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Income-$1350 per month Social Security (for both of us)
$500 rental income (Renting out two RV's on the property)
———————————
$1900 per month
Car insurance- $150 per mo (only one of us will drive)
Car upkeep-$50
Property Taxes-$150 (assuming it triples by then)
Internet-$100
Food-$600
Personal Hygiene-$100
Clothing-$50
Entertainment-100
Church donation-$75
Home Upkeep-$100
Gas-$125
Cycling-$75 (Bike upkeep, clothing, tires,etc)
Solar Panels/battery upkeep-$25
Generator Batteries-wintertime-$15
Wood-$15
——————————
$1725 per mo.
Currently ages 50 & 55. We'd live in a 280 sq ft tiny home with a large garage beside it... on 20 acres we just bought. Wood stove for heat. A little propane used for two appliances. Two year round springs provide water. No medical costs due to being Native American. This leaves almost $200 leftover per mo. Hopefully the majority of the leftover $$ will be saved for our sons inheritance.
Does this seem do-able? The land + home is worth a little over a hundred thousand dollars (being conservative). We would also grow much of our food. As we age, we will need to move because the town is located in a very remote area and on a very dangerous road.
We also might be foster parents again but now doing what’s called emergency placement (children would stay with us up to 48 hrs, arriving at all hrs of hte night until they found placement). We did foster care for 6 years some time back but it costs us a little money out of our pocket (about $100 month) because the subsidy was so low. We had a total of 8 kids in 6 years.
Does this seem like a decent enough retirement plan??
Would you enjoy it??
Last edited by CarolinaM; 10-24-2016 at 10:32 PM..
Hey OP I believe you will get better responses if this was moved to the "retirement" part of CD. My take is that your retirement plan has moderate risk. Meaning its not a bad plan but you could improve it by making some easy adjustments. A few things to consider:
-Do you have any savings? Your saving about 2,100/year which is good but for your first 5-6 years of retirement your in danger of scrambling to find money for a big surprise expense if you don't have something set aside.
-Speaking of which, since $500 of your income comes from rental make sure to have a contingency plan for when you have a vacancy and the time it takes to find a new tenant. After all, if it takes you 1 month to find a tenant you may be down $250 for that month.
-Why is your food budget so high? I'm assuming that its just the two of you. You may want to look into ways to cut the cost. I eat a very healthy diet with fruits, vegetables, meat, fish etc. and I only spend $120/month on food.
-Same question for internet and car insurance. Why is it so high? We have two cars fully insured for only $1050/month and we are on the younger side. At your age, with only one person driving and 1 car; your insurance should be much lower. I can understand the internet being high if you live in a remote area with few options. Either way I would shop around for a better rate for both of these services.
-I think you can also save $5-10 in a few of the other categories if you do some research on the internet. It may not seem like a lot but if you can shave $10 off 5 of your expenses; that's an extra $50 in your pocket every month. For example, if you buy bulk personal hygiene items online (6 mo-1 year supply) your average monthly expense may come down to $85-90.
Overall, I think your plan is ok. If nothing goes wrong you will be fine. However, life is unpredictable. So its good to be prepared. If you decide to do some serious research I think you can easily increase your monthly savings from $175/mo to $300-450 range. This will give you more options in retirement and will also help out with the child foster endeavor that you want to get into. Good luck!
You will probably have more money than you expect since, living in a 280 sf house with 2 adults and a foster kid, one of you is bound to kill the other within the first year.
Lol yes so true JustMike! That is a teeny tiny area.
My guess is we'd only be able to take one or two children under 2 years old due to the size of the house, and only for up to a few days. But we could babysit for the other foster parents for one night. I think it would be fine if most of the day was spent having fun hiking, fishing swimming, panning for gold etc...to wear them out a little. Technically, emergency foster parents are only licensed for up to 48 hrs... but it can sometimes take an extra day for placement
Just Griffon-We'd have about 125 thousand+ saved (in my estimation) but I want it to go to my son as his inheritance. We live simply because that is what we enjoy. I wasn't sure of the cost of car insurance for a Senior who'd be driving so just guessed. I assumed a few accidents (just to be on the safe side) so the insurance could be higher. Food costs could easily go down, especially since some of it would come from our garden. As you noticed, most costs could probably decrease pretty easily except the internet
For some reason, there was a message saying a moderator had to approve my messages then it just didn't happen, no posts appeared....so my response for both is in this post.
Last edited by CarolinaM; 10-25-2016 at 01:03 AM..
Income-$1350 per month Social Security (for both of us)
$500 rental income (Renting out two RV's on the property)
———————————
$1900 per month
Car insurance- $150 per mo (only one of us will drive)
Car upkeep-$50
Property Taxes-$150 (assuming it triples by then)
Internet-$100
Food-$600
Personal Hygiene-$100
Clothing-$50
Entertainment-100
Church donation-$75
Home Upkeep-$100
Gas-$125
Cycling-$75 (Bike upkeep, clothing, tires,etc)
Solar Panels/battery upkeep-$25
Generator Batteries-wintertime-$15
Wood-$15
——————————
$1725 per mo.
Currently ages 50 & 55. We'd live in a 280 sq ft tiny home with a large garage beside it... on 20 acres we just bought. Wood stove for heat. A little propane used for two appliances. Two year round springs provide water. No medical costs due to being Native American. This leaves almost $200 leftover per mo. Hopefully the majority of the leftover $$ will be saved for our sons inheritance.
Does this seem do-able? The land + home is worth a little over a hundred thousand dollars (being conservative). We would also grow much of our food. As we age, we will need to move because the town is located in a very remote area and on a very dangerous road.
We also might be foster parents again but now doing what’s called emergency placement (children would stay with us up to 48 hrs, arriving at all hrs of hte night until they found placement). We did foster care for 6 years some time back but it costs us a little money out of our pocket (about $100 month) because the subsidy was so low. We had a total of 8 kids in 6 years.
Does this seem like a decent enough retirement plan??
Would you enjoy it??
Some months you will make money, by the end of the year or second year you will be losing money, possibly a-lot of money. You forgot to account for the upkeep of the RV's, once leased out they need to stay in working order. Once leased out if something breaks you need to fix or replace it, if something breaks you really can not run down to the local Home Depot for RV parts. Also, you seem to be basing this number ($500) off both being rented, there will be months only one is rented and maybe a time when neither are rented. Finally, tenants interested in living in RV's are not going to be the best tenants, you are in for a world of headaches when one of them does something stupid or does not pay. (Breaking Bad popped into my head here.)
I suggest you find another way to supplement your retirement, that does not rely on people who are willing to live in an RV.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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You added $1350 + $500 and got $1900 when it should be $1850. With expenses of $1725, that leaves only $125 per month left over, not close to $200 as you estimated. I think that is cutting it too close to the bone.
Also, realistically, will it be easy to rent those 2 RVs and for the price that you are hoping? Since that is a large percentage of your potential income, I would make sure that is in place and will be steady before you retire.
No, it is not doable. You have zero money for unexpected expenses, and you are relying on both RVs being permanently occupied. Is an agency going to foster a child into what is basically a big shack?
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