Here is a very interesting observation by a conservative commentator, Stefan Molyneux, a Canadian, about the precarious situation of both individuals and governments, regarding people's retirement plans ... or non-plans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPsSU4ibw4Y

L.W.

No,....I just married a woman who saves fer retirement.

I'll be retireing in the fuggin' Potter's field, anyway.

I can't see no reason to put a lotta effort into it.

Yes, and presently growth is actually ahead of my withdrawals.

Did. Now enjoying the bounteous fruit of that planting.

I have and currently am, but I already realize I gotta get a smaller nut before I can ever live off it

I can only imagine socking away this money for the last 20 years and the next 15 or so and then some bankers decide to get fast and loose with the rules, wreck the economy, tank my 401K and *they* get a bailout by the government.

you'll see me on the news if that happens.

Isn't that what social security is for?


<ducking>

I am saving for my retirement . Thiis year has been good , fingers crossed. There was a time I had a finance manager, he sucked , went to another one , he sucked , went to another one and he was a crook. I do it myself now with stocks, ETF's and a bit of S&P 500 mutual funds.

Yep and enjoying every minute of it.

Yes, although I had to start over due to a greedy ex and her lawyer. It's ok, I got the house, the kids, and the best wife ever. She ended up with an old lesbian, a car with a bad transaxle, no career, and a lot of bitterness. Now headed in the right direction, several revenue streams in play, and three retirement plans waiting. I am blessed.

I'll be at Walmart... Can I get ya a buggei ?

If I "retire" in bankruptcy, I win.
Sorry.
Who's with me?

I got a very late start. After a 26 year career in the military, where I lived pay check to paycheck, I still managed to build $50,000 in student loans and credit card debt. Fifteen years ago I eventually found Dave Ramsey, and a job that paid enough to get me out of debt, and fully fund a 401K, and two ROTH IRAs, plus a joint brokerage account.

If I had it to do over again, I would follow Dave's financial philosophy from the very beginning and never borrow money to buy anything except a house (which appreciates in value.)

Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps

I'm done.

But I'm having too much fun to quit.

Back when IRAs first were offered, a very astute Friend convinced me to look into them which led to an old Friend of the family who was a broker for Edward Jones who in turn advised me on investing. That's where it started for me. At the end of this month I'll have been retired for 5 years and if I had not invested I would most likely be looking at working for 4 more years and not looking toward nearly as sweet of retirement years.

Now that is a divorce lawyer worth their salt.

I've got a one ounce Gold eagle in the sock drawer to pay the medically assisted suicide doctor.

That's my retirement plan.

my FIL's retirement plan was to marry an Asian nurse 24 years younger than him.

That man had life figured out.

Yep. Every year we build equity in the place.

Hey, don't be funnin' about that. Yer Social Security owns a significant portion of the National Debt. (That's supposed to be a good thing since it keeps China and Japan from owning so much of us...uh, US.) It's a money laundering scheme of sorts IMV.

Saved all I could for 30 plus years. Then retired at 61 yo. Have no money worries.

No; I have all the money I'll ever need......as long as I don't spend any.

Yep,the wife and I each have a 401k type plan and a company sponsored pension. Saving for retirement is a high priority for us. I simply have no desire to work any longer than I have to.

Wife and I are saving and investing every week. We picked employers who have plans that benefit us in both salary and investments. That said, I am working until I can't physically drag myself into some place.

Yep started back in the late 70's.

It has taken a hit or two over the years but now it has bloomed.

For sure. Retirement is entirely my call now..

Yep, saving is very important for us. We have a strong plan and are working it every pay period. Track the numbers frequently because I am an Engineer and I like playing with the math. Should be able to retire a little early if we want to.

I have enough saved to last me the rest of my life. If I die before next tuesday.

The old Smith 32 won't do?

Proper attitude.

Nope. She'll send her money back home to family and when she retires she'll go back home to live with them.
I knew several asian women who did that.

I plan to work until 67 (another 11 years) and have been putting the max into a standard IRA for a long time. That with my military pension and my wife's 401K's & IRA's, we should be OK. Not depending on social security. And as long as I'm able after 67, I'd like to have a part-time job just for something to do.

Saved all I could from when I was a boy.. retired at 33.

didn't work that way for him, she was high maintenance but that woman doted on him everyday of his life. She did move back to Hong Kong after he died.

well.i was.then came obama. being self employed those real bad years ate up most of my savings. as soon as trump got in the money started coming again.this year has been totally different as i have turned down work this year. wife has been with UPS for years so thats helps a lot.i'm never planning to fully retire anyway.

Reminds me of a goofy little guy I used to work with. He tried to shoot himself in the head one time but only managed to graze it. After getting out of the hospital and back to work the bunch we worked with back then (some real hard-cores) asked him why the heck didn't just go ahead shoot himself again if he really did want to kill himself? . He replied with, "My damn head was hurtin' too bad to reload and cock the gun again! "

Yes, I have been saving and investing since I was 21. Never stopped even when it hurt a few times. Really don't feel that I missed out on much either.

I been saving since I was 5 yrs old, yep still have the passbook somewhere too. Im 54 now , and have a 3 bedroom brick ranch on 4 ac. in farm country all paid, a $70K cabin up north , a 7 ac. parcel on a river that mom and dad gave me. Since Dec. 2008 My house is paid so I started investing in stocks. I did very poorly, going through 3 financial advisors . Now I am doing it myself and it is no problem at all. I should retire at 65 if I can stay a carpenter that long, I dont know. I guess I can just slow down to nothing like dad did.

Saved some, should get about 70,000 a year from teachers retirement. Wifey has her 401, she will get max social security. I will get some social security too. Should be ok.

Be aware that you will have to pay some income tax on Social Security. It is calculated on how much other income that you have. I am currently paying back 25% of the amount that is deposited in my bank account. Got to penalize the ones that looked out for themselves. miles

Dem gimmie dats doint pay nuffin

My first pharmacy job with a small chain, I saved in a 401K for 10 years.
Then, they sold out and closed.

I was entering seminary as it was closing at an extension center and my
wife was staying home with 2 kids. I was working for an independent pharmacy with no benefits.
For the next 5 years I saved nothing at all.
Started a Missions ministry after school, but got a small Roth going.
During that 12 years I worked there, I only had the Roth.

When he retired, I went to work for a large chain and immediately maxed out my contributions and their match.
Have been with them about 10 years.

I am 54. If I stay with this job, I should be OK.
I am a fulltime pharmacist and a bi-vocational pastor.

We had planned many things for after she retires at 60, but Due toher health issues, MS and bone/joint/arthritis issues we are doing all the vacations/traveling/hunts that
we can do now while she has fair health. If not for that, I'd be saving even more.
My Dad died about 6 months before retirement date. We decided life is short. Save everything we can from my pharmacy job and play and do mission trips with my church check.
It's all good.

I retired on April 30th of this year at 57 and I'm wondering why I waited this long. My savings and company pension make for a very comfortable retirement. I guess I'll start my SS when I reach 66 or so. I strongly recommend retiring as soon as you can.

I am the same way. We are DINKS and I have 4.5 yrs until I am 62 and that is when I plan to retire. I can't wait. I am going to play golf,hunt and dive the year round. I have other coworkers who don't even talk about retirement. I can't imagine living a life where your job is your life. I work to live not live to work. So many folks believe that their company will shrivel up and die if they don't show up. I have news for you,,, people die everyday and world just keeps on spinning. We are not as important as we want to believe. Come on 2022

What scares me about the future is $4.00 gas, and other prices.

Lots of people think they are going to do all these things when they retire, but they find they can’t physically. We wasted money we could have saved to go snow skiing, trips to Europe, Mexico etc while we were young. We are having to work a little longer, because of that. I think it was worth it.

Guys there are two ways to make it out there. One is to make it yourself and the other is to marry it. Sweetness ran in some good circles and just hanging out with her widowed or divorced women friends, I had no idea that there is such a large well healed, professional group of women out there very hungry for male companionship.

Yup, my Parents did a great job of parenting, they not only taught us kids to save, but to invest. Dec 31 I will start enjoying the fruits of my labor. And, I did enjoy the years before that with more ski miles logged than most will ever get and more adventure. Why not do both?

Didn't really start saving until I was almost 40 . . . just plain didn't have the means to save until my bride went back to work after the kids were both in school full time. Then we hit it fairly hard. Both of us put in at least as much as the max our employers would match for 401k, usually 3 to 5% more. Bride had a decent paying job with promotion options I didn't have. Not complaining, just the nature of the beast. She passed me in income in about 1998. My IRA has increased about 11% in the last year (I am a relatively low risk investor, by nature) and her 401k's have returned about 15% in the same time period (she is a bit more aggressive than I am).

Anyhow, chatted with our accountant yesterday and he presented a plan where we can actually fully retire and actually INCREASE our standard of living by fully retiring. He didn't have to convince me, I had to convince myself it was doable. I have a project I'm working on that should be wrapped up by the end of December. THEN, I am pulling the plug and retiring from actively working. Been looking forward to this since about 1970 when I got out of high school. That day of reckoning will come December 31, 2017 at 3:00 PM . . . ONE day after I turn 66.

Same here. Small 75YO family business has cost ME more in the last 5-6 years than it generated.
Things seem to be slightly on the uptake of late.
Luckily[I guess] right now I am wealthy in real estate owned but cash strapped.
We don't really require tons of money to live the life we currently live which helps.

Have a 20-yr military retirement under the old final pay system, couple of 401Ks with 10% matching contributions from post-Army employers, an old IRA from the 80s, some money market accounts, and social security - so, excepting a total economic collapse, I should be fine.

I actually retired earlier than I had originally planned (at 55), but thats not a bad thing. Been doing fine on my military retirement pay and the money market account. Turning 60 this month so can start getting into the tax deferred 401Ks and IRA as needed, and will look at starting SS after I draw down the 401Ks some. Will use some of the 401Ks money to pay off my mortgage this winter.

I can't even relate to this. I haven't really "worked" in 15 years. I enjoy every single day, and making great money doing it is a nice bonus. Every day there's something interesting to do, something to discover, something to do better, some employee to give a compliment to, a customer who is ecstatic with our service..... Wouldn't trade it for anything.

The thought of having to drag myself to a job I hate, everyday..... Lord, that is depressing to contemplate. I'd want to retire, too......

Remember that old bumper sticker... He who dies with thee most toys ...wins ...I'm set !

I'm working on it. Got a long way to go. Wife is 7 years younger than me, so part of our planning is to set her up so that she can retire when I do. Her parents have had a weird staggered retirement that I don't think I'd want to do. They primarily have their pensions, but just a little bit of savings, so her mom retired in her early 40s from a state school pension system, and dad continued to work until about 60. She then went back to work and is still working at age 58 or so, which is sort of delaying their move down from Alaska to Colorado to help raise grandbabies.
My parents also retired on different schedules (dad twice), and it seemed one was always waiting on the other to have more time available to do something like travel.
Anyway, I hope to hit my goals in my lower to mid 60s, which will put her in her mid 50s. I won't have a pension or social security, so it will be entirely investments, though with a generous match. Wife is presently in a pension system, but I'm tempted to pull her out of it to get my "defined contribution" plan (same employer). If she stays in the pension plan, she won't be getting very much if she retires in her mid 50s, so we are looking at other options for her to be able to access money earlier. Starting to get to a position to add IRAs now too, but considering 457 plan instead to allow easier access to the money at a younger age.
Should also still have some farm income unless her parents sell her grandpas place. A little over 1,000 acres in Kansas and grandpa is 96 now and eating around $9k a month in a retirement facility memory unit. Hard to count on things like that though when you never know how things will shake out. Just two cousins and a brother to share any profits from that with.
The brother though.... that will also be our burden when her parents go. He's slightly retarded, adopted Russian with fetal alcohol syndrome and about 7 years younger than her. Is somewhat independent, but has frequent failings in jobs due to temper and short sightedness or other poor decisions. He will eventually be ours to take care of, but I think her parents are working on setting him up financially, but he won't have any control of it.
As important as a comfortable retirement is to us, I still want to be able to set our children up for success and we are working towards those goals too. I fully intend to be able to leave an inheritance, so that's another reason I'm trying to move away from pension style plans for us.

Paid everything off at 40. Wife has a 401k. I have a small 401k and will receive a pension in 5 years. At that time, I'll also be able to keep my insurance. We also have IRAs, Roth IRAs, land, and mutual funds, all of which we add to monthly. We live off my wife's income. I haven't spent any of mine in years. That's about as prepared as I know how to be, except I'm contemplating building a rental house of two for an additional income stream.

Yup. I retired 6 years ago at 55. My wife retired 5 years ago at 56 - - - meaning I had one good year of retirement :-). A lifetime of living below our means and investing paid off.

Retirement saving for me started at age 23. That's when I realized how much I hated my good pay and benefits job. It took about six months. On the bright side 50 and out is a very realistic option for me. Come on 2019!

Im done in 4.5 years. My concern is not the money. My concern is where I should move to. I have planned wisely and made very good choices. As somebody else mentioned Dave Ramsey, Well my mom and dad could have had his radio show too. That is how I was raised and maintained my core beliefs to this day. Also as somebody else has mentioned they have a son with Fetal Alcohol problems. I to have one of those boys. His biological mother killed herself so the responsibility fell entirely on me. Not sure what to expect with him as an independent adult, or if that will be possible?

I want to live near the gulf coast where I can fish and dive all the time. My two strongest passions in life. That's my struggle.... where to move to when I retire!

Wife works managing a big daycare (used my ed benefits while I was in the army and parts of my GI Bill after I retired to get her degree) even though she doesn't have too anymore, she has empty nest syndrome All 3 daughters out of the house and succesful.
I made way more than enough to pay off a chit load of bills before getting laid off Dec 4 2014 from working offshore in GOM and black sea. Concurrent receipt military retired pay and VA disability (earned both....)
Banking around $750 a month after bills and whatever either one of us wants to get within reason . Checking account getting up their again. I'm done working, do what I want, when I want. 54 now , been this way since I was 51. Collect that social security chit at 62 if it still exist and add 4 or 500 of that to each months savings I geuss. Kids can sell the home and split it among them and I will start giving them large sums of cash off the record eventually and set up something for any grandkids that come about. Learning to stop having to keep up with the jones,s and having to maintain a working persons income till death is the biggest thing to overcome to be able to retire at an early age and being very comfortable..JMO...

My numbers are pretty close to yours, within months actually. We are now in our 70's and feel good about the decisions we made many years ago.

+1, There's a big old pile of money in the 401(k)s of Americans. You can be there's more than one politician scheming on how to get his hands on it.

Regarding the Social Security retirement benefit, according to their website the maximum that a recipient can get in 2017 at 62 years of age is $2,153. At full retirement age the 2017 max is $2,687.

When both husband and wife are drawing SS retirement money and one or the other dies, the deceased's SS benefit ends.
Depending on how much the deceased spouse's SS was, the loss of it could be a fairly substantial hit on total household income for the surviving spouse. While the surviving spouse does have the option of drawing the larger of the two SS retirement benefits, it still could mean a significant loss of total income.

As I understand, too, usually defined employer pensions are reduced if the employee chooses to include their spouse as a recipient upon their death. Some defined employer pensions may have limitations on how long they continue paying retirement benefits to a surviving spouse.

It is for me......I'm debt free and live modestly on my SS income but I have everything I want/need.

Haven't touched a penny of my 401K since I retired at 63 (five years ago) and doubt that I ever will.

It's sure nice to know it's there though.

I did have a very nice sum of monies invested and in savings... then came the divorce.

Divorce was done last summer, and I'm still giving her money.

Almost all of my railroad retirement, which was a small amount. A SUBSTANTIAL portion of my 401k. 50% of all my investments. 50% of the equity in everything we owned. And she took about 85%-90% of our cash savings.

So, here I am, no window, no pot to pee in, and wondering how I'm going to retire before I turn 74.

Speaking of savings, does anybody remember the little books of stamps that you filled up, and then turned in for Savings Bonds? I remember doing it, but don't recall the details of how it worked.

I just gave a savings bond to my son--we bought it about the time he was born and it is approaching the 30 year deadline when interest payments stop. I was trying to explain to him how important savings bonds were in the old days, but my recollections of how those stamp books worked was pretty shaky.

Retirement for me will probably depend on what health insurance costs when I'm ready to retire.

They don't tell the whole truth. You do not actually get the amount the book says you will. They take out for Medicare and so far, every year they have given a raise, they raise the cost of Medicare. This year we get a 2% increase. I get the maximum amount and because of the new cost of Medicare, I get a $13 a month raise. Then at the end of the year we give part of it back in taxes owed. At least they don't still take out for SS.

I think they force you to start taking it out at age 70 1/2, don't they?

And you just got closer! Happy Birthday, sir.

Yep, MRD.

This much bullsit will cause global warming.

Northman/walt is so full of chit. Retired at 33? ya right can you say "disability" ?

About half retired. They say, "Use it, or lose it".

I come from a long line of ancestors who:

1) Diligently saved for retirement, and died long before they had time to spend it.
2) Worked long past anyone could believe they could still work.

I picked #2.

If I live to be that age I'll gladly start taking it out......providing the stock market continues on it's present course.....if not...I'll probably want out anyway.

I was doing pretty well and was invested in real estate back around 2007-2009. Yep, we all know what happened then, and NV was the worst hit State. My moderate stock portfolio also vanished, and I had a tussle with cancer in 2007 and 2008 that hit the savings hard.

Since then I've been able to add on to my small house to increase the value much more than the addition and remodel cost; pay it off and all other debts. I had planned on working for five more years when I fell off a roof in 2013 and had to quit working as an independent contractor for a claims company. I planned on saving 80% of what I was making.

Even at this I managed to save and invest a bit, so I have a small nest egg, and I sold my small home in Montana that had no mortgage. With our investments and small SS payments we get by. My home and second parcel attached are going up in value fast, but so are taxes and insurance. I could sell out if necessary and use 1/3 of the proceeds to buy something that would be comfortable but not a palace, leaving me double the cash and investments.

So, yes I have enough to live on and have a bit of fun if we watch our expenditures. If we need to splurge a bit or pay an unexpected repair bill I sell a gun or two. At 70 I don't do any expensive hunts or trips anymore. I was fortunate to have done a bit during my best money production years and am satisfied with my life.

If we kick off when we're supposed to we'll get there before going broke.

I'm drawing a decent pension from one career (retired at 43) and am working on a second. My employer puts 12% of my income into 401k/457 and we contribute also. We carry very little debt and are also able to put a few $$ into savings each month. My wife hasn't worked since 2010 due to health issues, so we're living off of what I make.

I'm now in my 25th year of retirement. Have a greater net worth now than at any time in my life. A big piece of this is related to ballooning house prices in our area. We have reached the point in life where we do very little travelling anymore and are happy to spend time with our daughters both of whom are now in their 50's. I still manage to get out on easy hunts. Arthritis is starting to cause problems for my wife. I never earned huge money during my career but had work I enjoyed. My wife never worked outside the house until the first of our girls was about 13. We both feel most of our desires were fulfilled while we were younger and able to travel so no regrets now. There were years when we struggled to save but we still managed to do many things as a family, sufficient to keep us happy.

I can only suggest that anyone who only lives for the day will eventually reach a point where they will wish they had saved. However, to each his own.

JIm

So da wife and I are in our mid 40's. We each have mutual fund accounts. We started those a few years ago by rolling them under one umbrella, because we each had little retirement accounts from various employers and now they are under one roof.

Her employer and mine have R/A's, and we add to our mutual funds every year for the obvious reasons. What I would like to do is take 1k (I think that's the minimum) and go to Charles Schwab and have them invest in the stock market.

Now I know there will be some of you here that will say "do it yourself". Ah no, I don't know enough about it, stuff like that isn't my thing, thanks anyway.

So the advice I am asking is Charels Schwab a good place to start, or Edward Jones? Any other firms?

What I have noticed over the years is that it seems older guys and guys in the know that have investments don't want to give advice, almost secretive. I knew one old timer that suggested to me 20 some years ago to invest in mutual funds. I took his advice and got started at about 35. I don't understand why guys don't give advice to younger people. It's like it's they just want to be smug about it and look down their noses.

In the option that I chose, my Wife will get 1/2 of what I am drawing for the rest of Her life. It dropped what I get considerably because She is 10 years younger than me. Because She has no retirement except Social Security, I felt that is the way to go. It would be better if I did not have to start drawing out some monies when I hit 70 1/2 (which is near), that is drawing more interest than anywhere I can put it at this time. But the Government wants the tax off of that money. miles

My feeling is that those investments firms will get most of your gain, as a fee. miles

I retired last year at the age of 52. Worked for 30 yrs 9 months and loved my job. Could have retired at 25 years at the age of 46. Financial Advisor said if I worked another year I would make $160 more a month on my pension. I get a 2-1/2 % raise every year to my pension. Go figure?
I live in Hawaii, I get free medical, I don’t really watch my spending now. pension is almost like play money after the bills are paid. I saved quite a bit during my whole career and I think I made the right decision.
I have a Roth, an ira and a government pension.
Took six trips this year, one to Japan and two hunting trips. Going back to japan in 2018 and probably every year after.
Enjoying life, waking up when I want to, going to sleep when I want to. Not gonna work another job. Don’t want to be commited to anything.
My wife quit her job after 24 years and has to wait 11 more years for her pension to kick in.
I always told my workers to save more for retirement even though we have a good pension but most don’t listen. Within a month after retiring I got a bunch of phone calls inquiring how I did it. I told them the same thing, PLAN FOR RETIREMENT!
Some say you have to enjoy now which is true but I’m loving life at the age of 53. I’m still in good heath and can still hunt, fish and travel when I feel like it.
My investments made quite a bit this year. Now I’m wondering how much taxes I will have to pay.
Enough of the bragging....
Life is great!

I would suggest Vanguard Index funds!

I played around a lot with stocks and made much more money but the headache of doing so ruined all the fun.

Now I am invested 90% in low cost Index funds owning the complete market.. I spend my days with Hi-Fi, reading and guns instead of watchings stocks go up and down.

Are you willing to learn about investing? (ie. reading)

To give an opinion on the last paragraph about your perception of "older guys and guys in the know that have investments . . ." giving investment advice is a highly regulated professional service. Giving investment opinions is what we do on the fire. I am very careful about giving my opinion because if someone follows my recommendation and it doesn't turn out well for them, then I will be the one they blame. I don't like being in that situation. In your situation, I think dollar cost averaging in your mutual fund accounts is probably the best idea, since you do not currently have the willingness to educate yourself in the finer points of investing. When I was your age, I was the same way. The light did not come on for me until a dozen years ago, and I'm 65. I'm a real Johnny come lately to the investing game, but I dove in head first and have read hundreds of investing books and spent hours on Seeking Alpha to help educate myself. Anything written by William O'Neil "How to Make Money in Stock" and a subscription to "Investors Daily" would be my recommendation for you. However, if you are not ready to commit to educating yourself, I'd put that $1,000 back in your pocket, before you piss it away.

The baseline with my pension is my wife would get 60% if I died before her. I was able to increase that amount to the maximum of 70% at a cost of
$14.00 a month, so to me it was a no-brainer, as she will get that amount for the rest of her life.

My wife and I started investing at the rate of $100 a month. That doesn't sound like a lot these days, but back then, I was earning only $1000 a month and she wasn't working at all. After bills and all, we rationed ourselves to a weekly allowance of $5 each. Not daily. $5 a week. But that $100 came out of the paycheck every month, before anything else. "Pay yourself first" was the motto.

It's four decades later now, and let's just say that we, our daughters, and our grandchildren need never worry about money.

i invested heavily in beanie babies and huge rear projection tv's and have a quonset out back full of them. so ya, i'm good to go.

I'm saving, but need to save a lot more over the next 15 years.

In 15 years you will do fine if you bear down now!

The secret is time (not an original thought). Even at a modest gain of 5%, you'll quickly start building real money. 5% of $1000 becomes 5% of $100,000, and then 5% of $1,000,000...

I reall enjoyed this thread on retirement. My Story is Went to sea at 13 to work on salmon trollers. Bought my own troller at 16. Realized that all the cute chicks were with the guys that had the Nicest cars. Invested in a 1960 Pontiac Bonniville Convertible at age 19. Married at age 20 with one son and another one on the way.Had an old Realtor tell me to invest or speculate in real estate at 20. I told him I didn't have any money and he showed me that I didn't need much Made several millon by age of 45. Got all my things in order to go bankrupt at age 49. but missed it by not having all my eggs in one basket. I had saved 560 acres of Old Growth Timber that we 1031'd in to a Manufctured Home community. Quite speculating and went to straight income property investments at 52. Today I am 76 and really enjoying my semi retirement. Wife has been saving since 1990. I think she has everything paid off. I spend most all my time collectiong , speculating, Antique guns. Just spent a week at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and the think that I still have some life left in me yet. Oh , I also started smoking at age 13 and quit at 50. Not proud of it , but it is a fact. None of my 3 sons have ever smoked, thank God...........Dick

I'm pretty good for the first week or so.

Rubbish.

I'm retired. I don't have a damn thing. Probably can't afford the dirt to cover me when I die.

At the rate Warren Buffett and Donald Trump have added to my portfolio over the past year, I should have no complaints when I hand it up.

Hellofva good story right there. Best of luck!

I am sad for you if you really believe that. Sounds kind of like an excuse for never having invested in the stock market.

Viking, If you go to those brokers, it does not matter what company. I depends more who you end up with as an advisor. You may get the best adviser in the state, and the advisor next to his office may be a disaster. Some care , some dont. I went through three advisors and none cared. The last one was an absolute disaster. As for older people not giving advise, I have seen the same thing. It was and still is so hard to get advise that people will walk away. I decided to educate myself. You say it isn't your thing. Maybe not but you will be very surprised how well you can do if you read for an hour on how to do it. The easiest way is go with Fidelity or Vanguard. I have Fidelity , walked into their office and they did everything , and I mean everything of me, and I only put in $ 10 K in at first cause I had my money with the other advisor . I quickly started to see that I was beating my advisors ideas. One day I called my advisor, they said they'd call back . After six weeks of no callback I rolled it into Fidelity. Now Viking , dont yawn yet, this is how simple it is . An advisor will not " take all your money in fees" Like EDM sais RUBISH. They will however most likely take 5% of your money up front for themselves and 1% expense ratio after that. If you give them 10K , you will end up with $ 9,500 in your fund cause they take 5% up front. After that your fund will return 7% but they will take the 1% expense charge . so, they will take 1/7th of your profits . When the account gains. Their advise is not worth it in most cases. Here is how easy it is. set up an account, put it in any S&P 500 fund (,FidelityFUSVX) some in a madcap fund I have IJH and VOE. So simp it is sad people like you think they can't do it. Cause you are in mid 40's I would start some bonds when ya turn 50. Remember , fidelity will do this for you and charges are extremely low. I am setting up a ROTH for my nephew over Christmas. He is in Wyoming in the Airforce base there. My son is 20 and buys ETF's and stocks Has a ROTH too. So easy , even a Viking can do it.

I used the 4 legs of a stool investing scheme.

One was emerging stocks ,fidelity contra and Magellan.

The last is in a fixed account.
The first 3 are up all the time but there are quarters when the fixed does somewhat better.

Thing is to look and read about firms before laying down the funds.

I spend time on firearms/hunting forums (mostly this one) and on personal investing/early retirement forums. I think that if the people on the investing forums started offering opinions about guns, I think they would MAYBE get as twisted around as some of the posts in this thread, but then again maybe not.

Generally accepted rules of investing:
1. Max out any retirement benefit for which you get an employer match before anything else.
2. Max out tax sheltered savings before after tax savings.
3. Diversify across uncorrelated asset classes.
4. Minimize transaction costs.
5. Time invested is more important that timing of investment.

Online brokerages have greatly assisted with personal investing. Kiplinger's Personal Finance October 2017 had the following rankings of online brokers:
Best for mutual fund investors: Schwab
" " ETF investors: Schwab
" " active stock investors: Merrill Edge
" " investors on the go: E*Trade (mobile platform)
" " for managing cash: Fidelity
" " for retirees: Vanguard.

I have accounts at TD Ameritrade, Schwab, Vanguard, and Merrill Edge, and they really have very strengths and weaknesses.

There is absolutely no need to pay an advisor or high fees for financial products (even though I cannot convince my elderly mother or Mother in law to drop their ("because they are so nice")).

Leanwolf: Yes is the answer to your postings header... I have been retired since I was 50 years old!
I am in my 20th full year of retirement and LOVING IT!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

It is amazing the number of folks that wont even put in enough retirement money to meet their employee's match.
Yet have enough for multilple smartphones, $200 a month cable, multiple new vehicles, boats etc

I always tried to max out my 401k contributions and hopefully will do ok. Have house paid off and enough monthly income off of investments to have fun, travel, hunt fish etc. Big concern is no major health issues

x2

congrats! I have a couple of friends did the same. And they are loving life!

I hope to at 55

I'm oilfield trash. Made my retirement money by:

Being very charitable. The more I gave, the more I made.....funny how God works.
Owning a fleet of frac tanks and selling.
Owning a fuel company and selling
Owning water trucks and selling
Never trusting anyone to manage my money
Always lived on way less than I made
Got completely out of debt at age 41 and never looked back.

One of the best things was hitting 50 two years ago. Putting max into 401k adds up quickly...

One, you can't just hand your money over to "a guy" and walk away. That's how people "lose everything in the stock market".

Two, you can't spend all your time working on your investments. You have to make a living.

Somewhere in between is where we need to be. We have to have a basic understanding of how money works. You don't have to have a degree in finance to secure your future, but you have to learn some.

You have to learn that stocks are risky in the short term, and low risk in the long term. That bonds are low risk in the short term, but high risk in the long term. That you can buy an S&P index fund at Vanguard, and make what the market makes (12% on average), and beat more than 75% of the professional money managers out there.

So, read a few "investing for dummies" books. Learn the jargon enough to be able to converse. Open an account at Vanguard (or Fidelity, or whatever), and put your money into an S&P 500 index fund. Rinse and repeat. Once you are comfortable and have a basic understanding, you can invest in some other things. Small caps, growth stocks, international stocks, dividend growth stocks, value stocks...... Read a book or two a year about it, and just generally get comfortable managing your money.

Think of it this way. You will spend 40 years working for a living, and 30 years living off your investments. Wouldn't it make sense to know at least a little bit about how you are going to support yourself and your family for 30 years of your life?

Retirement planning would be a lot easier if I knew when I will die.

I'm in great shape as long as I only live 3 or 4 years.

Dutch said it. I handed a good chunk of money to " A guy" that was recommended by two employees at my wives work. I lost at least 10k with him that didn't need to happen. Nothing good came out of that little firm in the small town. And like Ribka's mom said " but they're so nice" Yyyy aaahh, they are making 15-20% off of your money. The Vanguard total stock market exchange ( VTSMX) will give you a balanced fund of 3,400 companies. Some bond stocks and call it good.

Funny, that. I have right at half of my IRA in VTSMX (admiral fund)............

People are hesitant to give too much advice on directly what to buy or what to invest in because its really a personal choice, based on what you the investor knows and understands, what is risk tolerance is etc. You should not tell people what to put money in or they will feel you are at fault if it doesnt work out.

As far as paying Charles Scwab to invest in stocks for you... bad idea. If you do not understand in well, and know why it is a good investment, then you should not be owning it. Individual stocks are much riskier, and you should not just turn your money over to someone to invest. You need to know and understand it. if you do not want to spend the time to know, then stick to index mutual funds or something similar.