Sustaining Stability
It's annoying to me, but I find myself thinking about money a lot lately. I think part of it is the fact that I just realized I have less than a year before I can retire (or not) from a job that I have been doing for close to two decades now. I guess along with money I have been thinking about time a lot too, but thinking about time I find a little less annoying.
Over that 25 year period that I have been working in this sector, I have been doing what I can to offset my retirement savings. My dad was lucky enough to work in a job where he had a guaranteed pension. That is becoming a less common thing now, which honestly has pluses and minuses if you ask me. I'll get to that in a second though.
Besides his pension, my parents have zero other investments. Sure, they get social security, but I always knew growing up, there might come a day when social security was gone. While it has worked out pretty well for my mom and dad, I don't think the younger generations have the same luxury. The price of housing is much higher, interest rates are crazy, inflation is out of control, and any number of other things are being thrown at us.
As I said, I knew there might come a day when I couldn't count on the system anymore, so I made the decision pretty early on (but not as early as I would have liked) to start investing on my own. I've always said, I wouldn't be mad if they gave us control of our pension money. I've been getting a pretty good return on my side investments, so I often wonder if I would have been able to do better with my pension funds than whoever is in charge of it.
That money is just kind of out there. I don't really pay too much attention to it. I know it is going to go up and down before I get to the point where I really need to count on it. I just let it ride.
However, like my cracked windshield I got the other day, I know we are just one major catastrophe away from all of that hard work going to crap. The initial impact is bad enough, but then the cracks start to form and expand and before you know it, the best laid plans are all blown to poo.
@mrsbozz and I have some friends and one of them recently went through some major medical issues. Unfortunately, due to the state of the healthcare system in the US, and a variety of other factors, they have been decimated by this. This was a person that my wife used to look up to for their financial prowess. They had their crap together and were thriving with lots of money in savings, (not very much money in investments), and a life plan that would put them in a good place come retirement age.
Now, however, it looks like they are both going to be working a lot longer than they had planned. It's heartbreaking to be honest, and you can see the way it has impacted the family. I think the hardest part is we have seen them "pull back" from us due to their circumstances. I get it, but it still doesn't make it hurt any less. It's hard when you know it is nothing you have done, and there is nothing you can do, but you still see that gap widening.
I've started to realize how important it is for @mrsbozz and I to have some kind of emergency savings. All the investments in the world aren't going to help if you need money right away. The experts say you need something like six months worth of your monthly bills in savings to have a decent emergency fund. We all know that won't put a dent in any medical bills you might incur from said emergency, which is also a terrifying thought.
I appreciate that my wife and I are pretty blessed. I can't help but think of the countless people in the world who don't have the kind of stability that we do. I also can't help but acknowledge how fragile that stability is. Like I said, as you get older, you realize that even one major medical emergency can lay to waste all the best laid plans.
For many people even achieving stability is a pipe dream. Sustaining it as the title indicates is the stuff of fairytales. I also think about how short term people's mindset is. Sometimes by choice and sometimes not. I don't know, it's just been on my mind a lot lately, and I felt like putting it down here on Hive. I'm guessing I am not the only one who has felt this way and maybe knowing that someone else worries about the same things as you makes them a little less scary...
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
Yeah dude, you for sure aren't alone! There are a lot of crazy and chaotic forces going on. I truly wonder what the world will look like when I get to the retirement age. Will I be able to retire? Will I even want to retire? Not that I would be in the same job forever, but will I just change the things that I do? I think these are all really important questions, but the good thing is to have them and keep them in mind.
Medical debt is a really disgusting way to manipulate people. What's even worse is that the insidious companies are making some fucked up changes by raising the price of drugs in the rest of the world to make Americans feel like they are getting a discount.
What's going to be important though is the continued rise of decentralization. The evil companies are shitting themselves at every turn where decentralization fucks them up. Compounding pharmacies eat into them left and right and they are doing what they always do: use the state to exert corporate fascism, true fascism not the stupid buzzword that gets thrown around like a bouncy ball. That's not going as well for them as it has in the past, so there is hope that we can wrest back control from them one step at a time!
It's going to be an interesting time and transition for me. I just hope I can do the right things now to prepare myself.
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I'm sure your savings are better than mine, so take comfort. I made the decision almost 25 years ago to leave my cushy and well-paid coding job and move into working for myself. The plan was to have more control over both my time and my finances. Well... looking back, I've ended up working more than I would have otherwise, almost never having a vacation, and having much less saved than I would have otherwise. ...hindsight is 20/20, eh? Oh well, I don't mind working, so who needs a retirement.
I'm sorry. I am finally getting to the point where I have enough saved that I feel comfortable. I know we are just one major issue away from that all going away though.
I've seen plenty of articles saying you should have some emergency funds to cover at least a couple of months if you can't work, but some people can't even manage that as they just about get by. With the health costs you can have over there it can really wipe people out. Society needs safety nets so everyone has a chance of a good life.
I totally agree. It looked like we were going to have something at one point, but then it all got shot to hell. It's unfortunate that basic needs like this have become so politicized. Right now health care is the thing that is scaring me the most. I have a special fund for it, but I know it would take decades for it to be enough to cover a major emergency.
You’ve said it all. Having an emergency fund might just be like nothing with any medical complications. This is why people keep emphasizing on the “health is wealth”. Most times we struggle so hard to make a good retirement savings plan and neglect our health only to later spend all that money trying to sustain a good health.
But with proper planning for emergency funds while paying close attention to our overall well being, it will be so enjoyable after retirement.
!PIMP
@hopestylist here!
I certainly hope so!
It is possible!
The US medical system is a nightmare, and you are literally one major health problem away from the poor house. Medical debt has gotten so out of control in our country that many people end up in bankruptcy court.
Pensions are a thing of the past, of the generations that came before us. They were a great deal for people, you get a pension check and social security every month and it's plenty to live off. Nowadays if you don't have savings and retirement accounts you are pretty much screwed. Even with those things go go sideways quickly and leave you in bad shape. The days of the American dream have come and gone, now the odds of a young person buying a house are pretty long unless they are a high earner.
I understand why you think so much about money right now, retirement is the blink of an eye away. Fortunately you are still young enough to do whatever side projects you might want to do and keep the crypto investing going. Hopefully one day soon, things well look better there too!
Yes I definitely hope so! I broke down the numbers for my wife tonight concerning the pension and she couldn't believe how low it actually is. I told her I guess I won't be retiring and becoming a pro disc golfer anytime soon...
I am not sure I would call the current rates crazy:
At 6-7% 30 year fixed actually is inline with a long term average, it is just everyone got used to 4% or lower...
The medical emergencies are the only reason I might want to stay in my job after 62, there is no other reason...
I have been working at my current job for 23.5 years which earned me 47% of my current salary as defined benefit pension. If I keep working till 62 the benefit will be 74% of may salary at that future time so there will be no point to keep working...
We have some kind of equation too with a multiplier and all of that, but I don't think it matters once I hit 30 years. After that it is just the base number that changes, not the percentage. 6% is trash. I about had a fit when my wife got a new car and that was the best they could give us. The lady acted like she was doing us a favor, I told her she was smoking crack.
Our multiplier is simple 2% for every year of service. At 62 I can retire with no benefit reductions since I would have over 30 years of service... We have to contribute to this plan and we don't even control the rate at which we contribute:
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would be great if $HBD went back to 20% APR Again
It would be though I was stacking even when it was only 10%. It's still better than what you will find in any traditional savings plan.
You really worry about your future when you retire. That's how it is when you are a responsible person, and love your family, so even if you are young, you are already thinking about the future. but I'm sure you will overcome your worries and you will not have a hard time when you retire because you know a lot about crypto.
Thank you! I do hope that crypto can be a bit of a safety net so that all of this isn't quite so stressful! It's the unknown that is the scariest!
You are right. I hope so too.
Many people I know have purchased a 2nd house and rented it out rather than having a pension. So the mortgage pays itself and they can get 500k or more for it when they retire. It's pretty clever. I am like you and am relying on what the Don does next with my pension. I created a pension in my 20s and went for the agressive option but forgot to change it until I was 40 so I built up a huge pension. In Ireland you can take 25% out tax free when I turn 50 which is 7 years from now so I think I will choose this option and pay off the house to make our lives a little easier when the kids start going to college. But looking at the markets they are still climbing really so I think you could get away with it @bozz and fingers crossed there will be no crash.
I have zero desire to be a landlord. Maybe when I was younger, but not at this point in my life! Yeah, I think they are pretty conservative with our pensions because they know they have to support all the educators in the state. My other investments are a little more risky and I think that the 10% or so I have been earning there will serve me well. It doesn't make sense for me to just stop working at 50, so I will likely have to get another job or just keep plugging along here.
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Nice to see your pst
!BBH