2017 Fall September 23 Saturday

2017 Fall September 23 Saturday

75 degrees this morning, walk 35:30 minutes

Good morning for a walk, again a light breeze cooled off the morning as I walked.

Sitting on the patio as I write this, enjoying the early morning warm coolness, breeze and the overall peace of the early morning.  

Pace was 24 seconds slower than my goal, although it isn’t as bad as it seems.  I probably wasted a minute fighting with my iPhone.  I didn’t think to turn it on until I got started and then I had to waste time fighting with Apple harassment for downloading an upgrade to IOS, two factor authorization etc.

I like Apple, but they can be a real hassle sometimes.  

Start of Fall 2017.  At least so far, it isn’t much different than Summer although I understand cold air is coming in next week.  I am not ready for it.

I was reminded in my previous blogs about a breakfast I had, probably 30 years ago.  I had breakfast with another City Manager and he mentioned how much he was saving for retirement.  He was about my age, maybe a little older.  

Anyway, he was saving more than my take-home pay at the time.  Somehow, it got me to actually saving for retirement, just a few dollars at first, but I am so glad that I got woken up.  As they say, it is never too late to start.  Somehow this incident committed me to saving something for retirement.

I really had no idea at the time when I was going to retire, I think retirement age was some vague future which I really doubted if it would even come, it seemed so far into the future.

I think it really became reality when I reached my early 50’s and realized many people actually retired at 59, 62 etc. 

I recently saw a discussion on “defined benefits” (the “traditional” retirement where you get a set amount for life, like social security) vs.  “defined contributions”  (401 k, etc. where you are responsible for investing your money and can run out of money).

I couldn’t believe that workers were actually supporting the defined contribution plan versus the  defined benefit.  In my opinion (and I have both) there is no substitute for the defined benefit plan and I think the 401 K etc. other than as a supplemental plan is not really a good plan. 

Not to say that the retirement age etc. or other adjustments shouldn’t be made, but many people simply don’t understand the 401K etc. and are defrauded by unethical sales people who sell high commission, low performing “investment plans”. 

What is worse about the 401 K plans (as well as the regular IRA) is the impact of the taxes is much worse than you imagined.  I think the Roth IRA (which is “before tax contributions” but not taxable when you take it out) is much better and should be encouraged.  

The impact of taxes on your withdrawals is hard to describe, but you may has well cut your savings by 25% or whatever your tax rate is.

That’s it for now, Saturday, September 23, 2017.