financial stability at midlife?

[HollyDay]

I always thought at, or around, 50, we'd be financially secure. I figured we'd be preparing to send dc to college, purchase a vehicle in good repair, saving for weddings, looking toward retirement, having our housing figured out. I'm finding that is not the case. We have planned, prepared, etc. but it just hasn't gone as I'd anticipated.

 

Am I alone in this? I've mentioned before that we live in an area of new cars, expensive houses, and overseas vacations. So, the folks around me IRL either don't have these concerns or a hiding it pretty well.

[SailorMom]

First and foremost - never try to compare your life to others' based on appearances. They may be in debt up to their eyeballs, or gotten a huge inheritance....

I know quite a few people in this position. Either they lost their jobs in the recession, or lost a huge chunk of their retirement savings in the dot-com bust or housing bust.

We're going to be hurting from housing - even though we bought an inexpensive and old house for our area and got a standard mortgage with a good down- payment. We've lost about 30% of our houses value (military, moved here and bought a house in 2005, where we are in Florida is one of the worst in the country, and the BP oil spill also made us lose about 5% in value).

Hang in there.....

[Georgiana Daniels]

I thought we'd be saving for weddings around 50 too, then my daughter gave us 3 months notice :scared:

 

The current economic situation has knocked a lot of people off their planned trajectory, so you are not alone in that regard. We're in our early 40's and doing out best to save, but at the same time knowing we'll likely have to work later than most due to our decision to homeschool.

[Trilliums]

:grouphug::grouphug:

 

 

Over twenty years ago I worked interviewing families across a wide spectrum of socioeconomic situations. I was surprised how many families in McMansions were barely scraping by. One family in particular I remember was living off continuously refinancing their house. Also, almost all families, regardless of income, had huge credit card debt. These interviews were NOT related to financial situation, so they were not families specifically with money problems. It was, however, part of the info we collected. I know it is easy to blame the current financial situation...but I think financial instability in our country has been pervasive for decades. Now it is more out in the open.