Duckhook said:

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He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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ToddyHill said:

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My retirement was a hard stop at 66 years and 6 months. Had I gone a day longer, I could not get 18 months of COBRA for my wife, who is five years younger. While I enjoyed my job, and was working from home, I had to call it quits.

Three years later…I just can't believe the awesomeness of retirement. I'm not in bed by 10 p.m., I don't wake up at 5 a.m., and every day is a Saturday. Very crazy, but I now love Mondays.

This could all end tomorrow…and my wife and I recognize that. To that extent, we just bought two burial plots in an old country cemetery 2 miles from our home.

If I had one suggestion to those 20 years younger than me…delay gratification and save, save, save. It will pay off in the long run.

---

With all of that saving, did you have a hard time turning off the switch to start spending?
I wonder how I will feel about spending money when I am not making it. I definitely live below my means, as I think everyone should, but it's easier to rationalize spending when more is coming in. Once the spigot turns off, I'm not sure how I will feel about it.

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This is a real thing. I had 3 buddies retire 12 - 18 months before me and we all spent a lot of time talking to each other about retirement. This was one of the big topics.

You have to be comfortable enough with your retirement finances to not think you're going to run out of money if you spend more than you take in. And you'll spend less as you age. I read a book that put it like this: the first 5 - 8 years is the Go-Go Zone. You're still young and healthy enough to travel and do pretty much what you want to do. The next 5 - 8 years is the Slow-Go Zone. Still some travel and doing things, but not as much. You'll spend less money here. The next X number of years is the No-Go Zone. Pretty much hanging around the house. Spend way less money here, aside from Healthcare issues.

I've been retired 5 months now and I am more aware of what I spend on things. I'm still a member of a golf club, still go out to eat, my wife and I have taken trips, so I haven't really changed my lifestyle yet. But I am more money-aware than when I had a regular paycheck coming in.

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I feel as if I am going to spend way more retired than I do now that I am working, and I think that will be the case. I put money down on a vacation place (preconstruction), so there will be a lot going out to get it furnished, up and running, etc. I want an upgrade in my lifestyle when I retire, not a downgrade or even steady state. But I am so looking forward to reaching the conclusion it's time to pull the trigger and retake my life.

I wouldn't suggest anyone follow my path but it's working for me. I moved 1,200 miles away to a place I had never lived and didn't know anyone. People told me I was crazy but it worked for me. I spend much less than I did while working. With the relocation I dropped my All American Club tickets and 2 private golf clubs. Those things alone are a big savings. I still play golf 3 or 4 days a week, go to MLB games with friends and take trips relatively close by. I don't now nor have I ever been a big traveler.

I do think convincing one's self spending in retirement is okay is a real thing.

He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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I want an upgrade in my lifestyle when I retire, not a downgrade or even steady state. But I am so looking forward to reaching the conclusion it's time to pull the trigger and retake my life.

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I had a lot of people ask if my wife and I were going to travel more when I retired. I said "probably not because we travel a lot already." I had plenty of vacation at work and took it. My wife and I were never ones to just hang around close to home when we had time off, so we did go to a lot of places we wanted to see. Biggest difference since my retirement is that we've taken a lot of weekday trips, instead of Friday-Monday type trips. That's kinda nice. I was very comfortable in my lifestyle before I retired, and will be comfortable with it in my retirement.

He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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ToddyHill said:

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My retirement was a hard stop at 66 years and 6 months. Had I gone a day longer, I could not get 18 months of COBRA for my wife, who is five years younger. While I enjoyed my job, and was working from home, I had to call it quits.

Three years later…I just can't believe the awesomeness of retirement. I'm not in bed by 10 p.m., I don't wake up at 5 a.m., and every day is a Saturday. Very crazy, but I now love Mondays.

This could all end tomorrow…and my wife and I recognize that. To that extent, we just bought two burial plots in an old country cemetery 2 miles from our home.

If I had one suggestion to those 20 years younger than me…delay gratification and save, save, save. It will pay off in the long run.

---

With all of that saving, did you have a hard time turning off the switch to start spending?
I wonder how I will feel about spending money when I am not making it. I definitely live below my means, as I think everyone should, but it's easier to rationalize spending when more is coming in. Once the spigot turns off, I'm not sure how I will feel about it.

---

are you not accounting for investment growth when you retire?

My dad and two of his sisters have all told me independently that for their retirement so far (a decade each) they aren't even hardly spending the growth on their investments. And they are NOT frugal.
Maybe not as much for a few specific years but, overall my dad has hinted that his balances haven't really decreased much after a decade of retirement. My best guess is he's in the $3-$5m range when he retired 10 years ago.

So a 10% year growth is $300-$500k. Hard to spend without just totally upping their lifestyle several notches, which they def have on trips. But even spending $25k on a trip a few times a year, they still have a lot left. No mortgage, no other debts.
Thats basically what income he was at in early 60s. So he quit working, but 'income' is the same, especially when you account for the fact that you aren't saving anymore in retirement.


Consider 300 days a year they're just home, cooking dinner, playing golf/pickleball or hanging out with neighbors spending relatively nothing.

My employer requires that I commute to the office 2x a week. Once retirement is on the horizon, it's full-time work from home.

62strat said:

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He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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ToddyHill said:

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My retirement was a hard stop at 66 years and 6 months. Had I gone a day longer, I could not get 18 months of COBRA for my wife, who is five years younger. While I enjoyed my job, and was working from home, I had to call it quits.

Three years later…I just can't believe the awesomeness of retirement. I'm not in bed by 10 p.m., I don't wake up at 5 a.m., and every day is a Saturday. Very crazy, but I now love Mondays.

This could all end tomorrow…and my wife and I recognize that. To that extent, we just bought two burial plots in an old country cemetery 2 miles from our home.

If I had one suggestion to those 20 years younger than me…delay gratification and save, save, save. It will pay off in the long run.

---

With all of that saving, did you have a hard time turning off the switch to start spending?
I wonder how I will feel about spending money when I am not making it. I definitely live below my means, as I think everyone should, but it's easier to rationalize spending when more is coming in. Once the spigot turns off, I'm not sure how I will feel about it.

---

are you not accounting for investment growth when you retire?

My dad and two of his sisters have all told me independently that for their retirement so far (a decade each) they aren't even hardly spending the growth on their investments. And they are NOT frugal.
Maybe not as much for a few specific years but, overall my dad has hinted that his balances haven't really decreased much after a decade of retirement. My best guess is he's in the $3-$5m range when he retired 10 years ago.

So a 10% year growth is $300-$500k. Hard to spend without just totally upping their lifestyle several notches, which they def have on trips. But even spending $25k on a trip a few times a year, they still have a lot left. No mortgage, no other debts.
Thats basically what income he was at in early 60s. So he quit working, but 'income' is the same, especially when you account for the fact that you aren't saving anymore in retirement.


Consider 300 days a year they're just home, cooking dinner, playing golf/pickleball or hanging out with neighbors spending relatively nothing.

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Most definitely. I am probably spending an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what my nest egg will likely put off annually, especially after my favorite Uncle Sam takes his piece. I have been playing with Chat GPT but need to get more serious about it in order to give me the confidence to quit my day job.

Financial calculators thread


10% growth would give me more money than I would ever come close to spending, but I am certainly not counting on that. The second home/vacation home will burn a chunk of what I have saved up, but it will be worth it to me. Once I am confident that my son has steady employment and is not heading for my basement, I will also feel better about pulling the trigger.

My FA said you're taking X and making 14X. It's okay to go buy something but I'm still talking myself into it.

Quote:

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With all of that saving, did you have a hard time turning off the switch to start spending?

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Funny you should ask that. The answer is yes. Not so much about 'turning off the switch,' because I was ready. But spending? It's a process for sure.

My parents grew up during the depression. After the war they got married and proceeded to have 7 kids over their first 16 years of marriage. As such, I grew up in an atmosphere of frugality. And to that extent, I have a bit of an un-healthy perspective as it pertains to spending money.

Quote:

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are you not accounting for investment growth when you retire?

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Glad you shared that. I don't think a lot of people think about that when they retire. But it's real.

ToddyHill said:

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Quote:

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are you not accounting for investment growth when you retire?

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Glad you shared that. I don't think a lot of people think about that when they retire. But it's real.

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heh, but of course, not to be taken for granted. You might retire in 2008 or the like. But if you retired in 2012, enjoy the growth. Live it up.

fc2112 said:

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If you pay attention to the daily thread on Mondays, I post the number of weeks remaining before I punch outta this joint. I have noticed little things creeping into my behaviors since i KNOW I have less than a year left.

For example, I have stopped buying any and all work clothes. No dress shirts, ties, jackets. dress shoes, dress belts, dress socks. In fact, I've gone through my closet and gotten rid of a lot of them.

There are a lot of work behaviors I have started letting go of. I'm obviously never being promoted again. Unpaid overtime is absolutely not gonna happen.

I only have one performance review left and I couldn't care less. I always was one hustling for that next job since I always want to be on the newest airplane project. But i know that ain't happening anymore.

As was said so eloquently in Office Space:



What do you or did you see yourself doing in that last year that was different than before?

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I did the same. In fact, I stopped buying anything that wasn't an absolute necessity.

I spent money on Visa applications, apostilles, notaries, and interpreters, suitcases, packing boxes, and transatlantic moving companies.

Then, I started thinking about drastically downsizing in preparation for my move abroad. The cleansing was needed and ultimately great. No regrets.

Living in Europe is less expensive in every possible way EXCEPT taxes. Food, housing, entertainment, "beverages," public transportation, phone and Internet service, and utilities. And travel is extremely inexpensive, safe, timely, and easy. So far, so good.

I've got too many family ties here to do it but has anyone pulled the trigger on (or is looking into) an international move for cost of living? Europe was mentioned just above which surprised me (unless eastern Europe) but something like Panama or Costa Rica is more like what I would have thought.

Just Tired said:

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I've got too many family ties here to do it but has anyone pulled the trigger on (or is looking into) an international move for cost of living? Europe was mentioned just above which surprised me (unless eastern Europe) but something like Panama or Costa Rica is more like what I would have thought.

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my retired aunt/uncle live down in Mexico for about 3-4 months in winter. (otherwise in Denver).

They get a 2 bedroom down in San Carlos at a small resort on the beach, I think it's like $2k a month.

Good compromise to leaving full time.

62strat said:

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He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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ToddyHill said:

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My retirement was a hard stop at 66 years and 6 months. Had I gone a day longer, I could not get 18 months of COBRA for my wife, who is five years younger. While I enjoyed my job, and was working from home, I had to call it quits.

Three years later…I just can't believe the awesomeness of retirement. I'm not in bed by 10 p.m., I don't wake up at 5 a.m., and every day is a Saturday. Very crazy, but I now love Mondays.

This could all end tomorrow…and my wife and I recognize that. To that extent, we just bought two burial plots in an old country cemetery 2 miles from our home.

If I had one suggestion to those 20 years younger than me…delay gratification and save, save, save. It will pay off in the long run.

---

With all of that saving, did you have a hard time turning off the switch to start spending?
I wonder how I will feel about spending money when I am not making it. I definitely live below my means, as I think everyone should, but it's easier to rationalize spending when more is coming in. Once the spigot turns off, I'm not sure how I will feel about it.

---

are you not accounting for investment growth when you retire?

My dad and two of his sisters have all told me independently that for their retirement so far (a decade each) they aren't even hardly spending the growth on their investments. And they are NOT frugal.
Maybe not as much for a few specific years but, overall my dad has hinted that his balances haven't really decreased much after a decade of retirement. My best guess is he's in the $3-$5m range when he retired 10 years ago.

So a 10% year growth is $300-$500k. Hard to spend without just totally upping their lifestyle several notches, which they def have on trips. But even spending $25k on a trip a few times a year, they still have a lot left. No mortgage, no other debts.
Thats basically what income he was at in early 60s. So he quit working, but 'income' is the same, especially when you account for the fact that you aren't saving anymore in retirement.


Consider 300 days a year they're just home, cooking dinner, playing golf/pickleball or hanging out with neighbors spending relatively nothing.

---

WHere are you getting 10% growth?

Tatem said:

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62strat said:

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He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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ToddyHill said:

---

My retirement was a hard stop at 66 years and 6 months. Had I gone a day longer, I could not get 18 months of COBRA for my wife, who is five years younger. While I enjoyed my job, and was working from home, I had to call it quits.

Three years later…I just can't believe the awesomeness of retirement. I'm not in bed by 10 p.m., I don't wake up at 5 a.m., and every day is a Saturday. Very crazy, but I now love Mondays.

This could all end tomorrow…and my wife and I recognize that. To that extent, we just bought two burial plots in an old country cemetery 2 miles from our home.

If I had one suggestion to those 20 years younger than me…delay gratification and save, save, save. It will pay off in the long run.

---

With all of that saving, did you have a hard time turning off the switch to start spending?
I wonder how I will feel about spending money when I am not making it. I definitely live below my means, as I think everyone should, but it's easier to rationalize spending when more is coming in. Once the spigot turns off, I'm not sure how I will feel about it.

---

are you not accounting for investment growth when you retire?

My dad and two of his sisters have all told me independently that for their retirement so far (a decade each) they aren't even hardly spending the growth on their investments. And they are NOT frugal.
Maybe not as much for a few specific years but, overall my dad has hinted that his balances haven't really decreased much after a decade of retirement. My best guess is he's in the $3-$5m range when he retired 10 years ago.

So a 10% year growth is $300-$500k. Hard to spend without just totally upping their lifestyle several notches, which they def have on trips. But even spending $25k on a trip a few times a year, they still have a lot left. No mortgage, no other debts.
Thats basically what income he was at in early 60s. So he quit working, but 'income' is the same, especially when you account for the fact that you aren't saving anymore in retirement.


Consider 300 days a year they're just home, cooking dinner, playing golf/pickleball or hanging out with neighbors spending relatively nothing.

---

Where are you getting 10% growth?

---

The stock market.

My fidelity returns;
1yr 16%
3yr 22%
5yr 13%
10yr 17%

Double digit returns every single year except '18 which was -1/2% and '22 which was -30% Several years of 25%+

And I am the most hands off investor you could be. Never touched an option. And I very rarely sell anything. I buy and hold a variety of ~30 mutual funds and individual stocks.



So to apply this to my dad for example, I think he was $3-$4m at retirement about 10 years ago.
If he didn't touch it, it would have grown 4x based on my 17% yoy for the last 10 years.
That's growth of $9-$12m, which is $1m a year.

They aren't even close to spending that much. Even with splurging large amounts on single trips, like in the $50-$60k range several times in the last 5 years.

I retired at the begining of 2024 and despite taking 4.5% of my starting balance annually for the last two and half years my portfolio is up about 40% from the date I hung it up.

stonksock said:

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I retired at the begining of 2024 and despite taking 4.5% of my starting balance annually for the last two and half years my portfolio is up about 40% from the date I hung it up.

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Jesus Christ! Are you getting killed in capital gains taxes?!

It's 40% total not annualized. Still in the 15% long term capital gains bracket, but yes I realize too much to qualify for any ACA subsidies. I wouldn't say I am getting killed with taxes, it was much worse when I was working and paying FICA on top of ordinary income tax rates.

I appreciate everyone's feedback no this thread (totally unexpected). I've learned a lot. And if nothing else, I've grown a lot more confident about pulling the trigger.

62strat said:

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Tatem said:

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62strat said:

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He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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ToddyHill said:

---

My retirement was a hard stop at 66 years and 6 months. Had I gone a day longer, I could not get 18 months of COBRA for my wife, who is five years younger. While I enjoyed my job, and was working from home, I had to call it quits.

Three years later…I just can't believe the awesomeness of retirement. I'm not in bed by 10 p.m., I don't wake up at 5 a.m., and every day is a Saturday. Very crazy, but I now love Mondays.

This could all end tomorrow…and my wife and I recognize that. To that extent, we just bought two burial plots in an old country cemetery 2 miles from our home.

If I had one suggestion to those 20 years younger than me…delay gratification and save, save, save. It will pay off in the long run.

---

With all of that saving, did you have a hard time turning off the switch to start spending?
I wonder how I will feel about spending money when I am not making it. I definitely live below my means, as I think everyone should, but it's easier to rationalize spending when more is coming in. Once the spigot turns off, I'm not sure how I will feel about it.

---

are you not accounting for investment growth when you retire?

My dad and two of his sisters have all told me independently that for their retirement so far (a decade each) they aren't even hardly spending the growth on their investments. And they are NOT frugal.
Maybe not as much for a few specific years but, overall my dad has hinted that his balances haven't really decreased much after a decade of retirement. My best guess is he's in the $3-$5m range when he retired 10 years ago.

So a 10% year growth is $300-$500k. Hard to spend without just totally upping their lifestyle several notches, which they def have on trips. But even spending $25k on a trip a few times a year, they still have a lot left. No mortgage, no other debts.
Thats basically what income he was at in early 60s. So he quit working, but 'income' is the same, especially when you account for the fact that you aren't saving anymore in retirement.


Consider 300 days a year they're just home, cooking dinner, playing golf/pickleball or hanging out with neighbors spending relatively nothing.

---

Where are you getting 10% growth?

---

The stock market.

My fidelity returns;
1yr 16%
3yr 22%
5yr 13%
10yr 17%

Double digit returns every single year except '18 which was -1/2% and '22 which was -30% Several years of 25%+

And I am the most hands off investor you could be. Never touched an option. And I very rarely sell anything. I buy and hold a variety of ~30 mutual funds and individual stocks.



So to apply this to my dad for example, I think he was $3-$4m at retirement about 10 years ago.
If he didn't touch it, it would have grown 4x based on my 17% yoy for the last 10 years.
That's growth of $9-$12m, which is $1m a year.

They aren't even close to spending that much. Even with splurging large amounts on single trips, like in the $50-$60k range several times in the last 5 years.

---

I suck at investing. Any Tips?

Just Tired said:

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I've got too many family ties here to do it but has anyone pulled the trigger on (or is looking into) an international move for cost of living? Europe was mentioned just above which surprised me (unless eastern Europe) but something like Panama or Costa Rica is more like what I would have thought.

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My wife and I are aiming to hang it up in about 7 years at 55 years old and are planning to retire internationally but haven't decided where. We love most of Europe with Italy being our favorite so that's the highest possibility. In addition to other trips, we've taken multi-week vacations to different places in Europe about once a year over the last 10 years. My wife was born in Central America and has some family there so that would be the easy button, but she's not very interested in retiring there.

Something we are strongly considering is selling our primary home, which will be paid off in about 2 years, investing the money from the sale, and using the returns to pay for rent while in retirement. That will allow us to be much more flexible in where we decide to live and will enable us to pack up and relocate if we want to experience someplace different. Someone mentioned it earlier in the thread, but I'm really looking forward to the "cleansing" that will be needed to get rid of all the stuff we unnecessarily hang on to.

Tatem said:

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62strat said:

---

Tatem said:

---

62strat said:

---

He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

---

ToddyHill said:

---

My retirement was a hard stop at 66 years and 6 months. Had I gone a day longer, I could not get 18 months of COBRA for my wife, who is five years younger. While I enjoyed my job, and was working from home, I had to call it quits.

Three years later…I just can't believe the awesomeness of retirement. I'm not in bed by 10 p.m., I don't wake up at 5 a.m., and every day is a Saturday. Very crazy, but I now love Mondays.

This could all end tomorrow…and my wife and I recognize that. To that extent, we just bought two burial plots in an old country cemetery 2 miles from our home.

If I had one suggestion to those 20 years younger than me…delay gratification and save, save, save. It will pay off in the long run.

---

With all of that saving, did you have a hard time turning off the switch to start spending?
I wonder how I will feel about spending money when I am not making it. I definitely live below my means, as I think everyone should, but it's easier to rationalize spending when more is coming in. Once the spigot turns off, I'm not sure how I will feel about it.

---

are you not accounting for investment growth when you retire?

My dad and two of his sisters have all told me independently that for their retirement so far (a decade each) they aren't even hardly spending the growth on their investments. And they are NOT frugal.
Maybe not as much for a few specific years but, overall my dad has hinted that his balances haven't really decreased much after a decade of retirement. My best guess is he's in the $3-$5m range when he retired 10 years ago.

So a 10% year growth is $300-$500k. Hard to spend without just totally upping their lifestyle several notches, which they def have on trips. But even spending $25k on a trip a few times a year, they still have a lot left. No mortgage, no other debts.
Thats basically what income he was at in early 60s. So he quit working, but 'income' is the same, especially when you account for the fact that you aren't saving anymore in retirement.


Consider 300 days a year they're just home, cooking dinner, playing golf/pickleball or hanging out with neighbors spending relatively nothing.

---

Where are you getting 10% growth?

---

The stock market.

My fidelity returns;
1yr 16%
3yr 22%
5yr 13%
10yr 17%

Double digit returns every single year except '18 which was -1/2% and '22 which was -30% Several years of 25%+

And I am the most hands off investor you could be. Never touched an option. And I very rarely sell anything. I buy and hold a variety of ~30 mutual funds and individual stocks.



So to apply this to my dad for example, I think he was $3-$4m at retirement about 10 years ago.
If he didn't touch it, it would have grown 4x based on my 17% yoy for the last 10 years.
That's growth of $9-$12m, which is $1m a year.

They aren't even close to spending that much. Even with splurging large amounts on single trips, like in the $50-$60k range several times in the last 5 years.

---

I suck at investing. Any Tips?

---

I pretty much already gave away my secret.. which is no secret at all. Buy, diversify and hold.
I did most of my investing around 2016. We were out of TX for 4 years, so decided it was time to cash out my wife's TRS. She also had several years of a 403(b) and a few years of a 401(k) from her brief exit from education.

All in it was maybe $50k, and I bought these couple of things in her fidelity account;


Haven't touched/added to it since. If it can do half again what it's done these last 10 years, then I'll be more than happy.
Maybe I'm lucky I don't know, as this is so few line items.

I am more diversified with my money. Only two are overall in the red. This was me buying crap and not knowing what it was or anything about the company. Trying to skim over this thread and find a stock people are talking about. DNN was another, but it's rebounded. Glad I didn't take that approach for all of my dollars. These two duds are my smallest buy ins, just a few thousand total for both.

I'm anywhere from +50% to +500% on the rest. They are companies that I think over long periods time will continue to increase in value, as they have in the past. I also sold a big chunk of a mutual fund in 2020 to buy up some airline stocks on sale due to covid, but the rest I've had since 2016ish. Overall up 3X.


My rollover IRA is Amzn, Aapl, NVDA and FSMEX. I'm up 500% on those.

So no big secret here. Buy stock of stuff you see everyday/everywhere, and hold it. I have no idea if this is sound advice, but it's worked for me in the time period that I've executed it. If I can get one more decade similar to the last 10 years, I'll be good.

Parotidectomies and thyroidectomies. Way too much work, worry, and neck strain for what it's worth. Can't wait (and I'm close) to saying, "No. I no longer do those. Let me send you to Dr. X"

When I get there.... I'm going to stop not smoking pot.

Just Tired said:

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I retired shortly after turning 50. Career was in high tech and honestly you didn't see a lot of older guys hanging around. A significant chunk of my money came from bonuses and stock options which are much easier than salary to manage the wife on. Wish I'd had a job I didn't WANT to leave as soon as I fiscally could.

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User name checks out

Good retirement topic so I have to chime in with some advice that worked for me.

I will work maybe another 7 years. I don't have to work, I just work for fun. From home so I don't have to go to an office and see grumpy faces.

Invest. Invest. Invest.
The old paradigm of working hard has shifted somewhat. On the positive side, you can enjoy a good life and money doing nothing. Nowadays no one cares about employees. But they do care about investors. So become the boss and become an investor. It is very easy.

1. Determine how much you can spare.
2. Invest in VOO - the index fund that mirrors the S&P500. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/VOO/
3. Profit!

I did this from 2014 and so am comfortable as retirement approaches. I also gave my kids some seed money and invested for them.

I turn 50 in March and will retire in March. My wife has chosen to keep working, so insurance won't be an issue and we won't be drawing on the savings. We have enough for her to retire too, but she likes work.
Like OP, I stopped buying work type clothes when I made this decision 15 months ago. At work I still strive to do what I'm supposed to do and be well thought of, but I don't have much of an interest in extending myself. Definitely no OT unless they are in a real pickle. There's also a whole series of "lasts" that I acknowledge. Last time I do this training, last time I change this password , last review cycle.
My manager has known about my intentions for 15 months but most of my team does not. I'll probably let them know near the end of the year.
I've had a countdown on my phone that I started when the number of days left was in the mid 600's. It is now at 188 days, but that could shift by a week or two either way.

Giving a s### about who I pissed off. I called out some shady stuff at my last staff conference leading to one of the newer managers in my region (I'd known her for years) to say "Damn…..B-1! You just went scorched earth on the bosses!". I was untouchable.

I would strongly suggest any of the young bucks reading this thread...which I define as anyone 50 years of age or younger, to read, read again, re-read, and copy/paste/print 62strat's perspective.

It ain't rocket science!

I can't tell you how many smart people I've met in my life that can't/won't/don't do some simple studying on investing. I think we all grew up thinking you can't invest because you will lose your money. But I also feel people won't/don't because time is such a big deal, and delayed gratification is something most of us can't/won't do.

To that end, there's a reason the Time Value of Money is considered the 8th wonder of the world! I just read this snippet...if you had invested $1000 in Broadcom (AVGO) 15 years ago you'd have $110,000 today. Well guess what, go ahead and invest that $1000 today (and more) in AAPL, NVDA, ARM, AVGO, MSFT, or whatever quality stock is out there and let it grow for the next 15 years.

One of Warren Buffet's best stories about quality stocks and the time value of money. In the late 80's Berkshire Hathaway opted to buy a ton of stock in Coca Cola. Other than let the clock run, they re-invested the dividends into more Coca Cola stock. Today, those dividends exceed the total Berkshire Hathaway paid for their initial investment in Coca Cola.

Enjoy the ride...you will not regret it. All in my opinion, and based on my own experiences at the ripe 'young' age of 69.