retirement spending

[AJ444]

Whenever I hear fixed income I think of this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B6kR08Sb0UU

[Gailete]

I'm in my 60's and on SSD so technically 'retired'. I am still saving as much as possible because I know that I don't have enough set aside for retirement. Assuming SS doesn't collapse and they throw us an actual COLA every few years, I'm definitely on a 'fixed' income. Our retirement accounts wouldn't make much of a difference in our income if we took out small amounts at this point. I would rather save it for when we absolutely can't make ends meet any longer. I still can work my little business and that brings in the extra that we need. I'm just glad we do have some fallback money at this point and I'm hoping it will grow larger over time until we need it.

My widowed aunt however, can't let go and use her funds from the sale of cows, equipment, land, etc. when my dairy farmer uncle died. She wants to be able to hand over this cash to my cousins although in reality she needs the money more! She drives my mom nuts when they go out as she complains about not being able to afford anything. She never wants to eat out and after years of poverty my mom can finally afford to eat out and wants to on days she can get out for a while. Her remaining years could be so much better if she allowed herself some of that cash she has tucked away. But these folks in their 80's have seen the Great Depression and you can't take that out of their thought processes.

[97guns]

I don't understand why people retire and don't spend their money, What's the point of retiring if you don't enjoy the wealth you've created, might as well continue working so you can leave a bigger inheritance

I know a guy that's "retired" in Miami, he downsized his home and moved into a condo to be more frugal, he wants to go to Asia but has to wait until next year to fund it, I'm confused is he retired or just done working, there seems to be a difference.

[bigdaddybus]

My parents have been retired 10 yrs. and their attitude is similar to the article posted. Their net worth has grown 3X in the past 10 years and they focus (almost obsess) on two things as far as I see.
1. Avoiding paying taxes. They refuse to exceed a certain tax bracket. They make sure their income (pension, SS, dividends, retirement account withdrawals stay within their desired bracket. Like to the dollar! I think they are really yearning for Trump Tax Reform.
2. Leaving a large estate. I am not going to lie, this is potentially great for me as it has the potential to push me into early retirement, but I am more of an experience person than a possession (in this case massive savings) person. I would so much rather my parents live it up than hoard. And if they choose to live it up and invite the kids and grandkids even better as it would create great memories.

Overall, my folks are happy and healthy with different priorities than I would have and that is fine. I love that they are much more relaxed and happy than they were while working.

[disneysteve]

I don't understand why people retire and don't spend their money

The problem is that nobody knows what the future holds. You don't know how long you will live. You don't know what health issues may arise and how much they will cost you. So it's impossible to ever know for sure how much you can afford to spend. It would really suck to spend based on living until 85 and then ending up living until you're 100.

[Fishindude77]

I don't understand why people retire and don't spend their money, What's the point of retiring if you don't enjoy the wealth you've created, might as well continue working so you can leave a bigger inheritance

I don't really understand this mentality either. My thoughts have always been to save enough for retirement so that you have enough spendable money to do all of the things you want to do, now that you have all this free time.

[Gailete]

The problem is that nobody knows what the future holds. You don't know how long you will live. You don't know what health issues may arise and how much they will cost you. So it's impossible to ever know for sure how much you can afford to spend. It would really suck to spend based on living until 85 and then ending up living until you're 100.

So true. My BIL's father was quite wealthy. They were in process of buying a retirement home in FL when the housing bubble burst so they couldn't sell their current house that they had been living in, the value of their portfolio went down with the stock market decline and one of them was diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly from being wealthy, they had a real cash flow problem right as they went to retire. Not sure how things worked out on that end, but it would certainly make most prudent retirees re-asses just how much they can take out of their retirement accounts.