Northeast Gardening: Money Matters, 0 by victorgardener

victorgardener wrote:
As promised, I want to start this thread to deal with all matters financial. Without disclosing personal information (of course!), let's discuss any elements of personal finance, investing, saving, etc. I am not an expert, but it is one of my interests/hobbies and I follow it pretty closely. So feel free to ask general questions like how the economy works, what does the Federal Reserve do, how does the government affect the economy (less than many people think), what is a mutual fund, how does the stock market work, etc.

It's a good tie-in to the retirement thread. So I will start with that - for those already retired, do you feel you prepared sufficiently for retirement? Should have saved more? How did you save? Do you have a good pension? 401(k)? How much did you sacrifice to save for retirement? What mistakes did you make?

For those still working - are you saving enough? What are you doing to save more? Of course, those unemployed have a much more pressing need and can't really think about saving for retirement.

A few things off the top of my head. Avoiding getting into debt is the number one thing I try to impress upon young people starting out. Obviously saving starts with income and that means getting a good job so education is more critical than ever. It's getting to the point where a masters is practically necessary. It's the equivalent of what an undergraduate degree was years ago.

Other parts of 'building the foundation' include living within your means (biggie!), getting insurance (health, life, disability, long-term care, etc.), putting money away regularly and investing diversely.