We saved and invested substantially our whole working lives. We avoided unnecessary expenditures while those around us spent every dime they could borrow.
Financially speaking, our retirement is worry free. I just do not regret all the saving and investing in our early years.
You must be my wife and my lost twins.
Wife and I look at all our friends and how they're living so far beyond their means and are thankful we don't live with that kind of stress.
Many of our son's friends families have lost their big homes and had to downsize into homes smaller than ours. All their "toys" like ATV's, boats, fancy cars are gone too. Those were very valuable conversations to have with both our sons. At 19 and 17 they "get it" that financial stability and discipline are big enablers of a stress free life.
While we are comfortable, but not retired, and well beyond retirement years, my wife is not comforted by my comments that should the economy entirely fail, we will all be in the same boat. Her retort is “the government is going to take it all”. We essentially scrimped and saved our entire lives and depending on how you look at it. We are now even more dependent on Government than ever before, to not take what we saved for retirement, and to continue with SS and military retirement payments.
I will admit that is not a comfortable position to be in considering today’s world.
Same here. In fact, our investments are still growing our income. Could not be more at peace about it...a nice feeling to have.
Same here. I was obsessed with a comfortable retirement even at age 25. Could have retired at 46, but waited till 55 (health care). A while back I provided my strategy, let me see and I’ll post it again.
Dito
My motto: Live below your means.
I’m now retired and living the dream.