Are y’all talking about just living on SS or your pension/401K plus SS?

Social Security checks ( x2), state teacher’s pension, dividend checks, interest, annuity payments, and cashing out IRA gains.

And of course, my fur checks.

Many would take a lump sum at 62 if offered, and die broke.

Never leave anything on the table!

The old saying-"a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" applys here.

I have no 401K or pension which is one of the drawbacks of being self employed. I have equity in real estate and a small amount of savings. Very small. I can work some all my life and I'm sure I'll have to be working part time until I die. My plan is to get the real estate paid off by age 68 which will give me some freedom with the money I can bring in, plus SS, which is peanuts. My main advantage is that all my fishing, hunting and trapping is deductible and I do a LOT. With deductions and I can show low income so I will not have to reduce my SS because of my work. I enjoy what I do so I have no interest in fully retiring.

I look at my brother in law and wife's sister who have nearly 2 Million in their 401K's and are about to retire at 59 and 60. They live in the cities and make $180K a year between them and still have a car payment. I'll take my situation over theirs any day.

Same here, but I realized the implications of that early on and starting putting money away. Both my properties (home and camp) have been paid off decades ago but I still have to pay large amounts of money in the form of annual real estate taxes and probably will have to the rest of my life unless I sell everything. I really hate the real estate tax and the way it is set up in PA. I've known more than a few retired folks forced to sell their family homes because of high real estate taxes.

My wife works for the state and has a good pension plan which she contributes heavily to. She also invests a significant percentage of her paycheck while I take up the slack in the household expenses.

We run the numbers pretty regular and it looks like we will have equal or greater income after retirement than we do now and that includes regular 401K and other investment disbursements, her pension and full SS payments.

taxes are somethin here for sure bud.

I've been active in several groups trying to get our corrupt and unfair school tax system overturned for more than twenty years. Unfortunately our state lawmakers are owned by the very powerful educator's union and they do whatever it takes to make sure that cash cow never goes away. It doesn't matter at all to the union or the politicians that this tax breaking the backs of homeowners across the state.

I doubt I'll see it eliminated in my lifetime.

about all we really work for Doug with neither of us having any or much debt.they hate our kind but i'll fight em till the scatter my ashes.

the boro is all in a panic right now over the amish invasion.i'm lovin it.

The Amish invasion! I love it! LOL

one family paid 140 thousand for a 75 thousand dollar house 2 miles up the road from me.nice couple i think.

bettin they've dropped a half a million here in the last six months.these people should be welcoming them with open arms instead they are goin ordinance crazy.-----rant over.

I'm 61 and will wait till I'm 65. I work for insurance right now. When my wife can get Medicare I will start drawing and slowing down. She is a yr. younger than me. Insurance is so expensive. I don't know if I will ever retire as I don't know anything else.

Im a machinist for Caterpillar and have a good 401K. I just don't want to touch it till I decide to quit working all together.

Great thread. Luckily I’ve put away a little money in my 401K and pension rises about 7K every year. The company also covers medical after retirement until Medicare kicks in. Only 52 now and will have 30 years with the company when I turn 60 which happens to be when the house is paid off as well. Plan on retiring at 61-62. The cool thing is, SS never crossed my mind until this thread showed up. Should be good to go while drawing what’s needed after SS. I made up my mind long ago to retire when I could, seen too many guys retire at an older age and then not be able to enjoy their “fun” money due to failing health. Then again, their health didn’t start failing until they retired. Staying active is a must!

The plantation owner where my son works, went to the county and asked if he built a small fire station and bought a truck would they man it? The county agreed. Folks went in a complete uproar...except the folks who were basically without any fire prevention coverage and paying high insurance premiums.
Our little paper did a story and showed the firehouse and self contained truck that was bought, that truck put our little towns fire trucks to shame. People finally realized it wasn’t favoritism because he just happened to have money, lol. Folks also didn’t realize all the people that benefitted from his generosity.
It pays to check out a story before complaining.