“If you didn’t invest for retirement it wasn’t bad luck. It was your own fault. Most anyone can afford $10 a week. If you can afford beer, cigarettes or an expensive cellphone you can afford to invest for the future.”
You are standing on my soap box. I beat that horse regularly to hopefully serve as a wake up call to someone out there that might not be thinking about retirement yet and saving enough money.
I did not save much in my early working years. But as I got into my career I began to wake up and I began saving larger and larger percentages each year by diverting much of my raises to savings. My savings rate each year increased. At retirement I was saving over 25% a year. This took some sacrifice. I kept my small house instead of getting a larger one, lived modestly, bought clothes at thrift shops, kept cars for 15 years, etc.
It takes a lot of money saved over 40 working years to last possibly another 25-30 years (if you’re lucky).
My little blue car is about 12 and is really starting to show wear and tear. Sitting in the Texas sun is a nightmare of cars.
Since we are retired purchasing a new car is out of the question (more because I hate the newest garbage in them). I simply cannot bring myself to purchase ANYTHING that now costs more than what I paid for my house!
Purchasing an older car for most folks is really the best way to go, provided they actually look at the vehicle with a good eye and listen to it with a sound ear.
Every now and then I check out the cost of cigarettes (former smoker, here) and am SO glad I quit decades ago!
I started investing in my companies 401K the day I qualified (was no longer a probationary employee) at age 23. I opened my IRA account about 10 years later.
I started out at 6% of my earnings so as to get the maximum company matching and gradually increased my savings rate over the years.
I started investing in the 401K mainly because I have always read the news voraciously. As early as 1980 I came to understand that Social Security eventually had to fail and that it was unlikely to be around when I retired.
The forecasts were true and SS has already failed and is on life support. Its income is exceeded by its expenditures and this shortfall will only increase overtime unless congress does something to remedy this imbalance. Any remedy will be a political battle and likely a nightmare for those of us that planned for our retirement.
I am pushing 70; I just bought MY first NEW truck this last December.
The wife had several new cars over the years, but I always drove my repairable junk.