I'm writing a book and need your help

**forestdale** · 07-04-2005, 06:10 PM

AGING HIPSTERS...

Sara has kindly given me permission to use her site to research a book I'm going to write on Simple Retirement.  The book will be geared for Australian readers but as I think the search for a meaningful, stress-free retirement is a universal one, I would like to ask you all for input.

Basically, I hope the book will be published in the year before the baby boomers will start the retirement avalanche. My sister is one of the first baby boomers, she was born in January 1946, she will be officially ready for retirement in June 2009; the first of the baby boomer men will officially retire in 2010.  That gives me three years to research, write and have the book published.

What I would like to ask you is your feelings about retirement. 

Are you looking forward to it?

Are your feelings towards retirement positive or negative?

Why do you feel like that?

How much money do you think you'll need to retire?

Would you be able to reduce your weekly expenditure enough to suit a reduced income?

What do you want to do when you retire?

Do you know of any literature that provides the kind of information you'll need to read about retirement?

For those older villigers - do you have enough money to retire on or will you rely on welfare or pension payments?

Please feel free to add any comments you have on the subject.

I'll have more questions at a later date but in the meantime I want to thank everyone who cares to help me with this project.  

**PrairieRose** · 07-04-2005, 06:47 PM

Great subject Rhonda! I'll jump in!

What I would like to ask you is your feelings about retirement.

Are you looking forward to it? I'm not sure.

Are your feelings towards retirement positive or negative?
They aren't negative, more indifferent I'd say.

Why do you feel like that? Perhaps b/c I've mostly been a sahm for my "working life". I guess you'd say I'm already feeling semi-retired.

How much money do you think you'll need to retire? Whew, that's a big one. I'd say we'll need a million dollars to be very comfortable...... . Not sure that's doable though.

Would you be able to reduce your weekly expenditure enough to suit a reduced income?
Well we can reduce it a good bit, but I'm not sure we could ever reduce it enough to live on social security, in the unlikely event that it's there when we retire.

What do you want to do when you retire?
I'd like to travel much more, take up some more crafts and hopefully spend time with my grandkids.
Do you know of any literature that provides the kind of information you'll need to read about retirement?
We are subscribers to AARP and that's full of info about retirement and preparing for it.

For those older villigers - do you have enough money to retire on or will you rely on welfare or pension payments?

Please feel free to add any comments you have on the subject.
~My added comments~
I know that a million dollars sounds like an exhorbant amount. It does to me as well but with living expenses being what they are and having to pay for all of our insurances, etc. (being self employed) it will take a fair amount to live comfortably. It has always been our plan that Gripey will hire someone and more or less split what our business makes with them, keeping a handle on the business and having a say without having to be there physically daily. We don't have a lot of money socked away just yet, although we are working towards doing more all the time.

I'll have more questions at a later date but in the meantime I want to thank everyone who cares to help me with this project.

**DaisyLady** · 07-04-2005, 07:17 PM

DH and I are considered to be at the end of the boomers so we get to take advantage of a system which hopefully will have ironed out all the kinks by the time we get to "retirement" age. We are expecting to live a retirement "lifestyle" by age 55.

Are you looking forward to it?

Yes, but we don't actually plan to "retire" (it's no longer mandatory here) we just plan to change our lifestyle.

Are your feelings towards retirement positive or negative?

Positive

Why do you feel like that?
Up to now, we've planned everything; jobs, housing, the car we drive, around our family (which of course means the kids take priority). We've worked hard and we are looking forward to making lifestyle changes that reflect "our wants and needs". Plus we are both relatively healthy, active and young. So things look positive for our retirement.

How much money do you think you'll need to retire?
We plan to be debt free and reasonably self sufficient for most of our "retirement" years. However, we do realize that if our health is not good we want to have enough set aside to cover things like nursing homes etc. We hope to have a sizable RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) to flip over to investments that we can use if necessary. We haven't really figured on a set dollar amount yet.

Would you be able to reduce your weekly expenditure enough to suit a reduced income?
Provided our health holds out, yes. Should we have to deal with living on Social Security we could be in trouble. We do have a small pension from DH's employment but it won't be available until age 65.

Do you know of any literature that provides the kind of information you'll need to read about retirement?
Can't place any titles at the moment but I did see an extensive section dealing with this subject at both the public library and the local bookstore.

We are in a unique situation since we no longer have a mandatory retirement law. We can choose to retire traditionally or we can choose to continue to work as long as we are physically and mentally able. It is going to be interesting to see how this new development will affect boomers and their decisions about retirement!

**canadian gardener** · 07-04-2005, 08:50 PM

your feelings about retirement.

Are you looking forward to it? yes and no, mostly no

Are your feelings towards retirement positive or negative? bit of both really.

Why do you feel like that? I don't quite know what to expect. Costs keep rising, being on a fixed income with a mortgage is scary. Health in dh and self not being super anymore, plus what on earth will dh do that won't cost a lot of money.

How much money do you think you'll need to retire? Bit more than what will be coming in that is for sure

Would you be able to reduce your weekly expenditure enough to suit a reduced income? A bit, but that doesn't leave a lot of room for error. Nor for any expensive little hobby that dh may take up.

What do you want to do when you retire? read books, garden, cook, teach bible study, same as before. Travelling is way out of the budget then as now.

Do you know of any literature that provides the kind of information you'll need to read about retirement? not really

For those older villagers - do you have enough money to retire on or will you rely on welfare or pension payments? no and yes to the pension payments.

Please feel free to add any comments you have on the subject.

hmmm it's something that worries me. Will we have enough saved, will we get the mtg paid down not even fully but enough that if things get bad we won't lose the house?

dh talks about no need for union dues, and gas to get to work, I think about him trolling around hardware stores spending money.

cost of living, gasoline costs both rising. All that with declining health, what's not to look forward to????????? (TONGUE DEFINITELY IN CHEEK WITH PANICKY TONE IN VOICE HERE)

it does worry me a lot actually. It's not the sunset years in a motor home vision at all. We wouldn't be able to run something like that let alone travel so what dh expects to do with his free time is beyond me.

As for me I will continue as I have for many years, books, gardening, cooking and so forth.

**Mom23boys** · 07-05-2005, 10:57 AM

Are you looking forward to it?
~Yes, I can't wait to be able to enjoy retirement with my DH.

Are your feelings towards retirement positive or negative?
~Positive

Why do you feel like that?
~Because I will be able to spend more time doing the things I can't do now because of work.

How much money do you think you'll need to retire?
~Not sure, but I know I have a long way to go before I even get there. We will continue to keep our frugal way of living even after retirement.

Would you be able to reduce your weekly expenditure enough to suit a reduced income?
~Not sure.

What do you want to do when you retire?
~We want to travel, relax at home, visit family and friends.

Do you know of any literature that provides the kind of information you'll need to read about retirement?
~Not off hand.

**Telephus44** · 07-09-2005, 06:17 PM

Ok, I'm 27 so not exactly your target audience, but here's my take on it..

Are you looking forward to it? - Yes. I'd like to retire early (50 ideally, probably will end up being more like 55)

Are your feelings towards retirement positive or negative? - Positive

Why do you feel like that? - I think that since I'm young enough and have a head start on it, I'll be able to save enough. Also, I have big list of things I'd like to do "someday"

How much money do you think you'll need to retire? - Depends on whether or not DH and will own a house when we retire. Probably somewhere around 1.5 million.

Would you be able to reduce your weekly expenditure enough to suit a reduced income? - I'm hoping that the only things that I have to reduce is housing costs, because hopefully we'll own our own house. And property taxes by themselves are cheaper than property taxes plus mortgage. Other than that, I'm hoping to have enough income to maintain our standard of living.

What do you want to do when you retire? - 1. Run a no-kill animal shelter for cats. 2. Have a REALLY BIG garden 3. Work on starting my own anti-consumerism social movement.

Do you know of any literature that provides the kind of information you'll need to read about retirement? - The best site I've found is The Motley Fool - www.fool.com - although the MSN/CNBC website has some useful tools as well. Vanguard has a wealth of information on retirement - both online and you can request brochures.

For those older villigers - do you have enough money to retire on or will you rely on welfare or pension payments? I'm going to skip this as I'm not an older villager! I will say that I have a 401K (I put in the contributions, but its a company sponsered plan), a Roth IRA (personal retirement account) and that I'm not counting on Social Security at all!

Please feel free to add any comments you have on the subject. Just a side note with my feelings on the subject - I think more people should take retirement into consideration a lot earlier than they do, and that one shouldn't rely on the government (I don't trust it to be there when I retire) JMHO

**Kimberlina** · 07-10-2005, 10:12 AM

Rhonda- I'm not really an aging hipster yet, otherwise I'd love to help you with this. But I did just want to take a second to say great idea and I wish you huge success with this!