You know… I never get really excited about Fridays. It’s probably for a few reasons. First, I like my gig, so it’s not that big of a deal for me to be at work. So I guess that’s a good thing. Second, I don’t really plan personal time as well as I should so weekends are less “certain” in my world… which is exciting but also doesn’t leave something specific on the weekend to look forward to beyond playing some pretty intense games of super squeeze with the wife and kids… Finally, I really like Mondays, so I generally look more forward to Monday than Friday and it doesn’t seem fair to Monday if I give Friday special treatment too… it diminishes what Monday and I have going on…
Why do I like Mondays you (didn’t) ask? Easy. In my mind there’s a whole week ahead to get things DONE! There always seems to be a lot of hope on Mondays – at least there is with me… So I like ‘em. And it’s my blog, so here Mondays rule.
But this week I’m pretty psyched because today is “My Friday.” That’s right – no work tomorrow. And because there’s no work Monday, I’m going to enjoy today a bit. In fact, today is so “Friday” that I’m going out! I’m going to a fancy pants dinner (literally… my pants are so fancy they barely fit…). That’s right! I’ll be living it up here in NYC tonight. So if you see a guy dressed to impress and looking like he borrowed his wardrobe from his slightly smaller first cousin, you may have found me!
So live large people! Happy My Friday! (Am I the only one who uses the phrase “My Friday on Thursdays where you don’t work the next day?). And until next time, put your credit card down and slowly step away from the mall.
p.s. Typed this post on the run in a quick post mode…. I may have sunk to a new low on the “I’m just going to type what I think and hit “go” scale….” Let me know how many times I messed up.
Ahh… the dreams of striking it rich – like “eff yoo” money rich… Either of you readers win over the weekend? If not, welcome back! If so and you’re still reading, remember, this blog is for sale for the rock bottom price of $600,000!
I’m not much of a lottery player (as in I don’t “play”) but I’ve been known to try and get cards to reach 21, but no further… Won a few bucks in my day and refuse to go back to the casino now because it’s MY money now. But I get the allure to buying a lottery ticket or two. I have buddies who have a “rule” that they buy either $5 or $10 worth of “tickets” when the jackpot hits $100 mil. Not me. I’d rather keep my $10.
Well, since neither of you appear to have won, you may be wondering what else you can do to retire or whether you’re ready. So I reached into the vaults of bankrate.com to bring you seven eight signs that now’s not the time to retire.
- You’re just now eligible for social security. Yeah… it’s usually not a good idea to just grab social security as soon as you can… unless you don’t think you’re going to make it to 65, 67 or 70, I guess. So unless I’m incapable of surviving without it or continuing to work, my plan is to delay getting whatever social security looks like when I’m in my 60s (by then we’ll probably be looking at 70 anyhow….)
- You plan to work part time. Good point, Bankrate. It’s probably easier to just keep your full time gig if you need part time income to survive because it might be tough to go back to full time. So hang on for a couple of more years until your part time gig is because you want to work, not need to.
- Your spouse doesn’t want you to retire. Seriously? So far, I’m not really impressed with the list, although they make good points. If your spouse isn’t on board with retiring you’re probably going to do some serious damage by just quitting and coming home. See the word I used? I used quitting, not retiring, because if you just throw a temper fit and quit your job because you want to, that’s not retiring.
- You don’t have a place to go. Um…. yep. You may need your desk to sleep under!
- You’re counting on the stock market. I think they’re trying to make a subtle point here that doesn’t come through. If you need $50,000 per year to live and have $450,000 in retirement, you better hope that the stock market returns 11% per year, every year, to avoid depleting your resources. If you have $1.2 million, you’re not “counting” on the market, although you’re likely going to be able to live off off only the returns. So give yourself some wiggle room.
- You haven’t planned for health care costs. Who can? I can’t even plan for this year’s health care costs!?!?! Anyhow, the point is a good one. Healthcare changes in retirement – make sure you gather knowledge before you leap.
- You have financial obligations. Yeah, I guess, but who doesn’t? If you have $4 million in the bank and two kids in college, you’ll probably be OK….. So it’s not really about having the obligations, but for accounting for them to see if you’re ready.
- You didn’t win the lottery over the weekend.
So there you go. I do have to admit that number 8 – the Nick original – is really the only set in stone rule, isn’t it? If you won the lottery over the weekend and have a cool $600 million in your pocket – or even whatever obscenely low lump sum amount of $370 million, netting you only about $200 mil after taxes – you’re ready to retire. If you didn’t, you’re probably not. The rest have way too much wiggle room.
Maybe I should take over Bankrate.com. I’ll have to put a few calls in.
Until next time…
