I hope they take time to perfect it. Self driving cars scare me.
Ditto. I bought a new car recently (brag: my son bought me the new car) and passed up the automatic parallel parking option. I knew I wouldnât use it, I trust my parking ability more. 
We just met with our financial planner last week and I feel very good about our retirement. We have 4 kids spread over 12 years with the youngest still in college, so we are the âolder parentsâ at this point. We have always lived very frugally- we drive (very) old cars, go camping for vacations, do all of the work on our house ourselves, etc. We funded our kids colleges and have no loans as we saved from the time they were born. My Hâs employer matches contributions to a 401K so we have always contributed the max, even when we could have used the money elsewhere. It was nice to hear our financial guy tell us that we can live quite comfortably for many years, even if we needed specialized care later in life. Even without inheritances, we would be very comfortable, and both of us are looking at fairly large inheritances in the next few years. Our kids are all quite independent and doing well (except the youngest who is still in school) but it makes me feel good to know they will never be in the position to have to help us financially, and in fact we will be able to help them out quite a bit. I feel like all of our years of scrimping and saving are paying off. Not all of our friends are so lucky either because they overspent, or because of job instability, bad luck, helping with their parents, etc. I work for a not-for-profit that provides education and resources to unpaid caregivers (spouses or children caring for parents) and see so many elders who are barely scraping by. It must be frightening to not be sure where the money for meds or food is coming from.
The self driving cars have been on the road for a while. Google talked about picking a community just south of here as another test site. Dunno if it will happenâŠ
I am very confident. Extremely confident. Going to happen. Self driving cars⊠Coming to a road near you!
We have a new Tesla, but Iâve yet to try out the latest autopilot features. I never drive in cruise control and would need to figure that out first. DH has a long commute and can charge at work so I only get to play with the car on weekends.
The Tesla replaced a 15-year-old station wagon. Probably seemed an odd choice to anyone who knows (frugal) us, but DH is a huge Consumer Reports fan and it received the highest road test score ever⊠buy a new car every 15 years and you can splurge once and a while. Gotta say that itâs a sweet ride.
Getting back to the retirement thread, our only debt is our mortgage that was refied at the lowest 10-year-rate a while back. Youngest kiddo should graduate using her 529 funds and oldest is officially off the books.
I would be leery about self-driving cars⊠but then again I usually avoid cruise control except for long drives on open highway w/o traffic.
Glad to hear some happy stories on retirement outlook! We feel fortunate to have decent savings, but weâll feel more secure working a few more years.
I think it will come down to reaction time. My reflex is still more instant than any machine. Iâll trust self driving car when they improve on that.
As for retirement, hereâs a couple managing on $31K,
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/couples-budget-shows-retirees-live-162607137.html
<<<
"However, I do tend to leave a certain closet door open. Doesn't bug me. Bugs her... And I hear about it...every single time I leave that closet door open."
Your wife might want to do what my mom does. Put a large sticker on the door with bold black marker that says, âCLOSE DOORâ. My mom has put those stickers all over the house for my dad, though I wonder if it helps or if he just ignores them. Certainly the one that says, âFLUSH TOILET,â doesnât seem to have an impactâŠ
[QUOTE=""]
[/QUOTE]
When my mom used to have a top-loader washer, she got tired of my dad setting his stuff on top of it, so she taped a big sign on top that said, âDonât put anything on top of the washer!â. She also kept an ironing board up and had a similar sign on that. Sometimes the signs workedâŠsometimes they donât.
there are some marital adjustments that need to be made once spouses retire. Suddenly being around each other a lot more can be strange, and/or sometimes the ârolesâ can change. Before H retired, he never did a lick of home chores except to take out the trash. Now, he empties and fills the DW (yayâŠone of my hated chores) and he cleans out the fridge (another of my hated chores). and, heâs cleaned up the kitchen a few times. 
He also cleans the kitty litter (yay!).
Iâd like to teach him how to cook, (he has NO CLUE about anything related to cooking), but heâs resisting.
He has been a big help with our rental properties that I manage. We bought another one this week, and yesterday we picked up paint and will be painting (and painting and painting).
Thanks @iglooo for the retiree budget article. At least these folks seemed to be able to make the adjustments on every phase of their life challenges. They probably had to move away from grandchildren when they moved to Oregon. A shame that they had no safety net for themselves and had the medical expenses and debt which took their Oregon house - if they would have held off buying a home in Oregon until they both qualified for Medicare, or moved their son to Oregon and waited to make the moveâŠhowever I can bet medical debt got written off and they are only paying a portion. Their income probably has them not paying medical expenses beyond Medicare, otherwise they would have a supplement policy budgeted in. Looks like the mom changed into the career field she became more expert in with autistic son, although maybe couldnât stay employed in graphic arts and had to have the income coming in. This kind of budgeting is definitely up Dave Ramseyâs alley, even the $1000 emergency fund.
This article is a good example of what people can expect if they donât make it to 65 with enough health insurance coverage to cover their health costs, and if there is not enough saved for life challenges. In a bad job market w/o a job is tough. It doesnât say how old her husband is, but she was 61 or 62 in 2010 when they moved to Oregon. 2008 - 2010 were some âhard yearsâ for many with the mortgage melt down and things going pretty crazy, including probably trying to find work in Arizona.
It sounds like this lady is dealing with their current situation as best they can, and not looking back badly about their choices - they did what they felt they needed to do for their autistic son - they may be sad, but doesnât help to cry over spilled milk. Hope her other 3 children have learned the budgeting skills and build up earnings and savings so they can have a more financially secure life in retirement.
We had huge issues getting my mother to give up her car when she was no longer safe. She just refused and said if we took her car, sheâd call the police. God love her, she would have done it. So we stole her keys instead, and she never wanted to admit she couldnât find them.
As a result of those fights, I told our kids that I would give up driving on my 80th birthday. Between Uber and self-driving cars, Iâm sure I will still have sufficient independence. And if I mark the date and get used to it, my kids wonât have the burden of trying to figure it out.
Of course, theyâll still have H to deal with⊠;))
I havenât gone through all 345 pages of this thread, so this may have been posted. But this site has a variety of good calculators, including the Retirement Planner. The default assumptions are 7% return before retirement, 4% during retirement and 3% inflation but you can adjust them as desired:
An interesting article in the NYT about how Warren Buffett does it. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/opinion/joe-nocera-how-warren-buffett-does-it.html?_r=0
It has taken 50 years, but 1,826,163 percent is a nice return, eh?
Full disclosure: the only individual stock that we voluntarily own is Berkshire Hathaway.
@IxnayBobâ
I read that also. Buffettâs letter suggests that buy and hold (as general rule) seems to work (even if we fall short of the 1,826,163% return!) so long as the choices are sound. Humans, though, unlike an investment company (which BH is in essence), have to sell at such point. So, thereâs the rub.
Iâm sure youâve seen his Coca Cola example?
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/07/warren-buffett-tells-you-how-to-turn-40-into-10-mi.aspx
Trick is to pick Coca Cola and hold for 94 years!
I need to tell my mother to watch her beloved Wells Fargo closely in case BH divests.
The retiree budget article - what happens when one of them dies? Their budget is based on joint Social Security income of $31,000 after taxes and Medicare deduction. Would the surviving spouse be able to live on $15,000 or $16,000 a year? Such a cautionary tale.
That definitely is a cautionary tale, reading that article. Only 20K in savings after a lifetime (Iâm assuming) of working? Wow. I think people need to understand that if they are unable to save money, for whatever reason, fair or unfairâŠthey just arenât going to be able to retire. You canât retire, particularly before medicare kicks in. Someone in the family must find a way to keep working, even if youâre getting very low pay, even if just for the health insurance. You donât have that ability to make the choice to stop working, and only depend upon benefits to take care of you. Hopefully their kids will be able to help them at some point.
I think people have expectations that at a certain age, they must be able to retire, and thatâs just not reality. People used to work as long as they needed to. My grandparents worked as farmers until into their eighties, and were able to stop purely because they moved into my uncleâs home.
Did you see the second item in their list - 100 bucks a month to charity; over a grand a year.
âDid you see the second item in their list - 100 bucks a month to charity; over a grand a year.â
I know thatâs very important to many people.
However, if your entire income is provided by government benefits (and I donât mean people who have retirements funded from government jobs), maybe you should consider that YOU are the charity. And that YOU need help too. You have to take care of your own family before you take care of others.
hayden- not a bad idea 80 and not driving but some people at 80 are fine and others at 75 are not. how about taking a drivers test every couple years instead? OT departments offer it as well as some states require them.
My mother in law is 86, and still drives. I think she is safe, and has never, ever had an accident. She knows her limitations, and does not drive at night, or long distances. It enables her to live alone, in the family house, out in the country. If she didnât drive, she would have to move, and I know she isnât ready to do that yet. But I think if she realized that she was dangerous, she would stop. And move.