Some ask; "Who has a million dollars?". Florida is loaded with old people who retired on a lot less than a million dollars. They live in older, used mobilehomes in inexpensive mobilehome parks, if they are lucky. In many older, run down parks, they live in old run down park models, TT and worse. They may or may not have a car, and many drive an old clunker. They use public transportation, which most Florida counties run free for old poor people, to go to county run healthcare centers or Medicare/Medicaid facilities where they get anywhere from mediocre to ok medical care. More than a few eat dog or cat food and Ramen noodles with crackers. Most are living on SS and if they have another stipend or kind relatives and friends, all the better. No vacations, no trips to see the grandkids, no dinners out at Morrisons. Many of the parks these folks live in have a interesting sense of community and they watch out for each other, share meals, raise little gardens, and enjoy some benevolence from being together. I grew up in a few of these parks as my dad was a mobile home park owner and I befriended lots of these old retired, poor people. Many had great stories to tell and I learned young not to judge a book by its cover. Some had fortunes and lost them in a variety of ways or simply ran out of money. My own dad, who was a wealthy man in his day, ran out of money by outliving his investments and not having enough supplemental Medicare insurance. There are rehab facilities that Medicare will not pay for and $700 plus a day chips away at your savings quickly. Of course, once you are broke, Medicaid will take over and you will be shuffled away in a Medicaid facilty.
At which point, they will say, "How bout that!! Ole Big Katuna ran that wheelchair right off the end of that dock!!"
Big Katuna wrote: Some ask; "Who has a million dollars?". Florida is loaded with old people who retired on a lot less than a million dollars. They live in older, used mobilehomes in inexpensive mobilehome parks, if they are lucky. In many older, run down parks, they live in old run down park models, TT and worse. They may or may not have a car, and many drive an old clunker. They use public transportation, which most Florida counties run free for old poor people, to go to county run healthcare centers or Medicare/Medicaid facilities where they get anywhere from mediocre to ok medical care. More than a few eat dog or cat food and Ramen noodles with crackers. Most are living on SS and if they have another stipend or kind relatives and friends, all the better. No vacations, no trips to see the grandkids, no dinners out at Morrisons. Many of the parks these folks live in have a interesting sense of community and they watch out for each other, share meals, raise little gardens, and enjoy some benevolence from being together. I grew up in a few of these parks as my dad was a mobile home park owner and I befriended lots of these old retired, poor people. Many had great stories to tell and I learned young not to judge a book by its cover. Some had fortunes and lost them in a variety of ways or simply ran out of money. My own dad, who was a wealthy man in his day, ran out of money by outliving his investments and not having enough supplemental Medicare insurance. There are rehab facilities that Medicare will not pay for and $700 plus a day chips away at your savings quickly. Of course, once you are broke, Medicaid will take over and you will be shuffled away in a Medicaid facilty.
At which point, they will say, "How bout that!! Ole Big Katuna ran that wheelchair right off the end of that dock!!"
What you say is all true. What you just wrote is what happen to my in-laws. They had alot of pride, but no money.
Just for the record, up here in the Northland we like to drive out on the ice. They'll be saying "I didn't think John liked ice fishing" hope that day never comes for either of us.
Hi
I retired almost 2 years ago on $38,000 a year pension, plus the cash in the bank.
I had just turned 54 years old. My wife and I decided that we were going to take 2 years for ourselves, while we could still do the hiking we liked to do. After that we would both go to work a few months of the year to make any extra money we needed. This was not an easy thing for me to do, I wanted to make sure my wife would never have to work if something happened to me, she said I was just being greedy with my time, and that she would rather have our time now than a promise of time later. Her fear was that we would work until we could not enjoy the things we liked, as we had seen several of our family members do. I was converted..and love it now.
Well it is 2 years later and I still do not have any plans on going to work. But I am not afraid to if needed.
And we will not look back, or up, in 10 or 15 years and wish we could do it some other way.....We are doing it our way now..
There has been one economic and financial expert out there that has publicly written recently, that those on pensions should not be surprised if the COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustments) are not able to be fulfilled by the issuer into the future. He went on to write that what people are being promised won't be able to be made good. This is not a direct quote, but since many of the things pertaining to economics I've read by this person the last 25 years have come true, I would not be surprised if this prediction doesn't come true as well. Just a word of caution, especially those on government pensions.
Doesn't there have to be something wrong with the math in this thread? The question is asked if a million dollars in cash is enough to retire. Factually, somewhere around 3% of U.S. households have a net worth of one million, excluding primary residence. Fifty-four percent of two person retired households live primarily on Social Security and seventy percent of single person retired households.
While I am confident that most people on this Forum are multi-millionaires{from reading the Forum for a awhile now}, it appears a very high percentage of retired folks without the first million are going to starve at some point. If you believe some of the dooms-day people.
In the real world, I have a condo in Florida in a golf community. I have become acquainted with many of the residents and as many older folks, they are very open about finances. Although it would be considered a more upscale community than average, not all of them have a net worth exceeding a million. While many if not most have a paid for residence, they seem to live rather well on the income they do have. From personal observation of friends and acquaintances, most people given retirement, a million in cash, and a paid for home are going to live very well for the rest of their lives. Probably better than they lived all those years trying to accumulate that million.
I'll have my 30 years of public service done in a few more years and will be in my lower 50's. I plan to retire the very next day,money or not. I'll get a pension and since my map reader likes to work, who am I to stop her.LoL
JALLEN4 wrote: Doesn't there have to be something wrong with the math in this thread? The question is asked if a million dollars in cash is enough to retire. Factually, somewhere around 3% of U.S. households have a net worth of one million, excluding primary residence. Fifty-four percent of two person retired households live primarily on Social Security and seventy percent of single person retired households.
While I am confident that most people on this Forum are multi-millionaires{from reading the Forum for a awhile now}, it appears a very high percentage of retired folks without the first million are going to starve at some point. If you believe some of the dooms-day people.
In the real world, I have a condo in Florida in a golf community. I have become acquainted with many of the residents and as many older folks, they are very open about finances. Although it would be considered a more upscale community than average, not all of them have a net worth exceeding a million. While many if not most have a paid for residence, they seem to live rather well on the income they do have. From personal observation of friends and acquaintances, most people given retirement, a million in cash, and a paid for home are going to live very well for the rest of their lives. Probably better than they lived all those years trying to accumulate that million.
Nothing wrong with the math, it is just fuzzy. I know a couple who are having trouble living, at least according to them, on 250K a year. Don't know what they will need when they retire, but they are pretty much payday to payday now. There are a considerable number of people who have never made over 30k in a year, can't see them needing a million dollars to retire. If they never had 50K available to spend in a year, why would they need it when they retire? Not talking about taking early retirement, talking about someone who retires at 65. Like I said the math is fuzzy.
rvten wrote: My magic number was. At age 55 and 35 years service I was able to retire with full bennefits.
Fewer & fewer people have that option today. My fortune 500 employer converted my traditional pension to a cash balance plan in the early 90's. I lost over 60% of my expected retirement dollars that day. When I retire, my current employer will provide nothing but a handshake. If I want medical, I'll need to buy it unless the Gov't provides something. Who knows what SS will pay. My retirement $$ is up to me.
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