Retirement Things
- Yesterday, my wife and I went down, about 90 minutes away, to a U Financial Planner who is a specialist in helping faculty plan retirement. You may recall my wife and I have been visiting with (every six months or so for a while…. and this would be on the U campus) the U Financial Planner who is a "generalist" for all faculty, regardless of age, and we saw that fellow perhaps two months ago. It was he who suggested we may want to also start meeting with the U Financial Planner who specializes in helping faculty figure out how/when to retire, and this specialist helps figure out more firm financial "numbers" for our future. So, it is the specialist we went to see.
- Nothing much to report yet.... we met with him, talked about our hopes/aspirations for retirement, our worries (my worries, my wife thinks we are fine) and now the fellow is going to to do some significant number crunching so that we can examine a variety of "models" at our next meeting in the middle of August.
- Please remember.... I am used to (from my family lineage) of folks simply getting some sort of "pension" and that is it…. plus social security. No wrangling, no deciding, no figuring out crap. That is not how apparently anyone operates these days as far as I can tell..... or at least I KNOW that is now how the U operated our retirement. The whole damn process has scared me most of my working life. I did what was recommended each step along the way...... BUT, the whole damn thing to me seems like "smoke and mirrors" instead of something that makes me feel secure. Terms like "401K", "investments", "divestments", "pull downs" and "Roth" and other similar mumbo-jumbo hyperbole make my blood run cold and my mind fearful. But, it is what it is. I truthfully do not believe or trust any damn part of it. For a lot of years, I was so worried that it was all "smoke and mirrors" I had already resigned myself to the notion that I would simply work to the grave so as to not become destitute. I would occasionally mention that to my wife..... and she would usually just dismiss my thoughts with, "No, do not worry, everything will be fine." platitudes. But, I never believed those platitudes…. anymore than I believed all the retirement financial hocus-pocus was real either. I guess we are now at a point where I will perhaps actually see if there is a reality of a retirement.... or as I have secretly always had in the back of my mind...... my working to the grave..... will be the plan so as to not be regaled to the poor house.
- Afterwards, we went to a Thai restaurant nearby the office of the U Financial Planner. I did have to work a bit in my mind to NOT suggest to my wife we should just go home to save money. That would not have gone over well, if I had done so. I have to say the food was delightful. I had a Vegetable Red Curry with chicken (the free options were tofu or chicken.... which is good for me, as I do not like the upcharged options..... shrimp, beef, pork, crab, lobster.... in those kinds of dishes). I chose chicken because.... 1) I like chicken, 2) I do like tofu, but have been a bit "tired" of it lately.... AND mostly because 3) their tofu for this dish was fried.... and I do not like fried ANYTHING. My wife had Pad Thai.
PipeTobacco
2 Comments:
I wrote a long comment that then disappeared. It's important to have a variety of sources of income--John and I both have pensions(his a hefty one from Boeing) SS (he waited until 70 whereas I took mine at 67) and I have dividends from securities plus occasional rental income from my other house. (some months it's an expense!) Our houses are paid off and we are living where we want to, an expensive area but we call it home. Listen to your advisor and also your wife--retirement can be done. And enjoyed!
I have very little, but I get by. I think you've done enough that you'll be placed very well. Unless the world collapses. And if the world does that we're all in a heap of trouble no matter where we are or what we do.
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