How long do you get to retire for ?

[kb01]

Retirement is still a few years off for myself and my wife. If we can get reliable, 4 or 5% growth in our 401k and Roth, then we should be on track to retire at 65-ish.

But we're trying to be realistic.

If Medicare is no longer around when we get into our 60's, we'll have to keep working, as we'll need some kind of medical insurance through the very end. I can only imagine how insanely expensive a policy would be for a 65 or 70 year old with preexisting conditions.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
Financially I can retire at 55 but I will work till 62 just to keep busy.


Quote:
My local city council admitted they only funded 60-something percent of their retirement obligations at a recent budget meeting.

With so many cities having a budget crisis, in the near future there will be cities across America that will stop paying retirees and only pay current employees. There is simply not enough money in the pot. Read this story about the city of Prichard, Alabama not paying a penny for pensions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/business/23prichard.html

60 Minutes also had a segment on Prichard that you can watch online.



This is so terribly true. I wonder how many of these poor city, state, and government workers are going to be completely left out in the cold!

Most of them don't even get it yet.

I guess its fairly common in the US for pension funds to be run by the level of government that people are working for?
Up here it seems that the actual pension fund for public employees is usually seperate with both the employee and employer contributing but neither has any say on the fund is managed, and more importantly the employer can't underfund the pension or take money out if the investments are doing well...

My wife is on track to retire at 55 and me a few years later with a full pension, but that's 20+ years away so we're still doing our own saving just in case things go really sideways...

 

[javacontour]

I spoke with oilBabe about this last night as she's in the teachers retirement system. I asked if the pension fund was run by the state of MO and she said no, but the state wants to take over the pension since it's solvent.

Call me a control freak, but I like having a 401(k) and not having to trust that the pension funds will still be there. I can check every month to ensure that the funds are deposited in my account in a timely fashion.

I suppose it could still be taken, but I think it's far more difficult to take money from an individuals account than it is to run an entire pension fund into the ground.

 

[wander2039]

Hopefully officially at 48-49 as the second and last kiddo will get here in August. Better take the bullets out of the gun to make sure that happens. I figure the wife will go back to work when that one gets 3-5 so we can start socking away money then. Possibly both of us go part-time when they get in high school and stay part-time for the rest of our lives. Probably leave the house and move else when the last one gets out of the house. That's our plan anyways life can happen. Can't comment on how long I'll live. One grandpa lived to 81 and the other one is about that age now. My dad is in excellent health at 60. If I have the Reedy long-life gene probably 100.

I don't plan on working myself to the extreme as my dad did. He's really regretting that now. Worked 60 hours weeks and alot of overtime. Yeah we didn't go without growing up but unfortunately he'll probably out live his daughter so in the end he really wishes he would of been home more. Took a few more vacations etc. Also in comparison my MIL didn't live to be 50 from cancer. Life can be short enjoy a little bit of it.

 

[Beachboy]

I planned to retire at 55, but obscenely low interest rates destroyed my retirement income. I'm 59 now and have decided to pull the plug on employment in a few months. I don't know if the economy is any better, but I hate my job with a passion and nobody is going to hire me three years away from social security. My numbers show I have plenty of money to carry me through to death, and I don't want or intend to live to be over 75. The hardest part is getting used to spending my savings. My dad died at 67 and had been terminally ill with cancer since age 61, and my uncle died at 59 after having a heart attack at age 50. So I figure I'm already treading on shaky ground.