I have never believed that I am obliged to leave anything to anyone upon my death, especially my immediate family. I want them to learn to make their own way the same way I did. I bought all of my cars, paid my way through college......the whole shebang. I concede this is more difficult for today's young generation. I.E., I worked one year post high school (1974) in a steel mill for big$$ = 100% college tuition.
From my understanding only: #1 cause of bankruptcy in middle class is health related, then #1 cause for rich people to go bankrupt (or lose a majority of what they have) is bad investment / not diversify in products they don't understand, or leverage debt to invest then lost. #1 for the poor to stay poor is typically addiction of some sort (gambling, alcohol, drug).
Many FIRE plans actually involve retiring outside of the US.
Too late for me I retired from my job at 48 years old which I shouldn't have because actually it was pretty fun. That was the year 2000
Well there are some basics such your pre-retirement income. Estimates are that you only need 70-80% of that as you won't have work related expenses. Then to replace that income stream you shouldn't withdraw more than 4% of your assets. If you did more than that, it might not last the rest of your life but it's always possible to do so with less as you get closer to 65 as that's when health insurance costs will decrease and you can tap into social security between 62-70. Considering that the S&P 500 has returned about 11% over the last 30 years, 4% is very conservative, but you could end up with a lost decade and you probably don't want to invest it as aggressively at retirement age.
Wasn’t SS supposed to replace 40% of ones income, I‘m presuming if not taking it early? If so then one would only “need“ their 4% withdrawal to make up 40% of their income just prior to retirement. Since one no longer needs to save for retirement, the 10-20% they had been saving stops, and it could be nearly the same income. Ah, now I see how they came up with that 10x your salary saved up-25 times 40%, makes sense.
The way I see SS's future is it will get inflated away both in the tax cap and the withdraw amount. So in the end they can afford to not go bankrupt, and by the time I retire it would be nothing more than a token amount (in HK we call these everyone qualifies senior handout a "fruit money" because it is good for buying you some fruits but not a meal or pay your rent).
Listen buddy, IF you are in this country without papers, YOU DO NOT GET WELFARE !!. Facts the USA is the worst developed country at providing health care !! We the People, great idea, fails in reality. Politicians always Owe favors, from all parties. I am 74 and always valued work instilled in me by my Father and Mother back when I was born in England !!. Sorry I know BITOG frowns on politics but these are actual facts !!
1) We get what we elected for and what we deserved. So far we have a polarized view of whether we want to tax ourselves to pay for a "everyone is covered" system or a "we need to take care of ourselves" system. People don't die just because they cannot afford healthcare these days. If not Federal paid, State will pay, and if not State paid, Local will pay for via increase medical cost to cover uninsured people (there are many uninsured US citizens out there, especially those part time worker and gig workers). If we want to change we will, but so far the poll says most Americans think it is what it is and we want it as is right now.
Nah, everyone I talked to agree it is all about having the balls to say "FUI Quit" because you have the FU money in the bank.
