Anonymous wrote:How do you guys deal with the fact that we are currently in the biggest stock market bubble in US history? The stock market dropped *90%* from 1929-1932 and didn't recover for 25 years. Like if you are planning to retire because you have $4 million, but then that becomes $900,000 in a couple of years, how are you anticipating or planning to adjust in that case?

Anonymous wrote:55 and 53. NW about $4m. Both high level Feds. One already retired receiving est $110k pension. The other can retire in 5 years and collect est $70k pension. We don’t count pension in NW but according to above estimates I would estimate $3m value of pensions. Both carry survivor clauses.

Anonymous wrote:57 YO, HHI 190K. 1.7 mil 401K, 500K home equity, 60K cash. Emergency fund depleted (I am in a medical crisis). 1 mil life insurance. Expectation is I will use the life ins. in the next year or two.

DW will will be left we with about 3 mil; she is unemployed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the younger folks are reading this thread! There is a lot of wisdom here.

I'm reading.

I'm 44 and a single woman.

It surprises me that a couple in their 50s would have a total net worth of 3m with 2m of that in retirement.

I will have 2m in retirement BY MYSELF at their age (to me, for two people, they don't have a lot). If had stayed married, it would have been much, much more than double that. I worked my entire marriage but he made more income wise. I had more in retirement when we met and he had a professional degree and I did not.

I think younger people are smarter about retirement and building assets than people 55 plus.

Did you have kids? Many of the people who are in their 50s have either paid or are paying for their kids' colleges after daycares, schools, all the extra stuff of kids.

Personally I have zero need for the more than 2.5M we have accumulated so far in retirement. What's the point of saving/investing more than you need? And if you're surprised by the "low" amounts you read here, you should look at the data! You'll really feel superior then.

Yes, I have kids. And I had an unheard of 70k debt from college in 1999 because my parents refused to pay and I took out private loans (because with their income, I could not get much federal aid at all). I paid about 250k in childcare costs for 6 years as well. I have almost always had two jobs. I will feel comfortable at 3 million in retirement, but I should get to 4 million by age 66 (If I was still married we would have 10 million at retirement...we kept our own retirements in our divorce). My grandmother is 96. My mom has Parkinsons. I am afraid of both outliving my money AND having major healthcare costs. So, yeah, I have all the extra stuff to pay for, plus I had a huge student loan debt I paid off while saving for retirement. I generally think people don't save enough.

Just my 2c but I think you might want to consider therapy if you're this anxious that you're always working two jobs when you have 2 million at 44 to support 1 person, and judging others as not having enough when they have a few million (and you know nothing about what they need). To me it feels distorted, anxiety-driven and not a balanced outlook on life. Given you seem to have a lot of sources of stress in your life (I'm sorry about your mom's illness) you might want to get an external perspective.
As for longevity, my family members regularly live to near (on occasion past!) 100 and they don't outlive their money with much less--instead they find it grows--this has been over many different decades of knowing old relatives so not just now in the bull market. Except for health care/LTC nearly all expenses dwindle way down when you're elderly.

Anonymous wrote:55/51

120k HHI
2 M assorted retirement accounts
40k outside of retirement
300k home equity
No pension
College savings not included in net worth

Current annual spending around 75k

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope the younger folks are reading this thread! There is a lot of wisdom here.

I'm reading.

I'm 44 and a single woman.

It surprises me that a couple in their 50s would have a total net worth of 3m with 2m of that in retirement.

I will have 2m in retirement BY MYSELF at their age (to me, for two people, they don't have a lot). If had stayed married, it would have been much, much more than double that. I worked my entire marriage but he made more income wise. I had more in retirement when we met and he had a professional degree and I did not.

I think younger people are smarter about retirement and building assets than people 55 plus.

Did you have kids? Many of the people who are in their 50s have either paid or are paying for their kids' colleges after daycares, schools, all the extra stuff of kids.

Personally I have zero need for the more than 2.5M we have accumulated so far in retirement. What's the point of saving/investing more than you need? And if you're surprised by the "low" amounts you read here, you should look at the data! You'll really feel superior then.

Yes, I have kids. And I had an unheard of 70k debt from college in 1999 because my parents refused to pay and I took out private loans (because with their income, I could not get much federal aid at all). I paid about 250k in childcare costs for 6 years as well. I have almost always had two jobs. I will feel comfortable at 3 million in retirement, but I should get to 4 million by age 66 (If I was still married we would have 10 million at retirement...we kept our own retirements in our divorce). My grandmother is 96. My mom has Parkinsons. I am afraid of both outliving my money AND having major healthcare costs. So, yeah, I have all the extra stuff to pay for, plus I had a huge student loan debt I paid off while saving for retirement. I generally think people don't save enough.