Barring any global events probably. I am quite fortunate.
To start with me and my wife are both sw engineers.
I earn some nice big company stock, from when I started to 5 years later it’s 10x’d. I was a few years late to really hit jackpot but I still made a lot and will hopefully continue to gain. My company also matches the first 6% of my rrsp (a 401k for canadains) and I contribute 8%. I also have a maxed tfsa.
I am a pretty aggressive budgeter so I make sure we spend below our means and build uo other savings as well.
There’s a bit of a “problem” at my company where many of the senior staff basically have blank cheques because only they understand the overall architecture. I hope to also end up in this position. I knew a guy that worked 2 half days a week for at least 2x my salary with vacation time to boot. All he did was answer questions for a few hours then go home.
I bought a house during a panic price drop in 2020 got a really cheap price and then sold it for a huge profit and bought a run down duplex that is a bad investment property but a good place to live for my polycule (in a super walkable neighborhood to boot!). I plan to die in This house. I got what will probably be an all time low interest rate of 1.7% and have been paying it off faster than necessary. When it renews next year at 4-5% I will hopefully keep the same monthly. If my monthly doesn’t grow above that then I’ll be pretty on track to have it paid off before I turn 45, giving me more money to save and also lowering the amount I need a month.
If interest rates go down or me/wife gets some nice promotions or my company stock does another big climb then kids might even be on the table.
I don’t think think I’ll ever “retire” in the traditional sense.
My thought was to always have a severe mental breakdown around 50 and run off to the woods to build a log cabin and grow my own food. My wife knows of this plan but I’m pretty sure she thinks it’s a joke. It’s not.
No, I imagine they will come a point where I’ve decided I’ve had enough and just end it.
Ha ha ha ha, no. We do have savings so at least some cushion but I took years off when my kids were born, got a late start in college, started a career later, I would say I got the time when I needed it I guess. But not likely to have enough to take time off paid work again at the end.
Most people don’t get to decide, they get disabled or laid off & cannot find work and are forced into retirement. I’m in good shape and work in an office so probably can keep going as long as jobs last for me, and our life will be better if we keep working.
I started maxing my Roth Ira out when I was earning $10/hr. Avoid spending money on things that don’t literally matter and save for the things that do. Pay attention to where every single dollar/pound/Euro/shekel goes. Stay out of debt. Keep drug/alcohol use reasonable. Most of the time folks who are concerned about retiring/money have no idea how much they spend on what. Saving for retirement is easy once you start doing it and get used to it, but you need to start early and you need to invest in the stock market. Avoiding chronic illness or accidents or long periods where you aren’t earning income are probably necessary too. Staying out of legal trouble is probably necessary as well.
Yes, as a Swede I’d say we have way greater chances of reaching retirement, but it still comes down to saving by yourself if you want to live reasonably while retired.
I set myself a “spending budget” every month. After salary comes in i move what goes to bills and such expenses into a separate account. I divide whats left into 50/50, one half into savings the other to leisure. My savings account is set up to make long term investment into stock groups managed by the bank (unsure if there’s an english word for this, we håll them “fonder”). Usually i dont spend all the leisure money either way because i rarely purchase things and whats left when next months salary comes around also goes into savings.
I’ve been blessed by my parentes to start off with some savings so saving by myself once i started working was also allt easier.
To properly secure your future you need to earn enough money to even be able to start saving. Truly a “society” moment.
No, my people dont live long. My wife will though. It makes me happy knowing that between both our labor she will be able to eek out a living in old age
sorry to intrude, i’d like to know who your people are
My family tree. I’ll be a miracle if I make it out of my sixties. Whereas my wife’s grand parents all made it to their mid-nineties.
She could likely live 30 years past the point of my death.
No.
Existence had grown exponentially more expensive in my lifetime, well outpacing what a 401k or pension will realistically ever be able to achieve. At best, it might buy me 5-10 years after I am physically unable to work; if I mentally decline too soon due to age (quite likely in my family), I will die in poverty.
That isn’t even touching on the possibility of a habitable climate or war, and assumes the survival of the current economic system.
I enjoy working in my field, but as other commenter said, I have no interest on working until death for shareholders to be happy. I do plan to work until I’m dead, incapable or just tired, but I’m planning to enjoy it while it lasts.
Independence for me would be not having to respond to a higher up, just me, my craft, and peaceful money earned by not overstressing my ass. I’m building my own house now, after I have a place to live without rent, I have no more ambitions than eating, sleeping and be with my loved ones. I don’t need to overwork my ass to death to get that. Maybe 4 hours a day, or two-three days a week should be enough.
I think most people would do the same if they could, most people like working, they just despise the oppression of this rigged system.
If there were a steady growing economy and no crazy events for the next 20 years, and no major health issues, my Roth 401k would probably be enough for a modest retirement.
I was just wondering what the penalty would be to withdraw everything before 59, so I could figure out if it would be enough to immigrate somewhere with reasonable healthcare and a social safety net that would take those worries out of the equation. I think since it’s Roth it would just be 10% of gains + one-time capital gains tax?
It might be enough. Simply having a lump of $ makes so many more countries welcome to immigrants.
I intend to. I refuse to die in old age, wasting my life working to support shareholders. Have a good few decades left to even be close to that though and I hate it.
Nope, never. My retirement plan is a ditch with a nice view of the Rockies in Colorado and a bottle of gin on a cold winter night. Everything I’ve saved into (SS, TSP, retirement accounts) will inevitably disappear before I can access them/hit the age requirements. I don’t trust the system at all (I didn’t trust it before the election outcome either). I’m fucked. We’re all fucked. Might as well live it up now while I still can.
Nope because I’ll never afford it. I’ll be at my desk on the phone listening to my BPD patient scream in my ear for the millionth time that she absolutely must come off the medication she needs to stay alive that she’s been on for 20 years because it’s giving her a rash (not possible and shes doing this for attention), and I’ll quietly expire into an exhausted puddle.
Edited to add: I have an excellent pension but it still won’t be enough. I have zero savings thanks to my SO wrecking my finances.
Yep. I just always put money in my 401k, I don’t know what a paycheck without 15% going to retirement looks like. I’ve still got at least 30 years to go.
Yes, I’ve got a detailed plan and I’m sticking to it. In 12 years from now, my youngest will be 15 and I can start winding down. I can’t imagine doing nothing, but with some part time work I think my wife and I can stretch to make it work. Requires that the oldest self-fund through university, which I had to do, so I’m ok with that.
Currently 47, which is probably substantially older than most people here. The concept of “retirement” (winding down) seemed so far away (didn’t start saving for it until late twenties) but compounding interest really is the most powerful force in the universe.
Of course if the stock crashes, plans may have to change. I’m slowly moving towards a stronger bond mix but that lowers return and pushes dates out. It’s a hard balance.
I think I’ve accounted for everything that one can plan for; late life care costs, risk of both my wife and I living to 100 (in a financial sense, we should all be so lucky), higher spend until 75, then lowered. There’s a risk that the UK removes universal state pensions, which would drastically alter my plans.
I’m putting enough money away that I see myself retiring. At minimum, I would transition to a less stressful job about 10 years away from retirement and ride that out as I go to work less and less.
That said, I know I’ll kill myself if my health degrades too much. I haven’t decided what would happen if I run out of money.
