Are you saving enough for retirement?

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Sliver

OMG fata that. The only thing that keeps me going is knowing one day I can just start my permanent vacation. If there was no light at the end of the tunnel I'd just jump off a bridge now.

Haha, that would be the way to go. Take out an enormous loan, live the high life and then just pull the chute (or actually don't...)

[pepper24]

We sat down when Covid started and figured we could realistically retire in our mid-40s. We're early 40's right now so in 3-5 years which is way too soon. It was weird though as we never really thought about it or talked about it before then.

I think we'll keep going until the kids are out of the house then work a few more years so 10-15 more years at least. Love to work and have time now to figure out how leisure time can replace that stimulation and social connections. I think after financial part the lack of stimulation is toughest for most.

[Johnny199r]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I love having cool cars, but I see the appeal of just having one mediocre car. Sounds like Johnny gets more out of the peace of mind that comes with building up some solid savings than he'd get out of owning a nice car, though.

Sometimes people save a lot not because they are Scrooge or want to die with four million dollars in the bank, but they just enjoy the security of having that money more than the enjoyment they'd get out of spending it.

The one thing I wish you could buy is time off during your working years. My preference would be to work 75% of my current hours and make 25% less. There just doesn't seem to be a good way to do that in most jobs. The only real work around is to try to save more and retire 25% earlier, which isn't the worst.

I do like peace of mind. Well put. The thought that if I lose my job, or I can leave town tomorrow, or some big emergency happens, I'll be ok. That extends into my retirement thinking.

Some people are comfortable being up to their eye balls in debt everyday. The feeling doesn't really bother them. They're just living.

We're all different.

[Shin Pad]

I just retired a couple of years ago. Just a couple of my observations:
- Your interests could be quite different when you reach retirement, than they are when you are younger.
- You may not be able to do some of the things you want to do when you retire. For example, in my case I'm still healthy and fit, but my wife not so much. So that limits what we can do together in our old age. We can't go hiking together and stuff like that.
- You may end up having to spend much more than you planned for - ie - what if you or your spouse need to go into special care for health reasons and such.

[RichieRich]

Originally Posted by pepper24

We sat down when Covid started and figured we could realistically retire in our mid-40s. We're early 40's right now so in 3-5 years which is way too soon. It was weird though as we never really thought about it or talked about it before then.

I think we'll keep going until the kids are out of the house then work a few more years so 10-15 more years at least. Love to work and have time now to figure out how leisure time can replace that stimulation and social connections. I think after financial part the lack of stimulation is toughest for most.

There's retiring and living on dollar store cat food, discount dried goods, and old army rations... that's pretty lean FIRE. Quite possible (beyond my exagerations last sentence) but that's a very simple existence without much wiggle room at all. Then there's fat-FIRE... which is a 6-figure retirement income. Some folks will barely get beyond lean, and some aim for fat and plan to work until they're 65+ to get there.

This COVID experience has shown me that we can retire and live fairly ok without extravagant expenditures and still have healthy and energy to spend with the teenagers, with our parents, with friends/family, pursuing travel and sports and real activities and "living" in their 40-50's. This is where it's at IMO. I also see too many mid 60's and older people/couples really struggling either financially or socially (too many sick, or they're dying off). I'd love to retire from "required" work in my early 50's, but it's looking like that's quite optimistic unless money magically appears.

[RichieRich]

2020 has thankfully ended... time for the annual year end Net Worth calculation. Gotta compare to prior years, what worked, what didn't, decide what to change, what to learn, etc... Gonna be interesting for many of us who experienced CoVid in different ways (ie some layoffs, CERB, more/less compensation, more/less mouths to feed, etc...). Might even cause a reset on your estimated retirement age and/or F.U. number. Whaddaya all figure you learned from this last year?


me first: I don't wanna work forever, I need to reduce my investment costs, I need to have a firmer grasp and control rather than just trust specific funds/ETF's/grouped investments are actually right for me. Oh that and really really question the value of bonds going forward given the crazy low rates.

[Lubicon]

My employer suspended our RRSP match and we had a 20% wage rollback, my savings rate took a significant hit this year. It’s getting tougher to save each year with expenses continuing to climb and my pay frozen at 2014 levels (prior to cuts). All said it’s probably delayed retirement by a few years.

[GGG]

I had a relatively normal year retirement savings wise. Hours were cut to 80% most of the year but savings rate held up year over year as my expenses dropped significantly. 1 car, far less gas, less on kids sports, no winter vacation, no lunch out at work, reduced eating out in general and riding a bike for all solo trips when there wasn’t snow on the ground. Also delayed some spending (Newer Car) to build a bigger reserve in case things get worse.

Had some good insight into my retirement number when the expenses normally required to support a job disappeared. The goal next year is to try to keep those low as I go back to work.

[albertGQ]

My wife took 9.5 months of maternity leave and I took the other 2.5 months of paternity leave.

So not much in the way of savings for us.

At least we both have jobs I guess.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

I wish we 'retired" until we were 30, then at 30 you go to work and work at your job until you fall over dead.

You could draw a retirement "loan" that you had to pay back during your working years.

Slavery after 30 then, eh?

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by undercoverbrother

I wish we 'retired" until we were 30, then at 30 you go to work and work at your job until you fall over dead.

You could draw a retirement "loan" that you had to pay back during your working years.

You can do that.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by MoneyGuy

You can do that.

I think the average person would have a hard time getting $500k of unsecured loans between ages 20-30. Especially if they didn't have a job/income.

[EVERLAST]

Every day I EAT a little bit of catfood.
Why?
So by the time we can talk retirement I'm used to at.least 2 square meals of solid cheap catfood as thats what will be affordable.

Ahhh freedom 85 ....here I come.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I think the average person would have a hard time getting $500k of unsecured loans between ages 20-30. Especially if they didn't have a job/income.

Some US universities are loaning money for x% of future income for x years instead of fixed value student loans. Something like that could work for large unsecured loans. I think it’s Purdue’s engineering program that is piloting it.

[Sylvanfan]

Invest in a green house and grow your own veggies...I think it's a bit better fate than cat food.

When I was younger I thought many of my farmer relatives in Saskatchewan lacked intelligence and had no ambition. But as I get older...I recognize that I'm the family idiot who had zero foresight. They all know how to butcher cattle, hunt and start a fire in a blizzard with their bare hands. They have no problem providing for themselves, and so long as they have a roof over their head, a pickup truck and can afford a bottle of rum every 3-4 days they're plenty content.

They not the ones facing a future of eating cat food. I am.

[shermanator]

Thankfully, my employment was consistent throughout the year, and with the pandemic we saved significantly more than expected this year. Wife was on maternity leave, but goes back to work on Monday, so it will be nice to have two incomes again. The one benefit of this pandemic is the amount I have been able to save, so I am looking forward to that in 2021. It still is baffling to me with the 2020 we had that I made an 8% return this year.

As for whether I am saving enough for retirement, I currently put 14% of my income with my employer matching 6%, and my wife puts 10% of her income with her employer matching 5%, so I imagine I am in good shape compared to most people my age.

I am hell bent on paying off my house in the next 4-5 years before really ratcheting up my retirement plan with an aim of retiring mid 50's. I prefer the security of no longer having my biggest monthly expense in case something goes wrong. Getting laid off 6 days after emptying your life savings to buy a condo at 25 will influence that mindset.

[prarieboy]

I think we are in good shape to retire but we are going to keep working till the kids get out of University. That expense plus the fact that our purchasing power has been regressing makes me want to keep saving.

The future seems more uncertain to me that it ever has.

I always worked towards retiring at 55, my current age, but now I'm more interested in not running out of money under almost any circumstance.

[RichieRich]

Had a single income family until I got laid off earlier this year... had managed to create a decent emergency fund the last few years plus a little severance plus a lot of cutting back plus CERB/EI have sure helped us stretch things. I recognize we're fortunate compared to so so many. Prior to the layoff was on track for decent savings but of course since then nada. Investments as of March 23rd were horrifying however we stayed the course and have since rebounded. Thankfully had already saved enough RESP for kidlets so when eldest starts Uni next year they won't be affected.

This time off work, during which I did have some fun, definitely taught me that I need to have enough F.U. money sooner rather than later so I need to do better with savings and investment strategies. Would LOVE to target Freedom55 but unless some miracle happens rather unlikely.
OK here are a couple of websites which can really help EVERYONE get a better handle on their retirement journey. Yes there are some assumptions made, but it gets you into the ballpark at least:
Simplest one: https://investmentcalculator.io/?ref...veincomeearner
Best one (more detailed) https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/
On this latter link, read through the "stuff"... it's good and worthy of your time IMO. Underneath that there are additional calculators and ways to look at life variables and run simulations on those. Don't forget to include funds for, lets' say, CPP, OAS, inheritance, additional medical, etc... You can play with years invested, stock/bond mix, how much variability you have yearly in your budget, etc...
Anyways enjoy the rabbit hole...

[Johnny199r]

It's been 7 years since I started this thread. Time flies.

Anyone close to retirement?

Are people saving and investing regularly? Lucky Toronto or Vancouver real estate purchase from years past? Planning on winning the lottery?

I've continued to to regularly contribute to my questrade investment account. I plan to retire at 56 and am on track. Obviously, the future can throw curveballs, but I'm content with how things have been going.

[BlackArcher101]

Originally Posted by Johnny199r

It's been 7 years since I started this thread. Time flies.

Anyone close to retirement?

Are people saving and investing regularly? Lucky Toronto or Vancouver real estate purchase from years past? Planning on winning the lottery?

I've continued to to regularly contribute to my questrade investment account. I plan to retire at 56 and am on track. Obviously, the future can throw curveballs, but I'm content with how things have been going.

Update: I will still die working.