Quote:
Originally Posted by disneysteve
My wife and I are both 44. We have savings equal to over 3 times our annual income (and probably 5 times our annual expenses). I certainly wouldn't want to burn through a lot of that money if I became unemployed, but it would be there if absolutely necessary. I certainly couldn't say the same thing 15 years ago when I was just starting out.
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You are to be congratulated for building such a sizeable savings cushion. But won't you grant that's easier to do for professionals than for the average working person?
As a former member of that demographic, I'm not saying that it can't be done. After all, there's no way that DW and I could have retired three years ago at (my) age 60 if we weren't prudent and did everything that we could to turn our finances around. And by living modestly, so far we're able to get by nicely here in the Philippines, mostly on just our social security. Obviously, we wouln't be able to do that in the States, but if we spent money here the way we would really like to, we'd be dead broke. It's the exercise of restraint that makes the difference at any point in life and in any place.