48 y/o man has only $6000 in retirement acct....

[KodeBlue]

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/48-year-old-has-6k-for-retirement.aspx?ec_id=cmct_01_comm_PF_mainlink

"Q: Dear Dr. Don,
 I have a $250,000 mortgage and $6,000 in a 403(b) retirement account. I am 48 years old..."

Read more: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/48-year-old-has-6k-for-retirement.aspx#ixzz3N0rgjv67
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48 and only $6k saved for retirement? Well f*** me running.

[RangerOne]

Well... We all make mistakes. Some people don't know the importance of retirement soon enough. Hell I've only been serious about it since the age of 27. Had I known how easy it was to create my own IRA I could have easily started when I first started working. Almost 13 years ago. I'd have been much richer by now...

[Bob W]

Didn't read link,  but if he is cop, teacher, military or other government worker,  he could retire nicely very soon.

[Cassie]

Since he has a 403 b everyone on the posts is figuring he is a teacher with a pension plan & if that is true he should be fine like Bob mentions.

[JR]

My wife's last employer (non-profit) had a 403b but no pension.

[fields]

I'm fifty years old and have nothing saved for retirement.  I'm not an idiot, or whatever equivalent Mustachian word might be thrown around this forum about people like me.  What I am is someone who's been a single parent of two since I was about thirty--before I finished my bachelor's degree.

One thing that bothers me on this forum is the message that if you just follow the program, everything will be grand and you'll come out ahead and be able to retire at fifty (or 32, or 45, or 29....)  Sometimes I just want to scream at you all, "LIFE HAPPENS!"  Did I make some stupid financial mistakes?  Sure.  But mostly, I just did whatever I had to do to get my kids through.  That included using credit cards, refinancing my mortgage, and working two jobs.  Knowing what I know now, I would have done some things differently, but not all--and some of the biggest financial errors (like doing anything I could to stay in our house) were actually the best parenting decisions I made.  (Here's another one:  NOT moving away from the high cost of living area where virtually all my family lives--what would I have done without their (non-financial) support?)

Now, with the kids grown and (almost) self-supporting, in addition to no retirement savings, I have enormous student loan debt (both mine and my kids') to repay, as well as a large mortgage, but I'm still not moving away from this area, because my family--the ones who helped me out when I needed it--will need my help as they get older.  I don't understand why more people here don't face that predicament. 

I do work for the state so will have a pension, and will be able to have the balance of the student loans forgiven in ten years, so I'll do better in retirement than one might think.  You know what would have really helped during the years I was accessing too much credit in order to support my kids?  A government that went after child support payments as strenuously as it does student loan debt. 

[Cassie]

I agree with you 100%.  I did not go to college right after HS & was a single parent for awhile, etc so I get what you are saying. So glad you  have a pension.  I agree about family being so important as a single parent.   I have moved a handful of times across the country but it was never seeking a low cost of living-it was for a job in my field.  However, I also did not even apply to places that had a very high cost either.  If the kids are out of the nest why not sell your house & get either a small house or condo?  This could put you ahead financially.  I at 60 have experienced much of life's challenges but I think this board is mainly made up of younger, high income people that went to college right out of HS so may not have as much experience with all the bad things that can derail you financially.  Take what you can learn from others & just try to ignore what does not help. 

[fields]

Thank you for your reply, Cassie.  I do plan to sell the house soon, and buy something smaller, and it will help somewhat financially.

[Cassie]

We downsized when we retired & that helps.  Good luck:))

[zephyr911]

I'm fifty years old and have nothing saved for retirement.  I'm not an idiot, or whatever equivalent Mustachian word might be thrown around this forum about people like me.  What I am is someone who's been a single parent of two since I was about thirty--before I finished my bachelor's degree.

One thing that bothers me on this forum is the message that if you just follow the program, everything will be grand and you'll come out ahead and be able to retire at fifty (or 32, or 45, or 29....)  Sometimes I just want to scream at you all, "LIFE HAPPENS!"  Did I make some stupid financial mistakes?  Sure.  But mostly, I just did whatever I had to do to get my kids through.  That included using credit cards, refinancing my mortgage, and working two jobs.  Knowing what I know now, I would have done some things differently, but not all--and some of the biggest financial errors (like doing anything I could to stay in our house) were actually the best parenting decisions I made.  (Here's another one:  NOT moving away from the high cost of living area where virtually all my family lives--what would I have done without their (non-financial) support?)

Now, with the kids grown and (almost) self-supporting, in addition to no retirement savings, I have enormous student loan debt (both mine and my kids') to repay, as well as a large mortgage, but I'm still not moving away from this area, because my family--the ones who helped me out when I needed it--will need my help as they get older.  I don't understand why more people here don't face that predicament. 

I do work for the state so will have a pension, and will be able to have the balance of the student loans forgiven in ten years, so I'll do better in retirement than one might think.  You know what would have really helped during the years I was accessing too much credit in order to support my kids?  A government that went after child support payments as strenuously as it does student loan debt.

You make some good points, and I suppose we here may tend toward bad assumptions WRT such situations. But the larger message of MMM is that, despite the fact that life happens, a little mindfulness can help avoid such dilemmas, or at least mitigate their impact, and it can definitely help us out of them if they do happen.

I had my net worth zeroed out at age 31 by my second divorce, which was super-depressing. And I bumped along near zero for a couple of years after that, discouraged that my own recklessness and stupidity had ruined the FIRE dream that I'd had since my college days - nearly a decade at that point, and literally nothing to show for it!* At some point I realized I still had time to take the reins, and started trying to kill off my bad habits, and things started to change. And then I found MMM and hit another inflection point where my progress sped up rapidly. Barring the totally unforeseeable, less than a decade will pass from crashing and burning to gaining total freedom.

We all start from where we are, and we all face a different set of challenges. As long as you're doing what you can with what you have, nobody here thinks less of you.

*Or so I thought. In tangible terms, this was true, but part of lighting a FIRE under my own ass was realizing how much knowledge and experience I had accumulated, and learning from my mistakes accounted for almost all of it. And in a sense that's part of why we're all here - to bring out our inner badass.

[I'm a red panda]

My wife's last employer (non-profit) had a 403b but no pension.

Yep- 403b does NOT mean pension.  I'm now on my 3rd employer with a 403b.  None have had any additional retirement funds available.

[erutio]

I'm fifty years old and have nothing saved for retirement.  I'm not an idiot, or whatever equivalent Mustachian word might be thrown around this forum about people like me.  What I am is someone who's been a single parent of two since I was about thirty--before I finished my bachelor's degree.

One thing that bothers me on this forum is the message that if you just follow the program, everything will be grand and you'll come out ahead and be able to retire at fifty (or 32, or 45, or 29....)  Sometimes I just want to scream at you all, "LIFE HAPPENS!"  Did I make some stupid financial mistakes?  Sure.  But mostly, I just did whatever I had to do to get my kids through.  That included using credit cards, refinancing my mortgage, and working two jobs.  Knowing what I know now, I would have done some things differently, but not all--and some of the biggest financial errors (like doing anything I could to stay in our house) were actually the best parenting decisions I made.  (Here's another one:  NOT moving away from the high cost of living area where virtually all my family lives--what would I have done without their (non-financial) support?)

Now, with the kids grown and (almost) self-supporting, in addition to no retirement savings, I have enormous student loan debt (both mine and my kids') to repay, as well as a large mortgage, but I'm still not moving away from this area, because my family--the ones who helped me out when I needed it--will need my help as they get older.  I don't understand why more people here don't face that predicament. 

I do work for the state so will have a pension, and will be able to have the balance of the student loans forgiven in ten years, so I'll do better in retirement than one might think.  You know what would have really helped during the years I was accessing too much credit in order to support my kids?  A government that went after child support payments as strenuously as it does student loan debt.

Thank you, fields, for providing a little much-needed perspective.

[rabbit]

Thank you, fields! I am also a single parent who finds some of the advice on this forum less than useful for my situation. I agree with you that child support enforcement would go a long way towards contributing to the security of single parent households. I have 2 children in day care, so retirement savings is not a priority for me right now. But I wouldn't have it any other way!