I completely sympathize with your situation. I’m only 33, but I already have concerns about my own retirement! You are absolutely correct to be worried about the way this country is going. For example, between medical bills (my employer had the foresight to not offer medical benefits, so I’m having to pay for both my hip replacement surgeries out of my own pocket) and student loans, I‘ve shortsightedly managed to get myself into a incredible amount of debt. And here I am, looking for employment in the worst job market this country has seen in eighty years. If only I had just exercised a little foresight, I could have avoid all this! If only millions of people just like me could have just had some foresight! But don’t worry about me. I’m pulling myself up by my bootstraps, you won’t see me asking for anyone to “contribute” to my welfare! In forty years or so, I’ll have all that debt paid off, and I’m sure I won’t have any of the worries you have about retirement. I mean, if I had to worry about scraping by on my pension, my social security benefits, my significant savings, and my way too big, paid for house, I would be terrified of retirement too!
Rob, I am in the same boat, I am working on making myself needed more and more by the company that I work for. I am 37. As for my dad, he is "retired", now he works part time for a friend at a marine shop and on another friend's 1970 351C 4V Mach I...the car should have been done 2 years ago, but the friend keeps coming up with more ideas and projects...so far he is about $100,000 into a $40,000 car...go figure. Add in that he is working on a 1932 Ford of his own...he is still real busy
Yes, I'm more fortunate than most, and that's why it's important to point out that only the very rich don't have to worry about retirement. That pension will be in fixed 2014 dollars, assuming I retire next year. It's not one of the generous state-paid ones, with inflation adjustments. Over the next 20 to 30 years, even the "nominal" inflation rate of 2-3% will bring its buying power down to a third of what it would be now. A few years of the disastrous fiscal policies of the Jimmy Carter era, when inflation ws over 10%, could leave me with even less. If you've been following the govenment's efforts to "control" Social Security costs, you'll know that they have been re-defining the way they calculate inflation for the purpose of cost-of-living increases for SS recipients. While it is still "adjusted" for inflation, the annual increases in Social Security are not keeping up with inflation. So, to a large extent, I'm on my own. My savings have increased since I was your age, but once I stop working, that will stop and I'll strt to draw down the principle. Yeah, I could live well for 5-10 years, traveling the world and doing all those things my financially-naive wife wants to do. But, I don't know how long I'll be around. Even that question troubles me. Do I plan for 15 years? 20? My father-in-law is 96. Do I need to stretch my savings 30 years? And, as I take money from my 401K, I'll be paying taxes on it, too.
I admit I’m really not nuanced in the intricacies of retirement planning. I understand that it may well be difficult for you to maintain your standard of living when you do retire. What I took issue with was your idea that the government wanted to take your money for things that would benefit people who were too foolhardy or lazy to plan their lives properly. Things like, I assume, nationalized healthcare. I want to tell you about my family. You don’t have to read it. No one does. It is as much for me as it is for anyone else. I’m still trying to make sense of everything myself. When my father was 18 years old, he received a letter from the government, letting him know that he was going to spend the next year or so repairing m-113 tanks and duece-and-a-half trucks in the mud in Vietnam. So he did that. When he got back, there were bills to be paid, so he went to work in the family sign business. He worked there for the next twenty years or so, until my grandfather got sick. And the insurance company, that my grandfather had paid into for most of his working life, said Ha Ha, jokes on you., we don’t cover what you’ve got! The business was foreclosed on, my dad was out of work. My grandfather died a few years later, literally penniless. For the next several years, my father worked a series of jobs, all of which offered limited benefit packages. During this time, I started to develop severe allergies and asthma. I was bouncing in and out of the hospital several times a year. The bills were high, but we received help from the county, and things never got completely overwhelming, but they came close to it many times. We carried on. Fast forward a few more years, I spent a year in college, took some business classes, saved some money working part time jobs. Me and two friends started a model railroad oriented hobby shop, and it was a lot of fun, and a lot of work. For four years. Until the recession. When the wallets closed up, we closed up. Not long after that, I started developing pain my hips and thighs. I spent a few years in literal agony everyday, with no diagnosis. Finally I got one- avascular necrosis. Both my femoral heads were rotting away. Double hip replacement surgeries. During this time, I was working “part time” 39 hours a week at Radio Shack. No benefits. But I was making too much money to qualify me for county medical assistance. About a thousand dollars a year too much. My parents helped me pay for the surgeries. They both drew on their social security benefits early to help me pay my bills. They also burned through most of their meager savings. To keep me from being sued by debt collectors. To keep me from literally winding up in debtors prison. Today both my parents are healthy, and for that I am very glad. They are both 67, old enough to now qualify for medicare benefits. They live on their social security benefits, and my mother still runs a daycare out of her home five days a week. My father does handyman chores around the neighborhood, repairs lawnmower engines, still sweats everyday, as he has done his entire life. They have a house. They have a car. They have no savings. They will never retire. They will work the rest of their lives, until they can’t work any more, and that will be that. It doesn’t take much to see a pattern developing here. I can’t say how much better off me or my family would have been with access to affordable health care. But it certainly couldn’t have made things worse. The millions of people going bankrupt in this country, using every penny of their savings to pay for completely unforeseen medical issues, would agree. So yes, it may be difficult for you to manage your retirement. It may be difficult for you to maintain the standard of living to which you have become accustomed. I really do understand your desire to keep what is yours. But for you, or for anyone, to imply that hard working people, the true middle class people of this country, have somehow wished misfortune upon themselves is not only wrong, it is insulting to everyone who has struggled to survive, through circumstances far beyond their control, in the richest country in the history of the world.
True, this is beyond the scope of this message board. Just started typing and stuff came out. You'll have no more trouble from me, captain!
Nor I, but I'd like to say that I don't consider working people to be "lazy and foolhardy." And, I find few, if any, lazy and foolhardy people on train forums. A couple of guys on my project at work have retired in the last few months, and the rest of us have been looking around, saying, "Who's next?" It's very strange when the answer is "Me."
I'm in the same situation, having to quit due to serious health issues. Big problems with my feet, in my case. Still waiting on SSDI information. Have been doing MUCH better since I stopped working!! Can't do as much as before, which is not a bad thing mind you...... A bit more time to spend with immediate family as well.
Well, I ONLY have 37 years to go! Theoretically, if I worked until I was 65 and drew retirement I'll have 43 years with my employer (state government). We'll see how much they take away from "us" over the next few years. Lowest-paid state employees in the US, Pay raises frozen for 7 years, coal tax money is disappearing fast so the budget is getting squeezed every year. If they decide to prohibit overtime this year, I'll have to go out and get a second job. We don't have an incredible amount of debt, and my check pays for the house, truck, utilities...Just short of a couple credit card bills. Think about retirement? Ha! I can just barely get everything paid for and we're on WIC. Enjoy retirement, most of my generation will have no idea what that is!
Well I’m 64 and I have had a full time job since I was 16. That’s 48 years, but unfortunately most of it was hard laborious work that pretty much ruined my body. I’m now struggling to make it till 66 and now just doing one year at a time while praying I make it. Everybody told me to work hard when I was young and I took it completely the wrong way. lol I look forward to being able to do what I want to do, when I want, but the financial hit is going to be tough and that along with my health will limit what I can do. My biggest fear is that retirement will be short lived due to health and for some reason all I hear about these days are people passing away immediately after retirement. I just heard on the news a few days ago of a guy found dead 1 day after he retired. I had a boss that just would not retire and when he finally did, it was only 6 months before he passed. Anyway, I would be very happy to play with trains all day long for at least another 10 years and longer would be better.
Well, I guess it's my turn to throw in with these OF'ers. I was forced into retirement with a rather serious heart attack and other health complications. It wasn't my plan to retire so soon. I don't miss the work or responsibilities but kind of found my self lost with no purpose. I can assure you model railroading won't fill the void but having other friends who enjoy the hobby, does. We've formed up a round robin group and enjoy operations nights, work bee's and the likes. We've held two Open House Layout Tours, one well attended and the other well...we picked the wrong date. We don't all agree on how to wire a layout, lay track or build houses but we do enjoy each other's company (sometimes) all though it can get testy at times. Someone suggested we need a president and I thought the resounding, thundering "NO" was going to blow the windows out of Carl's Jr.. Got the manager involved in that one. :teeth:Grin! There's no way in my retirement I want to be isolated from other's. That was what I enjoyed about the various jobs I had and hat's of authority I wore. Upside: My favorite was as an administrative assistant and/or department head for two hospitals. Working on various committees and at the pleasure of our administrators. Those were good years. Downside: I didn't like being a mortician. Had it to do over, I'd of never gone into that money grubbing business. It used to be about serving families and seeing them through a tremendously hard time. Today, it's about who can talk a family into spending the most money. Personal service taking a bust. Not for me. Besides, the employers I had never did appreciate and/or respect my abilities. I worked to dam hard for them, for to little and often times was not compensated for the OT hours I put in. Pay back can be a bi+ch I've seen to it that none of them are going to get me, when I go. NO Sir, not a chance in hades. To be sure I'm in nor hurry for a dirt nap. Oh well, it is what it is. I've been in a harrumph about my model railroading. I pretty much have all the equipment I set out to collect. Some of it is trash while most of it is top of the line. I have a layout built, over run with mice, requiring two resident mousers to even things up. Now they like it out there and don't want to move. I was able to purchase scenery supplies this last summer and as soon as I get some warmer weather, it's back out to the train shed to get some work done. Which reminds me, I need to finish up chores, head for the shower as the BVMR's might want to get together, sit and suck up some tea, cokes and grab a burger. I don't need to smell like cat $hit. Would you rather I say bowel movement? Angry in Big Bear.
Had that happen to a fellow I knew. He'd been planning for years, saving, got an RV and was all set to start travelling. Retired and in less than two weeks passed away. Coincidental? Or the shock of such a major lifestyle change? I, too, started working young. And put in the hours. I'd get up anywhere from 3 or 4 in the morning. Do work at one my businesses, then go to work for someone else, come home and back to work on one of my own businesses. at 1 or 2 am, nap for an hour or two and back at it. Going 110, 120 and more hours a week. Made the money to do things I wanted, such as drag and boat racing. Had nice muscle cars to drive, etc. Should have heeded the signs, which started showing up in my early forties. Ten years later health really started going away, yet I kept at it. Then my health collapsed, and also helped empty bank accounts. Back to "square one", left with many very interesting experiences, a good amount of real knowledge and memories. And, thankfully, my RR hobbies. So it goes. My longevity is questionable, with all the damage done by injuries and illness. My choices. Regrets? Well, no sense bothering, as nothing will change. I'm going to watch a college football bowl game, then spend some time at the model RR work bench, and maybe later after dark, try hobbling around the block to look at Christmas décor in the snow. Seems like a fairly pleasant way to spend a painful day. Hopefully everyone else can find their own little comfort zone, and enjoy...!
This has been a real interesting thread for me to read as I retired just under a year ago and can report - so far, so good. I can really relate to much of what has been said in all the posts and thank all of you for sharing your experiences. I saw a lot of guys at work over the years stay too long trying to maximize their pensions and then never make it to their retirement. Just heard about another one over Thanksgiving. I had always planned to leave when I was eligible so I could enjoy whatever remaining years of reasonably good health I will have. Retirement is a time to do what you want to do on your own schedule at your own pace. For most of us, that may include spending more time on our hobby. For those who are married, it’s important to balance that with what the wife wants to do. I agree with Bryan that retirement can be a mentally challenging process. To me it’s been to make the shift to partially live off savings after so many years of saving but other than that it was a rather easy adjustment. So good luck Bryan, I’m sure you’ll do fine. Brad Myers Peninsula Ntrak / AsiaNrail My Blogs: http://www.n-scale-dcc.blogspot.com/ http://www.palisadecanyonrr.blogspot.com/ http://tokyo-in-nscale.blogspot.com/
I'm a mere 4 years 10 months from early retirement and 9 years 2 months from full, all on so-called "Social Security". I still foresee working some PRN hours in my field (clinical laboratory medicine) because, despite some of the BS I've dealt with from penny-pinching corporate idjits in Tennessee, I still like this field after 34 years. What I do helps doctors to treat their patients, and I have done this gig for 34 years. When that day comes where I hang up the lab coat for the final time, I may feel awfully melancholy, but I have plenty to do around here- so far, my health is good, and I'm taking steps to try to keep it that way. The house we live in will always have something needed done on it, the grass will always need to be cut, the weeds hacked back, and of course the layout (which will never be the massive empire, but one I see as much more manageable for me) will always need work- scenery, cars to build, DCC to learn how to install, etc. Plus, I'll have a little more time to spoil grandkids (my true wealth)........ I don't want to sit & fossilize, I want to keep up with what's going on and try out what I think would be fun. And, God willing, I want to spend time alone with my missus. No set schedules, no bosses, no timetables. I see that day coming soon, but until then I'm still workin in the here & now, one day at a time. To those who have marked off for the last time from work, happy retirement!
Retirement isn't bad once you get adjusted to living on the pension you receive from your employer but do not try it on SS, which is a joke...lol. I have been retired for 12 years and am enjoying it immensely. I have loads of time for my trains that I never had before. I keep quite busy that is for sure. Happy New Year All!
I’ve been thinking a lot about retirement lately and I just don’t think I can make it till SS. I loved my job when I was young, but now it’s become so hard on my body. Plus the cost cutting and safety BS has become so stressful that it’s affecting my sleep and health. I’ve had offers to do office work, but I’ve worked outside my whole life and I just can’t be confined to a desk. Plus I hate the sound of phones ringing because it almost always means trouble at least in my business. I’ve recently been looking at all the stuff I’ve accumulated over the years and I think if I had the time, I could sell most it on eBay to help pay the bills until I’m old enough to collect SS.
