Do you know of any retirement disasters? (55, pension plan, physically)

[Listener2307]

I do.
I can cite several cases where someone retired early and made a mistake by doing so.
In most of the cases they did not have that all-important income stream from Social Security or pension or some other source. In other words it was poorly planned out.


Case #1
Retired to a sailboat. It became increasingly more expensive to keep the 41 foot ketch in the US, so he got a license and they set out to sail the Caribbean while he "worked here and there" to make ends meet. They were about 50 years old, maybe a little less...
Now they are back in Texas, age 70, with almost no assets and no time to accumulate property or money. His health is not good.


I have more stories, but I'll wait and see what others have to say.

[ReachTheBeach]

Oddly enough, I don't think I personally know anyone whose retirement is a disaster unless you count health problems. I know a few who settled for less than the dream they had when they were contemplating retirement; that's very common.

[Hemlock140]

My father is a good example. He retired with a partial pension at 55, but too early for SS, and had 5 kids still at home. He went out and got a new job in a related industry but because he had specialized for so long was not up-to-date and failed at it. He never did work again, and eventually he had to sell the house and move to a much less expensive (sketchy) area.

[FrannyBear]

I have a friend who planed to work and take SS at FRA -- she lives pretty much on a shoestring but is very frugal and owns her own small home. She is single. She lost her job when she was 62 and after searching for a year -- she did get unemployment and had some small savings to carry her over -- she finally applied for SS early. It has really made her retirement extremely modest -- last time I saw her she was eating only soft foods because she needed expensive dental work she could not afford. We only get together on rare ocassions because she really cannot afford to eat out much. She is getting by -- but absolutely no extra money for luxuries of any kind. She really needed to work those extra 4 years but the job market for someone in their sixties is not kind.

[YorktownGal]

Sold their house in 1982 as the housing market crashed. Lost money on their main investment.

In 2000, they inherited a two family house in Brooklyn, NY. They sold it to a neighbor without an appraisal or speaking to a real estate agent. They should have kept it as a rental or negotiated a higher price for it.

They lost investment money with the dot com crash.

They brought a house, but only lived there for a couple of years. The real estate fees ate up any profits. Afterwards, they moved into an apartment.

It wasn't one mistake, but a series of bad mistakes. They have a $500 a month pension, $1,500 per month in social security and that's about it.

[MI-Roger]

My older Sister. Masters Degree in Accounting but always worked as a Book Keeper at nearly minimum wage for companies with no pension plan. Refused to apply for Accounting Positions at large industries which offered better pay and benefits.

Failed to take care of herself physically too.

Disability SS from near minimum wage jobs is now her only income.

A lifetime of bad choices. Our parents supported her too much. They are long deceased and her bills have consumed all her inheritance.

[springfieldva]

I suppose that the closest thing that I know of to a retirement disaster involve the couples who spend their whole lives saving and carefully putting away money so that they can have an enjoyable retirement together only to finally get near or barely into retirement and suddenly have one of the spouses get stricken with a terrible, lingering disease like dementia.

The healthy spouse not only loses the love of their life in a slow, protracted death, they also lose their own individual freedom because they can't leave their spouse alone and there aren't a lot of resources out there for them. Imagine a tiny woman with osteoporosis trying to get her combative big hulk of a 60 year old husband to adult daycare.

[shamrock4]

My good friend left a very stressful professional job in her 50s but worked part-time (also stressful) to continue some income and hold off on Social Security for a “better” retirement. She also had an inheritance so had quite a nice cushion.

Her husband was laid off shortly after she was diagnosed with a deadly cancer. Died with not a day of full retirement or using any of her SS benefits.

Husband has remarried and travels extensively with new wife. Yes, life goes on but it still makes me sad for her. I think all the stress was harmful to her system and really was not necessary.

[Dire Wolf]

My dad took lump sum pension payout at 55, thinking he could jumpstart his side business with the infusion. But, divorce (my stepmom) hit and he blew thru the rest of the money pretty fast, and then struggled to make it to 62. I “loaned” him money several times. He took SS at 62 and at least was able to get by very modestly, moving in with a sibling. I know he’s shocked to still be here at 75, after losing a sister to cancer in her 50s. He smoked as much as she did, and was sure his days were numbered after his first blood clot in his lungs 15 years ago or so.

[Serious Conversation]

Back in 2008, my dad worked as a mechanic at a pharmaceutical plant. A lot of his coworkers were ten to fifteen years older than him, and liquidated their 401ks around the bottom. The whole “throw it all overboard” mentality.

I wonder what happened to some of those folks now.