Retirement plans?

Now you tell me.....about 25 years too late.

Thanks.

 

Oh and Fidelity has a FREE retirement calculator. Yes it should be treated as a qualitative thing not quantitative. But you can put your current situation in, and amounts you contribute etc. To see what kind of income you could generate by their model. It will give you some idea that is beyond a guess.

 

Are you both employees or running your own biz?

 

Here is my advice: Find a modest house and pay it off as well as any other debts. When you get in your 50's, Social security will start mailing green letters forcasting your retirement benefits. Save up a little emergency fund of $10 - 15k or so. Before you retire, take care of any major repairs on the house (like a new roof). Then when you reach 62, do the math. If the numbers are positive by about $500 a month, you're good to go. It helps a lot if your in good health. Good luck!

 

Plenty of guidelines can be given but none of them are valid without knowing your current financial position. There's no great mystery to any of this that basic math won't tell you. Have more goes inta than you have goes outa. Live on way less than you make. Reduce your taxable income as much as possible via 401K and IRA investments. Invest any savings beyond that into reasonable growth index funds. Enjoy the wonder that is compounding interest.

If you took out $250k in student loans to get a degree in interprative peruvian dance then enjoy being broke. You have already lost the game.

 

what if you win $500k in a TikTok Dance Dance 2000 contest or do really well on Wheel of Fortune????

One could just get old like my uncle and get some $5/month medical policy to pay for all the ailements he spent his whole life acquiring.

 

Well we plan to buy a house for sure, mostly for investment. We’re going to buy one in Utah where we can still get one relatively inexpensive and have her sister rent it from us along with a roommate we had before who is great. So it will pay for itself. The van life part is strictly to secure in some part our retirement, after which we’ll buy a house in the LA area. My lady is going to continue schooling even after finishing her pharmacy tech program to become a pharmacist. Money won’t be an issue then. But no matter what life throws at is, we’ll at least secure our twilight years for a short term sacrifice while we’re relatively young. I’ve made a lot of money in the past and squandered it all, and with me creeping on 40 it makes sense to sacrifice a few years to play catch up.

 

>> buy a house for sure, mostly for investment

FAIL! You by a house to secure a roof over your head first.

>> after which we’ll buy a house in the LA area.

Double fail....get the hell OUT of Taxifornia if you truly want to save for retirement. It's going to be a LOT harder saving for retirement paying %13 percent income taxes.

 

a roof over your head costs money whether it’s renting or buying. Without income it’s a fail either way. There’s plenty of people who buy homes as investments and rent where they actually live. Everything I’ve read seems to point to it as a smart investment. I think the old mindset of a house being the nest egg is outdated. I could be wrong


Also.... I did my time outside of California. I won’t leave again. Not permanently.

 

But that roof over your head is parking your money in place you can acces it later. If you are lucky it increases in value at a rate higher than required to maintain it and you sell it later at a profit. Doens't always happen but should be viewed as the goal.

You only buy a house for 1 of 2 reasons.

1. To live in and pay off as quickly as possible.

2. Pay cash for it and rent it to create a revenue stream.

Anything else is a fools errand. You certainly shouldn't be buying one for someone else to live and pay you rent if their is a mortgage attached to it. When they don't pay the rent your mortgage payment will still be there to be paid. If you do it certainly don't put family in it as that is almost a sure fire way to fuck yourself and alienate a family member.

So far if I had to evaluate where you'll be in 20 years in terms of retirement is not a single dollar closer with the way you are currently thinking.

 

You still won't to cut the cord with Utah, uh? It's like you have battered woman syndrome.

 

Actually, I gotta admit...that's fucking well said.

 

My woman’s entire family is in Utah. And with the way things are going politically, we figured it would be smart to keep something there in the event that civil unrest gets out of control. Utah won’t devolve into craziness. We still have our apartment there, so I just figured owning would be money better spent. Apparently not.

 

How did i get there at 55 and while aint grabbing the brass ring yet getting durn close . 1 - get your house paid for and put that stuff first . 2- invest somewhat aggressively and spend rather conserative . 3- take care of your big ticket items with maintenence , cars bikes refrigerators and washers and dryers etc , just basic stuff but is working well for my humble abode . Cheers

 

"gets" ?????

I'm not a BIG 2A guy...never really mattered to me. I've always just liked punching holes in targets at the range.

I'm just waiting for my Maryland Wear and Carry permit to be approved and arrive in the mail.

 

oh yea forgot the most important thing . Stay away from credit card debt as best as you can .

 

Ummmm no, sorry.

You now get that info online from SSA. Further when a couple is involved it is far from that simple. Upon death of a spouse the survivor gets the higher of the two benefits. So since females live longer you want to maximize the better of the two earners by postponing past 62 and maybe even full retirement which is I think 67 for the OP.

Also at some point there is crossing were your total benefit is higher if you wait to full retirement instead of getting the earlier lesser benefit at 62. I seem to recall it is 78 but don't trust me on that.