How prepared are you for retirement?

[KC Jones]

So seeing oldandslow has made it to his retirement and having seen a few early retirements at work recently, I'm curious how many planeteers are on track for this? I'd really like to retire a little early or plan for a sabbatical before I fully retire. Not sure I'm on plan for that though...

What about you?

(poll questions coming, and if you've already retired pick the options that most closely follows your retirement planning)

[R8RFAN]

Originally Posted by BWillie007

I dont know how to do shit, its been really easy. Been doing it for 4 yrs, but its a rroommate scenario but other one is not. Best thing I've ever done, easy money. I sign them all to month to month leases so its 10x easier to evict them and they hhave less "rights". Only had one bad seed and it was easy to get rid of him

I hope you make a killing on your venture and I hope you continue to have success in the tenant dept.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Picking the right tenants is often about having good luck.

I had a friend rent a 1,600 square foot home for $5,500 per month in my area. You'd think that for $5,500 a month, you'd get a decent renter(s). But what happened was that the renter's girlfriend moved out three weeks after the leased was signed, so the guy got a bunch of buddies to move in to defray the cost.

The house was trashed and after the guy lost his job and, unbeknownst to the home owner, sublet the house. Well, a neighbor's friend met the new tenant and was invited inside the home to hang out.

When he entered, he saw guns, scales and about a ton of marijuana. He told the neighbor and I personally called the home owner (who lives out of state) to inform him of what was going on. He called the Feds, the people were evicted and jailed, and he had to spend $40k to restore his home.

No thanks.

Heh, yea.....basically people don't give a shit when they don't own the property. Heck, I've seen a lot of homeowners who don't give a shit about their property.

[KC Jones]

Originally Posted by PostRockPablo

Put back 6% every pay period; employer contributes 4.5%.

I'm 26, so I figure I could target retirement around 58 or so and be comfortable.

add a roth ira - you can pull out up to the value of your contributions almost any time for any reason since you already paid taxes on it. This way you'll have a fairly liquid investment for emergencies and if you do end up retiring early you can pull this money and leave your 401k alone until you won't have any penalties.

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Heh, yea.....basically people don't give a shit when they don't own the property. Heck, I've seen a lot of homeowners who don't give a shit about their property.

And I am the opposite. We rent a house here in Phoenix and I take damn good care of it, spent $15 to stake a tree in the front yard that had blown over, used some stain remover to take out some carpet stains and made a few other small repairs throughout the house. Of course I know I am the complete opposite of most renters.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by KC Jones

add a roth ira - you can pull out up to the value of your contributions almost any time for any reason since you already paid taxes on it. This way you'll have a fairly liquid investment for emergencies and if you do end up retiring early you can pull this money and leave your 401k alone until you won't have any penalties.

The money has to be in the account for a minimum of five years before withdrawal from a Roth and any earnings would be subject to the 10% Federal penalty.

Also, you can borrow up to $50k of your 401k and pay it back, with interest, without penalty. But if you fail to pay it back in the time specified, you'll be responsible for State & Fed penalties and taxes.

[R8RFAN]

If you borrow from your 401k and you get fired from that job the balance of that is due within a set time period or you are taxed as if you cashed out your 401k I think so be careful.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by lewdog

And I am the opposite. We rent a house here in Phoenix and I take damn good care of it, spent $15 to stake a tree in the front yard that had blown over, used some stain remover to take out some carpet stains and made a few other small repairs throughout the house. Of course I know I am the complete opposite of most renters.

I think people hear the horror stories of renters and assume that renters are da devil. In my opinion, the truth is that bad renters and bad landlords tend to go hand in hand, and good renters and good landlords tend to go hand in hand. If you're a good renter, you can generally (not always, but generally) sniff out and avoid a bad landlord. The same is true of landlords. I've had three renters in 16 years that I was glad to see leave, and only one that I had to kick out. (A second was getting close.) But none of those three caused any damage at all - one was smoking marijuana and got the boot, one was weird and having trouble paying her rent, and one was just weird. The weird one that was having trouble paying her rent would've never gotten in the door other than an administrative error, because I could see trouble there going in but couldn't stop it.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by R8ers

If you borrow from your 401k and you get fired from that job the balance of that is due within a set time period or you are taxed as if you cashed out your 401k I think so be careful.

Very true.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

I think people hear the horror stories of renters and assume that renters are da devil. In my opinion, the truth is that bad renters and bad landlords tend to go hand in hand, and good renters and good landlords tend to go hand in hand. If you're a good renter, you can generally (not always, but generally) sniff out and avoid a bad landlord. The same is true of landlords. I've had three renters in 16 years that I was glad to see leave, and only one that I had to kick out. (A second was getting close.) But none of those three caused any damage at all - one was smoking marijuana and got the boot, one was weird and having trouble paying her rent, and one was just weird. The weird one that was having trouble paying her rent would've never gotten in the door other than an administrative error, because I could see trouble there going in but couldn't stop it.

so the wife approved the one who had payment issues and weird without feedback from you.

sucks when that happens.
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[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

so the wife approved the one who had payment issues and weird without feedback from you.

sucks when that happens.
Posted via Mobile Device

Kind of. I talked to her and was she was all adamant that she was going to take it and "would give us six months of rent in cash right now" if we would commit right now. I really didn't like how she was coming across and how she was trying to take control of the process, and she was saying some stuff that had my spidey sense tingling.

We'd had one semi-interested bite before that, so I went in to the house with her, gave the wife our secret "back me up on this" look, and said, "Honey, this woman would like to pay us cash in advance now if we rent the apartment to her right now, but I know we had the other person who was first in line. I think we need to wait for that person, right?"

My wife didn't see my "back me up on this" look and said, "Oh, we don't know how serious that person was, so I think we give it to this woman. Welcome aboard!"

At that point there was nothing I could do but try to give my wife a much more blatant "take it back, take it back" look, but she again didn't notice it, and the rest is history. This tenant is the one that I think may have come into our house while we were gone, which inspired my investigatory thread a while back.

My wife and I are now very clear on what the codes are to get a weird candidate out the door. She apologized to me later and said she completely missed the cues.

[chasedude]

Retirement Hahahaha! By the time I'm ready to draw SS, after decades of contributing, it won't be around. The small profit sharing I get from work goes into 401k, we all know how secure that is. I'm hoping I'm dead before retirement.

[SAUTO]

I would refresh the wife again just prior to the "interview" if the signals.

Seems they have a hard time remembering. I have that issue sometimes around here lol
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[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO

I would refresh the wife again just prior to the "interview" if the signals.

Seems they have a hard time remembering. I have that issue sometimes around here lol
Posted via Mobile Device

Oh, we have a checklist now before the "For Rent" sign ever goes up. I'm not making that mistake again.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Oh, we have a checklist now before the "For Rent" sign ever goes up. I'm not making that mistake again.

lol right on
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[DaKCMan AP]

Max out my 401k and Roth IRA contributions each year.

I don't like the thought of retirement, however. Seems boring to me. I'd rather continue working, even if in a reduced schedule, doing something that I enjoy. Maybe that will change 40 years from now.