Retirement savings 'magic number' surges to new high for Americans

I was thinking a month or so ago that everyone needs to buy everything they will need for the rest of their life today, because it will never be any cheaper!! The real threat to any retirees retirement savings is inflation. It is true that sound investments will take the edge off of inflation, but when you have to start selling it to eat,, the taxes come back to haunt you, which is the big Gothcha with distributing the IRA the government gave you the tax break on. Those disbursements put your other income into a higher tax bracket.
Buy everything you will ever need today.
 
Paxilpapa said:
I was thinking a month or so ago that everyone needs to buy everything they will need for the rest of their life today, because it will never be any cheaper!! The real threat to any retirees retirement savings is inflation. It is true that sound investments will take the edge off of inflation, but when you have to start selling it to eat,, the taxes come back to haunt you, which is the big Gothcha with distributing the IRA the government gave you the tax break on. Those disbursements put your other income into a higher tax bracket.
Buy everything you will ever need today.
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The roast beef won't last that long.
 
Paxilpapa said:
the taxes come back to haunt you,
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As expected, we owe money this year on our taxes.

This past week, we received the dollar amount from our accountant.

I immediately returned her email message with:

"Hey Cathy, is that figure in US dollars or Mexican pesos ??"

She laughed.

I cried.
 
In terms of retirement.....

It's how you live your lifestyle that matters.

Do you drive a used Toyota, or some high-falutin RAM Truck ?

Do you go to Europe on vacation.... or somewhere like, Dothan ?
Do you experience fine dining, or prefer iHop ?

Do you have a closet full of clothes, or shop the sale rack at Target ?

I'd rather live close to the ground and have a lil' sumpthin' to leave to the kids; God knows they are going to need it.
 
MudFlap said:
In terms of retirement.....

It's how you live your lifestyle that matters.

Do you drive a used Toyota, or some high-falutin RAM Truck ?

Do you go to Europe on vacation.... or somewhere like, Dothan ?
Do you experience fine dining, or prefer iHop ?

Do you have a closet full of clothes, or shop the sale rack at Target ?

I'd rather live close to the ground and have a lil' sumpthin' to leave to the kids; God knows they are going to need it.
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A lot of truth to this.

A lot of retired people just barely get by, and that's with them living lean.

One thing I told "She who adores me" is that I want us to still be able to live well and enjoy more than just the basics. We are cutting back some, but frankly there's room for that. We've had it good the last couple of years; debt free and made more money than ever before, so we had lots of disposable income. We are toning that down some. And the RAM is paid for. :)

Some news still breaking, but it's looking like "She who adores me" will be losing her job and insurance sooner than we planned on. While she can draw SS, she's not eligible for Medicare yet, so that is concerning to us. She's had some job offers, but we'll have to see how they work out and what the benefits will be. One of them would require her to drive daily to an office in Atlanta, and that isn't happening.
 
We live fairly modest even though compared to my parents and grandparents we live “high on the hog.” We took a cruise last year for our first vacation since Covid hit, we booked another cruise just last night but it’s to celebrate our oldest grandson’s hs graduation before he ships off for boot camp. That will be our vacation this year. Years ago we did waste a lot of money, I often wish we had half of it now. We enjoyed it at the time but it was stupid. Fortunately we learned that we’re not one percenters and live within our means now.
 
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