yukonjeff… you might be spot on... my MIL just passed after spending a year and a half in a nursing home... annual cost around 130K/year.

Charles, You're keeping the medical professionals in your region gainfully employed + and then some! We pray all is patched up, stitched up, and healed up!

My wife and I, along with my older brothers Keith from MI and his wife, and Brian from NC, will be in your neck of the woods first week of June. We're all taking a week long biblical course at The Cove, Billy Graham's Retreat there in Asheville. I've never been to The Cove and we hear it's a wondrous place. Us three "boys" as our dad still calls us, have never studied the Word together, so we're pretty excited about it all. The topic is Genesis to Revelation and it'll be taught by our current DTS president Dr. Mark Bailey and his successor this coming summer Dr. Mark Yarbrough. Super teachers and Godly men.

I'm taking the course for student credit, and my brothers are taking it for the experience, learning, and time we'll spend together while at it.
I believe it's open to the public, if you know anyone interested.
June 1-5th.
The Cove website would have details.
The very nice lady from the retreat that I spoke with about registration said they really enjoy working with the DTS family!

Heal up fast sir.
There's critters still to be caught and family to be hugged!
Blessings,
Mark

^^^On target here!

I was delivering major appliances at minimum wage and my father told me to get a job with benefits, pension, health care, etc. I was lucky enough to get a good job with decent benefits at 21. As soon as I started my father told me to start saving now and had always stressed living well within your means. He told me save as much as you can, as early as you can and leave it there as long as you can. Later in life he also told me, don't take advice from someone who has less than you. They have been truths that prevail over time.


A million enough? Depends... What do you want out of life? Pension? Benefits? Debt load? Retirement age? Discipline!


"Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young." -Theodore Roosevelt

You are spot on! I am going to retire in 2 years, have saved HARD (25% of my gross earnings) and will live until it's gone. I don't go to the doctor anyway and never will so I am going to spend every penny of it.

This is sound advice IMO. You need to get a retirement budget which is about 3% of what you have saved and you will be fine. Many people live on little and live happy and they have what they need and don't need to live like kings.

Simply marry a rich woman that is over sexed and owns a liquor store.

Seriously; put as much as you can in your 401K. Many companies no longer offer pensions. Live within your means. Take your SS as early as you can.

I feel like Klinger on MASH. He was always looking for a way to get out of Korea and the military. In the end, he ended up staying after all his comrades had left when the war was over.

I planned to retire when I was in my early 50s. But, with my job being one where I can come and go as I please, I don't know if I'll ever retire. Well, maybe when I'm dead...….

^^^^^^^^
That is exactly the model the corporate world has created. The "health care" industry is one of the largest if not the largest business in the USA.
You hit it exactly right. The goal is to transfer all your remaining wealth from your estate to the health care industry. Nothing left for your kids or any others that you might chose to leave it to.

Retired at 34 enjoy working the land and producing with my own two hands and no boss, keep your health all the money in the world can't buy that.

SPOILER ALERT! I hadn't finished watching MASH yet.

You might have to then!

Retired at 59 1/2. Wife&I have small pensions and SS that we took at 62. IMO money is a necessary evil,a relationship with God and
my family are my assets. I did my math for my circumstances and live at that level monetarily. I am far from $ 1,000,000 but
live on my comfort level. My goal being to see my grandchildren become who they develop into-with my help to have them know
guns and the outdoors are safe and beautiful. I respect everyones perspective on money,at the same time living what my
perspective is.

You are on target. The reason SS is having insolvency issues are because of all the ways it's been misused by legislators. If it had been left alone to do it's original intent of providing a retirement income or disability income, SS recipients today would be receiving much larger monthly payments.

Keep in mind, if you are thinking about leaving a big IRA or 401k to the kids; they just changed some rules on that with the new "Secure Act." It all about the government getting their hands on that money.
See a tax advisor or plan to spend it yourself.

I retired at 50. Wife always stayed home and took care of kids.
Am 62 now.
We went without alot of stuff that most people didn't.
No new cars, no cell phones, none of the latest gadgets, no fancy vacations.
Owned our own homes, only rented one year after marriage. SO money went to home improvements or equity in homes instead of rent.

NEVER count on the gov't.
That means only count on your own investments, 401k etc
So the sooner you start investing, the sooner you can retire.
If SS is still around then, count that as a bonus, but I am not counting on it, and I'm 60.

My sincerest apologies. You do realize the final episode was in 1983, don't you? That should have given you enough time to catch up, I would have thought.

I have 8-10 years of work before retiring but have been planning for it for over 30 years by taking advantage of company match $, set up a Roth in 1998 and living within my means.

I am surprised the lack of comments on how your retirement funds are invested; taxable when withdrawn or in tax free. With tax rates only set thru 2025 I doubt they will go down when the new tax bill is drafted. For my wife and I, approximately 65% of our retirement funding is from tax free sources and are converting more over in preparation for what we believe will be a rate increase starting in 2026. Insurance is our big unknown when it comes to retiring earlier.

Dave

I was tired yesterday and today I'm re-tired too.