My Grandfather will not touch the principle of his retirement accounts...he is waiting until he is really old and needs it. He turns 91 in 6 weeks.
He turns 91 in 6 weeks.
God bless him; I’m afraid that if I live that long, I’ll be picking discarded cans out of the trash and living on the street.
When my FIL passed away, my MIL came to live with us and I helped her with her financial matters. We had always felt they were living on a shoestring out of necessity...and many times picked up the tab for large purchases they had to make. Well, come to find out there was money and plenty of it. I asked my MIL why they hadn’t used the money, and she said my FIL was saving it for his old age (he was 93 when he died.)
That is the real question. You’d need a million dollars if you wanted to take 5% a year and make $50,000 a year.
But if you were 80, and started taking $50,000 a year out of your million dollars, even if you made no money, it would take 20 years to spend down the principle — which means you’d be 100.
Sometimes I wonder why I am saving so much money, when I could spend it now and enjoy myself.