Your Retirement Savings

Theft is reals

citation needed

I just want to acknowledge that well-placed Shakefpeare ref

I'm somewhere in the middle here. I've put away enough that I'm not contemplating the plastic bag and sleeping pills option, but on the other hand I don't realistically have enough to retire on when I might want to. I'm guessing I'll have to sell my house and move to somewhere smaller and cheaper.

Our retirements plans are in good part not-spending: staying in an affordable town, not moving into a bigger apartment, bringing lunch to work, buying only what we need and when we can, day-to-day discipline.

We are well covered and put aside regular amounts on the equivalent of a 401k, but we have only just started. My partner took a one-way ticket here and brought 10K in savings when I had just enough left from a 10K student loan to buy a bed and couch. That was five years ago. Now we're in our late 30s, dual income, one kid. We probably both have a shot at making good salaries one day, if that's what we want.

The dream would be to make a lot, buy a house, retire early. The reality is that less and less people can do that.

I'm privileged in my bachelorhood: good job, state benefits, a Roth IRA, some savings. I often ask myself if I should be abstemious for the sake of old age because I've no illusions about who will help care for me, but then I stop and wonder, why not have fun now?

gaudeamus igitur

I will most likely work until I die, then I guess i'll wake up again the next day and go back to work again like nothing ever happened

i have a retirement date and will be comfortable after it as far as whats in my control goes, the focus is to bring that forward from here if i can

In 2020, I took an early retirement package that paid out more than if I was laid off. I was able to be in husband's health insurance for a reasonable cost and thought I might actually retire, just work part-time low stress until I could take early social security. But I got bored after 3 weeks and started consulting which was really lucrative but super high stress and basically 24/7. I bought outright an inhabitable doublewide in a 55+ park in 2021 with some of the proceeds, thinking I'd definitely get out of consulting when I hit 62. We'd get by okay on SS and my okay level of savings. I'd cashed out all my previous 401ks a dozen years before to fund a solo venture (not recommended if you have to pay penalties). Suddenly found a job I really really wanted to do, for 1/4 of what I was making consulting. It's a different kind of stress, a better kind. I got a wild hair to buy unimproved land in 2023 and cashed out another chunk of 401k for that. So now I've got low/moderate savings, a place to live I can afford that's okay, 20 acres to do something with eventually. Whatever gets thrown at us, I figure we'll adapt.

Folks at current job keep panicking all the time about when I'll retire, which earliest would be in 3 years but if I'm healthy and still enjoying it I'll be glad to continue. The healthy&happy equation is the important calculus though vs. can I afford to survive without.

I took voluntary redundancy from my office job during the pandemic and used the money to set myself up as a gardener. I don't earn very much now and my wife doesn't work due to her MS but we just about scrape by. I'm doing a job that I enjoy, i listen to music or birdsong all day long, I'm my own boss, and i spend most of the day away from a desk. i feel like i'm mostly having a positive effect on the environment (i'm steathily turning all my clients' gardens into mini nature reserves, just sneaking in little things here and there; i did get stung by bumblebees today though when i strimmed the grass too close to their nest, i tried to be their ally but they've turned against me). I don't have any real savings but as long as I can hang on to my health and don't injure myself falling off a ladder or something daft, then once I reach a certain age and our kids have moved on, I hope I'll end up just working mornings, pottering around people's gardens as a doddery old man, trying to be useful. At least it'll get me out of the house and keep me active. Things that might scupper this plan: my wife's health significantly declining so that she needs caring for; also the cost of running a crappy old van is killing me at the moment, and any surplus I currently make is used to keep that heap of shit going :(