For those that don't or won't have 200k to 1mil for retirement, what's your plan?

[Beeman]

If you're one of the many that don't or won't have a large sum of money to draw from for retirement what is your plan? I know many that have retired or will shortly that don't have much in savings and rely on social security for their survival. Others have a small sum but fear out living their money. The plan to work sounds great but that's not totally in your control since health becomes a big factor and if you work a job will they keep you. Being frugal should be a way of life if you're on this board but being frugal doesn't pay utility, tax or doctor bills without cash flow.

[hillsidedigger]

If the overall economic situation remains basically the same for another 12 years when we reach 65, if we make it, with all debts paid, 30 acres here and a house, with little driving, I think we can do well enough just on social security income.

[Beeman]

Originally Posted by hillsidedigger

If the overall economic situation remains basically the same for another 12 years when we reach 65, if we make it, with all debts paid, 30 acres here and a house, with little driving, I think we can do well enough just on social security income.

Where do you live?, taxes seem to be one of the big money eaters along with energy costs. So you feel confident that SS will be there and stay at the current level?

[Kevingr]

My mom retired when she was 60 and is now 79. She had no savings, but had equity in the house and her share of my dads (he past away) railroad retirement. She had to sell her house a few years ago because she could no longer afford the taxes and maintenance expenses associated with the house. She live 150 miles away from all of us kids, so helping her was very difficult. She couldn't afford to live anywhere else so us kids had a house built for her near where all of us live so we can help her out. She gets around just fine, you'd never know she's 79, but she still needs help.

We're in the same situation now with my wifes 76 year old mother, unfortunetly her siblings can't afford to build their mother a house so she had to move into subsidized housing. Same situation with her, she couldn't afford to keep up with the taxes and maintenance on her double wide.

Both of these people retired with good equity in their homes, but couldn't keep up with taxes, maintenance and healthcare. Their SS and railroad retirement couldn't keep up with those expenses. It was also getting more difficult to just keep up with all the physical demands of maintaining a home.

Given what I've seen I can't imagine anyone thinking they can make it on SS and some land going into their 80's. At least not without some kind of support from family. Without that family support, or some other support from someone, I don't believe in the long run you'll be staying on your own place, eventually you'll be supported by the Government in some apartment somewhere.

[Big Dave]

I have seen folks in nursing homes cause they can not take care of themselves any more. When in the nursing home you get three meals a day even if you do not like what they serve. You get medical attention as you need it. All your money from social security goes to the home to pay for your expenses. You can not leave the grounds unless you are on a furlough to a relatives home. Any one who wants to come see you can and you are in a place where you have no say over your roomy or the people that yell in your hall way.
NOW:
If you are in a Federal prision...You get three meals a day, you do not pay for your medical expenses, the gov does,so your ss goes into an acount where you can get things at the commisary. You can go on furlough to a realitives home for the weekend. You are not allowed to leave the grounds. You have no say in who your rommy is or who will be yelling all day and night in your block.
RETIRMENT: to put away
I do not have money never have. Been homeless twice, not because it was somthing I wanted. I will work till I die. If I can't take care of myself ????? Nursing home or Fed incarsuration???

[Terri]

BEST case secario is to draw a pension and SS. However, the Feds want to do AWAY with SS, so it might not work out.

WORST case scenario, our land should be paid off. I could sell it, either outright or as a reverse mortgage and then we could continue to live on it.

My parents think me LESS than wise because our retirement account is wimpy. But, I haven't SPENT the retirement money: I have INVESTED it! As much as I would hate to sell my place, I could very easily do so. Some people put their money into savings: I have put it into 6.5 acres and a house. I COULD! NOT! do both.

Such is life. If I have to sell land I will do so.

[anniew]

I think one option that most won't talk about is suicide. I have a retirement plan, but it is subject to things out of my control.
I can see that in 15-20 years, if my health is poor and/or I run out of money, that suicide is a definite option. Being the government won't allow for assisted suicide, there is always the self-inflicted suicide.
No flaming please!

To a former poster: most nursing homes don't take all the social security money, but have an account for the person with a small amount (maybe $50 a month) for personal items.

I also think incarceration is a great option. Not that you'd like your room-mate, but you get three squares, a bed, heat, utilities, tv, reading material, company, medical and dental attention, etc.
As a reporter, several years ago I wrote up an article about the local jail facility without mentioning its name, but just its general location and amenities, and people called the newspaper asking where this housing was. Many prisoners have more than hard working low-income people.

Yep, that's what we need to do! When we get about 75 or 80, we should go hold up a post office or bank with a unloaded pistol. Then we shouldn't have to worry about our finances and health insurance anymore. Easy retirement!

My FIL retired just a little over two years ago and is facing some serious financial difficulties. His company gave him a early retirement package which consisted of one big lump some of money. He took it and since then he has had to have hip replacement, and his wife has had arterial blockage surgery. Since his wife isn't old enough to be on SS the surgeries have just about drainned all his retirement money. He will soon just be relying on his SS check to make ends meet but he still has several years of high payments on his home.

As for me. Several years ago the Doc. put me on light duty work only, due to my chronic back pains. Ever since it has already been a struggle to survive. I've already exhausted any retirement accounts I had. So from here on out I'm gonna just have to survive the best I can on what little income I manage to make throughout the year plus what I grow and harvest from the wild.

When the time comes that I am no longer able to work, grow my own foods, and start having major health problems, I'm just gonna deny any medications and just let myself perish. It will be cheaper on everyone else around me and a lot less worry.

I've always thought that a lot of medicines just delay our sufferings for just a few more years and makes us feel more missery from the worry of how we gonna pay for it.

[botebum]

I'm 43 and Tonya is 31(yeah, baby!).
If we don't win the lottery(got it spent already) I will have to work in one form or another till I die. The other plan is to raise the kids as well as we can and make sure they get a really good education and succeed financially where we didn't do as well. Then, we'll(being the awesome Mom and Dad that we are) beg them for assistance.
Sounds like I'm kidding? Not a bit! I'm worried about those years and what it may require from the young'uns.
Things aren't looking bad for the immediate future and wise real estate investments may put a whole new spin on things.

Doug

[diane]

I just started drawing SS retirement. My homestead is paid for and I heat with wood. I have some savings, but that was really hit hard during my husband's sickness and death. Taxes, insurance and utilities take up approximately 1/3 of my income right now so I am in good shape, particularly because I grow most of my own food. Do I think SS will last? Who know?? If it doesn't than I think we are all going to be in pretty tough straits and it will be survival of the fittest unless you have children to care for you. In all honesty, life scares me far more than death.....at least a life that would be a drain on my children. With 40 acres, timber and rocks, I think I would be o.k. for awhile unless something really bad happened. To me really bad would be I would pass out in a store someplace and they would call 911 and do all sorts of lifesaving things on me that I would not be able to afford to pay for. I have thought about having DO NOT RESUSCITATE tattooed on my chest.

[FrankTheTank]

Having worked in the nursing home industry, i'll just say that i would rather be dead then ever be carted off to one. Thats just my opinion from LOTS of observing. I tend to think the whole system is in place to keep zombies alive so they can keep milking the taxpayers for more SS and medicare. I'd do the suicide thing too, if push came to shove and i was near the end.

My plan is to survive until physically i can't anymore. Retirement is not in my future, thats why i enjoy free time now as much as possibile. I'm not yet 30 so i know that the future is VERY bleak. If you just run through the numbers (debt, growth rates, etc) its very ugly looking. Factor in decreasing amts of oil and we've got a dim dim future ahead.

[a1cowmilker]

Anniew,

I hoped to see a little smiley face after your post. Since I didn't I have to assume that you were serious.
I don't really know how to comment on your plan. Sorry if I seem rude or direct. Your plan to commit sucide when you get old is about the most selfish thing I have seen in a long time. I can understand refusing medication if you were sick and just prolonging the dieing process. But for a healthy person to end his life just because he doesn't have money is beyond my understanding. I don't know how long you have till retirement, but I'd suggest you start making some different plans right now.
I know that homesteading is a dream for most folks now. and some actually sacrifice to get to do it full time. But most folks get up and go to work at some other place where you don't really have the freedom to do what you want when you want. (not that homesteading lets you that, but I would assume that one would enjoy milking cows etc. more than factory work).
Here is my simple advice. Don't spend as much as you want. Don't sleep as much as you want and don't eat as much as you want. And with all of your left over time, look around this planet and see if there is someone that might could use your help.

About the prison thing my thoughts on that are way to wrong to even think let alone post. Lets just say I would't wish you all flowers and lovely if you took that ridiculous notion to reality.

[CraftyDiva]

Even after retirement I'll be doing something ,part time work or selling at flea market/farmer's market. Anything to keep me moving. Friends that have retired already and do nothing but sleep and eat have more illness then the active folks I know. Have an 83 yr old friend who works 2 days a week, you'd never know she was 83. She works because she wants to, not because she has to. She told me, she'd be dead within a year if she just sat at home doing nothing, I believe it. Stay active, be healthy as long as you can.

[HermitJohn]

I got to remember to keep some chocolate donuts around. When the cops come to drag me off to the government approved rest home, I will grab a donut, point it at them, and refuse to drop it when ordered. Got to make quite a story "Cops shoot elderly man for a chocolate donut"......

[lmnde]

I'm still saying real estate is the way to go. Make a serious effort to have your own residence paid off, and if at all possible use the time now to purchase some rental property. If you have enough time - let your tenants pay it off and plunk all your positive cashflow into buying another property[ies] or land. If you are short on time - make extra payments to raise your equity and hopefully be able to pay it off by the time you are retiring or can't work anymore.

I am self employed and I think I will always work to some extent or another - but I don't want to have to - I want to be able to call my own shots, and go smell the roses and do my own thing too. Finding + developing a profitable hobby or interest can go a long way to help finance or support your retirement and remain mentally fresh, challenged and active.

I regard the hints towards suicide with interest - I have seen a lot of elderly ppl pass away lately in my circle of aquaintances after having been heavily dependant on in home or instituionalized nursing care, and in some cases been placed in a hospice situation because the remaining family could not [or would not] physically care for them - and others becoming so forgetful and distracted that they can't find their way home from the grocery store or can't remember where they have been all day long, with the entire family in uproar and searching for them... When I get to that point and my brain goes and/or I am riddled with pain and other than that all alone or a burden for my remaining family - what is there left worth living for???

[pancho]

Some places in the U.S. are a lot cheaper to live than others. It would be worth the effort to research the cost of living and moving to a place where your retirement money, even if it is only SS, could keep you for the rest of your life. Many people retire only on SS and have a happy, healthy, and long life. Some parts of the country are set up more for the retired people and less for the working people, the cost of living is cheaper as there are not many jobs.
My plans are to move to one of the areas where living is cheap and enjoy the rest of my life.

[COSunflower]

I am 20 years into a 30 year retirement pension and have my place paid off. I have a wood stove and two good boys that go out and get firewood for me and split kindling too! I am hoping that by time I retire, our little town will have a sewer system and then I can sell off have my property for someone to build a new home and only have half of it to take care of. Just enough for my chickens, berries, and growing some food stuff during the summer. My mobile home is old but has been kept up so the main thing that I would like to do before retiring is to have a metal roof and new siding put on it. All of my debt (car etc.) will be paid off in less than 5 years. Then I will probably do the roof and siding thing so THAT can be paid off before I retire also. I will probably always work a couple days a week for fun and a little extra cash but who knows, maybe I'll be too busy with my gardening, guilting and grandkids I hope to find a partner to share the "golden" years with but if I don't, I hope to remain as active as possible for as long as possible and then will probably move into an assisted living place so that I don't have to bug my kids although they and their wives and I get along great and both families have lived with ME before and we have done just fine. That would be my last resort though.

Originally Posted by pancho

Some places in the U.S. are a lot cheaper to live than others. It would be worth the effort to research the cost of living and moving to a place where your retirement money, even if it is only SS, could keep you for the rest of your life. Many people retire only on SS and have a happy, healthy, and long life. Some parts of the country are set up more for the retired people and less for the working people, the cost of living is cheaper as there are not many jobs.
My plans are to move to one of the areas where living is cheap and enjoy the rest of my life.

Excellent post. Unless you have never saved a dime, never worked anywhere that had a pension, and rented your entire life, you do have options. Your home is likely worth much more than you owe on it if you have owned it any length of time. Assuming your kids are grown and gone, sell the large home at a profit and either use the money to build or buy a small place, maybe in a different state with lower taxes. Do some research. I see nice smaller homes here that sell in the $20,000 range or less. Heck, a new car costs more than that. A small home will cut your taxes and energy bills.

[hunter63]

Lottery tickets, it would only take one.

[anniew]

Sorry that I got you upset.
I didn't give you any details of my personal situation, so I guess you were (politely) flaming me.
I just gave options, not saying what others should do.
I recently had to put my dog down. Isn't it something that we can give our animals a decent way out of this life, but not our fellow humans, or even ourselves. Since that is the case, self-inflicted suicide is the alternative to this option.
Selfish? I have no dependents, nor offspring, and hardly any relatives. Why am I being selfish? and to whom? The nursing homes or the hospitals? It might be actually a charitable thing under certain circumstances to do the deed and not cost the rest of the struggling world money, whether it be health costs, living costs or burying costs.
I am not destitute, have a plan, and expect that I will be okay until I die naturally, or until I am in a lot of pain and want to end it myself.
The incarceration thing is done every day by homeless or very low income people, especially during very cold weather in the north. Perhaps for some unknown reason, they have not been able to work two jobs, or find their way in life.
Both ideas are perhaps thinking outside the box, but that is what we need to do when we consider getting old. You may not like my thinking, so what are your thoughts?
Ann