<p>Himom- besides the 401K federal employees still get a defined benefit pension. They earn 1% for every year worked although if they retire after 60 with a certain amount of years the 1% goes to 1.1% per year. So if your son works 40 years he will receive 44% of his income in pension plus the proceeds of his 401K.
Still a very good deal.</p>
<p>Oh, I didn’t know that–thanks for the clarification. No idea whether S will put in the 40+ years H has with the federal government, but it is nice to know that there would be advantages for him to consider doing so.</p>
<p>I’m not as worried about how they will retire, as I am about the world we are leaving them to retire in…
However, I’m also optimistic about their enthusiasm, and hope we can work together to help make it better.</p>
<p>At our Retirement Planning course, the instructor had some comments that got us thinking. (Part of the reason we attended was to have the excuse to pull together paperwork and start doing planning). </p>
<p>The ideas relevant to the thread involve the idea of not burdening our children during our golden years. Ideally they can save for their own retirement, not support us. We still have not made decisions regarding long term care insurance, but it is our aim to investigate it soon (aka after taxes, after FAFSA). Once thing I liked hearing was that often today’s policies are used to cover in-home care (yay), not just nursing homes.</p>
<p>I am more worried about my daughter getting a job …haven’t given a moment’s thought to children’s retirement
Can’t even imagine our retirement…no sign of that whatsoever</p>
<p>We must realize that our children will likely live to be 100 years old or even more. Our thinking about what constitutes ‘retirement’ will have to change to accommodate this. What was sufficient for a guy retiring at 65 with a life expectancy of 75 and a wife’s expectancy of 80 will not suffice with an extra 30 years of vibrancy tacked on. ‘Retirement’ may become an obsolete word. ‘Retreadment’ where you get a chance to do the job you would have done if you’d known about it when you were 24 might be the next stage. </p>
<p>I am in favor of ‘means testing’ for Social Security. Just changing this little thing would mean the projected shortfalls of 35 years from now would be pushed back significantly. And most of us already pay taxes for things we will never use.</p>
<p>Simply raising the social security wage limits would help significantly…i think it is currently around 110K,raising it to 125k ,and then higher would work wonders</p>
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<p>My plan is to buy a motorcycle, take up smoking and sign up for skydiving lessons…</p>
<p>Re Roth IRAs for your kids: Double check with each and every bank and credit union that you do business with. Some credit unions will open an IRA with as little as $1.00. Which reminds me that I have to call mine today to find out about setting this up for Happykid.</p>
<p>^^ ellemenope - What? No hang-gliding, no base-jumping??? They say it’s a real thrill to base-jump off El Capitan: [YouTube</a> - El Cap Base Jumps September 7 1980](<a href=“El Cap Base Jumps September 7 1980 - YouTube”>El Cap Base Jumps September 7 1980 - YouTube)</p>
<p>See that pile of stones? … one for each jumper whose shute didn’t open in time. (jk!)</p>
<p>We have a sure fire retirement plan. My wife and I are putting all our money into long term care, so when we go dotty they can transport us directly from our desks to the nursing home. Just kidding – we have a number of defined benefit pension plans (both public and private), social security, four deferred compensation plans plus some real estate. We are going to leave our son, an only child everything, so we are not worried about his retirement. Did I forget to mention the life insurance policies we carry?</p>
<p>I’m 28. Between myself and my employer I have 10% going into my 401k. I also have a pension that I am fully vested in. Not many companies offer a pension anymore so I am grateful to have one.</p>
<p>You can help out your kids by dying in death friendly states:</p>
<p>The worst place to die is New Jersey with a combined effective estate and inheritance tax rate of 54.1%. Congrats to the Garden State! In second place is Maryland at 50.9%. Good try! In fact, none of the states mentioned here are good places to die, but some are significantly worse than others. Most of the states listed here are not good places to live either from a tax perspective because they sock it to you with income, property, and sales taxes while you’re still kicking.</p>
<p>Taxes are a big part of the reason why New York and New Jersey are losing population, while low-tax states like Florida and Texas are gaining. People will vote with their feet when all else fails. Just don’t wait too long to vote!</p>
<p>[estate-taxes-worst-places-to-die:</a> Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance](<a href=“http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/112142/estate-taxes-worst-places-to-die?mod=fidelity-managingwealth&cat=fidelity_2010_managing_wealth]estate-taxes-worst-places-to-die:”>http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/112142/estate-taxes-worst-places-to-die?mod=fidelity-managingwealth&cat=fidelity_2010_managing_wealth)</p>
<p>I am just glad that H has a good pension that will cover me if he predeceases me (could be, since he’s considerably older). I have no pension and very little in SS, since I dropped out of the workforce to raise the kids & am only working part-time to keep the household running & actually prefer part-time work since I’ve grown accustomed to it.</p>
<p>It IS difficult for folks to get any pension these days and harder yet for our kids to get such creatures. We figure I will live a very long time, as my folks are in their 80s & going strong! H will also likely live for quite a while, as he’s in excellent health.</p>
<p>Having given them a very good start, I don’t worry about kids’ retirement. Worrying does not really help anything, does it?</p>
<p>On the other hand, we are mindful of our own retirement. The average person will live much longer these days.</p>
<p>I’m not sure about MUCH longer, as my great uncle passed away recently at age 107. His wife died within a year afterwards, at some age over 100 as well. With the obesity epidemic, they are concerned that people may be dying earlier rather than later and with prolonged worse health.</p>
<p>Our kids are relieved they don’t have to worry about bailing us out, as we are pretty financially secure. We gave our kids the best start we could and hope they do well with all the resources they have received.</p>
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<p>Yes I do. My plan- to leave her a big inheritance that she will be able to retire on.</p>
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<p>Let me make it clearer. DS can take care of himself. We hope that the Mother of our grandchildren will be taken care of. ;)</p>
<p>When W and I started to post work future, I discovered the HP 12C pocket calculator and a supervisor who showed me the keys to beginning MF investing. </p>
<p>Front Load your investment programs.
Buy Life Insurance when you don’t need it.
Live below your income.
20% into retirement programs.
Take on risk. Learn to avoid risk.
Avoid debt
Take advantage of the tax laws and political trends.
Hire professional money managers.
Teach it to the next generation and make the process generational.
Do your fair share, even if it means a bit more.
Don’t believe everything.
Money is not the same as wealth, both are illusionary.</p>
<p>So how does this pertain to our unknown DIL and gchild(ren)? :
It’s cheaper to front load our gifts today than to do it later. I figure its going to be another 5 years before he gets serious. And then another 5 years before he has children. Then another 20 years before the grandchild is imbedded into higher education. The total years will put us into 90yo. However, can you imagine your gift to the grandchildren, if you put $5000 away in an investment yield 6%, 8%, and if you get lucky 10% average, for 30 years?</p>
<p>I don’t think I could ever base jump…in order to look over the edge of Angel’s Landing in Zion NP, I had to get on my stomach!</p>