I am positive I am saving way more than I will ever need. However, I plan to make up for that by retiring earlier. Part of the problem is that you don't know how long you will be able to work and earn your current salary due to personal factors such as health or external factors like automation, AI and the general economy. I think it makes sense to try to accumulate as much as you can while you are younger and then re-evaluate as you get closer to retirement age and prospects become more certain.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...Because after you stop working, the paychecks stop. The money you put into a retirement fund is for you to live on for the rest of your life after you stop working.

what about social security?

not enough. may not be there.

My elderly aunt gets. About $599 a month from social security. She didn't save. So, now at 75 she works at J.C. Penney.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My point is that people obsess over retirement and don't enjoy their hard earned money while they are young. I understand putting away money for retirement, but just not most of it. Saving can make a person miserable.

This is a straw man argument. No one is telling people to save most of their money. I think a healthy floor is about 20% savings overall, with fluctuations for the heavy daycare years, paying off student loans, etc. Mostly the advice is the save a manageable amount, try to bank salry increases and never leave matching contributions from donors on the table. As you age, you look into the balance of traditional 401k, Roth 401k, traditional/Roth IRAs, 529s, etc.

We ran the numbers. My DH is several years older than I am. He will retire in his early 60's. He wants me to retire when he retires, so I will not even be 60 when I retire.

We won't qualify for medicare since we are not retirement age. Medical costs are the biggest factor when thinking about early retirement, imo.

We want to save about $2.5mil by the time we retire so that we can live a really comfortable life, travel internationally once or twice a year. Plus we have kids, and we want to fund their college.

We do travel now with kids, but we want to do a lot more when they are older.

So we are frugal now, and save save save. I don't want to worry about money when I'm retired before I hit 60.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My point is that people obsess over retirement and don't enjoy their hard earned money while they are young. I understand putting away money for retirement, but just not most of it. Saving can make a person miserable.

OP, I think you're missing the planning part of retirement savings. The way to properly plan is to figure out your intended retirement age and how much you should have at that point to live the lifestyle you want and account for unexpected events (e.g., major medical crisis that still costs you a lot out of pocket after Medicare). Once you have that figure, you can figure out how much you need to invest each year (assuming a realistic rate of return) to get there. Then you know how much you need to save in order to retire the way you want. If that's a number you're comfortable putting away each paycheck/month/year, you're set. If it's more than you want to save, either you need to cut back on your lifestyle expectations today or you need to cut back your lifestyle expectations for retirement.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My point is that people obsess over retirement and don't enjoy their hard earned money while they are young. I understand putting away money for retirement, but just not most of it. Saving can make a person miserable.

Who is putting away MOST of it? I'm 5 years older than you. Maxing out on the 401k since I started working. It's not MOST of my salary -- it's been 11-13% of my salary to hit 18.5k. How many people do you know in our generation who have a savings rate of over 50%? Bc that is what you would need to be putting away MOST of your money.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. My point is that people obsess over retirement and don't enjoy their hard earned money while they are young. I understand putting away money for retirement, but just not most of it. Saving can make a person miserable.

Classic...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP isn't 32, OP is a high schooler in FCPS (or some other system closed today) who's mad his parents won't buy him a new iphone.

and you are probably a 87 year old female with 15 cats.

If that makes you feel better...

OP here. My point is that people obsess over retirement and don't enjoy their hard earned money while they are young. I understand putting away money for retirement, but just not most of it. Saving can make a person miserable.

Anonymous wrote:OP isn't 32, OP is a high schooler in FCPS (or some other system closed today) who's mad his parents won't buy him a new iphone.

Scary thing is I believe OP is really 32 and so clueless.

Anonymous wrote:OP isn't 32, OP is a high schooler in FCPS (or some other system closed today) who's mad his parents won't buy him a new iphone.

and you are probably a 87 year old female with 15 cats.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...Because after you stop working, the paychecks stop. The money you put into a retirement fund is for you to live on for the rest of your life after you stop working.

what about social security?

Seriously, how old are you? You seem to have no real grasp on how the world works.

OP here. I am 32. People are just afraid of running out of money. I think all will be okay.

Sounds like a solid plan! Enjoy working at 80

OP isn't 32, OP is a high schooler in FCPS (or some other system closed today) who's mad his parents won't buy him a new iphone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:...Because after you stop working, the paychecks stop. The money you put into a retirement fund is for you to live on for the rest of your life after you stop working.

what about social security?

Seriously, how old are you? You seem to have no real grasp on how the world works.

OP here. I am 32. People are just afraid of running out of money. I think all will be okay.

Oh wow, you haven't read about how little many older Americans have saved and how many people can't survive on Social Security alone.

OP, if you do nothing else, google "compounding." A dollar saved today will be worth a lot more in the future. And also keep in mind that a lot of retirement savings has tax advantages.

A skilled care nursing facility can cost upwards of $7,000 PER MONTH. Medicare will only cover a short stay and after that, you have to private pay. If you deplete your savings and are destitute, some places will accept Medicaid but they are typically not the places you’d want to be in. Medicaid beds are very scarce also.