Thinking about retirement?

[ahofer]

Boy that wasn't the case when I was there in the 90's. Nothing in the main train station used Latin characters, and I didn't even see an airplane symbol. Maybe it's changed since then.

I did not have a problem, however, at Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant, Tokyo branch, even though nothing on the menu resembled much of anything in the original version in Miami Beach.

Rick "enjoyed the food but did not ask what it was" Denney

Yes, i was originally there in 1983-4, and there were few "romaji" signs. Of course, even in 2015, attempts at signs in english sometimes are a little odd (Tokyo National Museum)

Street signs can be mostly in "engrish"

 

[ahofer]

I had the same experience in the late 80s when my wife worked for Hitachi. While she had meetings I was bound and determined to go to the Stereo District in Tokyo. Well some course corrections and helpful people I got to see some of Tokyo and a few train stations. I returned in time for the dinner festivities with a great story. To this day have not once been to Tokyo's Stereo District.

If you go back, it should be easy to find: 10 minutes from the Imperial Palace, just a few stops.

And even if someone doesn't speak English (unlikely now), asking "Akihabara?" will get you lots of help.

 

[Timcognito]

If you go back, it should be easy to find: 10 minutes from the Imperial Palace, just a few stops.

And even if someone doesn't speak English (unlikely now), asking "Akihabara?" will get you lots of help.

I did but made a few wrong moves with advice from always helpful strangers. It was mostly my fault getting on the first train going in opposite direction. There were zero English signs in '88.

 

[JeffS7444]

It's been awhile since I've been there, and smartphone translator apps weren't a thing, but I recall much of the signage in the big cities being romanized to some extent. But even now, apps can't always interpret handwritten or highly stylized text. There's lots I might not feel confident to do on my own, but I've been able to blunder through quite a bit with a few words of bad Japanese.

 

[JeffS7444]

On our way to Japan now, on Oceania. Coffee at Hubbard glacier this morning.

Is this a Seattle - Tokyo cruise, via Hakodate, Kushiro and Aomori, and how are you liking it so far? I've never been on anything more than an overnight ferry ride.

OTOH, I have been to Hakodate, Kushiro and Aomori. Kushiro wetland is vast. Bought smoked, dried scallop in Hakodate, and wish I had gotten more, as they were super-tasty yet reasonably priced. Hokkaido temperatures ought to be very pleasant around this time of year, and it's a very different side of Japan that lots of tourists never see, more wide-open spaces and wilderness.

 

[Ralph_Cramden]

Is this a Seattle - Tokyo cruise, via Hakodate, Kushiro and Aomori, and how are you liking it so far? I've never been on anything more than an overnight ferry ride.

OTOH, I have been to Hakodate, Kushiro and Aomori. Kushiro wetland is vast. Bought smoked, dried scallop in Hakodate, and wish I had gotten more, as they were super-tasty yet reasonably priced. Hokkaido temperatures ought to be very pleasant around this time of year, and it's a very different side of Japan that lots of tourists never see, more wide-open spaces and wilderness.

 

[PristineSound]

And we have some billionaire telling people that they should work longer instead of retiring at 65.

But the sad truth is, so many people around the world don't have enough savings to retire.

To all the young people people out there. Be as frugal as you can, save your ass off and most importantly invest, invest, invest.

When you're young it seems hopeless saving and investing, but the power of compounding interest is something to be hold of, there will be a point when your portfolio looks like the knee of an amplifier clipping, I promise.

If you don't know much about investing, go get yourself a financial advisor, if you are skeptical about a FA, then just dump all your money into an ETF, like SPY.

Billionaire BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Declares No One Should Have To Work Longer Than They Want But Says Retiring At 65 Is 'Crazy'

www.benzinga.com

 

[Oddball]

As @Kal Rubinson noted, the cost of living can vary quite a bit for urban vs. rural. As such, anything that generalizes a state will overstate or understate the actual data (e.g., Seattle vs. Yakima). So much so that the state average is useless. The same for comparing USA (as a whole) vs. other countries.

I have found the cost of living calculator at Numbeo to be extremely helpful. It provides country-level aggregation data, but far more useful is the city vs. city comparisons. Especially since it provides a range of data that includes rent under various scenarios.

I've been using it extensively to consider various locations for near-term and/or long-term retirement — e.g., Seattle, Minneapolis, Montpellier, Marseille, Tirana, Zagreb, etc.

Cost of Living

www.numbeo.com

Zagreb and Tirana? How did you like those?

 

[blueone]

And we have some billionaire telling people that they should work longer instead of retiring at 65.

Larry Fink has probably never done physical labor in his life. He should try being a plumber at 67. (Shoulder and knee problems can sideline you.) Or perhaps a drywall hanger.

But the sad truth is, so many people around the world don't have enough savings to retire.

To all the young people people out there. Be as frugal as you can, save your ass off and most importantly invest, invest, invest.

When you're young it seems hopeless saving and investing, but the power of compounding interest is something to be hold of, there will be a point when your portfolio looks like the knee of an amplifier clipping, I promise.

Good advice.

Unfortunately, most young people I talk to don't know what an exponential function is or what it means in investing. I have had some success in showing the skeptics a compound interest calculator on my phone during the discussion.

If you don't know much about investing, go get yourself a financial advisor, if you are skeptical about a FA, then just dump all your money into an ETF, like SPY.

I'd trust a robo advisor before any human advisor I've ever talked to.

 

[ahofer]

The work this guy generates is always interesting. I've laid out the graphs here to tell a counter-intuitive story about why younger generations might feel pessimistic despite having kept up overall in terms of net worth per capita. You've seen other analyses that look different because they don't account for the larger size of the boomer cohort.

Financial repression (see last graph) plays a role alongside housing supply. Also see the work of Kevin Erdmann on that topic.

(US data only)

Young Americans Continue to Build Wealth, Across the Distribution

First, here is an updated chart on average wealth by generation, which gives us the first glimpse at 2024 data: I won’t go into too much detail explaining the chart here, as I have done that …

economistwritingeveryday.com

Household Formation and Generational Wealth

Last week I tried to address whether rising wealth for younger generations was primarily driven by rising home values. My analysis suggested that it was a cause, but not the only cause. Here’…

economistwritingeveryday.com

What Killed Youth Optimism?

The young have always been more optimistic than the old, but this is no longer the case, at least according to the Michigan consumer sentiment survey: Source: Bloomberg via Joe Weisenthal But as Je…

economistwritingeveryday.com

 

[just1n]

Apologies for being off topic. The mercator project is interesting.
IF I get the Himalayan 450 I'll go for a lil' drive around Western Australia. It should take me..... aaaaages. It's humungous.
View attachment 477817
Hhmm, that's not an equitable comparison, here's the other way around. A lot more accurate I think. Looks like they're about the same size. Wow..
View attachment 477818

Be careful when overlaying those maps. They are distorted in nature exaggerate Russia, China, US, Canada, and Greenland comparably.

I highly suggest this article to help understand what I am trying to convey.

The true size of Africa

For centuries, the maps used to understand the world have distorted Africa’s size compared to most northerly nations.

www.reuters.com

 

[PristineSound]

For Americans who retired early, before they are qualified for Medicare, what do you do for health insurance?

Please do not get into politics and social activism.

 

[Timcognito]

California offers it at discount if your income is low, providers have to take it if they provide services here. Covered California.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

For Americans who retired early, before they are qualified for Medicare, what do you do for health insurance?

They buy it. When my wife and I retired, I qualified but she did not and we had to purchase health insurance for her until she did.

 

[PristineSound]

They buy it. When my wife and I retired, I qualified but she did not and we had to purchase health insurance for her until she did.

Did you find any age discrimination buying health insurance?

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Did you find any age discrimination buying health insurance?

Not that I was aware of.

 

[mags65]

Not that I was aware of.

I would guess it is reflected in the pricing?

 

[rcstevensonaz]

Zagreb and Tirana? How did you like those?

(As I write this, I am in Split, Croatia for a few weeks as my wife and I start our European exploration expedition.)

I was in Zagreb earlier this year and really liked it. I haven't ruled out Croatia, but one challenge is that it is difficult to get to the rest of Europe except by plane.

For now, I have dropped Tirana, Albania from my list because of the double-tax implications, where all of my earnings (including Social Security) would be taxed at 23%... and I'd still owe all of the taxes in USA as well. But, Albania and Croatia may still be on my list if I'm just looking at the next 3 to 5 years until I start drawing Social Security. The other issue is that Albania is even less connected to the rest of Europe than Croatia for travel except by plane.

Montpellier (or elsewhere in Southern France) and Northern Spain are the primary places that are on our list to investigate right now. Both of those countries provide long-term options and have established tax-normalization treaties. Note: we will not qualify for foreign tax exclusion credits since we will likely spend more than 30 days in the USA each year to visit our aging parents and our children; so tax treaties become more important for in our situation.

 

[Soandso]

I came across my notes on daily "comfortable" retirement costs in some different countries that are not too cold by my standards calculated from 2020 data presented in a graphic previously posted. Obviously inflation has altered the results but possibly this offers orientation for these select countries.

Here are those particular old ciphers in 2020 US$ amounts per day for a "comfortable" lifestyle average expenditure presented from lower to higher : India = $33.70/d; Colombia = $39.36/d; Mexico = $46.96/d; El Salvador = $52.58/d; Dominican Republic = $52.76/d; Morocco = $52.97/d; Indonesia = $53.07/d; Albania = $53.27/d; Guatemala = $61.95/d; Philippines = $67.46/d; Costa Rica = $67.66; Cyprus = $77.55/d; Panama - $78.38/d; Puerto Rico = $86.53/d; and the USA (on average) = $109.86/day.

What it makes apparent is that, for example, since on average Colombia (in 2020) was $7.50/d less expensive than Mexico the potential (2020) savings was $2,738/year to retire there 5 years ago than in Mexico. Of course this does not include all outlay a retiree may and/or is obligated to make beyond personal in country "comfortable" living expenses.

 

[pablolie]

I love my life the way it is. I demoted myself to a subject matter expert to avoid corporate politics at this stage in my life. So fortunate I was allowed to do that... initially the questions were many, but after the dust settled... I love the work I do. They'd have to kick me to the curb for me to retire but there's no indication of that.

In fact I am working on setting up a consulting business with a colleague of mine. I don't want to retire anytime soon, or perhaps ever. I already slowed down with my self orchestrated "demotion" and it is perfect. I am 62. My Pic is current. I know things get chancy and I have lost some close friends in the last years, so I have zero illusions about my life being any longer because I kept myself healthy and no one can guess my real age. But I made the adjustments that help me feel happy about where I am in life.

Oh I won a local natural bodybuilding competition a few weeks back (for the age group), but I don't want to put my body through that again. Getting a six pack at 62 is draining and probably not healthy.

I make markedly less $ than 15 years ago. But 15 years ago I also found myself regularly contemplating suicide - I kid you not at all. I was spent and unhappy and knew marriage was ending etc etc. I was super lucky to make the adjustments I did...

Never take anything for granted. And make sure you have always something to do that you genuinely love and keeps you engaged. My Dad retired at 66 and died at 67. I think he felt without purpose after retiring.