My retirement life will be super challenging

January 15, 2020

Introduction

It is my personal finance research. I like to write a blog called "My retirement life will be super challenging".

My 401 K and IRA / Risk management

I just had 53 year old birthday in Oct. 2019. I also learned that I had economics behavior problems. I did not spend time to learn how to invest from 1996 to 2018 December, so I left my USA 401 K and IRA accounts no change from 2010 April to 2019 April, capital preservation for Par tech 401 K and IRA CD in Amtrust bank. I will definitely take the consequence, and I will definitely have very challenging life after I retire in Canada.

I was smart to invest my own 401 K for three jobs as a software engineer from 1999 to 2001, Online gaming system, Trendium inc, and then from 2006 to 2007 Par tech inc. I invested IRA one year in 2005 as well. So I invested over $22,000 US dollars.

If I did not close all my funds and then put into IRA CD from 2006 to 2009, my retirement fund will grow with US S & P 500 Index, those over 10 years will create more than three times more market change, over $66,000 US dollars. I just could not believe that my huge mistake and I have common mistakes called recency bias, and paralysis by analysis.

But I got lost in my busy life to learn how to handle my money properly. I did not spend time to learn until I felt depressed in November 2018. Since I could not solve my own housing problem in Canada, I only could save a down payment less than 20% after I worked 10 years full time.

I have to figure out how to catch up, and push myself to learn as a self-learner.

Actionable Item

I learned from MIT open course Andrew Lo, finance introduction, time and risk management are two things to make finance really hard. I messed up two things, one is 20 years time, one is risk management from 1999 to 2019. What should I do next?

I have $9000 Canadian dollar RRSP, and less than $30,000 US dollar IRA and 401 K. I had 53 years old birthday in Oct. 2019. How can I make a living to use those small amount retirement fund?

Make sure that I will work on something meaningful, help myself and also share my struggle and hard work journey as well. I may need to work on research about social service, social housing, and gain more skills like living in rural area and small cities.