9 Purchases Retirees Often Regret

[Isaac-1]

Totally agree. Loved my career, and took me a bit to realize I was going to be OK retiring early, but no regrets looking back.

After a few years of semi-retirement / retirement, I find myself thinking I am young enough to go back to work, maybe start some sort of business, etc. Then I ask myself how does anyone have time for that, it seems I always have projects that need to get done, as this is the last day of the month lets recap the events / projects of March. First there was a lot of motorhome / vehicle project stuff, including replacing the Hydroboost, master cylinder, a power steering line, front wheel bearings, a brake caliper and pads, then of course my step sister died, so a few days were spent with family stuff on that, a few hours after the funeral I got phone call from my nephew asking me to come over to his house to help out as he had no power to his well pump, he is not mechanically inclined, and recently bought a house in the country a few miles from here. In the middle of dealing with all the funeral stuff the right front wheel bearing on our Toyota Yaris TOAD car started howling, so I had to deal with that, in the process ended up replacing the wheel hub, ball joint and lower control arm. Add to this the day to day household stuff, both here and at my elderly mother's house, yard work, setting up the new robot mower, getting ready to leave on an RV trip to try to see the solar eclipse on Wednesday, and one really does start asking themselves, how do people find time to work.

 

[solarman]

count me out.. I've had the toys, now im settling down for a simpler more relaxed life.

my one and only big regret was my first wife !! LOL

 

[TheBar]

#5- Giving money to adult children

If they need your money, are they really adults?
If you keep propping them up, will they ever be adults?

Leaving money to 4 of our 5 kids would be the worst thing I could do to them. They would retire and squander the money. They would start living beyond their means which is a very hard habit to break.

That happened to my brother and sister. They retired when they got my dad's inheritance. They ran out of money by 2020 and believed the fossil fuel elimination speech. Oil tanked so they sold their oil royalties for a tiny fraction of their value. Now they are over 80 and almost broke again. Meanwhile the price of oil has quadrupled and drilling went crazy in 2022. I've made enough since then to have bought them both out with plenty to spare.

My dad raised me to believe new money spends, old money saves. So I saved my inheritance and my salary so we have lots of excess money in retirement. My RV, my truck, and 2 cars all have antique car tags and my Durango is 10 years old. But I'm attached to them and can't justify replacing any of them. I promised myself I'd never move again and my house is paid off.

I've always been a cheapskate and that is also a very hard habit to break. My step daughter is an NP and has always saved the max allowed to her retirement. I have to get rid of my money so I've been funneling it to her family with big cash presents and expensive vacations on my dime. And should I get dementia and lose all my money I know she'll make sure I'm taken care of. If not maybe she'll raise her kids to live cheap and my inheritance will continue on to them.

 

[Ernie n Tara]

I grew up broke and decided early that I'd live reasonably. While never wanting for anything (after leaving the Army), I've lived reasonably and saved all along the way. Even after the dilution of two divorces Tara and I retired comfortably.
I augmented my social security by working to 70 (eight percent increase per extra year is a great deal) and, as a result, we've continued saving even after we both retired.
Now to figure out what to do with it (rwo kids that don't really need it).

Ernie