I respectfully disagree; I plan to stay active as long as possible. I have 2 friends that are 78; one walks, works out, travels, golfs, hunts, fishes and walked my ass off in turkey season. The other has been mostly sedentary since he was 60; he just died. I will take option 1 as long as able.

There is nothing wrong with doing it yourself. I have absolutely no problem with that. I just work a lot and don't have time. I didn't even do it myself when I was in the business.

As far as Regions, yeah they are probably a better bank than WF. However, my point about their financial advisors remains the same. They still have a quota of certain products they sell to keep their job. Basically, how all of these big banks work in their wealth departments and branch level FAs is you become an associate FA where you are paid a salary. You still have the quota and you get a small commission from the sale of an investment. They are usually pushing annuities which are absolute garbage for a young investor looking to earn a good return. Then if they sell enough, they are promoted to FA where they are on a draw/commission set up. Basically, depending on your experience level you are paid a draw of say $5k a month. That $5k is your quota. Once you sell over that, it is bonus commission. If you consistently sell under that, you’re gone. This isn’t an insult to Regions as a whole company because I agree they are probably better than WF as far as their business practices. But there is a reason most people who are using an FA go to a private group under the umbrella of a larger firm that deals only in investments. A majority of them have moved away from a commission based salary and charge a flat fee (3-5%) and aren’t motivated to sell you a product because it’s a product your firm sold less of the past couple months. Like I said, my wife and I have our bank accounts at Regions and have zero problems. I just wouldn’t use a big bank for much else.

Yes it is. Interest earned by a fund's asset is paid by dividends. You’re right, it won’t continue. But, that 8% is including the recession for my investments and I came out on the other side looking good. That’s why mutual funds are 5-10 year investments. I don’t buy and sell frequently. I buy and hold for actually 10 years or more.

what the preacher is saying is your priorities change when you get older. I promise your not going to need as much as you think you will. Bottom line as you age your health starts to fail and you just don't do the things you used to do or spend the money you used to.

Retirement is like Christmas. You have to plan ahead for it. The problem is that people can't even plan for Christmas and have to take out loans to pay for gifts.

Retirement planning is not rocket science. There is plenty of websites that will help you with programs that figure the math out.

The key is to decide what you want at a specific date in the future. Then figure out what it takes to get there.

You also need to be debt free at retirement. You can do a lot with a little if you don't owe any money.

Life is a balance act. You have to live for today while planning for tomorrow. Tomorrow (retirement) is coming. Look in the mirror and visualize yourself at the age you want to retire.

The old saying "pay me now or pay me later" is very true. If you spend it all now, you won't have it for tomorrow.

For those that decide to live for today and not worry about tomorrow, that is their choice. But don't whine and complain about others that did decide to plan for tomorrow and are now enjoying it.

When you don't have enough time, vacation or other things pulling at you.

Young must mean "after college and before marriage/work/life begins and you can't much for the next 40 years."

so you live a boring ass life during your youth so you can retire and continue to scrimp and save in your latter years and still not enjoy life?

since when is "enjoying life" about money??

these are things most of us do AND ENJOY on a regular basis and they costed money.

Folks in line ahead of me at the store sure do seem to be enjoying life. Of coarse they purchased their snickers, cokes, and peanut butter cups with a EBT card lol. Oh well, its back to work, just has soon as i finish my bread & water i brought for lunch.

Hopefully with my 14% and company matching with 5% and my pension I will be able to retire in 9 years. If I don't get to spend a bunch of it, my daughters will have some money to fall back on.

what happened to your Africa post?

Tried to edit it but deleated instead lol

My wife and I were talking last week about how blessed we were to travel as much as we did when we were younger and able to go. Health issues keep us at home now.

I totally understand that. I could be sitting on the porch at my cousins house in Montana right now. I could go anytime as often as I like. But I absolutely hate airports and crowded airplanes. And driving causes me so much pain that I can't bring myself to make the trip.

hammer meet nail!

With financial planning and adjusting your lifestyle to eliminate debt - retirement without a pension should be obtainable. Adjusting your lifestyle doesn't mean living like a pauper, it means living within your means.

I believe that planning early is the key.

1. 401k
2. No debt
3. I'm 53 - so I believe that SS will still be solvent at my retirement age.
4. Diversified individual stock portfolio (ETFs or individual companies). Treat this as a savings account - you would be surprised at the growth possibilities, if you contribute monthly. You need to be financially able to accept risk and don't sweat losses and don't rejoice at gains. One word of caution - be careful about the tax laws (short/long vs. income).

Personally, I don't plan on EVER fully retiring; not, because I won't be able - I just don't think I would want to retire.

Truer words have never been said!!!

There is no disagreement between us; I also chose option 1 as long as possible. I still make myself carry out my daily exercise program and do what I can. I can't do much with severe osteoporosis; anytime I pick up something wrong I break a vertebrae in my back. I promise you, do that a couple of times and you will cut back on certain activities.

Some people are blessed with better genes than me and are able to stay active longer. But you never know what your fate will be regarding your health until it's gone, and nothing will change that. Man makes plans, and God laughs.

This is the point I was trying to make earlier. It doesn't mean we're living like peasants. It also doesn’t mean you never buy stuff you don’t need. I buy stuff I don’t need. I just don’t over-buy. I don’t take out loans to finance a truck I need to stretch payments out over 6 years to be able to afford. IF I have to get a loan for a truck it will be one I can pay off in 2 years or less (that’s just my rule of thumb). IF I need a loan to buy a home, I won’t go over 10-15 years and will cease making contributions outside of what I’m getting matched in a 401k to pay it off in 5 if possible. My wife and I talked about it and we will seriously buy down if it means we can pay cash. I couldn’t care less about tax implications of not paying mortgage interest. As I said in another post, my parents are going to retire multi-millionaires off of a modest salary and they haven’t paid a dime in mortgage interest in my lifetime.

Look, I know we are in a consumption driven society where everyone has to have the latest and greatest. But, you have to be intentional with planning for retirement. It doesn’t come easy. Especially when the opportunity presents itself to be able to buy a new truck. Being able to buy doesn’t mean being able to afford. If you fake wealth long enough, it is going to catch up with you. If you live within your means – don’t over buy a house, a car, a jet ski, a 4 wheeler, a side by side, etc – and tragedy happens, you won’t face financial ruin.

I’ll give you an example. I had a couple in their 40s come into my office several years ago that were a complete mess financially. He was a marketing guy for a pharma company out of TN and she was a rep for that same company. They lived in Hampton Cove in a $1.2 mil house, both drove $50k-100k cars, had a lake house in Guntersville that was valued as much as their actual home, had a kid they sent to Samford with a home equity loan, and had a couple side by sides…I think they had a few more things but I’ve slept a few times since then. They also both made a combined salary of ~$600k. That’s a lot of money to be bringing in but they were idiots when it came to spending. When the recession hit, they lost their jobs. They had $15k in a savings account for emergencies but that would’ve barely covered the cost to replace the A/C for their home, much less cover them in extended unemployment. Their company matched 5% on 401k and they were putting in roughly half a %. Of course, they came to see me after they had picked up the pieces but it was awful. The man had a pretty bad heart attack and she looked like she was 15 years older. I mean this was all on them…making that kind of money and by their 40s they could’ve been wanting for nothing while putting their kid through college, driving what they wanted, and living – within reason – in whatever sized house they wanted, and still had enough in an emergency fund to live 2 years without a job if it came to it. But, they spent and spent. These people lost both homes, their cars, and their son had to move home and take out loans to attend Calhoun. The last I saw of them he had quit school and was working at Walmart…I’m not saying anything against working there but going from pre-med at Samford to Walmart is a big change.

My point with all of this is that it’s easy to get caught up in buying when the fruit is low hanging, but don’t do it. Just make wise decisions and you’ll be fine. I wouldn’t wish what these people experienced on my worst enemy but it happens all the time and this stuff will come back to bite you. And I know that example is an EXTREME one but a lot of people live this way…albeit on a smaller scale, they still live financing everything they buy and never getting out of debt. But, it’s the norm now. You just have to decide what you want out of life. Do you want security and financial freedom or a burden? Pay now and play later or play now and pay later. Also know I’m not saying this to step on anyone’s toes. I know each circumstance is different, I just know the statistics and they say most people are responsible to some degree for their financial situation.