saving for retirement?

FrankS

FrankS

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I don't mean money, I am thinking about activities you are putting off until you retire and have more time. For me it's curling, and LF photography.

I have a 4x5 speed Graphic camera, its 135mm Xenar lens, a 90mm Angulon, and several other lenses with and without shutters that I'll be able to try out on this camera with its focal plane shutter.

What about YOUR plans?
 
FrankS said:
I don't mean money, I am thinking about activities you are putting off until you retire and have more time.

What about YOUR plans?
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Without any 'poor me', I am not planning to retire. There is no money for it, and barring a lottery win, there won't be. So I will plan to work until I cannot. At that point, I doubt I'll be worried about photography either.
 
Dear Frank,

As you know, I'm sort of 'semi-retired', and of course I can shoot pretty much whatever I damn' well please on the business.

I always thought I'd shoot lots more 5x7/13x18/half-plate. And I don't.

In other words, what you think you're going to do when you have more time, and what you actually choose to do, may not match up very well.

There's also the point that as you get older, time goes faster and faster, so most things take longer anyway: there's not as much time as you expect.

Cheers,

R.
 
I will work as long as I can or desire to do something else. I'll split my time between South America and California when I retire. Ive trained long and hard -- I'd like to cash in some before I quit.
 
My gut tells me there is much truth in your words, Roger. But once the children have moved out, I'm sure things will be quieter around here and the environment more conducive to more contemplative pursuits.

Bill, I'm optimistic about the economy. Your investments will rebound.
 
FrankS said:
Bill, I'm optimistic about the economy. Your investments will rebound.
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My investments add up to considerably less than the price of an M9. I won't be retiring on them no matter what the stock market does. But thanks for trying to be cheerful. I blame no one, I just have not been able to save for retirement and now is far too late. Three pay cuts this year, back-breaking medical expenses, and the joy of dual living expenses have brought me to rack and ruin. Not the end of the world, but the end of any thoughts of retirement.
 
Thanks to Equitable Life , and having seen my pension forecast [ gloomy ] , and being forcibly semi-retired , I shall continue to be around for the odd day's work as long as I can , but it's like being in limbo .
Certainly using my Kontaxes a lot more .
 
I'm also collecting enlargers it seems. I hope to offer traditional photo courses including darkroom tech. in the future.

Fred, some folks are lucky in that they want to, and are able to, continue their jobs/careers into their old age. Teaching elementary school is not such a situation for me.

Bill, we probably shouldn't get into the American nation health care debate and the role of the government in caring for its people.
 
After seeing a friend drop dead suddenly at age 50 and 2 months I'd suggest not spending too much time planning for the future. The future might be there at a later date... or it might not. My plan is to do as much as I can now, even if it isn't all that I'd like to do, rather than "saving" stuff for the future. Naturally, I have things I don't have time to do right now but I try to do whatever I can. For example, I shoot LF as often as I can. That is sometimes only two or three times per year rather than every weekend. I shoot four to six sheets at a time, rather than 10 or 15 sheets. My goal is to do small amounts of quality activities NOW rather than dreaming about larger amounts in the future.
 
FrankS said:
I don't mean money, I am thinking about activities you are putting off until you retire and have more time. For me it's curling, and LF photography.

I have a 4x5 speed Graphic camera, its 135mm Xenar lens, a 90mm Angulon, and several other lenses with and without shutters that I'll be able to try out on this camera with its focal plane shutter.

What about YOUR plans?
Click to expand...

Try to live now!
 
bmattock said:
Without any 'poor me', I am not planning to retire. There is no money for it, and barring a lottery win, there won't be. So I will plan to work until I cannot. At that point, I doubt I'll be worried about photography either.
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Same here.

I met a man when I was eighteen years old, who had walked the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, from the Netherlands. When my son turns 16 I'll be 46 and I'll take a sabbatical year to walk it myself. I have put it off until two kids have reached (near) maturity, and that'll be long enough. That's the furthest I can plan ahead.

Folks in my family never get that old anyway. If I make it to seventy, I'll be the first in four generations.
 
Roger Hicks said:
In other words, what you think you're going to do when you have more time, and what you actually choose to do, may not match up very well.
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Interesting point. I remember in grade school I would say, "when summer vacation comes, I'm going to ____" and generally not do it. Unless that ___ was swim in the hot weather or lie around doing nothing.

At the moment I thought, I have all summer, I'll do it later.

Maybe that's just the way we are. If you put it off now, you'll put it off later. Or put another way, if it's not fun or important enough to make time for now, you won't make time for it later either.

Another possibility is that it IS fun and important but we're just bad at prioritizing. On a negative note, if we're bad at prioritizing now, we'll probably still be bad at it later! :D
 
I left my work one and a half years ago.

Some achievements: I've returned to university and am studying Chinese. Something I should have learned when I was a child.

Some "still to achieve" items:

- shoot more LF. I shot once in the summer, and was going to today, but forgot to bring the film holder. Brought everything else

- set up and return to darkroom work.

- sell some cameras. Too much gear, not enough photography. The freed-up money would be nice too

....Vick
 
BearCatCow said:
Interesting point. I remember in grade school I would say, "when summer vacation comes, I'm going to ____" and generally not do it. Unless that ___ was swim in the hot weather or lie around doing nothing.

At the moment I thought, I have all summer, I'll do it later.

Maybe that's just the way we are. If you put it off now, you'll put it off later. Or put another way, if it's not fun or important enough to make time for now, you won't make time for it later either.

Another possibility is that it IS fun and important but we're just bad at prioritizing. On a negative note, if we're bad at prioritizing now, we'll probably still be bad at it later! :D
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Beautifully summarized!

Cheers,

R.
 
Nina asks me this. 5 years ago I was made "Senior Staff" which is a position where you can do things like watch over the younger managers. You can basically retire on the job. I locked myself to a lab bench and started designing computer hardware and doing embedded programming again.

I would like to teach on a part-time basis, short courses/ technical courses on computer engineering. "old school ways- assembly language/ realtime embedded programming".

And work on old camera lenses.
 
Fun, that's what it is all about....

Fun, that's what it is all about....

Wow, Brian

Sounds like you are in a nice spot.

My "former company" went bankrupt last year. And the final couple years of work were actually not too much fun.

You sound like you are having fun.

I'm very happy for you.

....Vick




Brian Sweeney said:
Nina asks me this. 5 years ago I was made "Senior Staff" which is a position where you can do things like watch over the younger managers. You can basically retire on the job. I locked myself to a lab bench and started designing computer hardware and doing embedded programming again.

I would like to teach on a part-time basis, short courses/ technical courses on computer engineering. "old school ways- assembly language/ realtime embedded programming".

And work on old camera lenses.
Click to expand...
 
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