Retirement Planning: Help me sort this out

[goat]

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

It's no different that a school teacher accepting an 8 month job at a fixed salary, then going on public assistance or unemployment... basically living on others, for the remainder of the year.

If there is one profession we need fewer of, it is definitely school teachers - lazy asses.

Mark

[letsgetsailing3]

Originally Posted by lippysyd

With the rules of my ESOP I cannot pull anything for any reason until 2021. (and we're not allowed to contribute) At that point, we can pull 10% and roll it over into some other retirement vehicle without penalty. But what I am going to do is talk to my credit union about opening some type of IRA. We don't spend much on entertainment most of the year, just our little cruising fund for the summer. But it is time to take another look at the budget and see where I can cut back to funnel some money into retirement. I'm sure there are areas where I'm overspending and it may not make a huge difference, but every little bit helps.

You're correct with all of this, but you are overlooking one big thing. Your time, which turns out is quite valuable. Think about it, as it's the biggest impact idea that you can consider.

Living frugally is good, allocating retirement assets is good, but any financial planner is also going to recommend you consider getting some productivity from those "off" months.

Money that you can save now will turn out to be much more valuable than money you can save later.

It's a cost/benefit analysis, and only you can decide. The other option is to do what you're doing now for longer than you are probably planning.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

You've been getting 120 paid vacation days per year, courtesy of the unemployment insurance agency.

Good for 'me. We've too many people in the labor force already. We need some good role models for how to live small.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by letsgetsailing3

I interpreted her post as saying that her employer paying the full value of the benefit. Don't know if it's true or not, but if you're going to knock it, you may need to investigate it first.

Well, I did do some homework and found assertion of the OP to be totally false. Just read her link to the Michigan site. Unless she lives on a Indian reservation and her employers are members of the tribe, or she works for a government agency... her employer is defined as a "Contributing employer" who pays just an annual premium, with the balance of the benefits being paid for by the good citizens of Michigan and/or the federal government. her employer is NOT a reimbursing employer. Only the State, Federal government, non-profit or an Indian reservation can be one... by definition.

I stand by all my previous comments. The OP misquoted the Michigan unemployment insurance website.

Ken

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by colemj

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kenomac
"It's no different that a school teacher accepting an 8 month job at a fixed salary, then going on public assistance or unemployment... basically living on others, for the remainder of the year."

If there is one profession we need fewer of, it is definitely school teachers - lazy asses.

Mark

You deliberately left out a portion of my quote in order to intentionally change the entire meaning. Not cool... not cool at all.

We have 12 school teachers in our extended family.

Ken

[slowshoes]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

. I picked up a paint brush and went to work as a house painter... I was 43... the oldest guy on the jobsite... no unemployment games, B.S. or excuses.

Damn - wish I'd known painters make such good money. Maybe I'd be somewhere in the Med sipping cocktails on my Oyster 53 too.

lippysyd,

Maybe it would be best to have one of you quit your job and go to school. Your can still get a RN degree in 2 years and you start out making pretty decent cash, and it's a job you can find anywhere in the country. It's too bad you can't touch that company stock and diversify - maybe a financial planner will know if there are any loopholes for reinvesting some of that stock.

[crazyoldboatguy]

Kenomac is a hoot. He says his European buddies want to move to the US to get in on all the free gravy. That's rich. Made my day.

[lippysyd]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

The OP misquoted the Michigan unemployment insurance website.

Ken

Hey, I'll admit when I'm wrong. Yup, I read it again and you're right: I misquoted it.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[IslandAnne]

I don't understand all this hacking on someone who doesn't have full time work in their profession. So many jobs are like this - fishing is a big one here. I really don't see what the big deal is. It's not like they have a HUGE income. Commercial fishermen make a ton of money and are on EI a good chunk of the year here.

Since you are photographers, what about setting up a business of your own and maybe trying your hand at wedding photography and family portraits - stuff like that? I did some wedding photography on the side at one point and it was fun and at the time to me it felt like quick easy money (I was in university). This way you can start on building the business and I think only your profits (net) are calculated into any EI cuts. This could be something that you'd maybe even be able to continue to do for extra cash even after your retire.

And I would encourage you to try to cut your living expenses if you can at all, and put some savings away in a different type of investment - though you have probably already done this. And if you do see a financial planner, go to a fee-based one not one that's going to try to sell you something. But like others have said too, you can learn a lot by reading up yourself. Good luck!

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by crazyoldboatguy

Kenomac is a hoot. He says his European buddies want to move to the US to get in on all the free gravy. That's rich. Made my day.

Here's an absolutely true story that happened two years ago on a flight back to England which has nothing to do with this thread or the OP.

I sat next to an English fellow who was returning home after giving a Green energy speech at Harvard. A nice guy, but he wanted to talk & I wanted to sleep... so he went on and on about how the UK system of government was more fair than capitalism, superior health care, etc. etc. So I told him about the millions of free government provided cell phones in the US and the EBT credit cards. I said..... "I think we've out-socialized you guys in the UK." He looked puzzled, paused.... then said, "no government does that.... your a liar."

Then I got some sleep.

Ken

[Kenomac]

To the OP,

I'm not trying to be mean-spirited towards you on this thread. It's my belief that sometimes a swift kick sort of wake up call is in order for some folks to get out of their situation. Life is not fair, poop happens and we all need to make changes. You can't expect to always work in your chosen field, nor does society have a responsibility to partially fund a lifestyle which allows you to do it.

Over the past 40 years I've worked as a rock musician (college +2 years), 13 years as a disc jockey, wedding photographer (1yr), a registered nurse (7 years), house painter (5 years), mason, property manager (17 years), commercial property landlord, carpenter, piano technician (15 years) and a recording engineer (15 years). Many of these jobs overlap as I continuously tried to maintain full or more than full time employment. I was almost always self employed, so collecting unemployment wasn't even a possibility. Some of these jobs I hated; being a disc jockey was my favorite.

My point is... things change. If you want a comfortable retirement whether it's living large or small... you'll need to make some changes and put in the hard work.

Now it's time for me to lift the anchor and head off to Soller, Mallorca, before this knucklehead in the boat next to me swings any closer.

Cheers

Ken

[robert sailor]

Most tax systems are bit like Robin Hood. They are in fact a form of income redistribution. In the USA the top 5% have 95% of the wealth, most countries are like this and Governments feel the need to level the playing field, they do this with a variety of programs. Personally I don't believe in this but I haven't really got better suggestions.

[lippysyd]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

To the OP,

I'm not trying to be mean-spirited towards you on this thread. It's my belief that sometimes a swift kick sort of wake up call is in order for some folks to get out of their situation.

Yes you are. There's no 'nice' way to call someone a lazy mooch. (mooch is my word) You made a snap judgment based on a small piece of information and ran with it.

I can see now that my mistake was to even include any job information in my original post. I thought it provided context as to why it was difficult to save; it didn't. It just took this thread in a direction I didn't need it to go.

The sad part is, if I had left all that out, we might have had a nice discussion. If we were in the same marina, we might even be friends. I'm certain that I would look wide-eyed at your big fancy yacht and ask to hear all about her and where she's been. We would probably talk about how peaceful sailing is. You would see us constantly working on our boat, or helping a neighbor, or helping you, and you wouldn't think we were lazy.

[SaltyMonkey]

Im with Kenomac on this one. You want money, get marketable skills. You're at the bottom of the food chain according to the statistics.

30 Worst Paying College Majors for 2013


You want to live your dream, then just suck it up and accept your fate and forget about retirement.