BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Childfree Retirement Planning

I was wondering if anyone has ever seen a retirement calculator or article pertaining to the childfree population. I'm not convinced the traditional retirement planning advice is completely valid for people in our position as we do not have the added expenses parenthood brings.

Can any of the older members of this community speak to how they have approached retirement planning?

Thank you!

i think we still need to plan. esp long-term care planning. i have a friend who is 100 years old and never had kids. she planned for her long-term care, and it was the smart thing to do.

i'm going to do what i can to prepare. just in case.

good qestion, how did she do it holles, any tips I think would be much appreciated. My husband and I were thinking property property property

Funny you mention that, Andso?. That is what my husband and I are thinking. We have one retirement scenario planned so far -- that we sell our existing home at about age 60 and retire on a recreational property that we own in Tennessee. It's still just a plan right now.

My father-in-law is retired, and he is big into property investment. He has done pretty well with it because he has good "vision" for which properties flourish and which ones fail. Property value steadily increases with inflation, so it is definitely worthwhile. If you put 100% of your retirement into mutual funds, you could be setting yourself up for some failure and not to mention the fact that mutual funds usually don't produce as many "dollars" as real estate.

I think she worked really closely with her great-nephew. She was fortunate to have him esp after her husband passed away. I think her great-nephew and I are the only visitors she gets at the home where she is. She had planned the financial part, just not the timing, esp the long-term care planning.

When she was 96, she fell and ended up in the hospital. After 6 days, they released her, and she had talked to a lady in the hospital (counselor type thing I guess) who recommended this particular nursing facility (my mema actually spent her last years there, and it's a great place if you ask me). Christine (my friend) wasn't sure how to get there, but when they released her, she started walking to it. She knew the street name and figured she'd get there eventually. Keep in mind, she was 96, and she was in Texas in May when it's already 90 degrees. A guy in a taxi stopped her and took her to the facility. She's been there ever since.

She has a fund that the money comes out of, and she also has property like the above poster mentioned. She rents out a duplex next door to the house she owns, and now someone is renting her home from her too. Her great-nephew takes care of the property, but she has her accountant come visit her every month to go over bills and things.

Christine was fortunate to have a good job when she was working and to have a husband who was a pillar of the community type guy and who made sure she was taken care of. But he never did all the financial work. They split the work evenly, and both of them knew all their assets and what was happening with their money. That way, she wasn't left floundering when he passed away.

Don't put it off. I have nothing planned yet for long-term care, and I have just a little bit of retirement. When I got divorced, I walked away from everything: the house, the 401k, the savings account, all of it because I knew if I fought him (he's an attorney), I'd end up giving him MY retirement and my own savings and probably a lot of other stuff. So I have to start completely over. But I'm grateful I'm young, and I'm grateful I have people to help me out with making decisions like this and to point me in the right directions.

So plan now while you can. I will probably start my future planning in the next several months. It's not fun to think about because it's financial stuff and some of it is difficult to imagine (esp long-term care past the initial retirement stage), but it's important to at least be aware.

mhmm, I guess huh! I had initially thought if we invest in shares then we'd be able to live on the dividends... being an accountant I know I should know better. Interestingly tho' by the time I started buying shares, the market had already crashed, yet I have still managed to earn dividends on 75% of my portfolio. II realise tho it was just by chance that we manged to achieve that. I have for many years considered buying a big block of land and building small houses, cluster home type setup. Onebed places, and sell them off to friends and family. and then on retirement we'd all live there together and look out for each other. Sounds like a fantasy I know, but with the people I have spoken to about it, they seem keen.

Andso? Sounds like you could start a community for the childfree there. That's a fantasy too because we can't exclude, but wouldn't it be fun?

Count me in ;-).

I tell you... that would be GLORIOUS!!!! Wouldn't it?