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pennylane1284
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 Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2010 1:52 am Post subject: Retirement: Everybody has a Plan Until They've Been Hit |
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Retirement: Everybody has a Plan Until They've Been Hit
posted by Jeff Brown, Personal Finance Blogger at 9:57 AM on 07/27/10
| Quote: | I had a perfect plan. After 34 years at newspapers, I grabbed a buyout offer from The Philadelphia Inquirer, started a reduced pension six years early and figured some part-time freelancing would fill the gap between that and my half of the household expenses. It wasn't exactly retirement, it was "downshifting."
Real retirement was still 10 to 15 years away. But the house was just about paid off, my son's college money was set, my wife and I had no other debts and kept our spending down. And I'd always been a big saver. It was a pretty good plan. I wouldn't earn enough to add to my savings, but if I left my nest egg untouched and it grew at an average rate for a decade or so... well, real retirement would be fine.
That was early in 2007. Everything went smoothly for the rest of the year. I even took the summer off. Then from the start of 2008 to March 2009 the stock market tanked and my retirement portfolio fell 60 percent. My perfect plan was in smithereens.
These days, you hear stories like this everywhere. A buddy of mine called the other day to say he was thinking of taking a full-time job after more than 20 years of running his own business. Near 60, most people hope to go the other way, to more freedom not less. But it's hard to pass up a steady salary and company health benefits when past years' assumptions are in disarray. |
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