Posted on 04/21/2010 7:19:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
Get out of debt and pay off your house. You’ll be surprised how comfortably you can live on limited cash flow when you don’t have to make car, credit card, student loan, or mortgage payments.
After that — save 15 to 25% of your annual income. Invest. Diversify. You’ll be fine.
SnakeDoc
I’ve been thinking about investing in farmland...
I feel pretty fortunate to have worked for a company for the last 10 years which gives me 15% of my salary for a SEP-IRA. I started this in my mid 20’s. Combined with paying off debt, I think we and the Mrs. will be just fine.
We all know it will happen eventually. Let's say John and I start at the same company, on the same day, at the same wages. Every week, out of my check, I put $XX.XX in my 401k. John on the other hand decides to spend his whole check. 40 years down the road, we both retire, but John whines to the government that there is no way he can afford to live on Social Security alone, and it's not fair that I have millions socked away. The liberal dems agree with John, and poof, all of a sudden, I am too wealthy, and I don't need the extra income that Social Security will provide.
Isn’t the big 0 going to force those Tax Deferred funds to be converted into Gvm’t notes to keep their tax deferred status??
I would say, not any more, but when the whip comes down EVERYBODY is going to be smoking again. Ever wonder why the myth of those German prisoners so pathetically grateful for a cigarette came about? No smoking in the German army.
I’ve been saving up as well,
but half of what I was putting into cash
is now going into tangibles -
beans, bullets, bandaids, hard currency
these “experts” make me ill.........the median income in the US right now is 32,000.00 per year.......if you own your home and automobiles, this amount is more than enough to live very comfortably...if you are frugal, you can scrape by on 24k per year...just make sure you are debt free, and you will be surprised at how little you can live off of...
Well, if you can hang on to your cash savings when the HI comes, though the value of your holdings will be next to nil for a while, when it’s over won’t you be holding cash that’s worth far more than it was when you put it in? Isn’t it like those folks who bought houses before the last HI and were then able to sell them for a fortune 20 years later? I’m holding on and waiting and seeing. I cashed out some of my 401K when the market was in the 13s, and I’m glad I did, but getting bumped into a different tax bracket due to the income, and the 10% penalty bite got me in dutch with Uncle Revenue for a couple of years.
+1 Just met with a financial adviser last night and we both laughed when Social Security came up...
They’ll do a “currency reset”
where they force your “cash holdings” to be revalued in another currency. It may be called a “dollar”, maybe not. Could be an “Amero”. Either way, you won’t be able to hold onto your dollars until hyperinflation is over.
I understood the benefit of the 401K to be that you saved the money now while in a relatively high tax bracket, intending to take it out after retirement when your income is low, thus reducing the tax bite. I never really understood the Roth. Dave Ramsey likes it, I guess because once you pay the vig, the money is all yours. I’d say for certain types of ‘found’ money it could be good but it wouldn’t make sense for me to transfer from 401K to Roth while I’m working.
Now, if you’re not working, might be a perfect time.
I keep my eye open for property with a fresh water spring...it’ll be more valuable than oil and gold someday.
Here in my 50’s still contribute almost max to the 401-k.
I’ve stopped my IRA’s though and now keep greater cash options. If the hyperinflation kicks in and economic meltdown occurs too all of it will take a big hit anyway. For those of us who are responsible and saved/invested/incurred managable debt or none it’s going to be an injustice to suffer because of irresponsible, greedy, manipulative fools in both government, banking and the corporate world.
We’re in a real pickle. Either the economy keeps heating up and inflation picks up, which it has to do because of the multi-trillion dollar deficit spending, or it swoons again because employers are too wary of the snake to invest any more than they absolutely have to. I predict the former, at least at first. The sophomores who are handling the financials know how to heat an economy up, but they don’t know how to manage one. After the inflation, with unemployment still high, we’ll have stagflation.
With luck we’ll get a president in there willing to let us have the second recession, without bailouts. That’s really what Reagan did. He made us take the medicine and boy was he hated the first two years. But then everything went crazy. That won’t happen under a racial marxist.
The liberal government is looking at seizing the nation’s wealth in those 401k plans. They aren’t safe from grabbing hands of the Marxists. Certainly not 40 years safe.
Definitely a good investment.
Arable land, some food stores to get you by when the crops are lean, and some firearms to protect it all.
Not if the obamabots are getting ready to grab your 401K or IRA savings. And they are.”
ARgentina grabbed such pensions last year.
I am convinced that NObama is going to do the same thing. I don’t have a 401 K, and I have begged some people I know to get their money out of these accounts before it is all gone. They think I have gone around the bend.
Yeppers...the basic foundation of financial freedom!
I agree - a financial advisor (who I didn't end up using) recommended converting to a Roth. Their spiel always is that you know your tax rate now, but you don't know what it will be when you retire.
Sure, that's true, but I'm pretty sure I'm paying a higher rate now than when I will when I retire in 2036+. No, I don't know for sure, but if I'm paying a higher rate when living off retirement funds with a smaller house and no kids, then there's a lot more wrong going on...
So why would I pay that out now, while trying to raise 4 kids and save for college - doesn't make sense.
I also don't trust that Roth's will remain tax free by the time I would withdrawal - it's just too tempting of a pot of money for the government.
IMHO, the Roth IRA was a bit of budget trickery that contributed to the few year(s) where we had a budget surplus. The govenment got a lot of extra tax revenue from people converting to Roth's during that time window - it was a back door way for them to tap into retirement money and appear to balance the budget without any spending cuts. But it was practically a one-shot deal.
They need more money now and have opened up a window again for doing IRA/401K conversions, so they can tap some more IRA/401K money now rather than wait for it later.
Just another example of borrowing from future generations...
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