[Vince]

Hi all, Feeling incredibly discouraged. Many personal finance guides state 1x gross salary saved by age 30 and 3x by age 40 to be on track for a “normal” retirement.

This is on top of a 3-6 month emergency fund and other financial commitments.

Due to a major financial setback, my savings/investment accounts were depleted and I dont see retirement in my future.

This is so depressing….
For anyone that had to reset, please share your stories with me!

[Tanya]

I divorced at 40– he took half of what I put away for retirement since he was a spender and had nothing saved.

I also have to pay child support but that’s temporary as kids are older teens.. Anyway, despite that, I increased my salary and went down to the bare bones for necessities.

I pay myself first and what is left over, I use for everything else. BTW, I even have “bunny ears” for TV.

It’s not entirely hopeless- I’m learning to live on basic things so my retirement won’t be as expensive and I won’t need as much as I thought.

[Gonzalo]

I used to look at stuff like this but then realized that it isn’t applicable to everybody.

It does not take into account my individual goals, timeline, and lifestyle in retirement.

I used to stare at a chart from T Rowe Price. This one is from Fidelity.

Consider that they want you to invest as much money with them as possible.

[Robert]

I just turned 62 about four months ago. I have been knocked down every decade of my life since I turned 20.

As far as the basics, Dave Ramsey has got some great steps for basic steps towards financial security; and we are here for the more advanced stuff.

Since we don’t know the specifics of your situation; I’m not sure how detailed our advice could be or would be; all I can say with limited information that you’ve given us to this point – is try to figure out what you could’ve done better and when; try to set up a plan going forward to where you don’t make the same mistakes that you might have made before; or to where you have other guardrails in place… And just keep moving forward.

You might need to either get a side hustle or additional Education; or your original projected retirement date may have to be pushed out further.

But a lot of people recover from setbacks, and if you got the right attitude and make the right actions, you too will recover from your setback. (Trust me on this one – I’m not a brain surgeon and I recovered from every one of mine.)

[Author]

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