During retirement most source(s) of income will be...... (UH-OH?)

[mjp28]

During retirement most source(s) of income will be...... (UH-OH?)

Well like it or not we probably will be or already are in retirement.

Here is a poll, source: Allstate/National poll of 1,200 adults.
Multiple responses allowed.

(in the USA TODAY 4/13/2012)

So where are you or where will be?

65% Social Security
44% Pension <--- an endangered species?
40% Personal Savings
28% 401(k) <----better get going?
23% IRA <----- also like the 401(k) a great tax savings tool

I'll bet there's a BIG difference in responses if your 35 than 65.

[Zhurh]

The wife and I both have had 8.9% taken out of our paychecks for many years. Actually, it lowers our tax rate and I now most of our pensions is our own money not govt welfare. I'm still terrified about pension insolvency and the devaluation of the dollar. My strategy for survival is living rural where I can keep my costs down, use less fuel, heat with wood, live off what the land & river provides, (meat, fish, garden). No fast food joints or wally worlds or taxes where we call home and my favorite vehicle is an antique 1990 300 six ford half ton that gets 21 mpg,(I luv old trucks).

No joke, I really do believe I'll be hunting gold locally too someday, when everything goes belly up financially.

[mjp28]

I can tell you younger guys to listen to the older guys (I'm 61), if you start earlier, even small amounts it will pay off.

And yes it's not always easy.

If you need or want any general saving or investing information just ask, besides a lot of pretty sharp and helpful guys on this board I have some experience in this field.

My undergrad is in IND MGT, minor in ECON, my MBA is a dual major in MGT and FIN plus I have some pretty good tax experience.

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by Zhurh

The wife and I both have had 8.9% taken out of our paychecks for many years. Actually, it lowers our tax rate and I now most of our pensions is our own money not govt welfare.

Hey Zhurh, how're you doing! I see most financial "experts" are telling people NOW if you're near 50, or younger if you can in your 401(k)s to be at least 10%, if you're 55+ to be at least 15%. I just recently raised my wife's 401(k) to 12%....it will probably go to 15% before long.

No joke, I really do believe I'll be hunting gold locally too someday, when everything goes belly up financially.

Any gold veins in NE OHIO that you know of?

[carver]

Retirement from U.S. Postal Service, and SS, I'm 63. Same for the wife. Life ins, and Health ins, that covers us both, eat up most of my retirement. Gotta cut back on the Life ins.

[bobski]

hate to tell you, those already in the woods are paying out the nose for wood, as it becomes more scarce. woods are starting to look like america before teddy protected it with national parks.
and the older you get, that ax doesnt get lighter.

been there, still here, doing that. aint fun.

my wifes daddy was living on a cabin in ark growing up. it wasnt pretty. when he joined ww2, he never went back once he tasted electric heat and gas stoves. built a new home with new appliances and raised 5 kids with heat and air conditioning. my wifes mom still lives in it today...at 92, and laughs at the thought of new generations wanting to go back to that old life in the hills. they dont have a clue how hard it is......if you live it the right way with some knowledge of it. for those just going blindly, GOD HELP THEM....she says.

she reminded us to look at allthe old photos of the old days.....nobody was smiling.

take the hint.

that wood isnt going to be lying around waiting for you to pick it up. youll be paying for it. savings my eye.

[gvw3]

My retirement plan is the lottery. Better happen soon as I am not getting any younger....


Only kidding. (somewhat)

[armoredman]

I "retired" now, staying retired for about 6 months, enjoy some time with my family while we are still young enough, then back to work until i croak. Nobody in my family dies of old age, not too worried about retirement. Just making sure I have plenty of life insurance.

[ryan42]

Im 43 when I was 20 I was tired of working long hours for know pay cleaning carpet.My dad had 3 yrs left to retire and he said lets start our own.We started from scratch and built our own carpet cleaning business thats still running today.When I was 37 yrs old I was on top of the world.Beatiful wife,2 kids making plenty money good health.1 year later injured my back 2 surgeries,discovered wifes bad heart neither can work only recieve disability.One good thing is I did a 10 yr loan on the house and it will be paid off in October.Got a pretty good settlement from work comp and paid off the vehicles and the boat.Never did use credit cards.I guess what im trying to say is nothing is promised for tommorrow so live your life to the fullest and appreciate every thing you have,and love your wife and kids like there will be no tommorrow cause life is precious.

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by gvw3

My retirement plan is the lottery. Better happen soon as I am not getting any younger....

Only kidding. (somewhat)

Yeah a lot of people are, lottery sales go UP during bad times. Plus almost every state is getting in the ca$ino business....more poor people taking their paychecks to the blackjack and crap tables. C'mon 7 or 11.

Just buying a dream.

[geds]

Originally Posted by mjp28

Yeah a lot of people are, lottery sales go UP during bad times. Plus almost every state is getting in the ca$ino business....more poor people taking their paychecks to the blackjack and crap tables. C'mon 7 or 11.

Just buying a dream.

More like RENTING a dream

[gdmoody]

I am retired from the Army so I get a check from them.
I presently work for the Post Office and plan on retiring from them Dec 2014 so hope to get a check from them.
I turn 62 in Dec 2014 so I hope to get a SS check (if there is still such a thing then).

[geds]

Originally Posted by mjp28

Hey Zhurh, how're you doing! I see most financial "experts" are telling people NOW if you're near 50, or younger if you can in your 401(k)s to be at least 10%, if you're 55+ to be at least 15%. I just recently raised my wife's 401(k) to 12%....it will probably go to 15% before long.

At age 55 are they saying 15% including employer match or 15% total?

[ms6852]

Wife retired from teaching after 38 years, I am retired army receiving a small pension and still have another 6 years to go to retire from Civil service with a small pension, and also putting 32% of my pay into thrift savings plan which is like a 401k for the last 15 years. Still do not feel secure.

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by geds

At age 55 are they saying 15% including employer match or 15% total?

They almost always refer to your GROSS pay, figure the match as a gift you SHOULD ALWAYS MAX THE EMPLOYER MATCH! FREE money.

Remember:

Gross Income (or Total income which includes Interest, UC, etc.) - adjustments to income (like 401(k), IRAs) = Adjusted Gross Income. (IF you pay state tax AGI is generally line 1).

AGI - PE and STD or Itemized Deductions = Taxable Income which is where your actual Federal tax is determined in the tables.

Some credits like EITC then further reduce your taxes or add to your return.
--------------------
SO 401(k)s or Traditional IRAs can save you money figured from your highest tax bracket! Roth IRAs do not.

If you do not have a 401(k) you can open an IRA yourself.

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by gdmoody

I am retired from the Army so I get a check from them.
I presently work for the Post Office and plan on retiring from them Dec 2014 so hope to get a check from them.
I turn 62 in Dec 2014 so I hope to get a SS check (if there is still such a thing then).

You should be fine, anyone 56 years old or older will get the numbers they have been mailing you in those yearly written estimates.

Now if you're 30, 40 even 50 you better start saving more on your own. The trick is what and where you put your money. Cash, stocks, mutual funds, bonds, coins, whatever.

Save but be careful, I like to D-I-V-E-R-S-I-F-Y, not all in one nest.

[Zhurh]

Geds, wifey and I are in our 50's and we wonder if our pensions will be there; (it's all our own money out of our paycheck every month, no state or school district contributions) but they seem to get away with stealing whatever they want to anyway. We can't up the 8.9%. One of my hunting buddies was a marine captain, in 8 years; then taught 27 years until retiring. He gets 4800/month from his pension and always tells me it will always be there as it's state backed and Alaska has hundreds of years of resources. I'm not so sure with the greenback going down the drain and economic problems we are facing. Ya know, if fuel goes up to 20 bucks/gal and all other food & supplies & expenses increase; what does it even matter? 4 gran/ month might only buy 100 dollars of stuff. That's what kind of happened in Eastern Europe after communism died. The 500 dollar/month pensions the old folks had done quite well on, didn't even buy their food. So, I've really tried reducing my expenses as I tend to believe that if the collapse ever occurs, no amount of paper money will do; and if it never comes to pass, we'll keep doing fine and stay satisfied with our quality of life.
My biggest expense now is two kids in college, no joke. Snowing today, 33 degrees; Soon as Caps/Bruins game is over, wifey and I are heading out on snowmachines.

[geds]

Originally Posted by mjp28

They almost always refer to your GROSS pay, figure the match as a gift you SHOULD ALWAYS MAX THE EMPLOYER MATCH! FREE money.

Remember:

Gross Income (or Total income which includes Interest, UC, etc.) - adjustments to income (like 401(k), IRAs) = Adjusted Gross Income. (IF you pay state tax AGI is generally line 1).

AGI - PE and STD or Itemized Deductions = Taxable Income which is where your actual Federal tax is determined in the tables.

Some credits like EITC then further reduce your taxes or add to your return.
--------------------
SO 401(k)s or Traditional IRAs can save you money figured from your highest tax bracket! Roth IRAs do not.

If you do not have a 401(k) you can open an IRA yourself.

I understand how they work and participate in 401Ks and in both IRAs. The question is the amount recommended based on total contribution (e.g. my contribution plus company match) or just my contribution? I understand the amount is 15% of gross. In other words do I contribute 15% of gross toward retirement and the company provides their 3% match on top, or is the 15% of gross including the company's 3%?

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by geds

I understand how they work and participate in 401Ks and in both IRAs. The question is the amount recommended based on total contribution (e.g. my contribution plus company match) or just my contribution? I understand the amount is 15% of gross. In other words do I contribute 15% of gross toward retirement and the company provides their 3% match on top, or is the 15% of gross including the company's 3%?

Let's put it this way, analyists have looked at where people are in their total savings, more than 50% have less than $50,000 in savings going into retirement and many have near or at $0.

They now recommend or suggest raising the savings levels over current levels because taxes will almost for sure go up and government help may go down. The amount of your GROSS pay is still up to you whether it's 5%, 10%, 15%, they don't really factor in the companies part because they can vary widely. My wife's went from 6% to 0% to 3%....you can't say the MATCH will always be there.

Also an unmatched 401(k) is essentially an IRA -but- there are benefits to staying with your company's 401(k), mainly (generally) lower fees plus my rule #1, systematic savings!! (every pay)

I remember when an 8% or more annual return on your savings was a given, it isn't a given now.

Remember too the "Rule of 72":

A rule stating that in order to find the number of years required to double your money at a given interest rate, you divide the compound return into 72. The result is the approximate number of years that it will take for your investment to double.

For example, if you want to know how long it will take to double your money at 12% interest, divide 12 into 72 and you get six years.

At 10% it will take about 7.2 years.
At 7% it will take about 10.2 years
At 5% it will take about 14.2 years

Currently 5 year CDs are paying about 1.7%, that will take about 50 years to double your money.

That's why the suggest you save more, currently dividend paying stocks might get you a 2-5% dividend yield....in the stock market.

[graehaven]

All throughout history, around the world, economies that run on fiat money (like ours - they all do) eventually go belly up. And one of the things that ALL the governments did was to SEIZE ALL THE RETIREMENT MONEY from private accounts.

It's been done before, and it'll be done here. They've already talked SERIOUSLY about how to do it. And they ARE going to do it.

I wouldn't put any money into any "private" investment account. The GOV is going to take it all.

I plan to soon cash out my 403b and take the money now. Take the penalties. Pay the taxes. GET MY MONEY OUT OF THE SYSTEM.

Don't invest in the system.

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by graehaven

I plan to soon cash out my 403b and take the money now. Take the penalties. Pay the taxes. GET MY MONEY OUT OF THE SYSTEM.

I know a few people that have done that, particulary one with ~$100,000 who was shocked with what he had left. He basically blew his life savings.

One with $180,000 who now has a car and is near broke. $18,000 for the 10% penalty, some went in higher tax brackets, remember taxes are incremental 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, (35% over $388,000). Parts are in several brackets. Bad move! (remember you can annuitize it and NOT pay the 10% regardless of age)

Don't invest in the system.

Seriously, where are you going to put it? I'd like to know.

[graehaven]

I stopped funding it 5 years ago when the paper system began to tank. It's not that much. Under $10k.

I could put it into almost anything and be better off. I could have bought $8,000 worth of anything 5 years ago, and sold it all for more money today, in cash, with no tax penalty.

The paper system is about to go up in smoke.

I will NEVER gamble in paper again.

[graehaven]

I could still buy almost anything with that cash and make money on it.

I'd probably by silver, gold, ammo and another safe.

And in 10 years I'll still be better off than leaving it in paper.

[mjp28]

Originally Posted by graehaven

I stopped funding it 5 years ago when the paper system began to tank. It's not that much. Under $10k.

I've lived through about 7 bear markets, the 1987 was bad, 2007-09 was worse....and I made out like bandit!!

When stocks tank, 401(k)s go down, people bail they don't realize stocks are ON SALE! Most people can't take it and bail out and realize the loss (bought high sold low, bad move)

14,164 on October 9, 2007. Then the mortgage boom went bust! (pre Obama)

6,626 in March 2009 the Dow has fallen 7,401.24 points from the October 2007 record, a 52% drop. Stocks were dirt cheap. (Obama just in as president)

It then has rocketed up to 10,000 then 12,000 then 13,000.

If you stayed in and bought you ended way up with way more shares which is the name of the game plus the stocks pay dividends upon dividends.
----------------------------------------
Now you are hedging gold, silver and other durable goods against the dollar which is a strategy.

I've been in the market about 40 years, I'd rather be a bit more diversified over time but it's your decision.

[graehaven]

And, here's why I buy silver....

http://silverstockreport.com/2012/mo...ipulation.html