https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...-about-needing-5-million-to-retire-2018-10-15 There's been a lot of debate between the FIRE(Financial Independence Retire Early) movement and Suze Orman about what amount is right. The FIRE movement has its pros in that retiring you get to enjoy life, not work for the man, potentially better health, and gain meaning in life. Suze Orman is right in that retiring early you will have not saved enough for emergency in your old age, inflation, unexpected things. I can see both points. But for me the FIRE movement with just $1M to retire is way too risky! Anything can happen as you get older. A lot of these FIRE people are millenials are people in their late 20s to 30s. Now that I'm back in Corporate America and starting to think long-term. I still feel woefully unprepared for retirement. I'm saving for retirement through 401K now. But it's no where it needs to be. I'm hoping trading on the side will kick in more money too. How do ET traders do long-term financial planning? Making great trades is good and all. But gotta think the big picture. I guess I don't feel secure even with decent paying corporate job. While my pay is decent, it's not as great as Silicon Valley peeps. But they have higher living expenses. I am strategizing on how my swing trades can kick in more money now that I don't have to trade everyday. Just curious what are some good approaches you guys have used or thought. I know there's trader status which can be a huge tax savings.
Going to be very difficult to "save enough" for retirement. Even after you retire, you will still need success on your retirement capital... a good rate of return with high degree of safety. The very best thing you could do would be to learn to be a good investor/trader. You may find yourself having to "trade for a living" after you retire.
It seems to be too one sided for those advocating for a late retirement. Let me cite a few personal examples: 1) manager at my company retires after 35 years, maximizing his pension in the company, maximizing his Social Security benefits, etc. He bought himself golf clubs and a new truck. Six months later, he was dead! 2) a close friend and co-worker, worked about 25 years, was sickly, continued working thru it thinking she needed more monies! Guess what? She passed away, not having gotten 1 cent of her Social Security benefits, no retirement whatsoever!, 3) Another co-worker, was a manager and worked 26 years in service, she got cancer and died around the age of 36. She never enjoyed any retirement. Let us get real people. You work hard for your monies and hope that you are able to retire! You do not know how long your life is going to be! For all you know, you could be dead tomorrow and you are worried at the couple of hundred dollars you stand to earn? Learn to be a good, competent trader instead, enjoy life and add monies in your pocket to boot! Life is too short! Do not waste it!
While I don't buy into the whole FIRE, it's pretty clear that Suze is posturing and arguing for the sake of the argument. It's a publicity stunt, nothing more. For starters, most people will never get to that number, even people that are making pretty reasonable income. For the back of the envelope calculations, let's assume that one starts working at the age of 25 and works for 35 years. At a mean return of 9% (average equity return, plus or minus), he'd have to set aside 25k a year to get to 5 million. At a more realistic 5% per year, he'd have to set aside 55k to get to that number. PNW of 5 million (not even LNW) is somewhere around the top 1 to 0.5 percentile. Yet over 50% of Americans retire between the age of 60 and 65, before the age when various safety nets kick in (not that you get much of that in the US). Second of all, retirement is not a terminal state and not even a binary state. You can retire and do various projects on the side that go beyond investing your money. If your skillset is liquid enough, you probably are doing something with it, so you might be working part time or teaching or whatever. Lastly, you can also retire and, should there be a need, return to work. Truth is, there are bigger questions about retiring at 30. What the fuck would you do with the rest of your life? It's less about being good and more about not being stupid. If you avoid the usual idiot-traps like buying 5 houses on insane leverage or investing all LNW into marijuana stocks, in general you'll be OK.
True. Just buried my 34 year old daughter last month. Such a good daughter. Never gave us any real troubles to speak of growing up. She and her husband have 3 children. She loved her family. We did all we knew to do for her, that we were able to do. Even took her to Houston to Md Anderson. No one could help her. She and her husband worked hard in their business to become debt free so they could do other things besides just work. They were getting closer to the goal. Now she is gone. A terrible aggressive cancer in her appendix, colon, and liver that also metastasized to her bones. Live is short and uncertain. ENJOY it without worrying so much about money and remember to HELP others along the way. I miss my daughter EVERY day. Money, possessions, materialism all fade away quickly when faced with death. LIFE is to be lived, enjoyed, and shared. It is soon over and we fly away.
Thanks. It has been a tough blow but life goes on. We still have to find ways to live and to enjoy life even when tragedy strikes. It is not easy, but necessary.
Sorry for your loss. It is always hard to lose a loved one. My mom passed away in 1995 and it seems it was just yesterday. The wounds heal but, you never forget! Money in the end just makes life easier for most people! And how many people will actually, accumulate $5 million during their lifetime? Probably, very few and it does not matter too in the greater scheme of things!