I am 59 and haven been wanting to go part time and do something different, recognizing that it would be less likely money hourly AND less hours. (And I am the breadwinner.)
Well…now I contemplating an offer and as expected it is less money (less than I was hoping) AND less hours and it is freaking me out a bit. The flexibility is great but there is no guarantee of a certain number of hours. We’ve always “thought”/been careful/conscious of money, but with college and the mortgage behind us (and no debt and low expenses), it has been nice to not “think” about it. Everything going on in the world doesn’t help. Sigh…
In what way have your mom’s investments benefited from volatility (as opposed to just increases in share prices)? Is she trading options in retirement?
She is day trading. I help my mom with her finances. We agreed to let her take a small portion of her money to do some trading. Her gains can be in the 6 figures annually and paying for most of her expenses. My mom is 88 and sharp as a nail. She said it gives her something to do.
I’m contemplating retirement, but am now concerned about the impact of potential and planned changes.
I wonder how my hard calculations will be affected — and if there will be changes to my military widow’s pension and my future social security payments. Of course, I’m also concerned about the value of my investments.
1st world problems, but the disarray has me unnerved.
We met with our independent financial planner early this week. I have been the bread winner for the past 7 years when hubby took a break from a very stressful job. He now work part time at the job he likes and is happy.
I am turning 65 this year and will get a full pension. I want to know if I could retire next year. The financial planner showed us the numbers. With our retirement investment, hubby’s 401 K and my Tax-deferred investment through work, combined. he told me to retire now and enjoy life.
He said people like me (saving and being thrifty all my adult life) need to change my way of thinking. He assured us we do not need to worry about running out of money at age 95 (or older). We need to go out and enjoy life while we physically can. Learn to stop worrying about money and to spend it. It was so good to hear.
Does she do margin trading? Interesting on how she uses a small amount of money for this purpose. She must have very good ‘radar’ and reaction to what is going on to successfully do this. And at age 88 she is obviously not timid to what would drive some to tachycardia.
Congratulations! After a few years (like us) you will relax a bit. The first 6 months to a year were with that trepidation when one has a change in thinking and a change in routine. DH and I are both 68, DH retired at 64 1/2 and I retired at 65 (he is 4 months older than me). He emotionally had to exit his job, and felt good about our retirement nest egg.
I was told by 3 different financial advisors that we would be fine before I retired almost 4 years ago, and I haven’t had to touch any savings yet (I likely will this year). BUT, I still can’t stop worrying about if something like the stock market took a 50% beating, for example. We are trying to enjoy life and go on some nice and relatively physically challenging trips while we still can. I realize we won’t spend as much on trips once we are a little older.
I have a pension, so I think that covers enough “income” for me. As I’ve posted here before, I also have more than I probably should in just a plain ole (relative high yield) savings account, so I could live for several years without touching any stocks. I think in my case it’s more of just an irrational fear of running out. (Plus who knows re: LTC, but I have what I consider a separate pot of money to help with that).
She doesn’t do margins because she doesn’t want to get margin calls. She said she could always afford to wait it out because it’s all cash. What annoys me is sometimes she’ll text me to ask me if she should buy or sell when she is not sure. More often than not I would be busy at work. It does keep her busy.
I love traveling. That will be my biggest spending after retirement. However, before I go places, I would like “clean house” getting rid of all unwanted and un-needed “stuff” out of the house first. That may take a while .
I have to agree. It’s hard to go from saver to spender. We are just using our incomes from various retirement sources now instead of a work paycheck. Our CFP says we can spend some of the money we have in savings…but we just don’t need it…yet.
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