??? I must be missing something.
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Well, I posted that in the wrong place! It was supposed to go in the Say it Here thread!!
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I was scratching my head⊠was there a post about a dumb kid that got deleted?! 
I was about to respond, âHeâs not that bad!â
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Laughing out loud here.
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I was going going to say, âYouâre right, but how would you know that?â
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Boomers are part of the labor shortage problemâŠ
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One question is can those âearlyâ retirees afford to stay retired? Theyâre not receiving social security or Medicare. In addition, a lot of money has been distributed over the last year but thatâs ended and inflation is here to stay, at least for a while, and thereâs no telling how bad it will get.
The unfortunate part is that the labor shortage will have ripple effects on the economy, social security and Medicare as there will be fewer workers contributing to all 3. Weâve been moving from a pyramid support structure for SS and Medicare to a rectangular one. I hope we donât progress all the way to an inverted pyramid.
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I have been wondering about the folks who have not gone back to work. On the non-retiree side, not all waiters and chefs can become coders. I do think companies will actually need to pay their workers more at the lower end of the spectrum and make conditions better. I would love it we paid restaurant workers a living wage and dispensed with 20% tips. Just pay the people better. [I recognize that restaurant meals will become somewhat more expensive and that people will eat out less frequently, but I think it is a better tradeoff].
With respect to retirees, Americans have been remarkably bad at saving for retirement. Can they retire or will they have to return?
I wonder if we will get a new wave of anti-vaxxer retirements in red states if companies mandate vaccination for their employees.
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I know many waitresses who hate this idea. If you are a good waitress/waiter you can make much more money with tips.
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The good news is that for now at least 401k plans are blooming, consultings jobs are widely available and pay more then ever.
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True, but also CD rates tanked when COVID hit and they havenât recovered as yet.
Social Security Area Population â 2019 OASDI Trustees Report shows the historical Social Security dependency ratios* and low, intermediate, and high cost future projections.
*Aged dependency ratio = (number of people age >=65) / (number of people age 20-64), while total dependency ratio = (number of people age >=65 or <20) / (number of people age 20-64).
Just finished reading Wes Mossâs book, What the Happiest Retirees Know. He has previously written, You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think, which I have NOT read. He is a financial advisor out of Atlanta.
The, âHow much do you need to retire?â question is addressed in this âhappinessâ book, but I imagine it is covered more throughly in the, âretire soonerâ one. He primarily covers habits of retirees who, based on his research, are, âhappy.â
Relevant to this threadâs financial bent he does discuss:
- Minimum amounts of liquid retirement savings
- Whether to pay off the mortgage/having second homes
- Having multiple streams of retirement income
- Dividend investing
- Being a tomorrow investor rather than a today investor
- The validity of the 4% rule
- Spending habits of retirees
Beyond that he discusses family relationships (and how close you should live to your adult kids), marriage, friendships & social habits, having âcore pursuitsâ (hobbies on steroids), fitness, diet, and faith habits. In all of these he doesnât pass judgment on what is right or wrong - just what he has found has led to happiness in retirees. He also acknowledges that not everyone will check every happiness box he lists. His goal is to raise awareness so you can check off as many as possible.
I am no researcher, so I cannot attest to his methodology. I wouldnât say that there is anything monumental in the book, and it certainly isnât focused on sophisticated investing strategies or anything, but I am glad I read it. The style is VERY chatty and he includes lots of anecdotes about different clients he has worked with. Sometimes that was a bit much. However, the book certainly points out that simply having the right amount in oneâs retirement pile isnât, in and of itself, enough to guarantee happiness.
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@Hoggirl what does Wes Moss mean about âbeing a tomorrow investor rather than todayâ? Is it looking at company potential, what you expect potentially to happen - going for the long haul versus responding to what the markets say today?
On cable or TV access to sports etc. - we have been long time users of DirecTV which is now owned by AT&T. We went from having nothing, to after having kids and having Disney, kid shows, and sports for H. So we had service since 1996. With rate hikes, we have usually been able to get 1 year discounts for âloyaltyâ. Then we got Advanced Receiver Service (of course HD) and regional sports fee. But still have been able to get money off the overall package. Decided to have 2nd TV access. We get discount off on one.
This past year they didnât want to give much of a discount. We just decided, well they can have it. So within 15 minutes of us having discontinued service (at the end of the month, turn in equipment) they called back and we are continuing for another year â they caved and gave us the same discount we had the prior year.
There are new customer prices for first year - heck, decide if you want to try it. They may require 2 years with installing a dish.
We had one dish upgrade over the years (they had a new dish to handle all the channels).
We like recording things and watching at our own convenience mostly. Sometimes DH records some games and watches againâŠ
We got in tune with a lot of college football with friendâs kids at a competitive football school, and DD was in the band there for 4 years so we would sometimes catch her on TV (she was in clarinet section). We continue to enjoy some of it. I like to see where College Gameday is and watch a bit of that.
I do think the streaming and other options can work for many.
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Going for the long haul and not being reactionary to market fluctuations - even in retirement. To think in terms of decades, not months or just a couple of years.
He says to think of your portfolio as an apple tree. You want to eat the apples, not cut off the branches. Seems to be his main rationale for being in dividend stocks.
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For those to whom it might applyâ
In 2022, the annual amount you can give a single person will be increased from $15 k to $16k. And the lifetime gift tax exemption for one person (twice as much for a couple) will increase for $11.7m to $12,060,000. Current Federal estate tax on the amount over that is 40%.
Of course there are lots of proposals in Congress now to reduce these exemptions.
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Hoggirl - Iâm going to get those two books from our local library! They seem really on point as to issues on this thread (and whatâs been on my mind so much of the time, lately!). Thanks!
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As is the case with most things I read, I donât agree with all of the authorâs views. For me, I extract the parts I like that seem reasonable to me. There were enough that it was worth the read to me, though I donât know about the first book at all. Iâm sure there is some overlap.
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