I’m saving for retirement by choosing not to live in expensive populated cities. I could live in NYC or LA but then most of my money would go to expensive rent or an expensive house. I don’t want to do that.

I currently live in the midwest and housing and apartment rent is more affordable here. I’m choosing not to live in an expensive area so over time I can save MORE for my retirement. When I do retire, it will never be to some expensive place. Absolutely not. I won’t have to worry about “downsizing” when I’m in my 50s.

I think the key to a successful while you are young and when you are older is to know what is enough. Some people never reach their “enough” financially speaking, I think this is why you see working class people that win the lottery broke 5 years later.

Many lottery winners do end up broke after winning the lottery 5 years later or so. Even millionaires end up being broke, famous celebrities like Ava Gardner, MC Hammer, etc. went broke even though they earned gobs and gobs of money in their life.

Did you know that Ava Gardner had to have her ex-bf Frank Sinatra pay her hospital bills because she was too broke? Its pretty sad.

Many Americans retire oversees because its more affordable and they like the different culture. You don’t have to retire oversees to retire affordably I am just giving an example. But the point I’m trying to make its that its possible to retire well and not be miserable.

I hate the people who say that we have lofty goals, they’re not lofty at all. Reasons to save for retirement is FREEDOM. FREEDOM from the 9-5, FREEDOM to travel, and live the life that you want without worry.

It must be possible because plenty of retirees do it. They go traveling, they garden, they volunteer, they read, they watch tv and go to the movies, they go out with their friends, they exercise, they write novels, they pursue the arts, they cook and bake.

IMO there are affordable and expensive ways to do anything. Take scrapbooking some people spend hundreds on supplies and others are able to spend very little and produce beautiful scrapbooks.

Not everyone becomes some vegetable when they are retire. Many who retire, love it and refuse to go back.

If I had to choose an ideal plan for retirement, it would include very few days at home. But am I really going to enjoy hiking through the mountains at 65? Will I be able to eat anything and everything, even from street vendors, at 70? I really don’t want to think about having to take shorter flights because of the risk of blood clots in my legs. And I don’t want to worry about carting around a half-dozen medications all over the world.

Instead, we’re including a one-year trip in our five-year plan and another as soon as possible after that. Yes, this is pushing retirement back much more than the one year we’ll be away. We’ve discussed and it’s worth it.

I supposed I should also mention that kids are not currently on the agenda.

Basically, I’m saving for peace of mind and love of life– the things I’m working SO hard to achieve in the present.

I’m saving for early retirement because I’m pretty sure I can think of more fun things for me to do than any boss can.

I plan to do the same things I’m doing now, only more so. I already read, watch movies, listen to and make music, dance, jog, socialize, write, cook, clean, take informal classes, and travel. When I retire, I plan to exercise more regularly and doing more activities, do more housework so the house is always presentable, try more recipes, bring picnic lunches to my still-working friends, have more parties, learn Spanish and maybe ASL, audit classes, volunteer at the local school, make stuff like birdhouses, quilts, and low-budget probably bad movies.

Based on the experiences of a few friends who have taken a year or two of “early retirement” (purposeful unemployment), I still won’t have enough time to do everything I want to. But I will have time to do more of it, and I will spend less time doing what some employer wants me to do.

I’m pretty sure I won’t end up like Kevin’s father, which I fear is quite common in our society where you are what you “do,” and once you don’t have a job, then it’s sort of like you’re nothing. I do know I have some tendencies to get less done when I don’t have a schedule, so, I’ll make one for myself, but most of it will be a lot more flexible than my current one!

Trust me Kevin, not everybody loves their job. I’d say the opposite is true… and that if ‘everybody’ wasn’t paid, they’d probably stop showing up.

Many of us had jobs that demanded 12 hours or more from us, under physically arduous conditions, with frequent moves at our employer’s “request”, and now have chronic health problems as a result. My point?

Saving for retirement is saving against the day when you cannot work full-time any longer. Yes, we’ll always try to optimize our lives – including working if that’s still possible – but most of the retirement plans your read above included NOT working full-time at some point in the future.

Don’t worry Kevin, you’re in good company.

And one more comment to those who plan to move overseas where it’s cheap. Many countries don’t have solid laws against you having your property taken away from you. Plan on being expropriated and repatriated, (i.e., rent, don’t buy), and you’ll be a lot better off when the knock on your door comes at 4am and you find yourself dumped at the border with no real hope of legal redress.

I’m not saving to travel the world or leaving behind a huge inheritance. I just want to be able to cover the basics.

Travel is important for me, but I don’t want to put it off for 30 or more years until I retire. Currently, I’m trying to take (modest) trips abroad every 3-5 years, and I daydream about taking a sabbatical (six months, or one year) in my mid- to late-40′s.

I honestly do not think my body will handle working past 55, but who knows. That’s why I am trying to learn skills that I can do on a part-time basis for the times when my body needs a rest and I can generate extra income without it taking a toll on my health.

To get to my goal, I’m taking a multi-prong approach. 1) Save 70% of my salary. 2) Test the waters overseas to see if retirement outside the USA is suitable. 3) Broaden/increase my passive income stream to the point where I can retire anywhere in the world.

I dont know how old you are, but if you are young, start looking for a different job-one you love. I know-its tough in this economy-but if you can grit your teeth and hang on-start planning, and use the next year or two to put plans in place. The reality is most of us work, so do something you enjoy. I have had two careers I loved-scientist and now fundraiser. I made a serious career change at 41, started at the bottom again and am now at the top-I have a third career in me somewhere-I am 54, never took a paycut etc-also I am single but thats why Im single-I wanted a great career. Everyone has their challenges-it how you play the cards you are dealt that matters.

I save for retirement like crazy because my father taught me to do so both with actual advice and by example. My parents were able to retire early at 55 (and they DID like their teaching jobs, by the way) and have been traveling and buying almost whatever they want ever since. They are about to take a 30-day cruise next month for instance!

I therefore save over 18% of my husband’s income (I’m a stay-at-home mother) in order to be able to have that kind of life which will hopefully be when my husband and I are about 56. I don’t think we’ll be able to retire by 55 but hopefully well before 60. Since I come from long-lived stock I anticipate my retirement funds will have to last me until I’m at LEAST 100 so I have a long way to go until I feel we’ve saved enough to retire, let alone retire early. It helps that my husband will have a pension. So far we have accumulated $133,000 in savings and we’re only 33. I don’t understand friends and siblings of mine who are not contributing heavily to retirement accounts–I can’t imagine leaving my future up to chance. I want my husband to have the freedom to do whatever he wants in retirement.

That said, I see myself getting involved with all sorts of non profits as a volunteer and staying engaged that way-a life of “leisure” would drive me nuts and I have neither kids nor grandkids to visit tho I do have nieces and nephews. My dream job would be to run my own foundation-I notice trust lawyers who manage small foundations live to be really old and stay sharp as tacks.

I am 29, and 5 years ago, I decided what I wanted. I realized, you work to pay for things, so if I don’t need to pay for things, I don’t need to work.

Yes, I am in a job I like, so its nothing really like that, but I don’t want to be indebted to anyone.

My wife and I have a lovely little girl, but we rent. We both save a huge amount of our wages, but almost half of our expenditure goes on Rent, and it would be the same with a mortgage.

(Our wedding in a church, even though we are not religious, it’s just the pomp and ceremony, and a reception afterwards was less than £3000, not the £15-20,000 our friends have paid, and it was a very very special day)

We are saving to buy some land and self build a passivehaus home outright with cash, no loans, no monthly mortgage payment.

My mum and Dad grow veg on there land, and we have a small area where we do the same. This is all we want. Live with no bills, grow our own food, use wind turbines to create electricity, rain water harvesting, have coppicing for a fire. Simple life sort of stuff.

I currently convert cars to electric power for people (in my spare time) and make a good amount of money, I could do one a fortnight, but based on our planned expenditure 2 a year would suffice.

We live in the UK, so our National insurance contributions have paid for healthcare and pension (if we needed them), although I can’t seem to see why Americans get so many health complaints.

My grandparents passed away (granddad 95, nan 93), so the money we inherited is currently in a savings account to pay for University, Car, house etc for our daughter and possibly other children we want.

I will be retiring at about the age of 39 / 40.

Have a small amount of money to take holidays, and live without financial commitment, the way we dream.

(Hopefully the land we get will be big enough so that we can offer space to our parents and family if they want to move closer, my brother and his wife like the idea but couldn’t save a penny if there life depended on it.)

Saving for retirement is very necessary. Safely investing in retirement is also necessary.

I am now working on supplementing our retirement.

For those who read this site which has given me great encouragement. I am leaving a Google check out coupon code. Guess where I got the name for the code.

getrich09

This code will be good from 10/24/09 -11/15/09

Discount: 5.0%

Restrictions: Purchase over $20.00.

Limit 1 per customer.

While supplies last!
http://florida-house-deals.ecrater.com

http://florida-house.ecrater.com

But I must be in the minority. I read several PF blogs and EVERYBODY LOVES their job. I’m not proud to admit I’m jealous.

Why did I save for retirement? So I won’t go hungry after I can no longer work.

Thanks to the economic crash and getting canned on the cusp of retirement (just as I had realized that I was not going to be able to retire when I planned but would have to stay on my job until age 70 to recover my losses), I now have little hope of ever quitting work. At this time, to cobble together enough to stay in my home, pay for five months of COBRA and then cover Medicare, and scrape up enough to eat will require working at three obscenely underpaid part-time jobs on average 15 hours a day, six to seven days a week. And yes, Eric, I do keep track of my time, pretty accurately. None of the golden moments I spend loafing in front of the soap operas eating bon-bons is counted in those 15-hour workdays. I don’t get paid $200 an hour to practice law, but that doesn’t change the fact that what fills my hours is work.

BTW, I am debt-free (thank god), except for a small share of a mortgage payment on a copurchased house. Taxes and insurance on my house and car require a monthly self-escrow; maintenance and utilities on a 1970s house are no joke; Medicare will cost 12 times what I’ve paid for health insurance on my job–it may even be higher than the discounted COBRA to which I’m entitled. Needs for food, clothing, water, and electricity will not drop in retirement. Cost for gas will go up, because I will have to drive to more than one worksite several times a week.

If my investments recover substantially in 2010 so that I can start taking a drawdown, then I might be able to quit working…or at least not work so hard. I certainly hope so!

On the other hand, I’m not holding my proverbial breath. Anyone wanna talk about the third-worldization of America? It’s here, and some of us who thought we were firmly ensconced in the middle class are already living it.

I don’t know exactly where I’ll be physically or mentally when it comes time in 30 years or so for me to retire. All I want is to live frugally, travel, study the things I’ve always had a passion for (literature, history, art) and be in good health. If it takes certain sacrifices on my part to have a better life down the line, so be it.