Retirement

[Carsman]

As I approach the big 5-0 (in a couple of years) I find myself thinking more and more about retirement. Will I be ready (financially)? WTF do I want to do? At what age will I be able to retire? You know....shit like that.

I guess it's more the financial shit that I think about. If I stick with my current mortgage, fuck, I'll be 77 when this house is paid off. I certainly don't want to work until that age.

I'm dumping 8% into my 401K...I know, I know..should be 10%-15%...but shit, there goes my fun money. Last year I had almost a 28% return..which kicked ass...this year, after spending the first 4 months with a -2% YTD, I dumped some funds, and invested in others..at least I've turned that around with a 4% return YTD (not bad, considering where I was a month ago)..but still, a far cry from 28%. I look back and kick myself in the as for not starting to save for my future when I was in my late 20's. I've got a nice little nest egg in my 401K...but that's in todays dollars..who knows what 2030 dollars are gonna be like? Hell, who knows if we're gonna crash like we did on 08/09? Boom, there goes the nest egg.

I look at my car, which I love by the way....and think...man, that's 5 bills a month I could be dumping into savings...did I REALLY need it?

Social Security...meh..what's that gonna be $1400/month or so? Assuming it stays solvent?

Anybody else around my age starting to think about this shit, and get a little depressed?

I was a little older then you (around 53 54) when my better half finally convinced me to start dumping all I could into my 401K. Luckily for me, (us) (thank God) I did, and I started to put in 20% of my salary for the next 9 or so years. (of which my company matched 50 cents on the dollar, up to 16%.) Prior to that, I was only putting in 12%. Anyway, when I retired, I wound up financially comfortable. Had I started putting 20% away 20 years earlier, I would have been RICH. Oh well, still doing OK.
The moral is time without money, stinks, conversely, money without time also stinks. Need to find a happy medium.

In addition, not to mention, many of the things you currently physically do now, you most likely will need to "pay" someone to do it for you when you are older, & retired. And that takes money, (like mow the lawn as I used to do, I changed oil in our cars, & rotated tires, I painted the house, to name just a a few) I now pay for lawn service, pay garage to change oil, pay painter to paint house, etc.. Money rules!