Retirement help- update

No offense but I would b nervous too. U looked f*cked. Keep ur head up and try to pick up a side job and just stash it away. I have Edward Jones and it’s worked well for me.

Save as much as you can, and consider retiring somewhere in Honduras or Guatemala, at your age without substantially increasing your income there are not many options.

Not a teacher- but thats what they called it at the time. Yes, racked up 142 k in loans and been making double payments on the 6.8 segment of them. 1/3 are at 4.5 % and 1/3 at 2.75%

You're pretty much fricked.

Retire and live off taxpayers, sell everything you have, buy a tiny home and live in the profits

He’s 42, not 52

quote:

---

Nah. It’s not going to be easy for him but he can turn it around. No clue what his career is but he’s got 30+ working years left in him at least if he stays healthy and motivated.

---

If someone told me at 42 I'd have to work 30 years to retire I'd just say frick it and travel the world doing odd jobs.

quote:

---

I doubt I’ll ever “retire” I can’t stand sitting around

---

I agree that if you can't find stuff to do for after retirement you probably never should in the full traditional sense.

That'll kill you too.

But really, I see only two ways of doing life/retirement. Either you get it right or you do my suggestion.

I honestly don't see much of a point in just struggling for decades to live off social security. Of course, caveats galore but we'd be here for a week going through all that.

BTW OP I think reading some of what the FIRE early retirement people do may help motivate you. Find ways to cut costs to boost your savings/investing and catch up. Don't take it as gospel but there's some good ideas in there.

If your boss came in and said I'm giving you a $2250 raise would you say no?

Then you need to put at least 3% into your employer 401K. They want to give you an extra $2250 a year and you're saying no.

Start there.

If you want to do more (and you should) do more. If not put some money somewhere else. But please take the free money.

OP, you mentioned an Edward Jones 401k adviser. Is your 401k at Edward Jones? I hope not..

You need to be wary of funds that have high fees/expense ratio as that can significantly reduce your returns over the years. I'd avoid anything that is over 0.5%.

Hopefully, you'll have some good low cost index funds available to you. If not, then you might consider not maxing the 401k.. Just depends on what options are in there. Does your company offer a HSA?

You mentioned your best friend is a financial advisor at Ameriprise, but you'd pay fees to get advice? Not sure if that's a best friend... Even if he didn't charge you, I bet he'd want you to invest money with him using Ameriprise products which will have high fees (and he'll get paid from that).

Anyway, no need to pay someone. If you're willing to do some reading; you can do this on your own. Start here:
https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page