Houston Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Retirement Tangent....
Do you worry about your retirement? Do you think about things like paying for a kids wedding? College? Cars? Insurance?
I know it's a long time away, but after the hit we took (AIG and Enron stock), I feel like we started over just a few years ago...
Dh says I worry too much... I say he doesn't worry enough 
What age do you think you will retire?
Re: Retirement Tangent....
I am very happy with our kid's college fund and we just got the statement on Tuesday actually. We have a nice high 5 figures in there now and not one is in school. I think we will be okay in that department.
Mine is fine. With teachers our TRS is okay. I am in the process of starting a 403B as well. I can retire at 51 per the TRS rule of 80.
DH is doing great. He maxes it out and we have some other investments/accounts that are doing somewhat decent. Nothing crazy but we think they will pick up. We are also looking into purchasing some property out in La Grange to build out in 5-10 years. We shall see about that. DH will probably retire around 55. Mainly because he likes to work and he wants to put in as much as possible. 50 is/was his goal but he really likes what he does.
I do worry about things like cars, weddings, etc. just because we want to give them something nice and we can't predict what our lives will be like 10-20 years down the road. I can't go to the Money Matters board without walking away feeling scared. Some of those ladies are some serious savers, lol!
Yes, I worry about retirement. People are retiring earlier and earlier and living longer and longer, and some markets don't allow for an "older" workforce - so, yes, that does scare me. My greatgrandparents and even grandparents lived well into their 80s and 90s, so making sure we will have enough to last us for those 25ish years (or more) worries me a lot. I guess you have to think that your house will be paid off, so you wouldn't have a mortgage, but even then, just day to day expenses will be inflated astronomically by then.
I don't worry about paying for a kids wedding or college, though. My parents gave me $5K for my wedding (what they were comfortable with) and we paid out the rest. I wasn't even expecting that, so I was grateful for it - it didn't bother me in the least that they didn't pay the full amount. We were working and successful and had the means to pay for it, so it would have seemed silly for my retired parents with limited income to pay.
Also, my parents paid the first few years of college, but then my dad took early retirement, and basically took me off the payroll and I got student loans for the rest of my college and my Master's degree. I worked hard and paid them off within a few years of working. It made me appreciate what a debt is.
Paying for a wedding is optional in my eyes, and there are student loans, but not retirement loans, so I do not worry about having my kids get loans for school. Of course, we will help out if we can at the time, but I am not going to worry about not being able to pay for it right now, 16 years from now. I would rather put more into my 401(k) or savings now.
I also don't worry about kids' cars - my first car was all of $1,500. It was a POS, but it got me to school and back, so I was happy. Unfortunately, insurance is inevtiable, so that would suck. However, if my kids have POSs, then I wouldn't worry about getting anything higher than just liability.
I would much rather my parents be stable later at an older age than to have taken a large hit for my wedding and school loans, that I, as an adult, should and can take responsibility for. I would hope my kids would feel the same.
i don't worry about it. we have a lot invested, but i think it's wisely invested. over the next few years we will go more and more toward putting much of my income into retirement, living off DH's. while not short-term, it's a good plan in the long run.
we are very fortunate in that the kids have not just us, but their mom, their grandpa, my mom, and their "german grandparents" (their mom's host family, with whom she is very close) who will all likely be in the running for college support.
unless they decide to get married very quickly, i am confident we'll be able to provide.
we are working on having businesses that provide passive income, but we'll see how that all goes...lol.
claire is 14, so she is already thinking about cars. we've made it clear that she'll need to put something toward a car, so she knows. my thoughts are something reliable, easy on gas, and something we won't cry too many tears over when she has her first fender bender.
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- Paula Deen to 104.1 KRBE's Producer Eric 9/17/2011