Changing Mindsets: From Saving and Investing to Enjoying What You've Worked Hard to Save and Invest

[shipgeeks]

There was an earlier post about removing framed photos from their frames, packing them in nice envelopes by family or subject, and giving away the bulky frames.  Excellent idea, and I have finally started doing so.

Well.  I found one in which the photo was glued securely to a thick piece of wood, cut to fit into the fancy frame. That block of wood will have to stay as is, within that envelope.

Now I'm finding some in which the donor apparently put dabs of clear glue onto each piece of glass before putting the frame together.  The photos are stuck to the glass, and if I try to gently peel them off, a piece of the photo comes off and stays with the glass.  Aargh.  Not a good way to keep a photo, and not a good way to donate frames.

Any ideas on how I could safely separate glass from photo?

[Mary229]

On 3/8/2024 at 4:06 PM, crystalspin said:

After cancelling our Hawaii-Tahiti trip over worries about others' health back home (already had the replacement trip booked), it was time to arrange flights and hotels for Voyage of the Vikings (R/T Boston) and a B2B2B in the Mediterranean. Using long-time accumulated credit card points. 

 

Maybe because it was points and not dollars, I was able to look at the bigger picture and choose more convenient hotels and no red-eyes, only one short lay-by (last leg of one of the trips and no other choice). 

 

I think it was good practice for future bookings: minimizing stress levels in the airports and achieving a level of comfort in lodging.

 

I have become totally spoiled booking hotels with the cruise line when going overseas on an all night flight.  Sure they charge too much but walking out of baggage claim bleary eyed and handing your luggage to someone who is going to deliver it to your waiting hotel room is priceless.  Who likes it more is DH, no muss, no fuss, no hailing taxis, looking for train stations, so easy. 

[crystalspin]

9 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

The photos are stuck to the glass, and if I try to gently peel them off, a piece of the photo comes off and stays with the glass.  Aargh.  Not a good way to keep a photo, and not a good way to donate frames.

Any ideas on how I could safely separate glass from photo?

I do not know, but my idea as to finding out what others have done, is to search online for museum or archivists' websites.

 

ETA: Now I'm processing where you said "Now I'm finding some in which the donor apparently put dabs of clear glue onto each piece of glass before putting the frame together." If you are not trying to save the photo, a spray of WD-40 with a razor-blade scraper to lift it off the glass, would be Dr'spin's first go-to.

Edited April 3 by crystalspin

[shipgeeks]

I do feel morally obliged to keep the photos in good condition, as they are from The Wedding....so still wondering about a save.  No hurry, I guess, although I do have a recipient for  all the frames lined up.

[Kathy2026]

I just retired in July, and doing a lot of reading on the City Data retirement forum helped me prepare for a spend down mindset instead of accumulation mindset.  I started following that forum heavily a year before I retired, which really helped me a lot.  For me I now will be living off on retirement investments and Social Security.

 

There is a general concept for drawing down investments that if you are pretty heavily in equities that you can take out about 4% a year and in a broad spectrum of scenarios expect your money to last for 30 years.

 

What I will be doing is taking out 3.5% initially which will give me with Social Security counted too my salary when I was working.  And my plan is then to give myself a cost of living increase each year.  And I will  be monitoring to see if I am staying below that 4%.  And actually I will with this budget due to monies I was when employed putting in a 401K, use that previous 15% to fund an annual Roth IRA for my son and the balance instead of being cash to me will be a Roth conversion (the Roth conversion money I hope to leave to my son, but is in a sense an additional retirement cushion).  And interestingly those social security and Medicare taxes that used to come out of my paycheck add up to  be what Medicare and a Medicare Supplement, part D and IRMA will cost me (very close to that - didn't have as high medical costs when employed, although I did have a 6K deductible and a 8.5K max out of pocket.  Medicare will be super low on that front.). That's the plan I made and I am  comfortable with that.  I met with a Fidelity Advisor about my plans too, and they thought that all looked good (all there simulations had me having enough money for the 30 year period and they weren't even looking at the Roth money.),  Anyway, that gave me the confidence to retire and start a new interesting life chapter while I am reasonably young and healthy. 

 

And lol, my generous dad wants me and DH to be able to do a little extra traveling in our early retirement years and gave me a 50K retirement gift to be used toward travel (additional monies on top of my annual travel budget).  We don't have a HUGE travel bug and have a budget that has allowed us to do a little travel all along (usually one bigger trip a year (week or so) and four shorter relative visit trips -- family is spread across the USA).  

 

With this gift though we on top of our July Glacier National Park trip we are doing and taking DS and spouse on (normal budget in 2025), we are doing a second week long trip to Puerto Vallarta for a week in Feb. 2025 and taking DS and spouse on that too (Thank you dad!).

 

And I thought our cruising days are over, but here I am on this forum as we are considering one of the eight day / seven night small boat American Cruise line cruises due to dad's generous gift for our 2026 vacation.  This is quite a bit more than we usually spend, so I look at it as a one time thing and haven't decided yet if we will take DS and spouse on this one too.

 

Anyway, just sharing my retirement financial spending plans in case that is of any help to you. 

 

All I ever did really for retirement savings was put the 15% a year in a 401K - about 80% in equities, and that per financial advisor formulas at least at present looks like that will be enough for a financially comfortable and fun retirement.  And seeing older relatives who are now in assisted living who wish they had done more fun things when they could, I am not inclined to be more conservative than my plan.  

[bennybear]

3 hours ago, Kathy2026 said:

I just retired in July, and doing a lot of reading on the City Data retirement forum helped me prepare for a spend down mindset instead of accumulation mindset.  I started following that forum heavily a year before I retired, which really helped me a lot.  For me I now will be living off on retirement investments and Social Security.

 

There is a general concept for drawing down investments that if you are pretty heavily in equities that you can take out about 4% a year and in a broad spectrum of scenarios expect your money to last for 30 years.

 

What I will be doing is taking out 3.5% initially which will give me with Social Security counted too my salary when I was working.  And my plan is then to give myself a cost of living increase each year.  And I will  be monitoring to see if I am staying below that 4%.  And actually I will with this budget due to monies I was when employed putting in a 401K, use that previous 15% to fund an annual Roth IRA for my son and the balance instead of being cash to me will be a Roth conversion (the Roth conversion money I hope to leave to my son, but is in a sense an additional retirement cushion).  And interestingly those social security and Medicare taxes that used to come out of my paycheck add up to  be what Medicare and a Medicare Supplement, part D and IRMA will cost me (very close to that - didn't have as high medical costs when employed, although I did have a 6K deductible and a 8.5K max out of pocket.  Medicare will be super low on that front.). That's the plan I made and I am  comfortable with that.  I met with a Fidelity Advisor about my plans too, and they thought that all looked good (all there simulations had me having enough money for the 30 year period and they weren't even looking at the Roth money.),  Anyway, that gave me the confidence to retire and start a new interesting life chapter while I am reasonably young and healthy. 

 

And lol, my generous dad wants me and DH to be able to do a little extra traveling in our early retirement years and gave me a 50K retirement gift to be used toward travel (additional monies on top of my annual travel budget).  We don't have a HUGE travel bug and have a budget that has allowed us to do a little travel all along (usually one bigger trip a year (week or so) and four shorter relative visit trips -- family is spread across the USA).  

 

With this gift though we on top of our July Glacier National Park trip we are doing and taking DS and spouse on (normal budget in 2025), we are doing a second week long trip to Puerto Vallarta for a week in Feb. 2025 and taking DS and spouse on that too (Thank you dad!).

 

And I thought our cruising days are over, but here I am on this forum as we are considering one of the eight day / seven night small boat American Cruise line cruises due to dad's generous gift for our 2026 vacation.  This is quite a bit more than we usually spend, so I look at it as a one time thing and haven't decided yet if we will take DS and spouse on this one too.

 

Anyway, just sharing my retirement financial spending plans in case that is of any help to you. 

 

All I ever did really for retirement savings was put the 15% a year in a 401K - about 80% in equities, and that per financial advisor formulas at least at present looks like that will be enough for a financially comfortable and fun retirement.  And seeing older relatives who are now in assisted living who wish they had done more fun things when they could, I am not inclined to be more conservative than my plan.  

Sounds well thought out!  Enjoy!