starting “retirement” from a serious overdose of “caregiving” that ended with medical bankruptcy forclosing my once carerfully planned and paid for home, quickly snowballed into other personal and family disasters beyond posting here.

but looking back at 81, I think the thing I regret most is all the things we might have done ttogether or might have had that we gave up to more sensibly save and invest for a more secure future that never did come.

RDetirement is a crap shoot, luck of the draw, for people who didnt get laid off in a jobless recovery degrees and experience was a plus if having to find another job, not a minus that left you over aged, over qualified, underskilled, and lucky to get neighborhood baby sitting evgen with three dgrees in education for stuff like home ec that is getting cut because it isnt contributing to no child left behind scores.

Decades of payro9ll deducions for social security is turning out to be a grand national Ponzi scheme and even if they dont outright cancel SS, its going to take all your frugality and tightwad skills to make devalued U.S dollars last to the end of the month if you dont blow it on groceries beyond the limits of food stamps for the month as well.

Its a public secret the country has been bankrupted by 2 and a half wars and if I werent renting rooms with tenantshelping pay the internet bill I wouldnt be posting here either.

But in Trent’s defense, the days of retiring when you’re 55 or so are pretty much over except for the lucky few. And I think Trent was talking about full retirement, not ‘retiring’ from a full time & working part time at something else (which technically isn’t retirement).

As age 60 is coming up on me pretty fast, 75 doesn’t seem all that old; people my age are now being advised to wait until 67 or later to retire. And my spouse intends to work at something until the day he dies – he plans to wear out, not fade out. If you’re working at what you love, staying in that work to a later age isn’t a huge sacrifice or onerous prospect.

Trent, I know you think that we’re living longer and longer, and somehow, you think that means we’re HEALTHY and ACTIVE longer. But the truth is, our bodies are still getting frail at the same age – medicine is simply better at keeping us alive longer. It seems that in your mind, you see yourself living a healthy and active, mentally-alert lifestyle right up until age 90, then dropping dead suddenly. I’m really not sure why you continue to cling to that belief, even as you aknowledge your lack of success in improving your own physical health and fitness levels.

Perhaps you’ve heard the news that obesity is growing, diabetes is epidemic, and Gen X may be the first generation to have SHORTER life expectancies than their parents. The trend toward longer life spans is reversing. But even if you refuse to acknowledge that, you must recognize that the people who DO live relatively healthy lives into their 80′s and 90′s are not a random sampling of society. It’s the people who have that rare combination of good genetics, good diets, and exersized regularly.

That said, I’m really not sure what kind of retirement you think people will have. If Tyler takes your advice and saves 5% of his income (with a 5% employer match) for the next 52 years, then assuming he currently earns $50,000/year, and keeping the rest of your assumptions the same, then Tyler will have $1.3 million (in 2011 dollars) at age 75. That will produce an income of $51,000/year (again, 2011 dollars).

Once Social Security is added in, and factoring in that he’s delayed taking it for so long, his annual income will be much more than he’s currently used to. Furthermore, at such an advanced age, he could take the entire $1.3 million and throw it in an annuity. The actuarial tables for a 75-year old would work in his favor, and he’d get a very generous payout.

The question is – what would he DO with all that money? Put gold-plated spinners on his wheel-chair? Show off the diamond-encrusted spoon he eats all his meals with? Boast about having the biggest big-screen TV in his entire retirement home complex, on which to watch Antiques Roadshow?

Why on earth would he wait so late in life to leave the rat-race?

I started with 5% of salary into my retirement fund to get some matching and have grown that to 15% of my salary over the years pretty much along those lines. As others have said, it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing situation. Obviously if you can do more and still pay off loans it may be better for your future self. But that’s a personal decision on how you want to spend your life and your money.

Also not one mention of vesting in a retirement article?

FWIW, I know about a dozen folks in their 70s who still work. Most work out of necessity (debt and other monetary issues) while a few others work out of boredom. Only one person works because of loving the job, of which the spouse hates. Not pretty.

Though I agree with many of your points, I think your advice here omits a really crucial piece of information: what is the interest rate on Tyler’s debt? Absent that information, I think it’s very hard to assess what he should do. All my debt (including scandalous stuff, like — gasp! — a car loan) is at 4% or less, and at that rate I think the tax and time benefits of contributing to retirement are well worth it.

So to that extent, I disagree with comment number 1.

But, the longer you put off getting $ into retirement, the more painful (dollarwise) it will be to get caught up, particularly with the return on investment you get these days. There’s always something else that seems more urgent than putting more $ toward retirement.