It's good to be old

email today from Harrahs Rincon... are other casinos doing this too?.....

Harrah's Rincon is proud to introduce the Forever Young club. Guess what? You are one of our inaugural members!

Forever Young celebrates our guests over the age of 50 with special offers, events and discounts.

We are excited to invite you to participate in the first exclusive event, a Reward Credit Multiplier on Tuesdays: January 25th, February 1st & February 15th.

As a member of this club, you'll see many benefits come your way over the next few months. Keep an eye on your inbox and mailbox for more details soon.

AARP at 50 was bad enough . Don't push it.
I remember when a local retail store had "Discount Tuesday " for anybody over 50 . By the time I turned 50 the store closed.
To be honest I take advantage of any discount for the Over 50 gang. After all I'm 58 yo.

When Uncle Sam wants to start giving me checks when I'm 62 I am taking that too.

Money it is good to be old when you can enjoy it , Reap the bennies when you can.

Ak-Chin has had this forever. 1/2 price lunch buffet, oldies radio host, etc.etc. I'm old enough but don't like fighting the blue hairs and their chain smoking string of Pall Malls

sulobo, interesting that you raised the issue about collecting soc sec at 62 instead of waiting till older. Ive read several financial planners who say you are in fact better off taking the reduced payments earlier than waiting to get the bigger payments later. I am your age and wondering what to do when Im 62. I still plan to be running my business then -- still paying those self employment taxes -- but do I also start drawing soc security at a reduced amount then?

under my old job I was able to start drawing on my pension when I was 50. I didnt. And I think that was a mistake.

Keep those stupid offers. I'd rather be 20 years younger. And smarter.

Snidely, aren't these mutually exclusive?

I hear you.....as someone who's about to join the "senior" club, I'd rather pay full price at the buffet, not get the 5x points and the free daily slot tournaments in exchange for turning back the clock a few years (and freezing it if that's not asking too much!).

Dan

I'll turn 62 in March. I think I'll wait to draw Soc. Sec. The way I understand it, You can make approx $1,500 a month before they start reducing your Soc. Sec. I personally have a great job working for a great company with generous pay and benefits. I really don't want to give all this up, especially with the economy still deciding what it's going to do. I am looking at all my options though. Most importantly my health is still good. We are investigating purchasing a 2nd domicile in Vegas exploiting the tax loopholes of possibly treating it as a rental investment. My real concern is my weakness for gambling and the consequences I could suffer. Tons of horror stories here in Okla. of what the indian casinos have done to retirees.

cjen, I hear what you're saying and only you know if you could be "at risk". I would say that if you manipulate the system rather than let it manipulate you, Vegas could be a very inexpensive place to retire.

As it's pretty common knowledge, the Vegas real estate market is grossly depressed. I can almost see where if you're willing to play a geographic arbitrage game, you can get a whole lot of house for relatively little money (depending on where you live now). Alternatively, if someone is just looking for a domicile as opposed to a potential investment, rents are very low as well. This is likely the biggest single line item expense for most people and until the job market turns around, you can expect further decreases or at least no increase in rental costs. The present average apartment rents for approximately $740 in Las Vegas.

Food is typically another large line item expense but I can tell you that with 8 months now under our (ever widening) belt, we've cooked one meal at home (dinner for guests) and prepared some food for a Thanksgiving party. Outside of whipping up something quick and easy for breakfast (no range required) or reheating leftovers, we have simply not cooked at home. Why? Because we have more offers for free food than we could ever use.

This all comes at a price....the cliche that there's no free lunch is somewhat true. However, if you're smart and take advantage of offers and promos that the casinos lay out as opposed to plunge into gambling with reckless abandon, you will clearly come out on the right side of the financial ledger. I'm not going to get into the argument as to whether or not one can make a living gambling....that doesn't sound like it's your intention anyway. There are numerous people on these boards who live in L.V. full time, are retired or semi-retired and who yield considerably more in freebies than what it costs them in gambling losses. Perhaps some of them will pipe in on this to support what I'm saying. Gambling can be a hobby that pays if you're smart in your approach and play within your means.

To clarify, I don't think it's what the Indian casinos in OK did to retirees but rather what the retirees did to themselves.

Dan

First of all, I want to commend Dan for the term "geographic arbitrage game" -- I LOVE IT. Never heard it before. So I did an Internet search and found this definition: "the practice of high-paid professionals moving to less-expensive areas" so thank you for helping me find this. While the concept has been around, first time I ever heard the term.

Ive always had the idea that should I retire in Vegas I would turn my "weakness" for gaming into something that would help me earn money, and not lose it. By that I mean I (as a retiree) would try to find part time work in a casino.

I think its the casino atmosphere, and not the actual betting or gambling, that is so appealing to me. Give me a job "in the casino" and I would be as happy as "gambling in the casino."

Yeah, I might be one of those 65 year olds in dealers school and working graveyard shifts filling out W2s for high rollers and listening to their 4-to-the-royal stories.... like the ones I tell all the time. LOL

EDITED TO ADD: And to all my friends who are glad to be younger, just wait for your turn. And to those of you who wish to be younger, keep wishing. LOL

Money, I "borrowed" the term or some derrivative concept of it from a book called "The 20 Hour Workweek". The concept was never lost on me. In an earlier life, I was a regional sales guy for a NJ based company. I lived in NJ but had counterparts who lived in Atlanta, Boise, Milwaukee, etc. All of us were paid the same base salary which irked me a bit as my cost of living was higher than my counterparts. I finally was able to put this into practice....I consult for a company based in Chicago while I reside in Florida and Vegas.

I always thought that a host gig in Vegas could be fun. Not a HET monkey who is glorified clerk kind of host but an old school kind. You bounce around from behind a desk to out on the floor and don't have to eat the slop in the employee mess and get to hang out with customers who are sometimes friends. The flip side is that I suspect you have to pay your dues to work up the ladder and at age 60, I'm not sure I want to walk the casino floor signing people up for slot cards.....I'm not that friendly and I generally don't like people that much.

The downside to all of this is that you have to "pitch up". I prefer something that I can do from anywhere. I'm not quite there....I still have to travel two days or so a week but for me it certainly beats having to be at a specific place for a 9-5 gig.

I'm a short timer to the senior sticker on my players cards. Can't wait for those 5x point days! LOL

Dan