Jimmy Cantiello wrote:Unfortunately, I have champagne tastes on a beer budget. I've learned to live with it.

Btw, for me, learning to live with it means spending as if I have a champagne budget.

My step-son is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. SAG sends him copies of all movies up for one of their awards. All members receive these copies. They are instructed to view the movies and then vote on them. After viewing, members are told to destroy the dvds. No lending out is allowed. Yeah, rig...

They really disliked each other intensely.

Unfortunately, I have champagne tastes on a beer budget. I've learned to live with it.

Jeff, here's my take on saving in order to leave something to my kids; I don't believe in it. It's hard enough in this day and age to work for 50 plus years and hopefully end up with a financially worry-free retirement. The way I look at it, my parents didn't leave any of their kids jack shit. Of co...

I agree with you, Lenny. I was always told the closer one gets to retirement the more conservative one's portfolio should be. Being retired, my investments are 100% stable. However, it's been that way for the last 15 years or so of my working life. Because I was so "gun shy" my interest ga...

It always amazed me how many of my fellow employees did not take advantage of the 401(k) benefit and free money that comes with it. And the people that raided their 401(k) multiple times and paid the exorbitant penalties for no good reason. Crazy.

Now that I think about it, I was wrong on one point. Again, iirc, as with Jeff, my before tax contributions were automatically stopped. However, I called Hewitt, the administrators of the 401(k), and restarted the contributions that were matched. Even though I had to contribute those amounts after t...

Jeff, I found out something interesting a couple of years before I retired. Hopefully, Pat will correct me if I'm wrong. The 20,000 dollar plus maximum contribution is only for "before tax" contributions. If I'm understanding what I read at the time, the law/IRS rules allows one to contrib...

jwaggs wrote:I suppose I am less risk averse than most. I am a believer in "dollar-cost averaging," or putting money into funds slowly, over time. I also anticipate that I could see up to a 20% drop in my portfolio at any one time. I just hold tight.

A 20% drop would give me a fucking heart attack.

LennyH wrote:The Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself is debuting on CNN on Sunday. I've heard good things about it.

Shit! I forgot about that. I wanted to at least record it. Hopefully CNN will rerun it to death.

I just saw my direct deposited pension payment online this morning. Sure enough it says Prudential Annuity Payment. Of course, since it's a pension it was paid for by my employer over the years, not me. Talk about being conservative, my "asset allocation" of my 401k is 100% in "stable...

Jeff, I don't know from annuities but Prudential is the administrator of my pension and I'm pretty sure they have referred to the monthly payout as an annuity. I'm sure Pat could shed some light on the subject.

Here's the dilemma that my brother-in-law Tommy, my retiree partner in crime, have discussed in the past; How do you predict when you're going to bite the dust? Nobody wants to run out of money before they die, right? Of course you can't predict the future so our conclusion is take the S.S.payout no...

Beautiful photo of a beautiful woman.

Wow, talk about planning ahead. Good for you, Pat!

Brooks has to work part-time and Clint has to volunteer because they are not as adept at the fine art of loafing as am I. I can get my "loaf" on when 'necessary,' but I tend to get nervous if I don't have something to do! :silly: I find that most people get uncomfortable if they are not d...

Looks like you're pretty much set, Jeff. Good on you!

Brooks has to work part-time and Clint has to volunteer because they are not as adept at the fine art of loafing as am I.

You're a professional at this retirement business, Clint.

Handsome guy!

My take: I've been retired since September of 2013. Fortunately, I have not felt the "pinch" financially. This is probably due to good planning, for once in my life. Several years before retiring I dumped as much cash as I could in my 401K. The fact that I never spent more money than I ear...

Doug, I'm so sorry to hear this sad news about Glenda. Please accept my condolences.

Jimmy

Pretty amazing. Must take an extraordinary amount of patience.

Happy New Year, everyone!