Sunday, May 25, 2014

Retirement strategy

I came across this comment on an article entitled 25% of Americans Saving 0% for Retirement, as follows:

Here is a new definition for saving for retirement:

1) Pay of all debts.
2) Tear up all credit cards.
3) Buy a piece of land and put a house on it, that you can afford on minimum wage (add on later). For sale by owner doesn't require the bank or credit checks.
4) Make sure that land has a good well and space for a garden and some fruit trees (definitely not in CA!). If the well water has tannins and sulfur in it, set up a rain barrel or other system for drinking.
5) Stock up on enough canning jars to provide food for your family for two years minimum. Can everything you can get your hands on. Your biggest investments will be in a pressure canner.
6) Get off all processed foods so that you stay in decent health and because you are under extreme stress, take butt loads of fish oil and vitamin B Complex Super Potency and don't take the krill oil it's full of poisons.
7) Learn to raise some of your own livestock. miniature goats, chickens, rabbits, etc.
8) Learn to pray and seek God as if your life depends upon it because it does. God provides when there doesn't seem to be a way. I've seen it time and time again.

You can do all of this on 1 or 2 acres. I bought, on minimum wage, a 3 BR mobile with 1 1/2 BA on 1.35 acres with fruit trees, a washer, an upright freezer and a double carport and paid it off in seven years.

I saved up for that place with change I kept sticking in a creamer jar. Yes, I saved for a down payment on a house with change.

What NOT to do:

• Don't eat out.
• Don't get cable or satellite and all of those non essential gadgets that eat up your wealth.
• Don't buy new if you can find it used.
• Learn to cook from scratch. Not only is it cheaper but it is healthier.
• Don't go into debt for new cars, expensive houses, expensive clothes, jewelry, gold or silver.

When things go belly up, whatever doesn't get traded within the first couple of weeks will be worthless because food and medicine will become more valuable than anything. You can't eat gold!

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I found this to be an interesting comment because, to a large extent, it's the method Don and I have used throughout our productive years. Most peoples' strategy as they grow older has been to earn more; our strategy has been to spend less.

Or are we crazy?

19 comments:

  1. Patrice - thanks for posting this. No trying to figure anything out - simple and to the point. I'm printing it on real paper as a daily reminder....
    NancyLee

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  2. I agree up until the last sentence. While you may not be able to eat gold, it has never been worth nothing and can store your wealth until the hard times end. Witness the people in Zimbabwe mining gold to buy bread every day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ubJp6rmUYM

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  3. i often say to people, 'you can't eat gold!'.

    my concern is WHERE to settle, assuming God gives us a chance to do so.
    we should have everything paid off in 3 years, which sounds good except that it is unproductive debt [as in, we don't have a house].
    barring disaster i hope to be free in 3 years.
    our daughter has an incurable disease so will always be medicine dependent and my husband is being treated for prostate cancer and is no spring chicken!
    as always, hope is my companion. it's what keeps us all going as we trust our Lord to have our best interests at heart. i really loved this article because it is the practical, down-to-earth things that we need to concentrate on.
    many thanks.
    deb h.

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  4. All of the suggestions are great and ones that we have been following for years. So far it is working for us and hope that it continues to. You can't save money if you spend it.

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  5. All good advice except for "Get off all processed foods... take butt loads of fish oil and vitamin B Complex Super Potency". Study after study have shown these things to be of no value. It is pure superstition. Haven't you caught on yet that those late night barkers are selling you fear and superstition at a very high price?

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    Replies
    1. Keep in mind this is someone else's comment that I've copied over. We don't fall for the supplementation route either, nor do we have television to see the late night barkers.

      - Patrice

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    2. I should do a better job of composing my comment. I certainly didn't mean "you" but was merely using a colloquial "you" to whom ever wrote the piece. I will strive in the future to make my comment more clear and less rude as that was not my intent.

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  6. I would add to your list that you need to tithe. You will live hand to mouth if you do not honor God back with what he has given you.

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  7. I would add to your to do list, Tithing. You will always live hand to mouth if you do not honor God back with what he has given you.

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  8. Your question - yes, you are crazy. However, it doesn't mean you are wrong.

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  9. "Fifty-five percent of Americans don't know if they are participating in a 401(k)"

    PAINFUL to see this stat from NBC. It means people just see money taken out of their paycheck and don't ask why or what it is being used for.

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  10. You all are incurably crazy! There I said it. The one thing missing is courage. Man, just jumping in to the mix and holding your nose above the rising water. I admire all of you who have done this, and will continue to reading on this blog. By the way its a good kind of crazy. Killerwales

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  11. Since sanity seems to be defined by comparison to the majority of the population, I guess you're crazier than an outhouse rat.

    Stay that way. What they call sane these days seems to me to look a lot like calling right wrong and wrong right.

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  12. There's an old adage that I like to live by. I don't know where I first heard it:

    "To have more, desire less."

    Seems to fit.

    Just Me

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  13. I didn't see an email address .. but thought you might 'enjoy' reading this article (perhaps you have already) .. about a shake up in the EU (France and other countries) by the 'far' right. This comment is not for print
    http://news.yahoo.com/far-national-front-triumphs-french-euro-vote-181424443.html

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  14. Excellent advice. I'm with generalgorn about getting good with God. I'd also add being locating FAR from any metropolitan area. Montana Guy

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  15. I would love some of that "crazy" to retire on.....hope your wish comes true.

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