Re: Scary article on retirement planning.

Jo Anne,

Generalizing "young" people like that isn't healthy. I've thought about 
retirement since the day I've graduated from college in 1996. I've 
managed to save enough money to pay back all of my student loans 
(undergrad and graduate degree), buy a house with my wife, and still have 
a little left to save for retirement.

It has to do with priorities. I don't think living 'frugal' means you'll 
have to live 'without'. I simply prioritize things that are important to 
me and cut back on things I think are not important. I enjoy good food 
and instead of going to fine restaurants, I prefer to cook the meal at 
home when the costly major ingredients are on sale. I've never owned a 
'new' car even though I would really, really want one. It's low priority 
to me because cars are so costly. Instead, I buy pre-owned, a.k.a used 
;-), cars and run them until they can't run anymore.

It might have something to do with the way people are brought up too. I 
was brought up in a frugal family, simply because there were 5 kids and 
one working parent. For the longest time, all of our clothes were from 
garage/estate sales. We didn't think anything of it it was clothes on our 
back. Oh yeah, my dad said he managed to squirreled away some money to 
his retirement even then.  These days, I see kids with expensive clothes 
driving $40k BMWs and wonder how they'll wake up when they get jobs and 
stop living off their parents. 

My 2-cents.


"Jo Anne Slaven" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]: 

> 
> "IleneB" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
>> I wish wish I'd had a clue about money or thinking ahead sometime
>> before 40, which is when I started paying attention. I just didn't
>> have it on my radar screen.
> 
> Ilene, I've heard somewhere that most people are only capable of
> "thinking ahead" for a period of time equal to half their age. This
> explains why younger people are so clueless about stuff like
> retirement - it's impossible for them to even imagine it.
> 
> I'm like you - started planning for retirement at 40. And yes, I could
> kick myself for leaving it so long. Fortunately, we made a decent
> amount of money between age 40 and 50, so I'm able to be semi-retired
> now. 
> 
> Jo Anne
> 
> 
>