Research shows over 50% of Americans will find themselves in the top 10% of earners for at least one year of their lives. More than 11% will find themselves in the top 1% of income-earners at some point. And close to 99% of those who make it into the top 1% of earners will find themselves on the outside looking in within a decade.
It's great that so many people get to taste what it's like to earn a lot of money, if only for a little while. What's not so great is that as most people earn more, they spend more. But if you spend all (or most) of what you earn as you're surfing an income bubble, you can find yourself in trouble when that bubble bursts.
I spend a lot of time talking with people who have retired early or are otherwise financially independent. From a purely anecdotal point of view, I'd say most of these folks are well-adjusted. They work to maintain balance in life, and especially with their personal finances.
That said, I've noticed that a lot of retirees -- early retired or otherwise -- struggle to know how much they should spend. I believe this dilemma exists for a couple of reasons:
First is the life expectancy problem. You don't know how long you're going to live. If you did know the precise date of your death (or even the year of your death), retirement planning would be much easier. You'd be able to say, "Okay, I have ten years left and $300,000 in the bank. Based on that, I should be able to spend $30,000 per year." But you don't know when you're going to die, so a lot of retirement planning becomes guesswork.
Second is the question of what your money is for? Do you want to leave a legacy for your children (or somebody else)? Do you want to maintain a chunk of change for possible end-of-life medical issues? Or do you want to use your wealth to live life to the fullest while you can? In my case, my ideal would be to die broke. If I could spend my very last penny on the last day of my life, that'd be perfect.
The general response to these two problems is to follow what has been dubbed the four-percent rule. Generally speaking, it’s safe to withdraw 4% from your portfolio every year without risk of running out of money. (There are a lot of caveats to this guideline. To learn more, follow that link to my Money Boss article -- or wait for that story to migrate to Get Rich Slowly in a few days!)
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Charles Schwab has released its 2018 Modern Wealth Index, a survey of the saving and investing habits of 1000 Americans. Here's how the company describes its methodology:
The Modern Wealth Index...is based on Schwab’s Investing Principles and composed of over 50 financial behaviors and attitudes. Each behavior or attitude is assigned a varying amount of points depending on its importance, out of a total of 100 possible points...Quotas were set so that the sample is as demographically representative as possible.
This survey divides respondents into two categories: those with a written financial plan and those without a written financial plan. About 25% of people are "Planners"; the rest are "Non-Planners".
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Happy blogiversary! Twelve years ago today, I launched a humble little blog about personal finance -- this blog, Get Rich Slowly. It was meant as a way for me to share the things I was learning as I dug out of debt. It turned into so much more.
For the next couple of weeks, I'm on the road in the southeastern U.S., speaking to people about personal finance and meeting with readers.
This morning, for instance, I spoke to the 76 people attending Camp FI in Spring Grove, Virginia. My topic? No surprise: The importance of having purpose in your life. As you can see, I am a PowerPoint genius...
At Get Rich Slowly, my goal is to help you make the best possible decisions with your income and spending. Having said that, we're all human. We all mistakes. We all do dumb things with money. And I feel like April Fools' Day is the perfect time to talk about some of the stupid things we've done in the past.
Let me give you an example (or three) from my own life.
To begin, I'll retell a classic tale of my financial foolishness, one that has delighted my readers for over a decade. It's all about how I paid $1500 for a "free" Frisbee.
Maybe that seems like a strange question. What do goals have to do with getting rich slowly? Everything!Having a personal mission is key to running your life like a business. Your goals help you decide how to spend your time and money.
When I think about the difference between people with purpose and people without, I always think of my friend Paul.
This article written by Cody is part of the "money stories" feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success -- or failure. These stories feature folks from all stages of financial maturity.
In January, I attended Camp FI in Florida. While most of the attendees were thirty- or forty-somethings pursuing early retirement, one young man stood out. We were all amazed at the presence of Cody Berman, a 21-year-old hustler who defies the Millennial stereotype. Cody works hard, saves tons, and has a vision for his future. I asked if he'd be willing to share his story with GRS readers. Here it is.
From a young age, my parents instilled the value of saving into me. Throughout my early childhood, my father would match my contributions to my savings account dollar for dollar. This made me excited to save birthday money and miscellaneous earnings because the money would double. (Thanks, Dad!)
When I write about retirement and retirement planning, I frequently mention that I aim for my savings and investments to last another thirty years. So, for instance, when I use retirement calculators to determine how long my nest egg will last, I use 78 as my projected age of death. Several readers have written to ask how I arrived at this number.
For example, Richard wrote:
I’m wondering why you’re only projecting out 30 years. You’re only 48. I’m 54 (and retired) and, in my projections and calculations, I go out 40 years. I probably don’t need to plan out that far, but you never know. My last surviving grandparent died just a couple years ago at age 99.
Nearly everyone I know wants to become financially independent, to retire early. But most folks have no idea how to do so. The method I describe in this article is simple to understand, although it might be tough to implement. I call it the "Money Boss method".
This week's reader question is an example of why I love the "ask the readers" feature here at Get Rich Slowly. I get to write about situations that otherwise would never occur to me!
Karen writes because she's having trouble with two of her kids:
I keep getting sucked into helping two of our children who can't seem to get it together. I don't want to see them on the street but they keep making dumb mistakes. What do you do when faced with a kid going to prison for lack of funds to pay fines? What about a different kid who is at risk of becoming homeless? This is tough to watch. (I really prefer dogs!) When does helping a family member financially become enabling? Or is it always enabling?
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