Let’s start this week’s roundup with Micro-frugality VS. Macro-frugality, posted by my friend Kevin M at Out Of Your Rut. It’s less about “not sweating the small stuff” and more about the limits of frugality. In the end, it’s the large things that make nearly all the difference, kinda like the 80/20 rule that applies to most stuff.
At One Money Design, Danny Kofke asks his readers Are You Ready for Retirement? He discusses a poll showing that 44% of boomers say they are not confident they’ll have enough to retire comfortably. I believe it, especially after the decade we just had.
In Forbes this week I caught an article titled The Retirement Spending Solution. The author cites a study by Bill Bengen from 1994 in which Bill concludes that 4.5% is the retiree safe withdrawal rate. I’d be cusious what Mr Bengen would conclude today after the decade ending in 2009.
The Weakonomist thinks The Rich Should Want To Be Taxed More. Aside from Buffett’s remarks that his secretary is in a higher bracket than he is, I don’t see too make rich people asking to pay more. You know, if you want, you can send money right to the treasury to pay off the national debt. So if you have fourteen trillion dollars burning a hole in your pocket, just send it on over to Uncle Sam. Me, I have bills to pay, and can’t count on social security, so I also have a retirement account to fund.
And to close this week, Phil Brewer talked about Raising your standard of living by focusing your spending, suggesting that we focus on maximizing our standard of living by how we spend, focusing on what gives the most satisfaction. Sounds good to me.
I didn’t think I’d be ready to retire, then health issues forced me to do that several years early. I had to rethink my finances and came to the conclusion that small things do matter, particularly when you have a large accumulation of them. Frugality pays and after a while, it becomes habit. Six years later, I’m managing just fine.