Retirement and Beyond

When will you retire...  if ever?

My father retired at age 62 with a pension from the Federal Government (that now is no longer) and a pension from the US Military with the pay of Naval Caption just under an Admiral...  not bad for being in the Reserves for 26 years.  His retirement was more than I ever made annually...  

I retired at age 67 with about $500,000 in the bank...  no pension from any company...  only Social Security...  however, my wife and I combined our Social Security which helped a lot and we had eliminated our debt over a decade ago...  However, we had a small investment that paid us about $1,000 each month +/- so we never had to pull any money out of our savings...  plus I taught about 6 night classes for a local university...

The odds are that if you can retire at all, it will be at the age of 70...  and, no doubt 75 for your children and their children as retirement age creeps up to 80.

Social Security will be gradually reduced over the years but it will still be available possible in the neighborhood of 50-75% of what it is today.  The average social security check is about $1,500.

Advances in medical technology will enable people to live longer and longer so one will either need to keep working or make sure that they have enough in savings or income coming to them from other sources.

It would not surprise me at all that by the year 2050, our life span will increase from right around 80 to right around 100... and, by the year 3000, it will be 120 to 150...

However, by the year 3000, there is also a good possibility that we will not longer be living on this planet we call earth...  which is difficult for some of us who care to comprehend.

• How much money will you need in retirement?
• Will you be debt free?
• How much money will you have saved or invested?
• How many jobs will you have had?
• How many homes and vehicles?
• How is your health...  do you eat healthy and exercise?
• How do you manage stress outside of drinking alcohol?
• How will you compensate for inflation?
• How long will it take for prices to double?

Back in the 1960's, I paid $.18/gallon for gasoline and cigarettes were $.25/pack and a hamburger was $.15 and wages were $.75/hour...  that was over 50 years ago...  and, you know what the prices of things are today...  can you imagine what they will be like in 50 years from today?  I was 23 years of age 50 years ago...