Hi all,
It has to be the worst possible time to retire given the inflation problems. I know a bunch of you just retired. How are you handling it?
(04-04-2022, 03:57 PM)ken-do-nim Wrote: [ -> ]Hi all,
It has to be the worst possible time to retire given the inflation problems. I know a bunch of you just retired. How are you handling it?
I've got a pretty good margin of safety. I think this will change once warmer weather gets here but so far my expenses have been well below what they were when I worked, or had budgeted for retirement. Glad I'm not driving a lot though. Gas around here is down 30 cents from a few weeks ago but today I filled up both tanks of my truck and filled gas cans for working around home. The numbers on the pump moved pretty darn fast.
While it's not a great situation for anyone, I actually think that us who mostly live on dividends have it better than those on a salary. At least that seems to be the case, for now, on this side of the big pond.
Most of my friends are still getting 1-3% raises this year, and this is before taxes. Current inflation number for the Eurozone is at 7.5%.
I haven't done the math on it, but I'm expecting my dividend growth to be somewhere around 10%. And obviously for the bigger companies it'll take a while to be able to transfer inflation costs to the consumer, and even longer for that to show in dividend increases.
Also, now that I do not have to go anywhere if I don't want to, it's quite easy to save money by just driving less. It's somewhere between $9 and $10 per gallon here, (seriously, when are you guys switching over to the metric system??) so it's a big expense that can easily be reduced for those lucky enough who don't have to go to work with a car each day.
(seriously, when are you guys switching over to the metric system??)
Well, there was a big push in school where we had to learn it when I was in Middle School. This would have been 7th-8th grade or in the 1974-75 period.
And where are we today? I used to occasionally give talks to international folks and would always present numbers in kg, km and ha for them. They likely knew the conversions better than I did but it was a courtesy.
I will be refueling today. Last time I purchased gas was a few days after the invasion. Inflation at this level stinks for everyone. I haven't made any large purchases but I know I won't like it when I need a truck soon. Unfortunately I think inflation will be cured by a recession. This is just too much to soft land. I am not wealthy enough yet to invest quite as conservatively as I probably should.
As far as the metric system, why would we measure everything by 10s, when you can just use factors of 3,4,128,5280 or some other random number?
We are doing all right. We have a pretty large margin of income safety.
Will be giving our gardener/handyman and our cleaning person a 10% raise to help them deal with inflation. They are both about a 1/2 day a week.
(04-05-2022, 09:24 AM)rnsmth Wrote: [ -> ]We are doing all right. We have a pretty large margin of income safety.
Will be giving our gardener/handyman and our cleaning person a 10% raise to help them deal with inflation. They are both about a 1/2 day a week.
I think that is very good. Most entry level jobs have increased pay lately. People need to eat and our future is already secured well enough.