How many have a retirement fund setup? How many think you need one?

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

Been an interesting thread to follow, even though US centric.

One thing that I suspect is pretty universal is that 80% of folk who do well in life financially have put a lot of work / thought / effort / sacrifices (proportions vary ) over many years into having "done well".........and others do not always fully appreciate the previous 20 / 30 years it took to get their.........


Me? I spent 20 years of making p#ss poor decisions both financially and personally. Usually involving lots of partying and vacation time (sounds almost civilised ). It's why I don't have a Ferrari.....and how I met me late Missus. and 25 years of having lived badly is why we clicked. and yer can't put a money figure on that

But I still wish I had a Ferrari - just don't regret never having put in the work for one

But their is always next year..........

Well said.

[seafox]

Originally Posted by ess105

Are you suggesting Sean get into the funeral business?

No, he is always whinging about how easy the baby boomers had it. I thought if he could see that they were now starting to die it might give him some incentive to pull finger and get ahead With them gone there is no excuse for him is there?

I was born just after the Baby B generation. I have a few mates who are struggling or who have very little money who were born at the same time. I took my chances, worked hard etc etc and now can sit back and enjoy life. It doesn't matter when we were born. People can always choose to pull finger and get ahead, or sit back, complain and get passed. No point thinking the BBs had it easy. There are lots of struggling BBs.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by seafox

No, he is always winging about how easy the baby boomers had it. <snip> No point thinking the BBs had it easy. There are lots of struggling BBs.

Two points: seafox is certainly correct in that just being a member of a particular generation guarantees nothing. Every generation has examples of those who have nothing, those who have a lot, and the majority in between those extremes. Such is life.

I think seafox meant to write "whinging," a word meaning the same as "whining." The former rhymes with cringing, the latter with dining. The British, and those in the commonwealth countries, seem to prefer whinging, while Americans seem to prefer whining.

Q: What's a ___ish princess's favorite whine?

A: I wanta go to Flahhrida.

TaoJones

[seafox]

yes, winging. It's the local mana speiling ov ett.
Local Maori word.

Edited it to the more accepted spelling now. Thanks for the lesson

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by seafox

yes, winging. It's the local mana speiling ov ett.
Local Maori word.

Edited it to the more accepted spelling now. Thanks for the lesson

Well, the "lesson" wasn't meant for you, seafox, but for the 99.9% of the American readership who would read your word "winging" as rhyming with stinging, and wondering what you meant by it.

Class dismissed.

TaoJones

[seafox]

Just trying to keep em on their toes!

They probably don't know what that means either

[Alan Wheeler]

I simply feel it would be nice to have the same opportunities the generations before me had. I know I won't, but I'd like to.

We make our own opportunities. Some make more of them than others.
It's a pretty lame attitude to think you are down and out when much of the world is starving and the idea of owning a boat is no less than a pipe dream for many.
I feel incredibly blessed to have a yacht(sailboat). I don't care that it is not as flash as some out there. I really do not care. We have fun and we are happy and we have each other and can enjoy a common interest. Seafox said something to me in a comment unrelated to this discussion, that we are very lucky guys to have wives that are interested in boats and sailing. Mate! I wake every day feeling so totally grateful for what we have.

[waterworldly]

As a 52 year old "baby boomer" who bought a little busines and worked without a vacation longer than 4 days since 1991 with my spouse to build it up so that I could now sell it to go cruising, I am totaly insulted by the casual references to my "easy life because of when I was born". Maybe my advantage was a strong work ethic by not having everything handed to me as I was growing up (i.e. having paper routes, getting my SS# at 13 so I could work full time each summer etc.). THAT IS WHY WE HAVE THINGS at this age, nothing was handed to us, those of us that have worked hard and made good decisions have been rewarded with proper gains. If you honestly believe that the reason was due to the the year we were born, and that you have the deck stacked against you, then you are already totally defeated and have given up. When I was your age (I am assuming early thirties by the naivity of the post) I didn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of and I was in debt with my business up to my neck, but we didn't give up, we dug in and succeeded, and I WON'T have that trivialized like so many do by telling me I'm "lucky". That is just bull.

[Hud3]

Yup! That says it, WW.

The initial question in this thread was, "I'm just curious as to how many of you have a retirement fund, and how many of you are "winging" it, and what your thoughts on this subject are."

There are many of us at or near retirement like WaterWorldly that started with essentially nothing and built a sound personal financial base through hard work and perseverance, and by making our own opportunities. No one "handed" us anything. One of the foremost driving principles I lived by was that I would take care of myself and my wife in retirement, and never, ever expect to fall back on my kids or the government for support. I worked my butt off, we both did. We didn't indulge in the extravagances that many of our friends enjoyed along the way, but now we're enjoying the fruits of that labor. The key is to not put it off too long, to the point that you can't enjoy retirement life because of bad health or other reasons.

I was a year ahead of the "official" BB generation, by the way.

[seafox]

I was a year ahead of the "official" BB generation, by the way.

And you look so young in your photo How do you do it? You Americans and plastic surgery

we are very lucky guys to have wives that are interested in boats and sailing. Mate! I wake every day feeling so totally grateful for what we have.

Are you sure you got that right Wheels? Wasn't "they are lucky that we are interested in their boating hobby"

[Southern Star]

Well said, Waterworldly. Their are HUGE opportunities to be had, but one has to be able to assess a rapidly changing world market (whether for occupations, investments or business opportunities) and then to work your tail off. Just as the boomers and many past generations have done.

Those who suffered through the Great Depression didn't exactly have the world handed to them on a platter. Then there was World War II and Korea and Vietnam and the draft, which often tended to 'sidetrack' someone (sometimes permanently) from an easy and direct path to financial success.

Truth be known, since this site is about cruising, there are much greater opportunities to get on the water than ever before. In relative terms, well equipped boats capable of extended voyaging are available on the used boat market for a fraction of what they cost in the 1970's and 80's. Ditto for 'starter' boats which are larger and better equipped than many of the voyaging boats available and in use in the early 70's. Simply put, the costs are a fraction of what they were to purchase a boat, get on the water, do inland or coastal cruising and develop your sailing, navigation and maintenance skills: in the 70's, 30 - 35 footers were anything but starter boats.

In addition, the advent of GPS/chartplotters/roller furling/self-tailing winches/single line reefing etc. has meant that cruisers no longer need to 'invest' anywhere near the effort into learning how to sail or navigate than ever before. How many post baby boomers know how to use a sextant reliably on a heaving deck?

If we had it easy, it is only to those on the outside looking in. Or perhaps more accurately when one is referring to a generation that seems to have a huge sense of entitlement, to those who are incapable of looking beyond the ends of their own noses.

Brad

[seafox]

Professionals always make it look easy. You don't see the years of practice and sacrifice they made to get there.

[anotherT34C]

To be fair, if you look back at the BB generation and before, households tended to be single-income. Today, that's not usually a viable option if you want to be in the middle class. Back in the day, a working class single earner could enter the middle class by working an appropriate amount of overtime, catching up with the professional class. Lawyers and plant workers could own houses in the same neighborhoods, their kids went to the same schools, etc... These days, professional families tend to be dual earners (doctor + lawyer for ex.) and that coupled with stagnant working class wages for the past decade, has caused the middle class to effectively split in two (professional vs working).

I'm sympathetic then, to Sean when he says that it 'seems' harder for working class people to keep up. It is, but I think it's largely a matter of perception. You had to own a lot less to be considered 'middle class' in the 60's and 70's than you do now.

[ess105]

Originally Posted by anotherT34C

You had to own a lot less to be considered 'middle class' in the 60's and 70's than you do now.

I've typed and deleted about four responses to this thread. It always comes out wrong. Life just ain't easy. Get over it.

[ess105]

Of course - I got that wrong too.
I reckon most of us on this board are not hungry, we know we won't be tomorrow, we have a roof of some sort over hand, we don't fear that tomorrow we or our family may be mutilated by a political enforcer or 12 year old with a machete and a 9 year old mate with a Kalashnikov. The list goes on.
For us - life is too bloody easy yet why is it we can't appreciate it.