Comments on: Interview w/ My Mom Who Just Found Out She Can Retire Anytime She Wants :)

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 18:59:54 +0000

In reply to Jeff. I loved seeing it there too! :) My mom is ecstatic, haha...

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 18:58:41 +0000

In reply to Kevin. For sure... Gotta make the decision to retire yourself, of course, but having a planner confirm that they think it looks okay based on the #'s (vs emotion) is always a plus :) My parents have been saving for their whole lives but didn't realize/think about retiring early until that fateful meeting.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 12:19:11 +0000

I just linked to this page from Yahoos front page, took me to the business insider where this article was. Kinda neat to see it there.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 05:14:23 +0000

Good for them. Nice comments which everyone should follow.

However, people should not let a financial planner tell anyone “you can now retire”. Folks themselves need to make this decision from 25+ years of saving/budgeting and then have planner review to confirm.

The nice thing with the military is the pension and nice subsidized health insurance for you and the spouse for life. Thanks for your service.

Enjoy the retirement life!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 15:43:13 +0000

In reply to TJ.

They may be better in that category, not sure, I just love having all my accounts under one main roof :) My parents started using them for car insurance back in the day, so when I started driving I ended up signing up with them too. Then as the years – and phases – went by, I’ve slowly opened up more and more accounts with them. Everything from savings to checking to property insurance, home equity lines, umbrella insurance, credit cards, and at one point investment accounts (now I’m exclusively with Vanguard). Besides the all-under-one-roof part, what I love the most is their customer service. They’re SO GOOD!! And from what I hear Navy Federal ain’t too shabby either (I’ve just never poked around ’em).

By: TJ

TJ — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 02:13:26 +0000

I’m curious how you ended up with so many accounts with USAA when your parents seem to use a lot of Navy Federal. I feel like Navy Fed has better credit cards, but USAA has recently revamped their offerings too…

By: Jon @ Money Smart Guides

Jon @ Money Smart Guides — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 14:50:16 +0000

The best part is her admitting to living “a meager, but comfortable life”. We can get by with so much less stuff, but we think we NEED to have the latest iphone or a new car every 5 years, etc. If we just make some small sacrifices, we can completely change our financial lives. I mean, will it really kill you to drive your 4 year old car another 5 years? If it looks bad, spend $20 and get it washed and waxed. It’s a lot cheaper than $30K for a new one!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 17:46:36 +0000

In reply to Nate. It's just good that you/me/everyone here figured it out whenever we did! Much better to work on it now than when we're already IN our 60s and trying to figure it out :( I get a lot of emails from people in retirement age that feel completely helpless now. It's incredibly sad.

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 17:42:59 +0000

In reply to Debbi. Amen to that! If only our hearts were as smart as our heads at times ;)

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 10:57:32 +0000

I commented on twitter, but wanted to comment here also. This was a great interview and gives me lots of hope to make it out at 53. I feel like that’s a little on the older side of things, but it beats 59 1/2. Taking the lessons/wisdom from this interview and applying them should give us an opportunity at a great future. No debt, budget, and save aggressively , you’ve just have to be strong enough to apply these tools and they will pay off. Great job J$!