What are your retirement goals?

[motion]

Just wondering what most people are expecting in terms of when they will retire, where, how much they expect to live on, and where the money will come from.

My personal philosophy is to get all this crazy $hit behind me, like Porsches, motorcycles, skydiving, racing, traveling, chasing girls, etc., so that when I get old I can reflect back and not have too many regrets. Having regrets would probably drive me crazy, especially when you have 30 years to think about them.

I'm self-employed, so I don't have the benefit of a pension. My retirement income will come from rent from my rental properties. Man, I hope interest rates go up someday. I really, really want to get to the point where I can live on a couple thousand a month in income. I figure its doable if you don't do much long-distance traveling, and your house is paid for.

But what about boredom setting in? I'm hoping to be officially "retired" by age 55. So what the hell does one do for another 30 years? Watch sunsets? This is one thing I haven't figured out. Anyway, looking forward to hearing other perspectives.

And please keep the pinko/ditto crap out of it

[on-ramp]

My retirement goals are:

1. Not to have a home mortgage (house paid off)
2. Own as many toys as possible (911s, for the most part).
3. Be with my family/friends.
4. Not have to work.
5. And above all else, be healthy and disease-free.

motion, you never know, when you retire , you may buy more "toys" than you have now.
I'm also self-employed and I contribute to a ROTH-IRA (pension plan).

[Aurel]

Hehe, nice topic.
Since I have a job (university Professor) that is just plain fun, retirement is not among my worries, because:

1- In that job, the older you get, the better it gets: your reputation increases, students work for you, you spend your time writing papers and going to conferences, and you make $150k/yr with summers off (But I am not there yet!)

2-Therefore, I wont mind working up to 70. Again, doing research is pure fun.

3- To ensure some extra income, the way to go is to strike a few good patents (I am working on one right now) and create a couple of stratups where you place your students. But the trick is not to get too involved in that business crap.

4- Boredom once I retire ? I don`t think so.
With a little boat and a fishing rod, I can keep busy all day long on the water.

5- Maybe by then, I will have time to rebuild the motor of my 911 SC.

6- I may retire in France, where heath care is not an issue.

Aurel

[turbo6bar]

I don't have set in stone goals, because I've found priorities change over time. My only goal for the long-term future is to be semi-retired by age 35-40. By semi-retired I mean working no more than 3 days per week.

When you think about it, time is the only quantity you cannot create. In a given day, I have the option to work an extra 2 hours or ride my bike for 2 hours. I can always work those 2 hours tomorrow, but I can NEVER go back in time and ride my bike. I would rather be semi-retired sooner, and work till I die, than work my butt off for 40 years, then retire and sit around with bones like jello. This trades valuable time in the younger years for time when you're old.
jürgen

[greglepore]

I'm with you on the interest rate thing-even a substantal portfolio won't generate enough income to meet a few thou a month after tax. I'm with you on the rental property thing, but have enough of those, and it becomes a job.

Finding enough to do won't be an issue. You like bikes, cars, and a ton of other wacky crap-you'll just have to dial back the newest/latest/greatest expectations and have the cool stuff paid off by the time you hit the target age.

My big issue is health insurance-that alone for my wife and I will likely be 1200-1500 bucks now, and unless they fix something double that in 10 years. I want to be out by 55 and could otherwise afford it, but the health insurance thing could force me to work at a "normal" job until I'm Medicare eligible.

[vash]

i always imagined working a high paying job with pressure cooker problems. but that didnt happen. what i ended up with a regular paying job with pressure cooker problems. oh well, the best part of the deal is that my regular pay will just keep paying while i am retired. i got a killer CALPERS pension that just keeps getting stronger. hopefully the govener can keep his grubby hands off the billions. davis tried and failed. anyways i coupled that with a maxed out 401k and a roth IRA. i bought my house and who cares if i pay it off. i dont plan to spend my retirement in the bay area. i want to take advantage of the prop that lets me move homes while keeping my original tax rate. maybe go up north, salmon fish, buy a bass boat.....travel.....and hopefully slip away in my sleep. disease free.

[84porsche]

I am hoping to retire at 40 so I still have a long time but I agree with purchasing all the toys while I am young but the only problem is I am sure as my income increases, the toys I will want will increase. I currently work for someone else and trying to get some experience.
I would like to be self-employed like some of you but I know it will take time. My retirement plan consists of an IRA with contributions from an old 401(k) plan and (1) tax year's worth - I just have to learn to invest it properly still.
I just want enough income so I don't have to struggle. I would like to be able to walk into a store and not worry about the price of something or to go out to dinner and order a few bottles of wine and of course to own a few more Porsches would be nice.

[Moses]

If I'm lucky, I'll be working till I drop.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

1) Buy 40 acres
2) Build an airstrip
3) Build a kitplane to use the airstrip

[vash]

Originally posted by Moses
If I'm lucky, I'll be working till I drop.

my family will be lucky if i drop while working. CHACHING!

[pwd72s]

go to www.bobbrinker.com start buying books on his suggested reading list. Research, research, research, because NOBODY cares about your money more than you do. I strongly suggest you learn the rules of a ROTH IRA, and start one NOW.

[Schrup]

I'm stashing plenty of money to go with my city pension. I plan to stay at my milktoast job till I'm 62, sell the house, move to Florida & become a full time golf course marshall. I hate slow play & will go on a crusade to stamp it out.

[kumma]

Like many of you I am self employed and dont plan on collecting any social security so i have been stashing money into a sep and roth ira for a while. Im so busy working i havent put much thought to this but here goes.

I plan on retiring at 55 to the home and farm my great grandfather built in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and hopfully having a condo or home on a golf course in Florida. I figure its quite reachable if i buy the Florida property soon and rent it out throught the years.

But in the mean time i'll try to enjoy life for a while and not dwell on these things for to long, after all its still 25 years out. One thing I know for sure is I wont reduce my standard of living or fun factor now while i can enjoy it to have more later.

[MFAFF]

Easy..carry on doing what I'm doing now...just less of it.

That way I don't have to worry about pension etc etc.

There's no retiring age from what I do and its fun so why do anything else....

[juanbenae]

this is a great thread thus far.

i will work till double nickles (55), start to collect my CALPERs pension like cliff mentioned above and hope my 457 (public employees 401k) plan has gone crazy high with above average mutual funds.

i just refied from a 30, of which i had 25 years remaining to a 15 that will be paid off at about 53. so from 53 to 55 i will contribute the maximum allowed in my 457. just before i retire i will get a mail order bride, move to the most remote area i can find (so she cant run off), and live out my years with a bride 25 years my junior....

if i can i might take some dumb job in town after i have accomplished what i stated above. you know like home depot, or pumping gas at a lakeside marina, or maybe, just maby become a 55+ y.o. speedo bathing suit model, that is if i can take the waxing pain.......

[Hugh R]

Ditto on the refinance from 25 years to 15, it will save you hundreds of thousands, which goes right towards your retirement fund. I consulted for companys and on my own for over 20 years. Now I have a regular job with something that resembles a pension. At 15 years, I'll be 64 and will have just paid off my mortgage, so I'll have choices. I may "retire" then. I've been putting money in 401Ks and IRAs since I got out of school, looking back, I did pretty good, but should have stuffed a little more away. Biggest part of my net worth is the paper equity in my home, over 1/2 my net worth.


Use a simple calculator like this to figure out how much you'll have to sock away to retire. http://www.banksite.com/calc/retire

In my case to retire in 15 years, live for 25 and have an annual cash flow of $60K, (not much 15 years from now, but you get the idea) I need to have about $1.7 million in the bank. You can go from there with interest rates, inflation, social security (hah!). But it gives you an idea of where you will need to be.

[Moses]

Originally posted by Hugh R

Use a simple calculator like this to figure out how much you'll have to sock away to retire. http://www.banksite.com/calc/retire

Yup. Need to work till I drop.

[Evans, Marv]

Well, I'm looking at retirement in a year to a year and a half. I've enjoyed my work in education for almost 30 years. I have noticed a couple of things: 1. Unless you are like Aurel or somebody intimately involved in his/her own business, you will probably get tired of the "system" after being in it for a long time - no matter how much you like your work & the people you work with. That's my case. Although I have had the opportunity to do many different interesting things within the "system", I'm tired of the system. 2. In my case, I thought I'd be "old" (early 60s) at my age. I've found that I don't consider myself quite so old as I thought I would. 3. So, I'm looking at retirement as an opportunity to look around for a small enterprise (already have one in mind you might laugh at) I can do when I want or not. 4. That way I can I can do my hiking & mountain climbing, kayaking, biking, gardening & working on my car. My wife is 25 years younger than I, and plans to work until she retires. I look at my retirement as a time of beginning freedom. The most important pieces of advice I could give to somebody younger is, unless you get run over by a steam roller or something else, you will wake up one day and find yourself "old". The earlier you start planning/saving/investing for that time, the better off you will be, and whether you have any money or not, stay physically and mentally active.

[rcm]

Try to semi retire in 5 to 7 years. I will be 52 or so. Nice 401k package, so does my lovely bride. Nice portfolio, house is paid for, and that is a part of our retirement as we will move to smaller house here in NH.
Will replace targa with a newer version or completey redo. Probably work part time at local ski area. Lots of skiing, biking, etc...

[john70t]

It would be nice to have a flexible enough lifestyle to be able to take a month off for travel and not get behind on bills etc... meaning the basic housing requirments are settled. Renting rooms or having multiple properties takes care of that.
Also, I wouldn't count on SS or Medicare to take care of everything/anything, hopefully there will be a reasonable health care system in place by then.

I've heard of blue collar guys that worked their as$es off their whole lives, and after retirement sat in a chair and got a heart attack a year later. I think it's good to set aside time to enjoy youth as well as acomplishment.
Studies have shown the memory fades quicker if not active so use it or lose it, and once a person stop growing they start dying.