You still have many years to "put away money". I presume you & DH are still working. A goal would be to pay off mortgage and vehicle loans. At 55, 3 of my 4 children still lived at home. It was many years before I retired. I moved to AZ because 2 of my children were here. It has turned out to be a very good decision.
Great question E and one of those I often try not to think about. I ****ed away more money on stuff I never needed than I could ever count. I always harken back to my late teens when a good friend of the family, an insurance agent selling annuities, encouraging me to "pay myself first." Naturally I ignored him. The smartest thing we ever did with a dollar was to buy in Sun City while we were 51. It stretched us a bit owning two houses, but in the long was a great move. Perhaps my biggest regret from 25 years back was to find the computer. It was life changing in so many ways, some really good, some really bad.
Save, Save, Save and dump, dump, dump. Of course I didn't listen to my own advice. :wink-new: I was laid off from my 20 year job in 2009 at age 57, seemed terrible at the time, but taking what was left of my 401K and giving it to my financial analyst son at UBS for investment was the best thing that ever happened to me financially. I did the same thing as Bill, I like stuff/gadgets/toys way too much. I just turned 63 and am looking at all the "CRAP" I have accumulated and am wondering what to do with it all in a few years. If it was just me I would get a large dumpster and/or have a giant garage sale. Now my mother-in-law is moving in with one of her boys and we are working to downsize her junk and she it trying to give it to her kids. I am protesting and it is working somewhat, but Kay wants some of the keepsakes. It is hard to protest against a queen size tatted bed spread that her great grandmother made in the early 1900s. She spun the flax first, then made the bed spread with it. Kay also loves Christmas so we have probably 10 storage bins of Christmas decorations. I protest each year because we go visit the kids and we end up only using one box to put out. I have suggested getting rid of most the boxes, but she won't have any part of it. :bull_head: So my advice is to squirrel away as much money as possible and at the same time downsize and get rid of those storage boxes that likely don't have anything of value in them.
Speaking of money. I recently learned that a Revocable trust is the same as cash as far as Medicaid is concerned. An Irrevocable trust is a different story but apparently one must be careful. From what I have read making a trust can cost several thousand dollars. I'm still doing research. Any info would be welcome. BTW. You have to spend down to $2,000 before you can go on Medicaid. A neighbor just did that - paid off all debts - and she isn't even 60. Also there is a 5 year lookback to see what you did with funds. You can't just "give away" money. However, you can "gift" $10,000 per person each year.
