by Apostanator 27 Replies latest jw friends
Both myself and my husband work for the government, so we have a sweet pension through thanks to CalPERS. We also have invested in some real estate and have a bit in savings and an IRA. We have paid off almost all of our credit card debt and have sworn to no longer use those evil cards.
Purza
I have a decent retirement from my Law Enforcement job and building my own business to add to that.
Cultivating my kids talents too so they can support mom and dad later in life ! LOL
I'm going to turn my "on/off switch" to off...
If your employer has a matching funds 401K and you don't contribute, you're crazy.
My employer matches 5%, and I contribute 8% so that's 12%. I would like to do more, but have a kid to put through college starting 2007. Need to buy her a car this year. My husband also has PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) so that's pretty generous.
The idea about taking good care of yourself to minimize medical bills later, sounds so simple but it's hard to do. Congrats Serendipity.
As far as real estate investing, I plan to do that starting next year with the purchase of a condo wherever my daughter attends college. This way, she won't be paying rent, and perhaps with two other roommates (if it's a 3 bedroom) this will cover the cost of the mortgage. I can build equity instead of throw away money on rent.
It took me years before I started thinking in terms of retirement. Tomorrow. The Future. I had a hard time imagining it or planning for it. (armygaddon?) I am already retired on disability. The only thing I could own was a home on land so I have done well in equity, almost paid off. Have a little CD.
I prefer to go for a personal investment rather than rely on others to invest my money for an income in the future. I go for a property the value of which will increase with time, plus it will be possible to have a good rental income. It beats investments in pension schemes I am sure.
Brothers!! Why would you pay into a pension?! Don't you know where we are in the Stream of Time??! Armageddon will be here long before you retire!!
No, that's not my words, but the words of the elders in 1949 to my father who (foolishly) asked them if he should pay into the company pension. He was 18 years old at the time.
I've got my company pension plan (I believe I contribute 5% and they contribute 7%), plus I have a certain amount taken out of my chequing account every week which is going into a Balanced Fund and another one in an Equity Fund. I've got it at medium risk right now. I figure I'm young enough so that if I did lose a bit right now, there's still plenty of time to make it back up. Last year on my one account, I made 18.69% interest, the other one I made 14.53% interest, which is fine by me. My sister made over 24% interest last year on Mutual Funds!!
BTW, had my father paid into his company pension from Day One, his pension would be over $4,000.00/month (before taxes). As it is, his pension is $1,500.00. Did he or anyone else from his generation ever hear an apology from the Society for screwing them up like this? Of course not, but there was a lovely talk at the Circus ASSembly a couple of years ago, where the brain-dead idiot on the platform said "Brothers, if you knew 50 years ago that Armageddon wouldn't be here by now, would you have done things differently? Well you shouldn't FEEL that way brothers, as it shows a lack of faith in Jehovah's Organization!" That's the closest my father ever came to getting up, walking out and never going back.
I don't expect Social(ist) Security to be there when I retire, so I save about 15% of my gross income in an IRA and 401(k), as well as a newly-opened Health Savings Account. I've been saving since I started my current job about 7 years ago, and I already have about $50k stashed away. I plan to have several million saved by the time I retire.
as well as a newly-opened Health Savings Account.
What exactly is a Health Savings Account? Is this a type of Health Insurance?
I was a good dub and didn't save anything for retirement until I got into my present job. Now I'm contributing to the company pension plan. If I'm lucky, I'll have a shack with a tin roof to retire in when I'm old, and I might be able to afford to eat meat once a week - if I don't have too many prescriptions to buy. I'm also keeping a lookout for attractive, wealthy women to take care of me.
W
