, and some project work. I was looking forward to the spare time to pursue interests - but there is too much to do!