These times are much different then the forties, fifties, and sixties. in the sixties, the price of the average car cost around fifteen hundred dollars and today, anywhere from fifteen to eighty thousand. The times they are a changing faster and more furious. Salaries squeaked up slightly but with inflation, gasoline prices, and the cost of living on the rise, they just cannot keep up. Just four short years ago, gas prices was a buck forty and today, three dollars and fifty cents. Those who are surviving in this economy are barely making ends meet and are not even thinking about retirement age.
In order for one to retire, quit it all, and move to a wonderful place, one would need the cash on hand, a paid off mortgage, and they would need to be debt free. I think if those standards are in place, one can retire without regret.
when I hit sixty four, I can rely on my retirement and social security to get by, but, in the time I have left, I would need to pay off everything I owe. Many think the same way, but it gets harder as time passes by. We need to make sacrifices, huge sacrifices in order to retire, say “I QUIT”, and walk away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. We need to stay home a lot more instead of dining out, movies and other entertaining pleasures, and so many are not ready to do that..
I will be debt free by the time I am of retirement age. I am sacrificing now, for pleasure later. In order to say, “I QUIT” I need to buckle down even more then I am. I need to save more, and only then will I run away from it all. To finally say when you will hit that number, I would say, a few hundred thousand tucked away, along with no debt, and then you can hit that lucky number. I am almost there and then I will move to where the grass grows greener but before I go, I will yell out my window, “I QUIT”. My number, or goal is sixty four, with a good amount of back up cash, savings, plus my retirement and social security, and I will be willing all to tell everyone to, “take their work and shove it.” I paid the dues, and by that time, hopefully it will be my turn to snooze. Those who do not save and struggle now are doomed to work until they die and will not have the luxury to say “I QUIT”.
Those who choose to live life to its fullest now, are going to be working much longer then they need to. If one is serious about retiring at a normal age, be frugal now, sacrifice now, and later, you can party like you are sixty four, not like you are 95.