Yeah, for sure, you don't sound bitter at all.

I wish I had figured out not to open this thread.

Good grief there’s some insufferable posting itt

thread had potential as well

That I still don’t know what “MM MD” means.

Amusingly this thread has judgments coming from all sides!

Not being so quick to judge people is a pretty good life lesson.

lol everyone hates old people ill prolly just off myself at 65.

like what good is money when you look like a ****in wrinkled snail

krunic,

+1 to all of this. Plus, to your last point, paying a financial advisor is a fish move unless you've got a lot more money to manage than either you or I do or likely every will.

No entertainment in making the younger folk uncomfortable and forced to deal with you?

I had a boat. Biggest PITA money pit you can imagine.

This. I love what I do. I don't really want to retire. But I would like to find a way to work 6 months a year. Unfortunately computer programmer turning 50 isn't the best situation for that for a project POV or a where's my next job coming from POV.

I should have been a nurse or something.

There's no way to do contract work in your field? I guess I always assumed there were consulting firms someone with your preferences could contract through . . . Although, it occurs to me I don't have any real idea what IT project cycles look like, so maybe that's not an option?

It's possible. But you don't learn much new stuff, the jobs are generally boring-ish, and you have to always be worried about where to find your next job.

The real value, at least for me, has been in busting ass to build something valuable - then you can coast in that position as long as you want.

I work with a lot of startups staffed by near retirement aged former big pharma guys, but I guess IT is a bit more of a young person's game? In any case, I'd imagine I'm probably not going to want to be as intimately involved in the minutae of my job in twenty years as I am currently, and boring-ish at a decent hourly rate doesn't sound so terrible. Just a thought/question.

I’m in my early 30s and was totally an irresponsible 20s person. Should I start a Roth IRA for me, my wife and I individually, us as a couple or just our unborn child?

Sorry I didn’t start in my 20s but I was a mook until I was 30

I'll happily pay that x dollar a month for the added life experience when my cash flow is limited vs. being a tad more frugal when you're in the 'piling up the money' stage in life.

Life is also to be enjoyed in the moment FYI, 'hookers and blow' add to that enjoyment (if that's your thing) and we're probably all people who are/will be raking in more money then we need at some point in our lives.

In fact, double the amount you're saving monthly and you just bought 10 to 20 years in which you can splurge money. For me personally its easier to save 1000 a month at 35 then it would have been to save 500 a month at 20 (unless I would have wanted to be the equivalent of the old bitter person you described but at the age of 20 which Ill pass on).

Might as well save some extra at that point and I'm sure you won't end up in a small apartment driving a Geo Metro (lol USA cars names obv).

While this enlightened post requires little additional comment I will do so anyway. Children are an excellent retirement plan. They're fun when they're small, and when you're old and have already spent all your cash they take of you better and more patiently than a retirement home, at least if you were nice to them when they were small.

Well that's dumb. They also take hundreds of thousands of dollars of yours too.

Dr. Meh, you sound exactly like my 62 year old father. You're not totally wrong, you're just an ******* the way you go about it. Quit being an *******.

IRA is individual so as long as both you and your wife are working, you can each contribute up to the contribution limit of 5500 in 2018 ( you have until april 15 2019 to contribute to 2018 IRA).

Cant contribute for unborn baby. Will have to wait until that first summer job at 15/16.

I don’t feel quite as bad for inspiring a detail.

Two different kinds of people - those who live for the moment and those who plan for the future. The problem I have is when those who live for the moment get butthurt at those who planned for the future and demand to be owed something.

Your post about just saving double the monthly amount in your 30s shows you don’t understand compounding interest. I urge any of you to look it up and see why many of us are saying to start saving earlier. There are a lot of helpful charts and graphs that make understanding this concept easy.

Where are you from and what do you guys call Geo Metros?

Saving and experiencing life aren't mutually exclusive; thinking of whatever you save as another expense that just automatically leaves your paycheck before you get to the discretionary portion of your earn makes it a fair bit easier.

This contrasts with my brother-in-law, who has had multiple government jobs with government funded personal retirement account/personal pension accounts that he just cashed out for beer money every few months. Justifying that seems impossible to me.

This. You set it up so the funds are automatically withdrawn from your paycheck and you never even see the money. People are very adaptable and you learn to live off of what you take home. Before you know it, you have a really nice nest egg that will continue to grow. I had fun in my 20s. Played poker, went to parties, went out to eat and drink, etc. I just had to do it in more moderation than some other people.

You guys seem to have the perception that we’re saying to sit at home and watch the paint dry while eating Top Ramen. That’s not it. Go out and have fun BUT save for the future, as well.

All of this back-and-forth about spending/saving makes me want to post what I figured out (although too late). YMMV, blah, blah, caveat, caveat. This is in addition to pre-tax deductions for IRA/401-k type things.

In my 30s, I figured out to better track my bigger expenses. Every time I made a deposit to my checking account, I would take any balance over (upcoming expenses + minimum amt I wanted to keep + other stuff) and split any extra into the "other stuff" sub accounts:

• investing
• house

and be diligent about doing so. Allowed me to build up cash for a down payment on my first house (or house projects, once I bought), and build up money to invest.

In my 40s, I finally figured out to add a third sub account to "other stuff": fun. Then, one chunk of any extra went into the fun account, which has allowed me to fund my adventures around the world.

The percentages for each of my sub-accounts has changed over time, or when I knew of an upcoming expense--bumped up the house bit last year because I knew roof replacement was coming, for example.

All of this is in opposition to "hey, I got $X left over this check, I should immediately go spend it."

I don't think I'm explaining it very well, but hopefully anyone interested gets the idea: be diligent about putting away any extra money you have instead of pissing it away, but make sure that some of that extra goes to whatever you consider fun.

Hoooooly **** "stop going out for dinner and drinks in your 20s and put the money in a Roth IRA instead" has to be some of the worst advice ever given on 2+2. I could not be friends with anyone who earnestly thought that.