My grandfather was something of a Renaissance Man.
He was a farmer, schoolteacher, fisherman, collector, real estate investor… and one of those guys who always seemed to know how to do everything.
He could take apart an engine, build a house with his bare hands, tame wild horses, treat life-threatening wounds, play the guitar… and he was extremely well respected in his community.
Plus, like many from his generation who grew up during the Great Depression, he was also a prolific saver.
Being highly mistrustful of banks, my grandparents dealt mostly in physical cash. They used to keep money in old coffee cans stuffed full of coins and bills.
Every now and again when the coffee cans became too numerous, they would buy government savings bonds.
Of course, that was a different world.
When my grandparents were saving, the government was actually solvent, and interest rates were ‘normal’. You could buy government bonds and expect a decent rate of return.
Plus the dollar was still linked to gold back then, so you could have a confident outlook on your currency.
At the same time, Social Security was also in good shape; you didn’t have to worry whether it was still going to exist when it came time for you to retire.
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8 comments:
I barely know anyone who has retired and STAYED retired,but not because they couldn't afford to retire.They chose to return to work because they knew nothing else & most had worked from their early teens on.Most did not return to the same job and some were volunteers.For whatever reason,those people will be unaffected by retirement shortcomings now and in the future.They haven't missed a beat,some for 60+ years of active employment.What's another 10 when they plan on working until they die? Posts like this give us a heads up.A lifetime LOVE FOR WORK and work ethic will therefore eventually replace retirement.
Grandpa would have never paid $45,000 for a truck either. See plenty of those around and then they say they cannot save money.
1;31 right on to that!The only people spending that kind of money are the ones with big pensions and government workers.
Both of my parents retired at 60. Both had blue collar jobs, and were savers. It's not a magic trick. It's simple arithmetic.
It's called discipline. Savings first then everything else. I've been contributing the max to my various companies 401K plans since I was 25 years old. I'll be retiring in another 7 or 8 years with a comfortable 7 figure nest egg and no debt at all.
Hard to retire if a lot of your savings were tied up in the stock market in 2007-08.
The large financial institutions rendered many retirement accounts worthless.
4:31. Not true if you had time to stick it out. My 401K plan took a huge hit and lost more than half its value during that time but has regained all the losses and more than doubled since. As I get closer to retirement, I'm slowly shifting from stock funds to balanced and fixed funds. It truly was terrible for those hitting retirement in 2007-2008 but if you had time to stick it out it's worked out pretty well. Also, those still making contributions in 2007-2008 were buying in at a really good price.
507, I'll have what you're smoking. Mine as well went to half, then came back to it's original value and has not climbed since. In the last 5 years, I've seen a hundred dollar return on my funds.
Light up another one, my friend!
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