retirement, what's your magic number?

[punkin]

I would love to know what college tuition "really" costs...can you or somebody give me an idea of a yearly cost for a realistic school. I know we won't get financial aid, and I'm trying to get some handle on what we will need to save just for college. It's so hard to know what to save for first although we pretty much are just saving saving saving and hoping there will be enough to go around.

That depends on the school and your child.

Assuming you have a child who scored perfect SATs and is carrying a 4.0 in a competitive HS with a difficult curriculum, there are hundreds of colleges just salivating to give merit aid where your income does not matter.

There are also quite a few schools that will give merit aid to B students and higher. Granted they are not the top schools.

Then you have a child like mine who was a solid A- student with decent but not stellar ACT scores (27 if that matters) and got some merit aid at some schools (the most she got was half tuition at a very respectable but not outstanding liberal arts school). However, my child has some other "issues" which dictated her final choice of school. She went with a highly ranked school not too far from home and I am paying full price. That is over $50K per year including tuition, room and board. It does not include books (which is significant).

If she went with the best money award, I would be paying approximately $28K. If she chose the state flagship, it would cost about $22K. These costs include room and board. the prices drop significantly if your child lives at home.

 

[Friendly Frog]

DisMn and Friendly Frog , I think what you are going through is far more common than some of the amounts saved that we are seeing here.

I applaud all of those folks that have done so well, but it does take a bit of luck along with the great savings habits. With DH being in IT, I would have thought you were crazy 10 years ago if you told me he would be laid off twice in 8 years! IT was supposed to be untouchable as a profession, and it was until this country starting sending all of our jobs offshore.

Anyway, when things were at their bleakest, a friend of mine who was a financial advisor said to just concentrate on being debt free before retirement, and that is what we are doing. We are still putting money in our 401k, but we are shooting for being mortgage free and debt free.

DisMN, hope I don't get flamed for this, but can't you write off your business debt or declare bankruptcy on it? It seems like a huge burden to have to pay for in addition to your normal bills.

I agree. 10 years ago I had a very stable position with a fortune 250 company that had been in business a long time. I planned on working till retirement age and saw no reason that was not going to happen. Then 2 yrs ago, poof- it was gone.

DH is in the development end of tec and has been out of work as much as working for the last 10 years. It really hurts when you hear that the companies get tax breaks to hire people from out of the country over Americans. The USA basically gave away our technology jobs.

DH is willing to work any job when tec is not hiring, but no one will touch him, knowing that he may not stay with them. He probably would stay, just because of health care! (Yes, even McDonald's, the grocery store and Home Depot said no.)

Even worse is the job market once you are over 50!

We are the generation that had to pay 13% interest on our home loans, which left us less for savings. Now we can't get 3% return on our savings. Even our years of paying into Social Security may be for nothing, and I won't even go into health care issues.

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[crisi]

The school I recently graduated from is $6k a year tuition in state. There are no dorms, so all living expenses are seperate. Its a four year school. Its about $4k a year to do your first two years at community college in state here, then you can transfer to this level of state school (not top tier) and finish up. So not factoring inflation, and living at home, and not including books...$20k for four years. Do the cheap book route - international editions, used books, and you can do $500 a year in books if you don't go for nursing or something (some programs have much more expensive books). $22k or so bottom end.

The small private liberal arts school my husband attended requires you to live on campus for the first two years. $50k a year, tuition room and books - $200k.

 

[DisMN]

Well, I agree...I think that most people only respond to these threads if they are actually saving and investing (and doing relatively well). I too give DisMN a lot of credit for her honesty. And I agree that there are a *ton* of Americans in your boat right now DisMN. A lot of people have lost their small businesses and many older workers are being forced out of their jobs. I'm normally Mrs Personal Responsibility, but you may be forced to file BK and rent in retirement if things don't turn for you. And there's no shame in that. You can only fight it so long, and then you're going to need to protect yourselves.

You're not the only one suggesting bankruptcy. For many years now ALL the debt management groups have not just suggested it but they have told us it is not going to be possible to pay this down on our own. This is the very reason for my other thread on the budget board...the CareOne thread. They believe they can help us pay our debt in full without going bankrupt in the process. I had all but given up the possibility of ever paying it off and for private reasons bankruptcy is not an option even though every few years we have examined that option very verrrrry closely.

We had already planned on apartment living in our retirement so this part isn't too painful, but now we'll just be in a less *glamorous* apartment building. LOL

DisMn and Friendly Frog , I think what you are going through is far more common than some of the amounts saved that we are seeing here.

I applaud all of those folks that have done so well, but it does take a bit of luck along with the great savings habits. With DH being in IT, I would have thought you were crazy 10 years ago if you told me he would be laid off twice in 8 years! IT was supposed to be untouchable as a profession, and it was until this country starting sending all of our jobs offshore.

Anyway, when things were at their bleakest, a friend of mine who was a financial advisor said to just concentrate on being debt free before retirement, and that is what we are doing. We are still putting money in our 401k, but we are shooting for being mortgage free and debt free.

DisMN, hope I don't get flamed for this, but can't you write off your business debt or declare bankruptcy on it? It seems like a huge burden to have to pay for in addition to your normal bills.

Oh no flaming from me! Young and stupid we were so in our stupidity we ARE our business....we didn't incorporate like we should have. Lesson learned the hard way I guess.

Good luck to you with your goals! Being mortgage free and debt free in and of itself will be a wonderful feeling for you I'm sure!

 

[abmitch01]

I agree on using a lower amt of interest when using the calculators. I use 8% but maybe that's too high. I like the calculators at Fidelity and Vanguard.

It's so sad hearing about people in their 50s and 60s not being able to find work. I plan to work as long as I physically can but realistically speaking, how many 65 yr old nurses do you see still working full time?

I'm thinking of seeing a financial planner that charges by the hour. Anyone done that?

 

[mster425]

The calculators we've been using have been using between 4-5 %, pre retirement.

I'm 29, DH is 30. Our "magic #" is 1.5 million (w/o SS) but we aren't going to get there w/ 4%.

I do want to see a financial advisor- I don't want to go to certain companies because they are so busy trying to sell their products and services they might not give us the best advice....any recommendations or previous experiences would be welcome!

 

[eyor44]

I plan to retire at 60. House should be paid for, DD should be out of college and I will have 35 years with my company (provided I stay which I have no plans to leave).

I began planning my retirement in earnest 8 years ago. I know what my project income should be w & w/o SS. If all the stars are in aligment, 60 is my and DH's target age.

 

[abmitch01]

fpaforfinancialplanning.org

you can search for financial planners in your area here

 

[tinkarooni]

Thanks for the info on college guys, we strayed a little OT, sorry, but at least I have "some" idea. We live in an area surrounded by great schools, I'm hoping kids can live at home for some of school and commute. I'm also hoping to instill in my kids, oldest is 12, to focus on school work and continue getting good grades, we need merit $$$.

 

[Mary•Poppins]

I'm thinking of seeing a financial planner that charges by the hour. Anyone done that?

We did this 3 years ago ... and I am so glad we did. It was quite expensive ($1,200.00 for I think 15 hours of work), but they went over our budget, our life goals, how to obtain them, what is realistic, etc. They also gave us oodles of book selections to read.

We actually have it as a goal to meet with them again. (we should meet with them every year ... but you know how that goes.)

After meeting with them, I actually felt "taken advantage" a bit by our last two "free" financial planners. I know that they are in the business to make money ... however, when we were young and always asked "... and how are you getting paid?" They both "talked around the answer". After seeing the "pay-by-the hour" planner ... we knew EXACTLY how they were getting paid ... with a lot of our money. (and the 1,200.00 seemed cheap) We switched a lot of our assets after meeting with them.

My parents and my husband's parents have done well financially (they don't live glamorous lives, but live financially free). I wish both of them would have spent more time talking to us about money when we were growing up. For some reason, this was always a secret when we were young ??? We have been trying to make a big effort to talk to our boys about all financial matters so that they can learn from our mistakes and hopefully start out with more knowledge than us.

 

[abmitch01]

my mom always had financial fears, fears of becoming a bag lady. they both worked for NY state, my dad has a good pension. They didn't save much for retirement, they never had much left over. They taught me to be frugal, to buy a home below my means, to worry about retirement but they didn't really show me how to save or invest for retirement. They probably didn't know themselves. I really wish personal finance was a subject taught in HS.

 

[bettymae1121]

My parents and my husband's parents have done well financially (they don't live glamorous lives, but live financially free). I wish both of them would have spent more time talking to us about money when we were growing up. For some reason, this was always a secret when we were young ??? We have been trying to make a big effort to talk to our boys about all financial matters so that they can learn from our mistakes and hopefully start out with more knowledge than us.

Same here! My parents did great with money, but never would talk about it much beyound "stay away from credit card debt" and "start your 401k/IRA as soon as you can". Both great peices of advice, but a little lacking in details, you know?

 

[DisneyHumbug]

Just saw this in money magazine - a nice little calculator:

ingyournumber.com

 

[GoofItUp]

I really wish personal finance was a subject taught in HS.

Me, too! I have seriously thought about talking to our school administration and school board about starting just such a class. I would love to teach that to jr/sr level kids. Cover information such as balancing a checkbook, understanding credit cards, loans, etc., necessary legal documents such as wills, understanding different types of insurances, and on and on... I think this is the kind of real-world information that kids need. And, with no disrespect to other classes, I think they need it a lot more than a bunch of the stuff that is taught!

 

[dvcgirl]

I agree on using a lower amt of interest when using the calculators. I use 8% but maybe that's too high. I like the calculators at Fidelity and Vanguard.

It's so sad hearing about people in their 50s and 60s not being able to find work. I plan to work as long as I physically can but realistically speaking, how many 65 yr old nurses do you see still working full time?

I'm thinking of seeing a financial planner that charges by the hour. Anyone done that?

I have always used 7% for what it's worth. I only mentioned the 12% figure as it is often thrown out there by financial gurus in the media.

 

[neatokimmo]

Just saw this in money magazine - a nice little calculator:

ingyournumber.com

Hmm what do you know? I can retire at 50 if I have $603,062.

(anyone have $603,062 I can borrow? )

 

[abmitch01]

Just saw this in money magazine - a nice little calculator:

ingyournumber.com

thanks! you know how it asks how much income you want in retirement, do they mean in today's dollars?

 

[disney1990]

My number was $547,402 and we already have at least that much in our retirement accounts. Yeah!

 

[Colleen27]

Just saw this in money magazine - a nice little calculator:

ingyournumber.com

The number that spits out seems really, really low compared to other advice I've seen and read.

 

[abmitch01]

saw this today:

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/08/18/when-will-you-be-able-to-retire/