10 Things (Most) Retirees Should Never Buy

retirement is not just the absence of a job it's a complete and total change of Lifestyle anyone who tells you differently has probably never been permanently retired sometimes that lifestyle change means traveling the world other times it means quietly pursuing a personal passion but one hundred percent of the time it means that a retiree will spend their money differently than when they did during their working years this video discusses 10 things that people stop buying in retirement not because they're forced to but either because they've earned the right to or they no longer need to let's get into it but before we do know that this channel has hundreds of videos dedicated to improving retirees in their retirement lives and many of the upcoming videos we'll discuss things that are both important and even urgent in some cases so make sure you click subscribe and turn on notifications so that you get alerted the next time I post a video I post once sometimes even twice a week depending on what's happening in the world alright I'm going to move through these rather quickly so let's go Point number one is anything high maintenance when you retire you have the right to have a low maintenance home a low maintenance car low maintenance close a low maintenance lifestyle it doesn't make you lazy it doesn't make you different than other people you've paid your dues and now is your time to enjoy life completely the next point is updated versions of Technology let's face it when a new version of Technology comes out we dutifully take out our credit card and we purchase it more often than not in some instances like virus protection it makes perfect sense we always want to stay one step ahead of the bad guys but in most instances it doesn't make sense do we really need the latest iPhone for example for most people the answer is no they may not even be able to tell the difference between the old iPhone with a software upgrade and the new iPhone but yet they go out and they buy it anyway the same could be said about software I'll give you a good example my daughters who do a lot of the Photoshop work on this channel tell me that there isn't a big difference between Photoshop 2021 and 2023. I can't attest to this personally but there are wizes on the software so I have to take that at face value they say the 2023 version has some things that are a little bit more intuitive but by and large the same 10 or 15 functions that they use on 2021 are those used on 2023 they aren't using anything new the same holds true with a lot of other Tech most of the time a company will release a new version because they want to sell you an entirely new product and they can't sell you a new product unless they have something different to offer you oftentimes different doesn't mean better and frankly oftentimes different means worse I can think of a lot of products that I used 10 years ago the software was much better than than it is now because it's all web-based which is slower than based on downloading that software onto the PC the next item is books the average number of books in a large bookstore is less than ten thousand I'm sure that there is a Superstore out there somewhere that has more than ten thousand but if you walk into even the largest bookstore and you started counting books on the shelves it would be hard to find more than ten thousand by contrast if you were to walk into a city public library that Library would have hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of books the New York City public library in Manhattan by the way has over 4 million books and of course just about anything that you can find on the bookshelf in a bookstore can be checked out from a public library for absolutely no cost the next point that people shouldn't pay for are souvenirs let's face it when we travel when we go on vacation we want to remember that moment and there's nothing better than that Talisman sitting on the Shelf at the gift shop that reminds us of the vacation but remember most of these just sit in a box a drawer or a bag never to be seen again or at least not for many many years knowing this in advance will save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the course of your retirement and there is a better way and the good part is that knowing what you actually want out of that Talisman is to capture that memory again and again and again and knowing that means that you can simply use things that you already own to do that the phone on your camera for example is used specifically for capturing that moment at the luau where you and those that you love were amazed at the Hawaiian dancer who is twirling the stick that was on fire how can you do this well the good news is that it's absolutely free there are only three things that you need to own and you already own them the first is the phone on your camera that phone on your camera is the best way to capture that moment and review it again and again the second is a decent Journal where you can write down what you were thinking at the time that photo was taken and the third is the software that's built into the phone most of the time whether it's an iPhone or an Android there's software on that phone where you can categorize those very special photos and have them display again and again on a rotating basis if you don't know how to use the software if you own an iPhone Apple will show you how to use that function on the iPhone or the iPad if you have an Android well you may need to watch a YouTube video the point is would you rather own a two inch tiki God from the luau or one fantastic photo taken at that luau of you and your family that you and they can cherish for the years ahead the next no-fly zone so to speak is the absolute newest fashion for those of you who know anything about the Fashion World you will know that Johnny Versace the face of Versace passed away way too young at 50 years old and if you do know fashion you know that the Versace Medusa is something one can spot across the room it is that dramatic and it's usually surrounded by gold and black or some other glittery color that makes it Stand Out Versace is reminiscent of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas and the clothing is owned by people with a lot of money usually or those that want to appear as if they have a lot of money and really know their fashion but here's the important Point Versace also has other clothing that doesn't bling out like that in fact if you look at the clothes that Gianni Versace wore himself he typically was not wearing a lime green shirt or something similar he was wearing oftentimes a black polo or a black T-shirt a pair of jeans and maybe even a brown leather jacket you wouldn't see him out peacocking bright colors because frankly that's not what a 50 year old does most of the time those who are older wear more conservative more classic clothes that you can wear today tomorrow next year five years and even 10 years into the future and they look just as good on you this is fortunate because the latest fashions cost a lot of money and they're usually owned by people in in their 20s and 30s oftentimes pursuing a life partner this isn't to say that one can't dress well but you don't need to wear Runway quality clothes when you're on your way to the golf course running an errand or just out doing a bit of shopping the next point and it's an obvious one is your mortgage by the time you retire it is a really good idea to have your mortgage paid off now there is an ongoing debate about this point because mortgages currently are three percent if you've taken them out in the last five years or so plus or minus a bit but if you had the funds and you invested it even in riskless U.S treasury Securities you can get between three and a half and four percent currently so doesn't that mean that you should take all of your funds and invest them rather than pay down your mortgage especially if it's a three percent well there is a difference between a point in time argument and an over a period of time argument and the point in time argument is a weak one let me explain if you won the lottery tomorrow and you took a two hundred thousand dollar portion of your lottery winnings and use that to pay off your two hundred thousand dollar mortgage You could argue that the better choice especially if you had a three percent mortgage was to invest that 200 000 in a 20 or 15 or 25-year U.S treasury note or U.S treasury bond paying four percent at that point in time if you suddenly receive a big payment from the Lottery Commission and you can invest it at four percent it makes more sense in many cases than paying off a three percent mortgage but most people don't win the lottery and most people don't have a four percent fixed guaranteed treasury yield available to them over the life of their mortgage so if you're just paying the minimum which is what the other choice is then you'll be faced with situations where you can invest and treasury yields are higher they're lower they may even not be something you put your money into maybe you put your funds into other Investments like equities which are extremely variable the point is that the cash flow from the mortgage or the lack of cash flow from a mortgage will definitely be felt when you're in retirement but if you freed up your mortgage in all of that extra cash flow is just flowing right into you for other things it is definitely a game changer it almost doesn't matter what the interest rate is on your mortgage if it's gone the cash is available for you to use on other things next is a second car during our working years especially if you have a dual income family the couple oftentimes in fact rarely goes to the same building or even in the same direction in many cases so there's a need for two cars one goes one way one goes the other and in some instances you have one parent who works another who stays home with the children and they both need an automobile for different reasons one to get to the office the other to take the children around their activities and to school of course but with two cars comes two car payments two insurance payments two parking spots many times you have to pay for parking and wear and tear on two cars couples find that in retirement they do a lot more together than they did during their working years and one car May sit unused sure they may switch from one to the other back and forth but you can only drive one car at a time especially if there are two of you in that same car if this sounds like you perhaps this is a sign that you don't need that second car the next expense you no longer need to incur is professional clothing most of the time when someone Works they wear some uniform of some sort whether that uniform is a suit business casual or an actual uniform it costs money and that uniform is not something that you need to wear in retirement anymore in fact when you retire you can wear basically whatever you want in most cases and this means that your clothing costs actually go down next up commuting costs along those same lines if you are living in New York and you work every day well there's a good chance especially if you don't live in the city that you'll be taking the train in for example I take in Metro North other people take in New Jersey Transit but all of these trains come into a central train station and people go from there the cost of a ticket to go into New York City at least a monthly ticket is about 250 dollars per month now if you buy it monthly it's 250 dollars per month if you buy daily tickets one way or even a 10 ride the cost is twice the cost of a monthly ticket and of course if I go into the city on the weekends to have dinner or see a play or some other activity in the city the commute is still part of the monthly commute costs It's a Wonderful way to travel by the way there have been rare instances where I've bought the monthly ticket and traveled so much either for business or personal reasons that I would have been better off buying a daily ticket but it's rare and it's part of the cost of doing business so to speak the problem becomes if you're used to buying a monthly ticket and you retire and you don't continue to go into the city at that same frequency it's automatic you pay the 250 a month in the case that I'm discussing here yours will be different of course but you're not using it the way that you did 50 is only 50 percent if you're actually using it otherwise it's a hundred percent of nothing that you're getting for that ticket so check your auto renewal for trains and buses if you have Auto Renew on those tickets because many times it will be cheaper just to buy a one-way ticket out and back next up Peak Travel costs the biggest Arbitrage in travel is arbitraging time and money let me explain as retiree you have a lot of extra time you can travel at different points during the day you can travel on different days during the week and you can even travel different weeks and months of the year than someone who is on a defined schedule conversely that same person who has to get on that plane on Monday morning at 8 A.M and get on the plane coming home Friday at 5 pm has very little flexibility so the costs of those tickets are quite high but this Theory doesn't just apply to travel hotels are far more expensive during High season than they are during off season and if you have the ability to Arbitrage because you have the time you can save a lot of money if you like this video please make sure you click subscribe and turn on notifications so that you get alerted the next time I post a video I post once or twice a week depending on what's going on in the world also if you like this video check out that video on six big purchases retirees almost always regret this is Jeff Schmidt thanks for watching

Channel: Holy Schmidt!

Views: 415,547

Keywords: don't pay for these in retirement, things retirees should never buy, things retirees should never buy, things to never buy, things you should never buy, things i stop buying

Id: 4hKBt6pAdKU

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2023