I have to assume that the title of this thread means 'can you afford to retire when you are ready to'.

Hubby and I were just going over the financials the other day adjusting some things now that he is back at work, like how much we put away each month for retirement. At one point I said to him, "So, exactly how much money do we need  for retirement?"

This jump-started a long conversation about a variety of contributing factors such as, when do we want to retire? What does "retire" mean to each of us? Do we want to continue to live in this house or move? Do we both need vehicles? How often would we like to travel? Do we expect to have to pay for care for our parents as they age?

There are all sorts of variables to consider, and we ran a few spreadhseet scenarios using those variables, but what we don't know is how long we are going to live and what the rate of inflation will be. What may be perfectly adequate annual income at age 65 may not be adequate 15 years later.

So we decided we need some advice and we're doing some research on who to go to now. I don't want advice from someone who is being paid to sell investment products. I want  someone who is fee for service.

 kysmet wrote: 
HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!HA!

HA!

nope.

If I can work for the next 80 years - maybe.

If I don't let my principal get eaten up by those pesky health insurance costs  and if I don't get sick I'll be OK.

 Unfortunately. . . . . . . . . . .

There's gold in them thar hills and a slew of scummy doctors mining it.

 They will get what they think they deserve, which is everything anyone else owns.


edit-I'd love to see the course requirements from the top medical schools from the 1950's vs today.

 I bet the difference in business courses is all that would be needed to show where the root of our healthcare problem lies.

 Rich kids who don't care about anything but money getting the slots in the med schools over the people who actually give a shit about something besides $$$$$$$$$$$$$.

 

retire?  what does that mean?

No.

I can't afford to live on what I get for disability and my retirement pay will be even less so for me the answer is nope..

I just got off the phone with my parents.  (I'm visiting them (in 10 days) at a condo they're renting on the Florida panhandle... they live in Michigan).

They just put an offer on a mobile home in a retirement community near Orlando!  It'll be their snowbird landing spot to avoid the Michigan winters.  Will they get rid of their house in the suburbs, or the cottage on the lake?  Or neither?

Will anyone have money to do this sort of thing when our generation gets old?

They didn't do anything extraordinary to be this comfortable.  They were pretty normal, quite frugal at first, got some lucky breaks.  I think it was just the times.  Things were affordable on a median salary.  It's just not true anymore, and it feels wrong, because I expect things to be the way they were when I was growing up.  Really gotta let that go already!