Retiring early

[Nika]

25 years probably. I feel we would need to keep working until our second child (expected in September) will complete her masters. I would feel too insecure to retire before that, because we do want to help them through that.

[Nutria]

25 years probably. I feel we would need to keep working until our second child (expected in September) will complete her masters.

Expecting that you unborn daughter will get a masters degree makes me chuckle. (EDIT: but not in a malicious or sarcastic way.) When our AI robot overlords replace all humans, will be anything for her to do besides smoke dope and read Camus, Sarte and Beckett?

[Nika]

Expecting that you unborn daughter will get a masters degree makes me chuckle. (EDIT: but not in a malicious or sarcastic way.) When our AI robot overlords replace all humans, will be anything for her to do besides smoke dope and read Camus, Sarte and Beckett?

Somebody will need to protect the robots from being hacked...

It did not occur to us that the kids won't get a degree. Like it does not occur to a pair of evangelical christians that their unborn child won't be an evangelical christian. The power of early indoctrination and expectations.

A decade ago I would have assumed that only bachelor's is a necessity. But unfortunately society and economy has changed, and master's really is a new bachelor's.

[phantom]

A decade ago I would have assumed that only bachelor's is a necessity. But unfortunately society and economy has changed, and master's really is a new bachelor's.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here guessing that by the time my daughter and any yet unborn siblings are read for post-secondary education, a bachelor's will be too expensive to justify paying for. But, like you, I won't be surprised if we delay retirement to help pay for whatever comes after high school.

[disneysteve]

I'm sitting here guessing that by the time my daughter and any yet unborn siblings are read for post-secondary education, a bachelor's will be too expensive to justify paying for.

I'd love to see stats on actual out of pocket college costs today vs. 10 and 20 years ago. Certainly the "sticker price" of college has gone up a lot but I think financial aid as also. I wonder if the true cost has risen as much as the list price would lead you to believe.

For example, our daughter's school is stupid expensive when you just look at the listed price, but she gets over $20,000 in scholarship money which brings it down to a far more reasonable number. And these are scholarships that didn't require applications or anything. They were purely based on her performance and awarded automatically. She's still paying 3 times what I paid in 1986. Based on inflation, the 10K I paid back then would be about 22K today and she's paying just over 30, so more than can be attributed to inflation but not terribly so.

[phantom]

I'd love to see stats on actual out of pocket college costs today vs. 10 and 20 years ago. Certainly the "sticker price" of college has gone up a lot but I think financial aid as also. I wonder if the true cost has risen as much as the list price would lead you to believe.

For example, our daughter's school is stupid expensive when you just look at the listed price, but she gets over $20,000 in scholarship money which brings it down to a far more reasonable number. And these are scholarships that didn't require applications or anything. They were purely based on her performance and awarded automatically. She's still paying 3 times what I paid in 1986. Based on inflation, the 10K I paid back then would be about 22K today and she's paying just over 30, so more than can be attributed to inflation but not terribly so.

I agree that would be interesting to see. Even when I went to college over a decade ago, those automatic academic scholarships made a significant difference. When my daughter finishes high school, if college lines up with her career goals, I'll definitely encourage her to apply and get an actual price before making a decision. I just don't like the assumption that an expensive college education is going to be the best path forward for most kids, especially those just being born now.

[disneysteve]

get an actual price before making a decision

This is so important. Since we started going through the process, I have told this to so many people. I've had parents say, "My kid wants to go to XYZ school but it's $50,000. We can't afford that." I do my best to explain that almost nobody actually pays $50,000 to go there. Apply and if they get accepted, see what financial aid they offer. The real price may turn out to be half of that. Don't be scared off by the price tag.

[Eagle]

http://freedomwithbruno.com/financial-independence/

How close are you from retiring?

I'm about 10 years.

I'm not sure if I'll plan on "retiring". Maybe when I'm in my early to mid 60's. So at least 25-30 years? Of course, a lot can happen between now and then. That's still a long ways away.

[Eagle]

Wow...I still have another 20 years to go, but if I could get an early one if I win the lottery

I believe Dave Ramsey once said: "The lottery is a tax on the poor and people who can't do math."

Business Insider: 18 Signs That The Lottery Is Preying On America's Poor

"They are (1) regressive taxes on poor people, in that a ticket costs relatively more for a poor person than a rich person, and (2) punitive taxes on the poor and uneducated people who are the most avid buyers."

http://www.businessinsider.com/lottery-is-a-tax-on-the-poor-2012-4?op=1#

CNN Money: How the lottery snares the poor

"The poor spend a much higher percentage of their overall income on lotteries than the rich, and they can afford it less." Victor Matheson, economics professor at College of the Holy Cross

http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/12/news/companies/powerball-lottery-games-poor/

Washington post: Why you should never, ever play the lottery

"What if I told you there was a $70 billion tax that the poor pay the most. You'd probably say that isn't very fair. But that's exactly what the lottery is: an almost 12-figure tax on the desperation of the least fortunate.

To put that in perspective, that's $300 worth of lottery tickets for every adult every year. But it's actually worse than that, because, as The Atlantic's Derek Thompson points out, researchers have found that the bottom third of households buy more than half of all tickets. So that means households making less than $28,000 a year are dishing out $450 a year on lotteries. And, as a result, everybody else doesn't have to pay the higher taxes they would if gaming revenues weren't underwriting our schools."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/14/why-you-should-never-ever-play-the-lottery/

[Petunia 100]

As as been mentioned before, the word "retirement" is about as ambiguous a term as "the stock market."

Retirement for me came three years ago at age 46. I have two businesses that I spend a few hours a week on, plus 4 vacation home rentals.

Real estate investments rents/yields from land, houses, commercial, retail, etc., generally are a multiple of what you can achieve with bonds and CDs.

If you aren't yielding 8-10 percent annual with real estate, something is way out of whack.

Hard assets and natural resources should certainly be a part of everyone's portfolio. Coal, agri, gold, silver, and oil are all good places to start. The long term horizon on all natural resources is definitely UP, simply because the world population is exploding and there is more and more demand (long term) on fewer resources.

Another staple is Phillip Morris. Have you looked at a 30 year chart of PM lately? People are going to keep smoking. That one is a no-brainer. It pays a 4% dividend at the current price.

Lots of options out there for GOOD, SUSTAINABLE income.

I could still not buy it in good conscience. That said, since I buy total market index funds, I own a tiny sliver of Phillip Morris. I would much rather not.

[Petunia 100]

http://freedomwithbruno.com/financial-independence/

How close are you from retiring?

I'm about 10 years.

I would retire this moment if I could. I don't believe I will be able to completely retire until I reach age 65 (that's 16 years away). I am hoping to semi-retire within the next 10 years.

[disneysteve]

"What if I told you there was a $70 billion tax that the poor pay the most.

I hate when they use the term "tax" in relation to the lottery.

It is not a tax.
It is a totally voluntary purchase.
Nobody is mandating that anyone buy lottery tickets.

If they'd like to make actual taxes voluntary, I'd be happy to sign up. But please stop calling the lottery a tax on the poor.

[sv2007]

I could still not buy it in good conscience. That said, since I buy total market index funds, I own a tiny sliver of Phillip Morris. I would much rather not.

I can't picture myself working for a company (and must less expanding it) when I know it's doing harm to its customers. Best to leave that to somebody else. I also would prefer to never own any of its stock.

[TexasHusker]

I can't picture myself working for a company (and must less expanding it) when I know it's doing harm to its customers. Best to leave that to somebody else. I also would prefer to never own any of its stock.

What about a car manufacturer, whose carbon emissions are killing all the polar bears?

Or a beer company - how many people are killed by drunk drivers each year?

Or Nabisco, who is a major contributor to obesity with Oreos and the rest?

Or a Pest Control manufacturer, which puts chemicals in a bottle that kill people every year?

Or a clothing manufacturer, which imports shirts made in child labor sweatshops overseas?

Or WalMart or Target, which sells all of the above, presumably for big profits?

Or a for-profit hospital chain, which is practicing "rape and pillage" with its billing to thousands of customers, to the point of putting liens on property (which they are entitled to do) to satisfy bills that are marked up 10,000 percent?

[Jbone]

Bit off topic.. And a bit of a n00b question so bare with me..

The only brokerage account (besides my 401k through work) is through fidelity and I have 2 mutual funds invested there. So if I were to purchase some Phillip Morris stocks would I be able to do so? What's it's "ticker" and is there a minimum to invest?

To be on topic my goal is to be retired around 60. Sooner if I can. I do have a lot of work to do with my goal but then again I'm only 32.