Although I didn't feel like a senior yet at fifty, that is a standard age at which people are considered seniors (AARP, etc.) At 50, of course, someone might still have more earning potential than they are likely to have at 70, so there is that point. At 50, it might be too late for most people to establish a traditional retirement plan, but most people, at that age, are still working, particularly if they don't have a retirement plan that allowed them to retire with an income, so they can start looking ahead, maybe reduce their spending, make reasonable investments or put some money away. I am, by no means, a financial consultant, and I didn't make very many of the right moves myself, but it could make sense, while you still have an income, to get yourself into a home that you don't have a mortgage on, in a place where property taxes are reasonable, so that you are not faced with rent or mortgage payments taking up a large portion of your Social Security income. Michelle and I have looked at this situation, and we have determined that we could live on our Social Security alone. The house is paid for, the car is paid for, and there are several programs in Maine that offer financial assistance to seniors (since these are mostly federally funded programs, I think they're available anywhere in the US, but may not be as easy to find in other states) that Social Security alone would give us enough of an income to keep our house heated, pay our utility bills, and allow us to buy food, although we'd have to cut back severely on a lot of the niceties, which is (in part) why we're still working, despite the fact that I am in my 70s and she's in her 60s. We do also own a hundred acres of land and a camp that we could sell if we needed to. This was a good topic, by the way.
Putting money into a house you can afford is a great idea. Interest rates are so low. We thought about selling hubby's paid off house. It is huge and our friends are moving to condos. But we could not live cheaper, elsewhere. Taxes here are high, if you live in town especially. But we don't live in town and that is all we pay, taxes with insurance, a month. The house is tight and easy to heat. We could not live cheaper elsewhere with rents as they are. We have well and septic. I could not believe what townies pay for water and sewer.
@Elle Lewis I guess congratulations are in order for making it further than previously anticipated I think some number of us have similarly been caught by surprise.
I have minimal savings and SS and a small pension and LIVE SIMPLY and don't have to feed a house. And it's only me and I stretch what I have and fight where I find it necessary for my existence.
Me'n' Joy went to the same school of finance. I was just thinking of a friend I went to San Francisco with a few years ago. She was worried about out living her savings and then died a week later after we got home. If things were to stay the same, me and mine would be fine. But I worry they will double property taxes and I might lose my house or farm. But I have alternative plans
One thing I did not mention is "housing." I moved into my current place in 2010. I had been in my prior house for over 30 years, so there was a chunk of equity in it. I bought my current house for less that I sold my old house for (although I had a 2nd mortgage), and the property taxes where I am are less than half of what they were in my prior place. I've not done the math to see how much rent I could have funded if I had not purchased a home and invested that cash. (Rough math says 20 years at the rents around here, but then I might have had to deal with the disruption of expired leases and moving. I'm hitting my 14th year in this place.) It's having my housing "pre-paid" that's allowed me to survive off of Social Security. Another option along these lines is for you to get a roommate. either now to share the cost & increase savings, or after you retire to share the cost & decrease expenditures. (Personally, I put a premium on my privacy.) Regarding "cheaper cost of living areas"...I'm theoretically in one of those, but the only thing cheaper is housing. Food, gas and other items can be more expensive because smaller quantities get trucked in from further distances. And things are more spread out, so a round trip to the nearest store here is 16 miles, versus the less-than-2-miles in my prior suburban life.
I worked about 40 yrs, not real hard work but did OK for my education and desires to work and have some fun along the way. Did both. I did not buy t hings I did not NEED, and and a f riend and my sister were the opposite, they bought a lot of stuff they could very easily live without, they made more money than me, and I get it, the more you make the more you spend. A vicious cycle... My plan to be a married woman failed when he had other plans in our early yrs of marriage.....I had to take control of my life and that I did...I did not want to marry again....no way.
I was trying to figure out how I missed this thread, uh, those stupid raccoons. Anyhoo I had planned on retiring at 55 until I found out that you have to have 10 years of earning income before SS could even calculate what your benefit would be, well, not enough to survive on for sure. If you're still working keep on working at least until you are 59. Unfortunately, I got laid off the job I thought I would retire from two years before my 59th birthday. What a wrench that was in my plans for retirement. From then it was one bomb after another, but I survived. I contacted every agency that would help me save my home, my vehicle, put food on the table whatever always thanking God for it.
We didn’t have a lot of savings when we retired. What we had was a house and an RV. The plan was to travel in the RV, sell it when we were ready and retire in the house. My husband retired first but by the time I could retire early he was ill. We did travel for a couple of years in the RV and then took a few car trips after that. He passed soon after. I sold the RV and the big house, bought a small one, put some money in the bank and made some decisions. I knew I didn’t want to travel alone or get married again. So, I turned a volunteer gig into a paid one and worked on building a nest egg. I needed to stay busy and continuing to work was a good decision. It is good to plan for retirement but you can’t necessarily count on your plan working out. I bought this house for a low price as the country was coming out of a downturn in real estate. Now it’s worth a lot more dollars but on the other hand the dollars are worth less. Taxes have traditionally been low here but foolish voters make poor choices and my property taxes just went up a lot. Still, my plan should see me through but all bets are off if we have 4 more years of the fiscal mess we are in on the national level.
I got this that has fallen into disrepair because "deer." Then I pretty much tore it down because vines wrapped round the 6 courses of electric fence wire. And with the price of everything, home gardens are rarely cost-effective. And I don't can. Then there's the motivation thing...