MONEY BIATCHES

[vicarz]

Spent a couple computing retirement annuity benefits. Uh, wow is my retirement amount (what I need "in the bank" to live off interest only assuming rates of 5% a year...very conservative) way higher than necessary. I hadn't counted on an annuity of 40-55k plus COLA (presuming this includes my cost of living based on DC metro area?)

I figured I wanted 100-150k to live on forever in retirement, though wondered if I should care more about inflation more than I was. It looks like 1/2 to 1/3 of that is already built in. Sheesh.

This, of course, is also computed as if there are no social security benefits. Adding those in, without any retirement savings I'm 3/4 to the amount I computed I would need to live comfortably...and that's based on my current working, going to bars, and eating in restaurants lifestyle. Those figures are allegedly adjusted for inflation/COLA, so that's to say these rough figures represent the idea that while I'm very well on my way to an amount to fully fund my retirement independently, I should only need 3/4 of that.

Lessons:
Listen to your elders when you start, not blindly, but listen.
Research and make a plan
Stick with plans through adversity, for a long fucking time, and through more adversity
Make a back up plan
Stick with the back-up plan for a long fucking time
Profit, more so if both strategies work.

I might be insane but in a way that is not considered problematic.

Comments

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

This post sent my anxiety skyrocketing and made me cry.

Thankfully I don't understand most of it or else my reaction might have been really bad.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Sorry!? Totally the opposite of my intent. I'm not all that smart, hard working, or otherwise advantaged (though I appear white, a big deal in this country). My message, besides happy gloating, was that if you save and invest for a long time it will eventually pay off - both in career and in flat-out money.

All it is saying is I saved money for decades (literally decades) and stuck with my job for decades (literally decades) and now I can see it paying off...though in decades. That's like 40 years...most human things are achievable in 40 years.

Don't look at a status as if it happens overnight - "they got it like that" is one of the worst excuses ever.

Did I fail in trying to console and motivate? How?

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

Mostly it's my labile mood and nothing to do with your post. And I know it wasn't your intent.

This is connected to your money comment from last week that I haven't replied to because it requires a lot of mental energy to do so. Money + me = ugh.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Oh good grief
I am an advocate of money matters, but I'm also strongly an advocate of "life shouldn't suck." I mean to encourage responsibility without misery and materialism. I don't recall the comment but...if it takes energy and it's just for me, fuggit? If it's something you need to think about I'm good for 52¢ giving.

You're talking about grad school? Or starting career stuff? Hardly the time to totally worry about 40 years later. Good time to lay plans, but when food is a challenge then it's not the time to pine over retirement.

Relax.

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

Okay. Won't pine yet. Will pine when I have enough money to do so. Which will be...

[vicar.livejournal.com]

I think I got my 24.4k a year government job in 1995, or that's to say I was 27. Also, your country is civilized.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

This also made me feel naive and unprepared, seaopaque so don't feel bad. But I am going to take it as an action item to figure out where I am. I have a 401k and a pension but I have no idea how to figure out if the rate I'm adding to both is "enough" again without the assumption that social security will still be there.

We do know that we will be leaving NJ for somewhere like Delaware where monthly property taxes don't equal what you'd pay in rent/mortgage. Otherwise I'm perfectly ready to live in an RV as long as I have food, friends and access to health care.