I’m one of the people that waited a bit too long in my opinion. Which resulted in much larger payments to have retirement policies etc in place. Personally I only started planning for retirement in my 40’s. And I must tell you that you will pay a lot more than when you start early. But I’m sure I’m not the only one. We lead different lives and life takes us to unexpected places sometimes.
But it’s never too late to start. Because even ending up having a little at retirement still beats having nothing at all!
When did you start planning for retirement? And how far are you from retirement?
DEON CHRISTIE i still have a long way to go
with saving money for any thing. Seem like
i pay some thing off and some thing pops
up where i have to use the money.
For myself, planning for retirement includes saving money, investing in assets and constantly reading books to learn more about money and the creation of wealth.
I still have a lot to learn but I don’t think I will have a traditional “retirement”, but my goal is to be able to leave an inheritance for my (future) kids and grand-kids.
How I will achieve that is still a work in progress…
I think it’s a work in progress for most of us @moore.income. Apart from retirement plans and all the technical side of things. My goal is to get my internet business large enough to do as a retirement “job”.
Also don’t think I’ll have the “Traditional Retirement”. I started a little late with retirement plans. So I have to explore options (online marketing) to supplement my cash flow.
But still working on that, not quite a DotCom Millionaire…yet. I will need a little more time to get there.
In college, a social education class talked of the difference between business employees and civil servants, including teachers when it comes to employment. In business there is a risk, but if a person is fortunate and works hard, they will earn more and should be able to save a lot more for their retirement, but they themselves are responsible for that retirement for the most part.
I am a retired teacher. That same class talked about public employees - service to community is more important than ‘tons’ of money, but in return for that service these employees expect to be financially secure in retirement as part of the reward of that service.
In a lot of ways I was lucky. When I started work, I didn’t have a choice about planning for retirement. I was automatically signed up for a retirement plan with monies going to the state pension board and to a retirement plan managed by a local financial planner. The corporation paid some and I paid some.
Next when IRA’s became a thing, all employees had to talk to one of two companies and decide whether to buy into an IRA or not - They offered one that started at $15.00 a month, which I enrolled in. Since I’ve retired I no longer pay into it, but the interest keeps building and that interest percentage is higher than any other account I have. It is not in the millions, but it will hopefully cover meds for a year or two. It will be the last IRA to be cashed in.
I also started my own savings accounts - I had two through the years, one to save for taxes, car insurance, travel, emergencies and one account just for retirement.
Then the credit union affiliated with my job offered an IRA through our work’s payroll deduction plan. I took them up on it. In both of the IRA’s cases I never put in the full amount that was allowed by the government. I didn’t have the money - but what was important was saving any amount money, any amount is better than nothing.
As I said, I’m retired now. I’m living on a pension which is a little less than half of what I was making when I worked. I receive a small amount of the interest from my financial planner to put away for taxes/insurance each year and I’m trying to hold off on social security a little longer.
The key for all of those out there is to set up some account, be it IRA, a savings account, talking to financial planner and setting something up with them - and if possible to automatic deductions. Start small, but start something and then any chance you have start another account. Don’t have just one account, the economy and people’s greed can wipe out one account, if you have more than one account you have a better chance of ending up with your money when you need it in retirement. I see all of the ‘nontraditional retirements’ on other posts. You can say nontraditional all you want, but at some point your body and brain will say to you ‘enough is enough’ and you don’t want to be forced to work to the point where it will kill you.
@ekuhlens Thanks for all the advice. It sounds like you applied some good financial sense early on!
I did mention a non-traditional retirement but I was mostly referring to the fact that I don’t expect to retire from a traditional job with a pension, I am still a huge fan of financial planning and having money set aside for the future.
For the most part, I worked as an independent contractor with no employer offering benefits…ie retirement, pensions, health insurance, etc. The same neighbor CPA I mentioned in a previous post started me out with a Keogh plan which is basically a ‘pension’ plan for self-employed people. At some point I rolled it over to an IRA, but I honestly can’t remember why I did that…it was upon the advice of either my current financial adviser or CPA… but I would bet it had something to do with the tax deferment of a standard IRA. Another great tool for self-employed is an HSA health insurance plan, and that probably requires another topic discussion in the forum!
Moore Income, I can do that but I have to leave to volunteer at one of my favorite places…a local public elementary school! (referring to another post by you! LOL!) I really enjoy the subject matters you post, Moore Income, so feel free to start the ball rolling on HSAs
Ok, done…but I am not a pro on HSAs so hope some who are will share information on the post under “Insurance” category. I actually found HSAs to be almost too good to be true when I had an account, there are so many advantages for self-employed people.
And I’d forgotten until I did a little brushing up on HSAs a few minutes ago, I did roll-over my remaining balance in my HSA when I turned 65 and joined Medicare; it help pay for my supplemental Medicare insurance plan for awhile…with tax-free income invested years ago and tax-free for the rollover. It’s close to “free money” …at least Uncle Sam-free money.
I started in my 30’s thanks to a good friend and neighbor at that time, a CPA, who taught me a lot about making money work for you.
And you’re rather fortunate and wise to have used the advice. I started a little late, but then rather late than never right? Something is always better than nothing.
@ekuhlens Thanks for all the advice. It sounds like you applied some good financial sense early on!
I did mention a non-traditional retirement but I was mostly referring to the fact that I don’t expect to retire from a traditional job with a pension, I am still a huge fan of financial planning and having money set aside for the future.
Always good to have some money set aside. I did start planning for retirement a little late. Therefore I have to put a lot more effort into both my online journey and current job. But then hard work never harmed anyone right?
In college, a social education class talked of the difference between business employees and civil servants, including teachers when it comes to employment. In business there is a risk, but if a person is fortunate and works hard, they will earn more and should be able to save a lot more for their retirement, but they themselves are responsible for that retirement for the most part.
I am a retired teacher. That same class talked about public employees - service to community is more important than ‘tons’ of money, but in return for that service these employees expect to be financially secure in retirement as part of the reward of that service.
In a lot of ways I was lucky. When I started work, I didn’t have a choice about planning for retirement. I was automatically signed up for a retirement plan with monies going to the state pension board and to a retirement plan managed by a local financial planner. The corporation paid some and I paid some.
Next when IRA’s became a thing, all employees had to talk to one of two companies and decide whether to buy into an IRA or not - They offered one that started at $15.00 a month, which I enrolled in. Since I’ve retired I no longer pay into it, but the interest keeps building and that interest percentage is higher than any other account I have. It is not in the millions, but it will hopefully cover meds for a year or two. It will be the last IRA to be cashed in.
I also started my own savings accounts - I had two through the years, one to save for taxes, car insurance, travel, emergencies and one account just for retirement.
Then the credit union affiliated with my job offered an IRA through our work’s payroll deduction plan. I took them up on it. In both of the IRA’s cases I never put in the full amount that was allowed by the government. I didn’t have the money - but what was important was saving any amount money, any amount is better than nothing.
As I said, I’m retired now. I’m living on a pension which is a little less than half of what I was making when I worked. I receive a small amount of the interest from my financial planner to put away for taxes/insurance each year and I’m trying to hold off on social security a little longer.
The key for all of those out there is to set up some account, be it IRA, a savings account, talking to financial planner and setting something up with them - and if possible to automatic deductions. Start small, but start something and then any chance you have start another account. Don’t have just one account, the economy and people’s greed can wipe out one account, if you have more than one account you have a better chance of ending up with your money when you need it in retirement. I see all of the ‘nontraditional retirements’ on other posts. You can say nontraditional all you want, but at some point your body and brain will say to you ‘enough is enough’ and you don’t want to be forced to work to the point where it will kill you.
You’re most certainly a planner I must say. Especially how you so elegantly instruct “Start small, but start something…”. Love it, couldn’t agree more. But that applies with just about everything you do online or otherwise. Success lies in small beginnings. and then objectively building something. Goal for goal and brick by brick. It always takes a lot longer to build a Castle though.
For the most part, I worked as an independent contractor with no employer offering benefits…ie retirement, pensions, health insurance, etc. The same neighbor CPA I mentioned in a previous post started me out with a Keogh plan which is basically a ‘pension’ plan for self-employed people. At some point I rolled it over to an IRA, but I honestly can’t remember why I did that…it was upon the advice of either my current financial adviser or CPA… but I would bet it had something to do with the tax deferment of a standard IRA. Another great tool for self-employed is an HSA health insurance plan, and that probably requires another topic discussion in the forum!
That is a great idea as a forum discussion. You seem to have gathered quite a bit of experience. There are 3 Forum topics available which may work well to get a conversation going. Perhaps you would like to post your suggestions in the Retirement, Investment or Insurance Forums? Thanks for your input.
