I have been watching this thread from the start and decided to offer my 2 cents worth. I put my bike away for the winter 2 weeks ago and I'm sick of winter already, so might as well post on the forum. First a disclaimer; I am not a professional financial adviser. However finding yourself a good one should be your first priority. Stay away from former used car and insurance salesmen or anyone that works on commission. It sounds like a lot of you guys posting on this thread are close to retirement age or are at least thinking about it. I am 60 years young and have been retired for 3 years. We have been debt free for quite some time. As mentioned here saving money and eliminating debt is a good thing at any age. One rule that I was told years ago by one of my advisers was this: If you are over 50 and want to retire early, your money should not be in the stock market. As you get older your tolerance for risk gets lower. The idea being that by the time you are 50, you should have accumulated enough wealth and go into a preserving your balance mode and go with very low risk investments. Checkswrecks made a comment about low return annuities, well, that's exactly what I did. I changed employers in 2006 at age 49. This allowed me to reinvest all my 401k money (I worked there for 31 years) in whatever I wanted to. When the market crashed in 2008, my retirement money was in annuities paying 7.5%, 6% net after fees and money market accounts. I actually made money through the recession. Keep in mind that there are many kinds of annuities, this is where your financial adviser can help. I have read many articles about annuities being bad investments. To make a "blanket" statement like that is like saying all motorcycles are junk. Also, if you have a 401k available, take advantage of it. Put more than the usual 6% in it. Remember you can put up to $23,500 in it yearly if you're over 50 and also take advantage of the IRA deduction of $6500. These are all big tax breaks. Learn how to manage your own 401k, don't just let your money sit in the "default" funds. Most employers 401k programs let you transfer your money between many different accounts, free of charge. These are all things that I did to allow me to retire early.
I actually turned down an academic scholarship after high school and went into the skilled trades. My parents were furious, but at age 17, I knew everything and was sick of school. The skilled trade route worked out very well for me. By age 25, I had completed a millwright apprenticeship, got a machinist card by going to night school and was a certified welder. I worked for the same company for 31 years. Then because of downsizing, I took a severance package and moved on to an even better job. More pay and less hours. I started paying into my company's 401k at age 20 when it became available. I guess my point here is this; it can be done. A comfortable retirement can still be accomplished. Educate yourself on investing, 401k's, etc..and learn how to manage them. Take advantage of all the tax breaks. Tonight's news had a clip on some local (Wisconsin) companies looking for skilled labor. A survey showed that 80% of the companies surveyed could NOT find enough skilled people to fill job openings and expand their businesses. It went on to say that now there is even a shortage of instructors at the tech schools and even the tech ed class at some high schools are short of qualified instructors.
Again, I don't claim to be an expert on financial planning or investing. I just thought I would pass this info along, maybe someone can make use of it. Most of it is simply common sense. Like staying out of debt and saving. In closing, I would like to make a comment/observation on annuities. Years ago, annuities were often looked at as a bad investment. Low return, high fees etc.. Now, when I get together with friends and former co-workers, it seems like everyone has one or more annuities. Just an observation I noticed. Maybe the 2008 recession brought on the change. I will say that they are working for me.
Magic