No. I just got burned by the “standard wisdom.” My ex husband and I went into a lot of debt but saved a lot in retirement. We went through a period where we were drowning in debt and he was out of work for a long time; we had to tap into our considerable retirement and then we watched it just drain because of the fees and penalties - years and years of savings went very quickly down the toilet in a matter of months.
We made tons of money and yet we still struggled to get by; honestly, I don’t know how people do it who have “regular” income.
Nowadays I live with much less debt but I am recovering from that period of time still. I have very little retirement and I wonder if I’ll ever really build it up to a proper size.
Meantime, my mom was a school teacher who made little money during her working years but now, in her retirement, has a very nice pension and healthcare.
Fortunately, the man I am married to now has the kind of job that still has the cushy benefits, so hopefully we will be okay but no longer do I feel that I am impervious to hardship, that it makes sense for my retirement funds to have so many strings attached to them - I am supposed to manage my own money but cannot get into it if I need it. I no longer believe that it really makes that much sense for me to be putting retirement funds into stocks. And, I am a pretty smart lady. My ex husband actually has a masters degree in economics and works in finance. So, if we could not really set ourselves up for a comfortable retirement, I wonder who can.
