bbbobbins

Comments:

• I think more of Monty Python's 4 Yorkshiremen

  Well o course we had it tough. We used to have to get up outta shoebox, in middle of night, and lick the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked at mill for 24 hours for a penny a year, When we got home, our dad would slash it in two with bread-knife.

  Post: Our annual give it away meeting 🤑

  Link to comment from October 4, 2024

• Doesn't sound like too many mistakes. Sure you could have financially optimized aggressively and made decisions like whether it was better for your daughter to take on college debt while investments compounded. But peace of mind is worth something too. Including knowing your kids had reliable new cars when young rather than clunkerz.

  Post: Misplaced Trust

  Link to comment from October 4, 2024

• Sounds great. Possibly the happiest day of the year. An acknowledgement that you have won life's lottery and therefore can enjoy seeing others benefit from your spare wealth.

  Post: Our annual give it away meeting 🤑

  Link to comment from October 4, 2024

• Hmm no answer on this. Do we assume that's because the "simple" solution of buying annuity each year as we work is far from simple? Or can someone explain to me how it would work and prove it is an absolute good thing for employees? Remember buying an annuity is a contractual irreversible deal far from the accruing a portion of one's final or weighted average salary as a pension each year.

  Post: I’m depressed, not very optimistic about retirement 😱 by R Quinn

  Link to comment from October 4, 2024

• Ratcatcher is probably a compliment when it comes to talent level of some of our recent PMs.

  Post: Stay Informed by Marjorie Kondrack

  Link to comment from October 3, 2024

• I think you're missing the bigger picture by focusing too much on water. Do you think coffee is much better? How about a branded t shirt? A sneaker? A sneaker that is a slightly different colour and hence a rare drop? Price sustainable in the market is rarely a function of absolute raw material cost.

  Post: A clarification of the bottled water post

  Link to comment from October 3, 2024

• Not sure what's wrong with the SM post, unless by its nature it's got a secondary agenda. You can quibble numbers but average life expectancy is not the same as life expectancy once you've already reached 67. Is it not a call to arms for living life on your own terms? I've taken gap years and career breaks/ sabbaticals that my parents generation never did ( beyond maternity leave). And I look at Gen Zers joining the workplace who have an expectation of a portfolio career building experience and jumping between adjacent or entirely different fields in different countries. I'm entirely on board with front loading a bit of retirement, you get to try out what you think you might do and whether too much of a good thing bores or stimulates you. It's not of course the willing drone messaging corporates would have us believe but in a world in which redundancies are commonplace I'm not sure it wouldn't be a good part of everyone's plan to have a warchest for an adult gap year. Even if you only spend it with the kids before they aren't too old. Edit to add as someone closer to the grave than the cradle let's hope not too many younger folk strike out too independently and stop slaving for the man. But from what I see net of SM there's plenty of vanity crap being sold or "influenced" and I believe there is still a biological urge to breed so many of the traditional anchors of life will restrain most of the potential free spirits.

  Post: The retirement scam – please don’t call this a rant🥲

  Link to comment from October 3, 2024

• Don't quite understand. Is the planner holding capital that wasn't surrendered to buy the annuity hostage? Sounds shady to me. Generically I think your strategy recommendation is good. After any employer matched retirement savings worth younger people filling after tax protected accounts for a) future flexibility and b) while their marginal tax rate not so high. Of course younger people are least likely to have much surplus to invest because of all the starter life costs and lower earnings.

  Post: I’m depressed, not very optimistic about retirement 😱 by R Quinn

  Link to comment from October 3, 2024

• I'd agree education/ enlightenment has to land at the right time. For many of my peers at HS, we went to college and got hands on experience at ekeing out a budget and trading down on the boring stuff to enjoy more gigs, beer and parties. One friend went straight into work at 18 and got himself into quite a hole with the easy credit afforded to him by virtue of the steady paycheck. For him a mandatory community college course on starting work with some home truths would have served him well. I do wish employers would do more hands on education. These days there is token generic blurb on our company intranet about financial wellness and I guess a helpline/ counselling of sorts for distress. But no practical zoom training which focuses on realities or strategies. And anything communicated around company DC pensions savings is famously late, impenetrable and follow up questions are met with suspicion or fob offs.

  Post: I’m depressed, not very optimistic about retirement 😱 by R Quinn

  Link to comment from October 3, 2024

• Hmm water, eating out, food delivery, over catering for home hospitality, being a PITA about saving a buck. We all have our vices. Everyone is dysfunctional in their own special way.

  Post: Truth is Often Stranger Than Fiction

  Link to comment from October 3, 2024