Redefining Retirement In 2024

We’re not going to post the stats on the dismal state of retirement savings — across age groups — in the United States. 

It’s the holiday season after all. So you’re either extra depressed or super happy. These numbers, which you’ve likely seen anyhow, will only make you more sad or kill your good mood. 

Suffice to say, there’s a retirement crisis in America. 

Among actual retirees struggling to make ends meet, living on fixed incomes, often fronted by relatively weak Social Security checks. And among people presently in the phase of saving for retirement. 

So, in 2024, The Juice will focus on retirement. We’re going to hit it from literally every angle possible. Practical and theoretical. Quantitative and qualitative. Traditionally and non-traditionally. 

Traditionally, as in how do you save for retirement if you actually think you have a fighting chance at it? Via workplace retirement plans, individual retirement accounts, general stock and ETF investing and more. 

Non-traditionally, as in you know you’ll never retire. So what do you have to do now — as soon as possible — to situate yourself today and for when you’re older. This side of the coin involves investing, but goes heavy into personal finance, particularly saving, budgeting, cash allocation, housing and cost of living. 

Today, let’s set the stage for 2024 by looking at each area. 

Traditionally, there’s the whole save X amount of money every single month, gunning for an X percent rate of return so you’ll have X amount of money in X amount of years. If you can pull this off without breaking your back overworking, more power to you. But, often, this oft-prescribed plan backfires. Twenty or thirty years in, you realize you’re falling way short of what you’ll need. 

The experts tend to only suggest “catching up” or working longer. Not always realistic. The Juice will get real and discuss how to handle this. Which will involve non-traditional ways. 

Non-traditionally, you might never retire. Or, maybe you’ll never actually save for retirement. Instead, you’ll save throughout mid-life (say 30 to 55) to ensure you don’t have any big expenses come 55-plus. This low cost of living means you need less money on your way to the grave. 

The thing is you just don’t often see the non-traditional part discussed in real life, practical terms. It’s not as easy as working longer. It requires a more comprehensive personal financial plan, which we’ll outline in great detail. Housing will play into this equation big time, given that it’s many, if not most people’s biggest and most cumbersome expense. 

So, tell a friend about The Juice. Forward them this email so they can sign up and receive every email we send in 2024 and beyond. 

Speaking of housing …

40% of homeowners in the US do not have a mortgage. Despite all you hear about the very real housing crisis — and all the talk we do about it — there’s a record number of people who have no housing payment, not to mention the ones with very low, sub-5% interest rates on existing mortgages. 

These people likely are not part of the housing crisis. 

Though likely not to the same extent in percentages or raw numbers, there are the lucky ones relatively immune to the retirement crisis. Yes, the people comfortably on the traditional path. Those making tons of cash. Folks with huge inheritances. Or all or some of the above. 

But — and sorry if this depresses you — there are people other than stock option millionaires and billionaires who have used the stock market to fast track, if not seal the deal on their retirement savings. 

The Juice knows a few of them. 

There are the people who five years ago — maybe longer — looked at a company like Tesla (TSLA) and said, I believe. They went against the investing lesson of don’t put all your eggs in one basket and put their eggs all in one basket. 

If five years or so ago, you somehow threw together $100,000 and put it all in TSLA stock, you would have more than $1.1 million today. 

The Juice knows a handful more who did it with a lesser publicized stock — Sirius XM (SIRI). We were on the message boards way back around 2008 when these ardent SIRI longs were gobbling up shares for under $1.00. Sometimes as low as $0.10, $0.20 or $0.30 a share. Every time the stock dropped, they bought more. Some of these people cashed out for mid-to-high six and sometimes low seven figures. No joke. 

And, of course, there are the folks who, less on conviction and more on speculation, bought meme stocks (or timed them right) during the pandemic and even, more recently, with, say, Carvana (CVNA), and cashed out for what amounts to a retirement nest egg or something close to it. 

Those are incredible stories. They’re windfalls that take what could have been a life-consuming problem and effectively wiped it away. 

The Bottom Line: We’re not advocating any of these relatively risky approaches. However, we shouldn’t ignore these stories either. For every hundred people you see telling tall tales of getting rich on a stock, one or two actually got rich on a stock. 

At The Juice, we tend toward what we like to call an aggressively conservative approach to investing. Spreading your money across big tech names, specific sectors and dividend payers, often via ETFs. However, we also dream. And dream big. 

As long as you’re not putting your or your family’s current and future financial picture at risk, follow your conviction with at least a little bit of your money. While it’s super easy to look in the rearview mirror of historical returns, it’s also super easy to fear taking a chance. 

If you really think you’re seeing the future now, speculate a bit. If you have sufficient capital to play with, there’s nothing wrong with going overweight the stock you think might be the next TSLA or SIRI, even if it is the present day iteration of TSLA or SIRI. 

On that note, happy new year and have fun investing. 

May you be safe, healthy and prosperous.

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