Yeh she's been working in a shop for most of her life. The worst thing is that she works for her other son. I'd never let my Mum work for me at that age...or ever for that matter!

If it's light duties why not?
Keeping an active mind is important

Why not?

If someone wants to work, they should - full stop. It can be what keeps one's mind active, alive and working, and can be excellent for one's self esteem.

My dad retired early, but has kept himself very active in his retirement. My mother quit work when she had me, and always felt she could never go back into the workplace because she didn't have current skills - yet she wanted to do something. My father insisted she quit work when I came along, the worst thing he ever could have done, but hey, it was the 60s. My mother died at age 56, and I am convinced for many reasons that at least part of her illness was because she did not work since she was 28.

Men think they're doing women a favor by forbidding them to work. Not always. Quite often it is an immense disservice.

Marie

I employ property managers so managing is not an issue.
I only get involved between tenancies to fix or replace things.
Other investors wouldn't care but I want my properties to be clean and well maintained to attract good tenants.
I don't like cleaning after people so I let the professionals go in first to do their bit and we go afterwards and give the place our personal touch.

When I retire it will probably be good to have some properties
because not only they will provide me with an income stream but
if I wanted to get involved it could give me something to do.

Finally, it doesn't hurt to have an open mind to any investment and this is one of the best ones around.
It's not for everyone and is certainly not the same in all countries because factors such as the lending criteria, tax system, tenancy legislation could make this a better or worse investment but for me and speaking from my experience with the Australian property market it will help me achieve my goals.

Australia is probably one of the best countries in the world to invest in, a lot of people want to come and live here so there will always be tenants, we are a resource rich country so people will always have work, we have a very healthy banking system and the other factors mentioned above are not hindering investment.

cheers

As a non-Australian resident, investing in Australia is not that attractive. Non-residents don't get a tax-free threshold and can't carry real estate losses forward unless a worldwide loss is made. There are capital gains taxes for non-residents too. Then there's stamp duty. Looking at houses to buy we would have been up for at least $A70k in stamp duty

How to retire early ?

Quite simple, work hard, amass a pile of dosh and then you chose what you want to do, when you want to do it. It's far better than complete retirement.

Marie

You will pay capital gains tax on 50% of the appreciated value of the property when you sell but only IF YOU SELL
If you keep a property for the income it provides then you'll be fine.

Most people never invest in property, they may buy a place to live in but they stop at that. We investors are a minority and there is a reason for this. I agree with you that investing in property is not easy. Borrowing and holding a property is not easy and if it wasn't for the fact that I use borrowed money and gear it giving me infinite returns, or the tax benefits and the 50% discount of the capital gains it probably wouldn't be worth it.

To pay that much stamp duty you'll need to buy properties worth $1.5Million.
A portfolio worth this much could provide for a comfortable retirement. A more common property (worth $400K) will only have $13K stamp duty.

I always buy 1 property at a time and Stamp duty doesn't worry me because its paid from the loan.
I use equity from the first property to borrow the down payment for the 2nd property. This way I don't use my own money and I borrow the full amount including stamp duty.

cheers

When did I mention forbidding anyone fro
working?

I could just never imagine employing my mother. But I would actively discourage my mother from working at 75. That is a ripe old age. I wouldn't encourage her to sit at home waiting for death either.

Yes, it basically boils down to riding a property boom or selling crap on ebay....as far as I can work out in any case.

you can also get a really well paid job in the bank and not have a stupidly extravagant lifestyle for 10 years and then retire on the savings

Yes you can, this is the most common, most likely, and easiest way to retire early.

Do people get stock options in Swiss companies?

agreed. though i really found out i was in the wrong job when i was helping someone in a trading team avoid tax on his bonus payment. his bonus payment looked like this written on paper: £1xx,xxx,xxx.

OK, so the first digit was a '1', but earning a 9 figure bonus in one year. FFS, I'm not going to earn that in a lifetime!

Sure you will, why won't you? Work hard, think big, take chances.

would you care to bet on it?

i'd have to earn £4m a year, every year for 25 years just to get the first digit of that bonus. The subsequent digits weren't so shabby either, i wouldn't even earn the rest of that bonus cheque even after you deduct the first £100m of it.

That's not normally how it works. You start off losing money, then you break even, then you earn a bit, and the last year you work you earn most of the money you'll ever earn.

Yikes! Is your post infused with exaggerations or hyperbole? Is it, in fact, a total fabrication?

Scarily ridiculous sums. Surely no single employee is worth that much. I know I'd take the job for half that sort of bonus.

Some hedge funds have performance fees of up to 50%. Even if it's a relatively normal 25% and the $3bn hedge fund has a lucky year and makes a 30% return(about $1bn), that's $250M in extra fees that year. If there are 20 traders, that's split between all of them but very unevenly, it depends on the hand they had in the making of the profit. That bonus is high, but only the percentage has to do with skill and worth, not the absolute amount. In effect it's like having a share in the company.

Oh.

It seems I made the wrong career choice.

But life isn't just about money, right? Right????!!

Money is irrelevant! But it sure would be nice to stick your card in the wall, hit "balance" and see +951000CHF