You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Is Financial Planning All One Big Lie? Part 2
100% agree on all points.
If you want to get super picky you can defer your 401k rmd if you are still working for that company. That’s pretty rare though
@nealmcspadden Actually that's exactly my situation. I work at H&R Block in the state tax QA testing group. Our group tests the digital tax product for each state. Like most people at Block, I work seasonally., as an employee. I work enough hours so that I qualify for their 401(k). What's nice is not only that I'm 100% vested immediately (because they do that if you're over 50), but I'm not subject to the RMD either (I'm over 70), as long as I'm continuing working here. I also qualify for the company match. Even if I decide to "retire" I only would have to withdraw gradually based on my RMD at that time, which is OK.
This gives me tremendous flexibility. I can continue to work (another perk of the 401(k) is that you can put all your salary into it if you want to), or I can just put a part of it in and build up my account - makes a nice supplementary travel fund because I have some say into how many months I work each year. As a bonus, my family can live on my current earnings and I don't have to withdraw from my "retirement" accounts. Also, if I can work as long as the job stays interesting, I won't have to deal with all the classical retirement questions, such as finding a boring job that doesn't pay anything.
The job is certainly interesting, testing all the state tax regulations, so I pick up some tax knowledge as I go along. This year it promises to be extremely "interesting" because of the new tax law.
Actually, I think retirement is something of a scam. It's basically for people who don't like their job. Did you ever notice that people who enjoy their work keep doing it after their "normal" retirement age? I know a number of tenured professors who just keep working, perhaps at a reduced schedule, because they love what they do. And think of all those Senators, Congresspeople, and both Presidential candidates, who in my opinion should retire but persist in working far beyond their useful life. If you enjoy your job, why not continue doing it, and draw a paycheck for doing it as a bonus, so to speak?
Of course, if everyone had my attitude, that would make current financial planning assumptions obsolete.