Money

When you were young(er), what did you think would be a good net worth as you got nearer to retirement?  I think one of my goals was to have a couple of lump sum accounts that I could draw on in an emergence and at least one annuity from a retirement fund.  During our working life, Barb and I both contributed to Social Security and at least one additional retirement system.  (Mine Civil Service and hers the Kansas Public Education Retirement System)  I also knew that somewhere out near the age of 60 I would start top draw a Military Retirement because of 31 years in uniform.  I also knew that my two annuities would severely cut my Social Security - And it has.

As it has turned out, we are pretty much on track and now that Tax Avoidance strategy of IRA's and 401 K's (Throw in a 403b for teachers) is getting ready to bite me on the butt.  It seemed to be a nice thing to not pay taxes on part of our income when we were working but now to have to withdraw a part of it each year just seems like a burden I don't want to pay.  You have to remember that way back when, the ROTH IRA's were not available.  Oh well, I guess the good news is that we can pay it out of the money we withdraw. And, just where the heck do I invest the excess money I draw out?

The thing that worries me the most, is that a lot of families are living on the edge and not only can't save, they are just a major accident from crashing their lives in.  The Baby Boomers are throwing as much into the Stock Market as they can and just who is going to have enough money to pay fair market price when they go to sell?   If you are a parent, are you kids going to be able to purchase as much stock as you want to sell in a few years?   The return of my money is more important than the return on my money.

I read that one of the largest transfer of wealth happened and is happening as the Baby Boomers parents are passing.  We didn't find that to be the case for us but I hope it was for some of my friends.   As I get ready to do my taxes each year, I update my balance sheet and am pleased to know that it is in a positive condition and hopefully Dave will benefit when we no longer need it.   You should hear him tell me that he doesn't care but one day I'll bet he does.  Better said, I hope he does.

I have a couple of Mid 40's members of the family that are just doing the Dave Ramsey thing.  The first focus is to know just what the heck you are spending your money on.  Then you build a budget based on your salary and do you best to get out of and stay out of debt.  He has the students in his program start off by paying off their debts smallest to largest.  He then has them focus on saving and wealth building.  You can trust me when I say that the only Credit Card debt we have is when we need to travel we use one.  It is almost always paid off the first of the next month.  We own nearly everything we have free and clear.  Our last Major purchase was the new storage shed and it was done with Cash, no debt.

Yes, dear one's I am down here blogging about money because there is a pile of bills upstairs waiting to be paid.  It is not the amount of money needed, but the hassle it takes to pay them.  You can be sure that Barb has one Motto that works for us.  "Income must be equal to or greater than Outgo."  My wish for all of you is to reach that point where the end of the month arrives and you have money left over from last month.  It still blows me away how much better things got for us once that started.

Now go pay your bills and be happy you can.

MUD