Question about retirement and your personal experience

[Lobato1]

I only know me & it's scary...

When I retired 15 years ago come December, my Social Security pension was based on 35 years of my maximum Social Security earnings of which I had 38 years of maximum earnings. The only years I did not max were the years I started working & the year I retired plus being from the draft generation the year I was called to do my military obligation & the year I was discharged plus the actual 3 years of military service, meaning my Social Security is maximum.

But my Social Security pension makes up only one third of our annual income because the other two thirds comes from what used to be my 401k that when I reached 70.5 of age, I had to convert to an IRA to start drawing what is called the required minimum distributions & at this point in time, it's larger then when I retired.

This scares the hell out of me because 2008 was horrible for everyone I know including a cousin that lost 2/3 of the value of his 401k, my son's Father-in-Law lost 75%, a long time friend from my childhood lost 2/3 of the value of his 201k, our daughter's associate in her dental clinic being a hardcore Republican seems to me lost big time but is being mum about it, however he is still working his dental surgeon practice with our daughter & the guy is my age & the tough luck list of persons we know goes on forever.

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Best Regards

Lobato1

Question: has anyone ever personally known a family member or personal friend who truly retired by investing in their 401k plan?

By truly retired I mean that their lifestyle was the same after they retired as when they were still working and all of their after retirement money used to live was from their 401k and their social security.

Thanks, because it seems to be a bit of a myth as I know noone.

My dad died 2 years ago, 6 months after retiring at the age of 67. He and my mom were supposedly going to live off his 401k and social security.

After he died we had to help mom with the finances and found he had just $170,000 in his 401k which definitely doesn't seem like enough.

 

[Lobato1]

I wish I had a justifiable reason to buy a new car.

Since we returned from Europe to retire in our country almost 15 years ago, we've only purchased two & this last one has much less than 40,000 miles.

The reason being is that when we go on vacations further than 6 or 7 hundred miles we fly & rent a car at our destination where I then get to try new cars including the hybrids.

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Best Regards

Lobato1

Yes, I even save money. do not have to dress up. You can do as you please.no one to tell you what you have to do. take vacations. If you have invested wisely., not put all your eggs in one basket,life can be quite nice.

I just bought a new car,learning to use my IPAD. When I begin to miss my work,I wonder where I would fit it in,now.Life can be what you make it. feel sorry for yourself,or live!

 

[Lobato1]

We’ll see about that

When we returned from Europe for retirement after being abroad for more than 44 years, with the exception of multisystem TVs & VCR on NTSC, PAL & the newer SECAM we didn’t bring back a stick of furniture because we planned to custom build the home of our dreams as an investment including appropriate furniture.

Then after 9/11 when mortgage rates plummeted we refinanced to a 15 year plan meaning we would finish paying around 2016.

But then I panic when I thought the Mitt was going to win the elections because his plan didn’t make sense to me & we paid our mortgage so as not to have any debts.

E.g. Mitt was going to give a 25% tax cut to everyone at a cost of 5 trillion bucks, build a dozen warships plus a nuclear submarine at a cost of $2 trillion, restore the $760 billion for Medicare & he was going to pay for it by eliminating the tax $200 billion loopholes but he was going to keep the mortgage $150 billion loophole, so that left the $200 million from Big Bird to pay for it all.
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Best Regards

Lobato1

if u own your own home, it can be done

 

[Lapcat]

It depends upon how many more years your mom lives and what her lifestyle was ...or rather, if she is willing....or how much she is willing to cut back on luxuries and expenses in order to ensure that $170,000 would suffice. It also depends upon what kind of health she is in and what kind of insurance coverage she has. $170,000 would last most average-income retirees for quite a while, presuming that their house/home was already paid for and that all they had to fork over was car and home insurance, utilities and food costs.

Just wait. The Obama Leftists have already made noises about their wishful thinking agenda to get their paws on everyone's 401k and other retirement accounts. It's the last bastion of wealth that the DemocRats have yet to raid. But it's coming. Your mom should withdraw the money, pay the penalty and invest the money in items that might actually be worth something in the coming financial apocalypse that the DemocRats have orchestrated and ensured.

 

[lupehernandezdepedajack]

if u own your own home, it can be done

Yep having a paid for home makes a thousand dollar month difference. Of course I am not planning on retiring until 70 as I started my family late in life and decided that giving my kids all the opportunities I never had was more important than retiring. Otherwise I would have at least 100k more saved for retirement now and probably. I cashed in some mutual funds back in the mid 90's for a tidy profit which I used for my kids college one year Janus Twenty jumped 75 percent and I cashed it in for we'll over a hundred k. I do not know jackshit about investing but I did get lucky on more than 1 mutual fund selection back then

 

[bdtex]

Yep. SW48's top-post also said this:

"By truly retired I mean that their lifestyle was the same after they retired as when they were still working and all of their after retirement money used to live was from their 401k and their social security."