I wasn't counting on cancer. I never saw Obama coming. I didn't see 2008 in my lifetime. The point is, these "How To" articles are just space fillers for something that ends up in the bottom of a bird cage.
If someone is thinking of "retiring" today, let that just mean changing jobs to something else you might enjoy more than what you are doing now. You will probably NEVER really get to retire unless you win the Lottery. A "normal" working person will NEVER save enough money other than some sort of inheritance or lucky break somewhere in your life.
Cancer awaits many, strokes and other more uncommon maladies, await others. Car wreck injuries, and other things you do to yourself also take a toll on retirees. I even didn't do too terribly during the 2008 crash as I have been investing since Nixon and a 500 Dow and knew how to limit losses and more or less read charts to time the markets. The real problems for me came with Obama and low interest rates. Obama Care ruined me. My company ditched retirees ASAP with mandatory enrollment in Obama Care. Well, "ditched" is probably not accurate as my free medical insurance became $300 to $400 to now $700 a month, much more than my house note. Interest rates remaining low for more than a decade was also unexpected. You can't remain diversified if half of your money is drawing chump change for years at a time. Then 2008 hit and made it even more difficult.
The point of this post is, don't even think about retiring and your plan will last more than a year. How about Social Security remaining the same amount for multiple years? Not even $20 bucks raise? Now I have survived cancer, praise God!, But high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, bad knees, and a bum back, keep me from even being a WalMart Greeter,( yeah, I know they don't have those anymore, but you get the picture.) My wife has a part time job, but had 3 just a few weeks ago, but there are NO jobs that will pay what she used to make and give her 40 hrs.
Everything in the article is sound advice, but don't expect clear sailing in the real world.
“Everything in the article is sound advice, but don’t expect clear sailing in the real world. “
Truer words have never been spoken. From 2009 - 2010, I was hit with events that crushed my mind and soul. I was 36 at the time. My good friend and mentor died of a heart attack, my father died not 6 months later, my wife almost died due to an acetaminophen overdose 6 months after that (please don’t judge her ... it can happen to anyone ... I only say that as I used to shoot my mouth off myself over issues like that), and a couple of other events occurred that I care not to discuss (let’s just say it was hell, but it was due to things I did when I was younger :-) ).
Never in my wildest dreams did I think any of the above would have ever happened to me ... a nerdy engineer :-). While it wasn’t easy growing up in my house (dad was a drinker ... my mom divorced him when my brothers and I were very young ... lots of that stuff has an impact on kids), it wasn’t exactly as hard as other people’s stories I’ve seen.
Since then, my wife and I have recovered. My wife no longer touches any of the crap that led to her problem. In fact, she gave birth to our healthy baby boy in 2013 (yeah, we were 39, so what! :-) he’s healthy and reminds me of everything that is good about this world :-) and she’s almost done earning a fairly decent medical degree in a field that’s in relatively high demand ... and its something she downright loves as she lost her father to heart disease over 10 years ago and the surgeon he used to see assured her of a job the instant she graduates).
If life does hand you a bucket of shit to eat, just eat it and press on. DO NOT DWELL ON THINGS. Learn from horrible events. I spent a bulk of 2011 suffering (drank a lot, doubted God, hated literally everything, lost all confidence in myself, became a recluse, only focused on work, etc.). You will be amazed how you can repair damage in your life with some hard work and a little faith! :-). Just don’t go thinking that it can’t happen again.
If you are still paying $700 a month, check out Liberty Health Share. I do not know how they deal with people who had cancer. But at least ask away.