A humble bragging retirement finances thread (divorced, marriage, social security, state)

[TuborgP]

^^^^^^^ Time and the power of compounding are major factors in success.

[kavm]

We are not yet retired - though could afford to hang it up financially. Almost 60, so don't feel we are there yet even if it is not a financially constrained sentiment. We have more or less muddled our way through it - with key drivers:

• Both got graduate level education abroad, and only the PhDs here in the US. So, we did not have to deal with student loans. I even exited my PhD program with 50K in savings (because my school gave generous year-end grants to top performing doctoral students and I got it 3 times and saved it and similar earnings).
• When I got my first job as an assistant professor, retirement seemed far away. But then - did not have a burning need for money either. So, fully funded 403b + some extra. This was completely casual decision which turned out to be a big winner.
• A year into it - a salesman from Merrill got me into some kind of a deferred annuity scheme. It sounded quite good but wasn't the best thing (for me; was great for Merrill). Anyway, got stuck into that - contributed bunch of money and got out after 15 years. Wasn't the best deal but took the proceeds and invested in the market with good returns.
• In the internet boom era - had stock options worth a couple of M but was too stupid to cash them out. But, I did cash out about 300K and paid off our first house in less than 5 years. So, stupid - but not as bad as some. I had people working for me who had sold their stock options (and owed very serious taxes on that) and had bought other high flying stocks with the proceeds. The problem was that when the air went out across the board from the high fliers- their total portfolio wasn't sufficient to pay their tax liability. So, at least did not get into that.
• Put some money in individual stocks and got burnt badly. This was a very good lesson - perhaps even worth the money I lost in this. I learned that I am simply not attentive enough to keep up with the details of the individual stocks and take timely corrective actions. So, I stopped doing that and moved to mutual funds and ETFs. I made sensible but definitely not genius level choices - making steady investments and accumulating at Vanguard. Diverse investments - not being too focused on the LY returns and continuing to spread the percentages across the sectors. Has done well enough - better than some, worse than others.
• Quit my job (at the time as a senior exec in a publicly traded company) to do a startup. Failed badly but learned some lessons. Ended up doing freelance work - and could put away over 50K a year into 401k for about 8-10 years. Unfortunately, that is no longer an option (as now a partner in a bigger firm and their are lower limits). But that wasn't bad.
• Have had the privilege of getting health insurance through employers throughout. After I went independent (solo LLC), I have had the luxury of getting good insurance from my wife's employers. Others working independently have to pay the health insurance costs.
• Since we live quite modestly (just one car, bought second hand, two bicycles and a fully paid condo we love), don't have kids and avoid debt (a cultural / first generation immigrant preference), our expenses do not add up to even the lesser of our individual incomes.

I realize we are incredibly lucky. We had great education before we came to the country, and added more to it. We are still hard working, reasonably smart and well educated - which brings success and rewards. Spending sensibly and prioritizing savings goes a long way. A wonderful partner adds a whole lot more to that.

I see people buying fancy cars on monthly payments. We have always bought and held the cars (almost too long sometimes). Just don't see the point of trying to impress others with a car. We spend money on what we need and want - for example, we have fairly expensive bikes (about 5K each) each but we use them for fun, not to impress anyone. But - we have a second hand VW Jetta TDI that VW sold for sixty cents on the dollar after the diesel gate and are totally happy with it.

[odanny]

I still remember when I started pumping money into my 401K, the Dow was under 10,000, and those were times when I worked a lot of overtime at work and also pumped a lot of my extra money into my 401K. Over the past decade or so I have made purchases (newer car, an addition onto my home, etc.) that has not allowed me to contribute any money into my 401K, yet it seems like every day the balance climbs higher and higher (what was down 35% on March 30th of this year is now back higher than the balance was on January 1st). To go from a Dow under 10,000 to one that is now always flirting with 25,000, in a period over two decades, you are almost guaranteed to see solid gains.

To reiterate the words of the OP: Time and the power of compounding are the largest factors of my modest success.

[txfriend]

I came to America as a teenager and could not speak English. I sat in class not knowing what anyone said. It was difficult, but I slowly learned the language. As I was learning English by reading children's books, I picked up the only section of the newspaper no one else read the financial. All the stocks would be listed, and I was fascinated that one could earn money by owning stocks.

I dropped out of HS and shortly after the draft notice came. I quickly joint the AF. During my 9 years in the military, my English became much better. I took the GED and started college. I switch majors from Accounting to Computer Science and was recruited by a large Corporation and worked as a programmer, and placed into a management position within two years. The corporation sent me to California for management training with IBM.

I am married and we bought a house, that we used as a rental property after we moved closer to my work. As time progressed and more promotions we purchased more rentals but only FHA or VA because I could get them for a reasonable price and just take over the payments without refinancing.

The company had a retirement plan, profit-sharing, stock options, and later 401k. I took advantage of all. I also purchased stocks, but trading was very expensive at that time. As e-trade started I joint. During the dot-com years, I also started day trading and keep a retirement account. I was a millionaire by the time I was 40 but also lost over a million after the crash. More investing more crashes but I was able to retire at age 50 with a nice income that has us set for life as well as my boys.

We sold all rentals by age 60, the best day of my life. A good marriage, planning, fiscal responsibility, and much luck is required. I learned investing and money management from Money Magazine.

[jghorton]

We planned for both fixed, lifetime INCOME and long-term INVESTMENTS. We then maxed our income options (pension/s, annuities, SS, etc) and protected them with Insurance.

With our investments, we used conservative strategies that have produced an average of 8-percent annually. (We've yet to touch our investments, except for RMD's).

Recently, (12-years into retirement), we adjusted our investments from mostly equities to more of a 'permanent portfolio.'

Finally, we always lived comfortably, but, within our means ... both before and after retirement.

[Mightyqueen801]

Already told mine. Spent 37 years in the public sector, moving up from being a secretary the first five years into progressively more responsible management positions, learning about the world in which I worked as I went and using my natural communication and writing skills to my best advantage--and theirs. Retired with a pension that will never make me rich but should keep me comfortable, especially when SS kicks in. Because of that job, doors opened for work post-retirement as well.

I've no qualms about my pension. I saved the public far more money than I will ever collect, even if I live to be 100. I sleep OK at night.

As far as "luck" goes, it's more like sai weng shi ma--the Chinese concept that bad luck can bring good luck and vice versa.

[4khansen]

We both were teachers and have pensions and social security. We chose to have each other's pensions at 100% to our spouse. So the first one that passes away leaves the other spouse with two pensions and their personal SS.

We had made ever effort to save into 403b's through our school districts as well as fund Roth IRA's when they became available. Those have done well despite not being that financially savvy. Right now, we are comfortable, no mortgage, retired to Arizona, two adult children, no grands yet! We can easily meet our financial needs with the pensions and social security at this time. The extra retirement funds are simply extra.

[adjusterjack]

I'm 73 years of age. Divorced for about 24 years now. My Social Security check is $1671 per month. I have no pension and no other source of income.

Appears bleak, doesn't it. Well, it isn't.

A year ago I paid $275,000 cash for the house I am living in. A couple of weeks ago I paid $27,000 cash for a brand new car. As of today I have $460,000 in my retirement savings. I don't dip into it very often and don't have to use it for regular expenses. I keep about $6000 in my checking account as a buffer for every day expenses. It doesn't fluctuate much because my SS covers my bills and then some. I use credit cards a lot because the banks pay me cash back. I pay each bill in full every month. No house payment, no car payment, no credit card debt and I don't pay for a Medicare Supplement because I am a vet and most of my medical needs are covered by the VA. I have two collectible vehicles worth, conservatively, about $40,000 and $20,000. I got out of the stock market several years ago when I realized I wasn't very good at it. Got back into it two months ago and have been concentrating on consumer defense stocks that pay reasonable dividends. So far, so good, modest results, knock on wood.

Am I a successful retiree? By my own standards I like to think so. I retired just one month shy of my 60th birthday.

I can do what I want, go where I want, spend what I want (within reason) without worrying about outliving my savings.

How did I get here? I can tell you that it had nothing to do with planning. It was part luck, part frugality, and part opportunism.

Well, that's my contribution to this thread.

[TuborgP]

Originally Posted by 4khansen

We both were teachers and have pensions and social security. We chose to have each other's pensions at 100% to our spouse. So the first one that passes away leaves the other spouse with two pensions and their personal SS.

We had made ever effort to save into 403b's through our school districts as well as fund Roth IRA's when they became available. Those have done well despite not being that financially savvy. Right now, we are comfortable, no mortgage, retired to Arizona, two adult children, no grands yet! We can easily meet our financial needs with the pensions and social security at this time. The extra retirement funds are simply extra.

Wow and wow, same path as us and a ton of other folks.

[odanny]

Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801

As far as "luck" goes, it's more like sai weng shi ma--the Chinese concept that bad luck can bring good luck and vice versa.

塞翁失马，焉知非福, as my Chinese friend says.