- This topic has 14 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 1 month ago by
.
-
Topic
-
-
Replies
-
I have roughly 13 months, before I can collect Government pension but it will only meet half of my monthly expenses. I have worked since I was 15 and have had a full, mostly rewarding automotive career. As of today I’m tired of the every day grind getting ready for work, the 30 min. drive with people not paying attention to their driving, dealing with the greedy management wanting to make every dime possible with NO regard to how you feel about your day, the way cars are built today and complexity of them. Dealing with younger egotistical fellow workers that treat you like an “Old Fart” not to mention my aches and pains (that I try to ignore) from all the years of punishment doing this job.
I want to retire tomorrow but there is No way that I can. As far as the future I can’t see that I can retire for at least 5 years when my wife can collect her pension.
I had planned on joining my Son in the computer business, (which I partially funded with my savings) but with P.C.s giving way to smart phones and tablets there is barely enough work to keep him busy these days. I make a few dollars repairing computer motherboards (replacing blown capacitors) but my eyes aren’t as good as they once were.
Sooo….I’m gonna just take one day at a time and see what happens.
Retirement for me means living (literally) to see my 65th birthday, that’s 11 years away for me.
At 65 years of age I can access my pension money without getting skewered with “penalties”. These “penalties” are pretty unpalatable, in my case, there’s a 38% reduction to my pension check amount if I want to retire early at age 55 (to deter one from retiring early – it’s working).Everyone in my age bracket has had their Social Security eligibility age pushed up 2 years to 67 and I’ll consider myself lucky to see any of it if I live that long, and the younger workers, well they’re just screwed, they’ll have to pay into the system and get nada, zip, zero, out of it.
The above is dire but it gets worse.
Mom had a stroke in 2007 and coincidentally, work in new commercial construction was softening and I was laid off. The bottom really fell out of the jobs market in 2008 and that was the year Dad had a cancerous tumor cut out of his chest and chemotherapy to boot, and now add his Alzheimer’s/dementia to the list of things I have to deal with. They’re both stable now but both need full time care.
My full time job now is called being a Caregiver to my parents, I live off of their Social Security income and what savings they have. Financial people (on TV and online) say that people my age are in their “prime” earning years and how we should be socking away as much money as possible for retirement,
I hear that and I just want to thank them and Wall Street bankers by beating them about the face and neck, repeatedly.So I’m stuck at home with no income nor health insurance and I have to wait for my sister (she’s the only one with a paying job) to take some vacation time and relieve me so that I don’t go supernova on this existence. At least I still have a roof over my head, for now… Retirement – It’s a nice concept in theory.
Bill
PS My political view in story form. This woman calls and asked for me by name on the home phone that’s on that so called “do not call” list. She told me that for her survey she need to know if I consider myself a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent? I replied pleasantly, “none of the above because they all suck”, after saying that, all I heard from her was a big sigh and a small good bye.
Yeah, in Ontario they jerked around our pensions but I was lucky enough that my pension remains as it was before they jerked it around because of my age and other situations. I just missed the slap in the face. The government used our pension fund to blow it on other useless crap.
You’re right. All political parties SUCK.
The interesting thing about retirement (I’m retired) is that you don’t know how long you are going to live. I don’t mind this lack of knowledge but it means you must figure that you are going to live to be 100. It might happen.
Retirement is easy to figure out. You can spend 3% of your savings per year. So, Social Security plus 3% of whatever you have saved is what you live on in retirement. What you are going to do in retirement is easy to figure out too. It is determined by whatever that 3% plus SS amounts to. So, get the house paid for, pay off the car loan, in other words get as debt free as you can, and start saving. Yeah, 3%, think about it.
I was at work one day and the feeling came over me that this is enough. Best choice I ever made. I couldn’t be happier.
I retired at 62 . I had been in my own business for about 30 years. After 2008 things got really bad . The area I was in, was low income and people were really struggling! After hanging on for 3 years and taking money out of my retirement, I decided to take my SS and see what happens. I figured the way things looked, maybe there wouldn’t be any thing to collect by the time I reached 66 or maybe I might not make it! So I took a parts delivery job, working 30 hours a week. It slows the financial drain but I’m lucky my wife still works because we get health benefits through her job. I’d like to work in the field as a mechanic but it seems nobody wants a guy my age. I guess I can’t blame them. There seems to be an abundance of young ASE techs out there looking for these jobs too. Like Eric has said, even with 10 year dealership work and 30 years on my own I guess I’m on the bottom of the pile! Well maybe I can reinvent myself somehow, maybe service writer or somewhere in customer service. But for now I can at least fix my own car!!!!!!!Sometimes it’s just a matter of crossing paths with the right person, someone that looks past your age, into your personality and what you could contribute to a company. Until then, I’ll be waiting and looking!!!!!! Sincerely Bruce Robinson
I just want to thank everyone for their responses to this topic. Just because I haven’t responded to each one doesn’t mean I haven’t enjoyed reading them. Rest assured, I appreciate each and every one of you. Hopefully I won’t have to retire. Working as ETCG has been the best job I’ve ever had. The best part is getting to know all of you.
Keep the posts coming.
Eric, you write, “So what do you plan to do when you reach the age where you can retire?” Planning to do something is not retirement, planning to do something is just changing jobs. My father died when I was nine, leaving behind a wife with four small children. I was the oldest and it wasn’t very long until I was employed. But 49 years is enough employment – I even worked my way through college. I don’t want to do anything except consider everyday Saturday.
[quote=”barneyb” post=90275]Eric, you write, “So what do you plan to do when you reach the age where you can retire?” Planning to do something is not retirement, planning to do something is just changing jobs. My father died when I was nine, leaving behind a wife with four small children. I was the oldest and it wasn’t very long until I was employed. But 49 years is enough employment – I even worked my way through college. I don’t want to do anything except consider everyday Saturday.[/quote]
Good point. I think you got my meaning though. You have to have something to look forward to. I suppose in some small way you can call that ‘planning’. Hope you enjoy your endless Saturdays. Thanks for your input.
As a 30 some year old looking at my financial situation. I don’t ever see myself as being able to retire, the bills on basic things house/phone/electric/groceries etc… take up 3 of my 4 paychecks every month and the last one goes for gas in the vehicles and any maintenance on things. I have always done the things they say to save money (never knew another way) and the balance is always even. I am not getting ahead no matter how hard I try, unless I want to get a second full-time job and never sleep or see my family. I hate to say it but I will probably die working.
[quote=”EricTheCarGuy” post=90288][quote=”barneyb” post=90275]Eric, you write, “So what do you plan to do when you reach the age where you can retire?” Planning to do something is not retirement, planning to do something is just changing jobs. My father died when I was nine, leaving behind a wife with four small children. I was the oldest and it wasn’t very long until I was employed. But 49 years is enough employment – I even worked my way through college. I don’t want to do anything except consider everyday Saturday.[/quote]
Good point. I think you got my meaning though. You have to have something to look forward to. I suppose in some small way you can call that ‘planning’. Hope you enjoy your endless Saturdays. Thanks for your input.[/quote]
I have to admit I get on youtube and dream about buying a motor home and camping in all the scenic spots out west. The trouble is I have actually had the opportunity to sample this sort of living curtsey of a friend. I spent most of my time on this two week trip fixing things. The plumbing went out, the furnace went out, the electrical system failed twice and we lost a tire. These are just the high spots of mechanical fun. I remember soldering the vehicle’s headlight switch back together over the cook stove.
We were parked behind an ACE Hardware in Craig, Colorado and the store owner allowed us to use tools right off of his racks. What a guy! So, in reality, owning one of these things is just like taking another full time job. So, better to dream.
Sometimes the dream is better. Sometimes it’s also cool to have just what you need when you need it. Sometimes being able to fix things is a real drag because people are always looking to you for help. It’s nice to be needed and useful though.
Just a note before I dive in. I am a very optimistic person, by nature.
Retirement, through Social Security, as we have traditionally known it (and as stated by one of the ETCG members) is nonexistant for the post baby boomer generations. We have only to rely on our own resources (and if you’re lucky enough to have matching contribution programs through your employer) to get us through to the end, so to speak.
My plan, now, is to pay off all my debt (house, school loans, small credit card, always drive used cars so no car loans) and then save nearly everything I make and use a good chunk of it for investing (setting up a diversified portfolio) for my retirement. Now along the way, I plan to “pay it forward” by helping the community organizations that have helped me during my rough patches. I also plan to remain close with my three daughters (if you don’t have your family, what have you got?) both geographically and emotionally…probably stay in my current house (been here since 1998, gee how time flies!). I realize that plans can change daily so I have to be flexible, but this is the plan for now.
As for my career: I went to college later in life than most but I should have 20 years invested in my field (if I can get back into the workforce soon) by the time I hit 65. Then I will probably teach. Could be that I end up going into teaching now…who knows!
Everyone-don’t forget to live at least a small piece of your dream (i.e.beaches, the ones in Australia are to die for!, just saying) now because we don’t know what tomorrow holds.
Thanks for this opportunity to share.
For me personally, Karl summed it up best “when you rest, you rust…” What will I do when I retire? I will keep working! banana: I think it is a horrifying concept to put a ‘use by’ date on a human being. Here ya go buddy, here’s ya golden watch & pension, now go home and wait to die. Stuff that.
I am, however, aware that I can’t do what I do right now forever. I work in the print industry as a guillotine operator. It is that taxing on my body, I’m not sure I could do it past age fifty. So another twenty years, if I live that long. Touch wood.
Luckily here in Australia we have mandatory superannuation schemes matched by employer contributions, so I will have something. That, odd jobs for people, combined with whatever else I can do (even if it’s flipping burgers or pumping gas) will be fine by me. I don’t really care what it is, as long as it gets me up early and out of bed in the mornings.
I would like to do a cross country with a camper van, but I don’t believe in waiting until I’m ‘retired’. What if I get hit by a bus at 45 or something? Touching wood again. Probably will take an extended vacation and do it while I’m still agile enough to enjoy it! 🙂
As I wrote above, I love getting on Youtube and looking at camper vans. The ones made in the US are all boringly the same. Australia must be the hotbed of camper van activity because they have all the cool ones.
I remember when “The Crocodile Hunter” in one episode was out to find the ten most poisonous snakes in the world. Well, he didn’t have to leave Australia. So, anyway, you guys are brave campers.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.