No.

Existence had grown exponentially more expensive in my lifetime, well outpacing what a 401k or pension will realistically ever be able to achieve. At best, it might buy me 5-10 years after I am physically unable to work; if I mentally decline too soon due to age (quite likely in my family), I will die in poverty.

That isn’t even touching on the possibility of a habitable climate or war, and assumes the survival of the current economic system.

My wife and I have pensions plans. We won’t retire for another 35 or 40 years but that’s the plan.

Yep. I just always put money in my 401k, I don’t know what a paycheck without 15% going to retirement looks like. I’ve still got at least 30 years to go.

Retirement sounds great till you try it. The expression is “even your garage can’t get any cleaner”. This refers to the boredom retirement can be for some. The solution that I found was a part time job, not for the money, but doing something I enjoyed. You no longer have the pressure of a “real” job. The best job that you will ever have is the job that you really don’t need.

Barring societal collapse I believe I will be able to retire, but that’s only because I’ve gotten extraordinarily lucky in life.

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Nope, never. My retirement plan is a ditch with a nice view of the Rockies in Colorado and a bottle of gin on a cold winter night. Everything I’ve saved into (SS, TSP, retirement accounts) will inevitably disappear before I can access them/hit the age requirements. I don’t trust the system at all (I didn’t trust it before the election outcome either). I’m fucked. We’re all fucked. Might as well live it up now while I still can.

No. My mother has unretired twice and my grandmother has come out of retirement four times. They don’t have the knack for it and I doubt I will either.

No, and crying

I don’t think think I’ll ever “retire” in the traditional sense.

My thought was to always have a severe mental breakdown around 50 and run off to the woods to build a log cabin and grow my own food. My wife knows of this plan but I’m pretty sure she thinks it’s a joke. It’s not.

Incurable cancer, chemo brain means I can’t concentrate and often have trouble thinking straight. Involuntarily “retired” on medical insurance. Not working wasn’t what I expected it to be.

Yes.

By Planning.

I didn’t think it would work for the first 10 years. I just wanted to eat better cat food in retirement.

Pursuing higher paid jobs when I can. Changing jobs periodically. Pursuing higher pay until the pay asked for my soul. Then stepped back, changed jobs, and make way more for less.

Paying down debt when possible. Building up to a constant dollar figure of debit and investment per month. Growing that when I can. I now save 40%+ of my income.

Keeping my spending low by prioritizing my time on free things. Prioritizing the money I spend on high pact purchases.

Planning with 4% rule. Works out to needing 300 times your monthly spend in savings. Driving that number down. A $15 a month expense requires $4,500 invested to support.

A great market runup.

I am glad I did too. My friends are dying. One’s 40’s are rough.

One day, yes. I budget accordingly and am lucky enough to be paid relatively well. But at the same time, I prioritize quality of life now because there’s no guarantee I’ll make it to retirement. Id rather retire later if it means better qol now.

Becoming so rich that greeds corrupts me and becoming the villian that I always despised.

Or die.

Probably the latter tho… 😓

Statistically people with depression like me is at a higher risk of suicide so yea maybe I’d be dead. Or since I’m in the US, die due to political persecution. Basically just boils down to “die”.

My workplace has a defined benefit pension and they announced that all employees will be losing this pension (even those who are a couple years from retirement).

We will be switched over to a defined contribution pension and our previous contributions will be converted retroactively.

I don’t foresee this new pension lasting more than 5 years before they cut it completely. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they’re able to keep our pension contributions retroactively, fucking everyone over.