How long for retirement?

This is something to find out with whatever company you go to work for. And it should count heavily in your decision. Unfortunately so many retirement pensions have been bled dry by fraud from whoever offered them, company or union, that not a lot of them exist. But the "deferred tax" stuff mentioned, (401k etc) is something a person needs to get into. You are probably going to work until social security kicks in for you. In the unlikely even social security is still around by the time you retire.

Planning for retirement cannot be started too early. And it takes a certain amount of luck, as well as good financial planning. You can save, you can invest, and something can come up where you lose everything overnight. It is life.

But diversify. Don't have just one means for support after your retirement. Way too many of us, are going to outlive our retirement funds. And it isn't going to be pretty.

You are asking the wrong people! You need to go to town, and consult Hermana Anna, the fortune teller!

 

I struggle with the question of retirement on a daily basis. My simple plan is to continue stacking up cash until I think I have enough to last me.

If I knew my expiration date I could divide x number of dollars by x number of years and have a solid answer. If I were to die at the same age my father did, 68, I would be almost set. I could get out of the truck and try to enjoy myself for the next ten years. My mother made it to 78 and I don't have that much yet.

Then I find myself dwelling on the question of which is worse: outliving my money or my money outliving me?

Elvis is the only person I know of who successfully predicted his due date. His money outlived him but Priscilla was a prudent investor, turning a small fortune into a large one. And his daughter turned into his son.

 

my retirement plan is just not to wake up before I am too junked out to work

 

Seems the industry standard is 5 years for a fully vested 401k match.

Retirement is up to you.

 

Even if your company does not allow you to start in their 401K program until after a year ... and then it takes you another 5 years to be fully vested ... there are still other options available to you. The best of those options would be to start your own Roth IRA anytime you want to. Unlike a 401-K, the Roth is a retirement plan that whose contributions are only "after tax" money. In other words you make your contributions yourself, several times a year or all at once. The benefit is that after your contributions are made ( since this is all "after tax" money) you can begin your withdrawals when you reach the appropriate age and owe the government no taxes whatsoever.

Now, with a 401-K, when you start taking withdrawals in retirement, the money you withdraw is taxed at your regular income level, because all that money in the 401K was all "tax deferred" money to begin with ... so you end up paying taxes on all your contributions as well as whatever you were able to grow that money into ... however, with a Roth ... whatever you can grow that money into is yours to keep. Withdrawals from a Roth IRA is not a taxable event. Roth IRAs are available at any of the larger Mutual Income Families such as Vanguard, Fidelity, American etc ... etc ... etc

Even if you decide to invest in your company 401-K plan ... you can still contribute to your own personal Roth at the same time ... because it IS, after all, "after tax" money that you are contributing.

 

I encourage all people who will listen to retire at your time schedule,not one set by a company or a .Govt.
Its not impossible(I retired at 51)

have come back to work PT only out of boredom..

 

Here's what worked for me; maximum contribution to 401K.
Only made one mistake with the 401K; withdrew $10K for a perceived family members emergency. Upon reflection, it was unnecessary and wasted hard earned money.
Friends/co-workers retired with nothing because they kept the 401K drained buying the latest pickup trucks, electronics, and those silly cruise line vacations. One driver even put 100% contribution into company stock; then the company went bankrupt and he lost well over $250,000.00

I put the maximum contribution allowed and distributed it 75% high risk/25% medium risk.
I was thrilled when the stock market would take steep dives because that meant I was getting more stock for my contribution since the stock was cheaper. My co-workers would panic and cash out and call me a fool for hanging in there.

I'm retired and no longer have to work. I'm not smart, just hard headed and don't like people telling me what to do and it paid off.

 

The time to do something about your own personal retirement is now ... not 5 or 10 years from now. I try to tell my co-workers about this and they are all caught up in the moment ... they need all the extras in life right now ... they don't understand the difference between something they want and something they need. Most have credit card bills up the wazoo and can't even remember what they spent the money on. I try and tell them that the first step in preparing for retirement is to get out of debt ... that's usually where the conversation ends.