How to Save $ in Retirement? - Page 10

Irshgrl31201 · ‎03-18-2010

@kivah wrote:
If u have an extra room in ur house - rent it out!!!!!!!! I've helped several female friends do that - as I'm very good at finding roomies on-line and I check them out very well. None of them was ever a problem - and I recommend professional male.

This is where I totally disagree. I know several people who have experienced real nightmares because of this and had such a difficult time repairing damage and/or trying to get them out. I suppose if you were totally desperate but even then you could end up spending more money that you would save @kivah.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
JFK

Katcat1 · ‎07-21-2011

There are no guarantees in life. You can save and have that taken away in a minute, hopefully you won't have that happen to you. Be grateful for what you have and change your lifestyle (downsizing). Enjoy your retirement.

kindness is strength

missy1 · ‎03-10-2010

@proudlyfromNJ wrote:
How does the government take care of people who haven't saved? Welfare? I don't know anything about these programs or anyone being taken care of by the government. You mean their mortgage, car payments, car insurance, utilities, etc all get paid?

They don't pay your mortgage or bills. (in my state) One can get food stamps and free medical. Cash assistance is very limited, and for a short amount of time. Basically, when you have no family, friends etc, or at a homeless shelter, one is on the streets or living in their car. Some will qualify for SS disability, or get SS if they paid in. Section 8 and HUD are tapped out here. (waiting lists are for years) There might be senior reduced rent housing. Not sure. I got awhile to go, to even think about that. Renting a house/apartment with 3 seniors in a 3 bedroom might be the way to go in the future. The Millennials do it.

Irshgrl31201 · ‎03-18-2010

@winamac1 wrote:
@brandiwine wrote:
We paid our house off about a year before we retired, but continue to pay the mortgage amount into savings. In our county once you reach 65 and have lived in your home for 10 years you get 50% off your property taxes up to the first $200,000 of assessed value. ( they don't advertise this). I retired at 50 and my DH at 55. He did some consulting work and we put that money away for special trips. Many health insurance companies have a "silver sneaker" program which lets you join a gym or other types of exercise facilities for free. We don't drive as much and don't need the super nice clothes we used to, so expenses are down. You do have to have a nice nest egg for emergencies. Enjoy!!
@brandiwine--do you have enough hobbies? I am always curious what people do if they retire at age 50! Congrats to you--perhaps you have children or grandchildren who keep you busy or a lot of hobbies. If so, that's awesome. I'm fearful I'd be too bored as I only have a few hobbies outside of work. I need to work on more, LOL!

Hey @winamac1 I plan to be retired by the time I am 50 also. It was supposed to be sooner because of my health but I have felt a lot better but I do find it difficult to do so but now I am ready. I have really started helping out quite a bit with a local charity so that takes up so much more time than I thought I would. We also have a beach house and I like to jetski, go boating, kayak and windsurf. We spend a lot of time outside and in the water in the summer. I will be spending a lot of time with my grandson too. My husband was planning on being retired by the time he is 55 but he is like me in the sense he likes to be doing something all the time. I do worry about being bored like you do because I am not a person who sleeps late or that is happy watching tv all day. We do have some hobbies though and he is now head of the Rotary club but I don't think that alone will be enough for him. He is the type of guy even working the hours he does now that when he comes home, he is still ALWAYS doing something. Fixing something or organizing something. He just has a hard time sitting still. He does enjoy going to the beach and the activities we do now but that is only the summer and I just can't see him being happy with just Rotary and the beach. I have told him to get into more mentoring young kids, his Rotary is doing that now and he really likes it or doing more with charities. We will see, he says he will be fine but sometimes I really wonder. lol!!

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
JFK

proudlyfromNJ · ‎05-01-2010

@missy1 wrote:
@proudlyfromNJ wrote:
How does the government take care of people who haven't saved? Welfare? I don't know anything about these programs or anyone being taken care of by the government. You mean their mortgage, car payments, car insurance, utilities, etc all get paid?

They don't pay your mortgage or bills. (in my state) One can get food stamps and free medical. Cash assistance is very limited, and for a short amount of time. Basically, when you have no family, friends etc, or at a homeless shelter, one is on the streets or living in their car. Some will qualify for SS disability, or get SS if they paid in. Section 8 and HUD are tapped out here. (waiting lists are for years) There might be senior reduced rent housing. Not sure. I got awhile to go, to even think about that. Renting a house/apartment with 3 seniors in a 3 bedroom might be the way to go in the future. The Millennials do it.

This makes sense. One poster said she knew people who were spending all their money and not saving for retirement as the government would take care of them. That was why I was befuddled!

buyornot · ‎03-10-2010

@RedTop wrote:
I can't say I ever enjoyed working; just did what I had to do, and when the day came that I didn't feel I had to do it anymore, I quit. The last 10 years I worked was simply for health insurance.

I knew exactly when it was time to stay home with my husband and enjoy our days together, and walked away from my job at age 57. Nearly 5 years later, I have never missed anything related to my job.

Our lives are simple, our needs are few. When I quit my job to stay home and take care of my husband, I didn't know how much time we would have together. I still don't, but these last years together have been great, and I have never once regretted walking away from my job. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff.

I'm also leaving to take care of a sick husband, but I did always enjoy my job-65 years old now and need the freedom to come and go a bit more-sppointments etc.

winamac1 · ‎12-29-2010

@Meowingkitty wrote:
Every year Direct TV raises my rates around $30 and every year I call them up and ask for the new customer promotion rates or a customer retention rate. They always give it to me. Many times when companies raise your rates you can just call them and they will give you a different rate. If they don't on one day, call back on another day and never call on weekends because those workers usually don't have the authority to do much.

Another way way to save is if you have a members at Costco check out there gift card selection. Usually a 20% savings at movies and restaurants. At Christmas, Mothers Day and a few times during the year many restaurants offer gift card promos where you buy say $100 in gift cards and get another $20 free.

I switched recently to Direct TV as Spectrum bought out Brighthouse here in Carmel, IN, and they would no longer give me any "deals". I tried my best before I switched. Spectrum raised my bill $40 a month, and I finally decided I had enough. ATT will do the same, but I hope they will give me the "valued customer" rate as I always pay my bills in advance. Let's hope so. The entire cable and phone business is one huge racket.

Spectrum just would not work with me.

"friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel"

winamac1 · ‎12-29-2010

@Irshgrl31201 wrote:
@winamac1 wrote:
@brandiwine wrote:
We paid our house off about a year before we retired, but continue to pay the mortgage amount into savings. In our county once you reach 65 and have lived in your home for 10 years you get 50% off your property taxes up to the first $200,000 of assessed value. ( they don't advertise this). I retired at 50 and my DH at 55. He did some consulting work and we put that money away for special trips. Many health insurance companies have a "silver sneaker" program which lets you join a gym or other types of exercise facilities for free. We don't drive as much and don't need the super nice clothes we used to, so expenses are down. You do have to have a nice nest egg for emergencies. Enjoy!!
@brandiwine--do you have enough hobbies? I am always curious what people do if they retire at age 50! Congrats to you--perhaps you have children or grandchildren who keep you busy or a lot of hobbies. If so, that's awesome. I'm fearful I'd be too bored as I only have a few hobbies outside of work. I need to work on more, LOL!
Hey @winamac1 I plan to be retired by the time I am 50 also. It was supposed to be sooner because of my health but I have felt a lot better but I do find it difficult to do so but now I am ready. I have really started helping out quite a bit with a local charity so that takes up so much more time than I thought I would. We also have a beach house and I like to jetski, go boating, kayak and windsurf. We spend a lot of time outside and in the water in the summer. I will be spending a lot of time with my grandson too. My husband was planning on being retired by the time he is 55 but he is like me in the sense he likes to be doing something all the time. I do worry about being bored like you do because I am not a person who sleeps late or that is happy watching tv all day. We do have some hobbies though and he is now head of the Rotary club but I don't think that alone will be enough for him. He is the type of guy even working the hours he does now that when he comes home, he is still ALWAYS doing something. Fixing something or organizing something. He just has a hard time sitting still. He does enjoy going to the beach and the activities we do now but that is only the summer and I just can't see him being happy with just Rotary and the beach. I have told him to get into more mentoring young kids, his Rotary is doing that now and he really likes it or doing more with charities. We will see, he says he will be fine but sometimes I really wonder. lol!!

Hi Irish. Thanks for all of the information. Congrats on your pending retirement. It looks like you have a lot of hobbies. I love makeup, and I"d like to work part time again in the cosmetics industry. At this point, though, in my life I don't want to work the nights and weekends they want one to do. I will have to figure out something else.

I am up at 4:30 or 5 every day. I know I won't be happy doing nothing. That's one of my biggest fears in retirement. I'm in sales now, and it's super high pressure so I"d like to have less pressure in my life. I wish we had a beach house, but hubby is not a beach person at all. I. too, love to water ski, but I haven't in years.

My hubby is an introvert, and he's happy being either with me or by himself. I wish he'd always want to be doing something like your hubby is. My hubby hates yard work and hates to fix anything. LOL

I hire everything out.

Good luck!! I hope your health improves too!!!

"friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel"

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

@Azcowgirl wrote:
How do you know if your bank account is " hefty" enough?

It is not hard. Figure out your monthly budget plus what you need to put aside each month for things like insurance,taxes etc that you pay yearly and divide those by 12. Now you have a monthly budget. Talk to a rep where you have your savings invested and see how much you can take without using you principal every month.

Some savings tricks are eat lunch out instead of dinner ,then just have lunch for dinner - like soup or a sandwich. Go to early bird offers. Get a credit card that gives you savings points like a hotel card. Use those points when you travel.Use BOGO offers at the grocery if you have them.Grocery shop the sales.I will buy cheaper cuts like round steak and cook it in the Crock-Pot which tenderizes it.

Enjoy your retirement.It is supposed to be fun.Do not let the Debbie downers tell you it is not.

RedTop · ‎09-01-2010

@proudlyfromNJ,

I'm in southern WV, and am on a first name basis with a family who has depended on welfare assistance for 3 generations. I am 61 and have known them since I was 5. In my lifetime, only 1 granddaughter actually graduated from high school and works a full-time job.

The houses this family has lived in don't have mortgages, and they don't drive the type of car that requires payments. The dad of this family died when I was 5. They lived in a two-room wood shanty at that time; outhouse, water carried from a spring, no electricity. As a block mason, he had started building a new 4 room house out of cinderblock. Family and friends finished that house for his widow and teenage kids. State assistance kept the family from starving after they lost their bread winner.

The widow collected welfare assistance for nearly 40 years until she died. When she died, one unmarried daughter and the divorced daughter and the granddaughter I mentioned above, were living in the cinder block house. The house was never finished to the level I even consider roughing it livable; it did have electricity, but they cooked and heated with a woodfired cookstove; still carried water from the spring, and had an outhouse. When the floors rotted out, and the roof caved in, the State of WV paid for a used 3 bedroom single wide mobile home for these women to live in, along with their food stamps, and monthly checks.

The State of WV has supported, and buried every member this family for 55 years. When welfare rolls were tightened at different times thru the years, this family never lost benefits, because all of the older ones had very little education, and were so "back woods countrified" they were classified as unemployable.