Thank you everyone who is more “seasoned” in their life. Your insights have been helpful. At 24, I’m putting away 15% into 401k and hoping for the best.
Fiancee just graduated and has an impressive job lined up, so I may not have to worry as much as I originally thought.
Side note. Fiance is a man. Fiancee is a woman. I always thought it was the same.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>philtickelson wrote:</div>
So to sum it up, be born into a rich family, marry into a rich(er) family, get a high paying job, don’t have kids. That’s your formula for success.75% of people who graduate High School, get a full time job, and wait until age 21 to get married and have kids join the middle class, and only 2% of people who hit those metrics live in poverty. So to go one step further just live within your means, max out your employers 401k match, payoff debt as quickly as possible, particularly bad (Credit Card) debt, and wait to have kids until you can afford them and you too can live the American dream!
Can you cite a source for this? I like reading these type of studies!
I do think that ‘not living in poverty’ is a very broad stroke though, I’d wager that the majority of people ‘not in poverty’ are still very ill-equipped to retire at 65. Big difference in living paycheck to paycheck one medical emergency away from poverty and being able to throw 15%+ of income into 401(k), IRAs, etc for 40 years.
Can you cite a source for this? I like reading these type of studies!
It’s from this book, and the lowest income bracket for a “middle class” family is $49,590-$82,650.
http://www.brookings.edu/book/creating-an-opportunity-society/
Or, you could be this guy —
This guy probably fell over because he realized what he’d be paying in capital gains if he sold it 
Thank you everyone who is more “seasoned” in their life. Your insights have been helpful. At 24, I’m putting away 15% into 401k and hoping for the best.
Fiancee just graduated and has an impressive job lined up, so I may not have to worry as much as I originally thought.
Side note. Fiance is a man. Fiancee is a woman. I always thought it was the same.
life throws you curveballs, you will see. here all this time I thought you were into dudes. thanks for clarifying!
For those close to retirement, what are some things you wish you did differently at a young age?
I’m only 29… lots of time to take advantage of compounding interest. We do have a financial planner as well, and I believe we are off to a better start than most people our age…
A few things I’d do:
o start listening to Dave Ramsey podcasts
o become knowledgeable in financial planning
o get good with spreadsheets so that you can track & plan your finances, net worth, etc
o get out of debt and payoff your house ASAP
o don’t worry about keeping up with your friends and neighbors
o buy reliable used cars (ex. Corolla or Civic)
o buy a decent used boat and drive it till the transom falls off
o save as much as you can for retirement (max roths and HSAs)
o start a 529 plan for your kids
I went up to Red this past Wednesday and got home late yesterday. Nice and quiet during the week and leave before the masses show up. Perfect!
This is absolutely the beauty of retirement to me. I hook up the pop-up and off we go to wherever we want and spend time in the relative quiet of the mid week. Friday morning I hook up to the pop-up and we come home. I fish very early mornings during the week and spend the afternoons and weekends with Ma while we’re at home.
Grouse, if the 59.5 thing is all that’s holding you back from an earlier retirement, ask your CFP about a 72(t).
I was going to mention the same thing little pine guy.
Good points by many people so far. I would suggest learning just a little about personal finance if you want to retire early. It will go along way. If you really don’t want to learn about it hire a financial advisory that is fee based (not % based). A lot of people cite Dave Ramsey for a good learning source, He is, but IMO there are better more well rounded learning resources out there.
Read the book “I will teach you to be rich” its a great resource. It has basic personal finance, and gives ways to maximize spending on things you really love and cut on things you don’t. Its also very well written and humorous. It also stresses not being so worried with cutting expenses to extremes but instead focusing on big financial wins and negotiating everything (including salaries to maximize top end earning).
The hard part is not learning, the hard part is acting on the knowledge when it is uncomfortable to do. And its hard shifting your focus from thinking like the rest of the middle class/american dreaming jones’ keeper uppers. But instead learning to be content with many things and appreciate what you have and save ferociously 
Also just a simple tip to how much money you will or should shoot for in retirement and investment accounts to retire. It is “25X your spending” so if you want to live a very comfortable and lavish life at 150k of expenses a year. You will need to shoot for around 3.75 mil saved. OR (and more realistically) if you can live a simple basic retirement off 30k a year, you only need to have 750k saved! This assumes you live of 4% and then continue to grow you Net worth at above inflation rates.
Someday too if you can build your Net worth to 10-15 mil when you die. Assuming you were very aggressive in saving and tax free investing, your kids and grand kids friends can bitch about your kids and grandkids and how they were born into money
Final advice, from the wise Bk…”don’t take financial advice from a fishing forum”
Benjamin Graham and value investing. Invest, don’t speculate. Minimize risk and cost by diversifying via index funds which require minimal management, thus fewer fees. Think of fees as a tax. As you get older, rebalance toward a more conservative (protected) asset mix.
Most important of all is that your best asset is time and you should start early. Don’t worry too much about making the wrong decision; just put money away and don’t plan on seeing it for awhile. Forget it’s there and let it grow. Put it into low cost, long term products. If and when you have enough “play money” then you can speculate on individual stocks, futures, etc.
I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Got a couple 2, 3 years left. I’m stoked but a little worried. Ya, the first few weeks will be fun but after that how do you fill your days? I’m thinking I’ll need to get a job just for something to do, I’m afraid of turning to mush both physically and mentally.
I’m thinking my plans may change a bit. Probably got set back a few years. 
Sorry to hear that man. Crazy how such a short period of time can be so devastating across the board.
I’m thinking my plans may change a bit. Probably got set back a few years.
It’s all relative and I wouldn’t let it worry me. Your position in the market is still the same relative to everyone else. The actual dollar number will correct itself as the world gets back to normal. Your account will constantly vary even after “retirement” unless of course you choose to “cash out” and take some sort of guarantied annuity.
It might seem callous, and self-protective, but if you have a retirement/pension plan. Make Sure your spouse has the same amount in a plan of some sort. If the bad times come– it will save your bacon. DK.
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