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I would believe the difference. Before I retired I spent a great deal of time studying COL data for different parts of the country. Tables and calculators rarely tell the story. You need to look at the details as they would affect your own expenses. NYC is a special case. I looked at Long Island versus lots of other places. There are lots and lots of places where $50k/year is way more than adequate for a reasonable lifestyle for a couple or even a family.
Long Island very expensive as we know
but those number are 250% or so more.
No way
Easy answer then sell everything in NY, move to Texas.
Mathjak, what would happen if you moved out of the city proper and to Westchester or Rockland County or somewhere else within easy access to the City. Would expenses be just as much for you?
rents or real estate taxes if you buy are insane. one son lives in white plains .
Retirement planning, retirement spending, retirement moving, retirement aging, retirement activities, retirement homes, retirement spas, retirement golf clubs, yada, yada, yada. Retirement planning is like kid planning....if you planned for kids and talked about kids, and waited until you could afford them, no one would have them and no baby boomers would be here to discuss retirement ad nauseum.
Gotta disagree 100 percent. Both of ours were planned with finances in mind and being able to afford including have purchased the right house. That helped retirement planning and implementation. By waiting to have the first one we limited ourselves to two because having a third would have taken us later in life to get them through college and on their way. Youngest graduated from college in 2004 so a third would have taken us to at least 2008 which is the year we retired. So that wouldn't have happened then. Wanted them at least four years apart so they wouldn't be in college at the same time. We knew others who were doing the same thing. Had friends, neighbors, colleagues etc etc. Even had a travelling soccer team of parents doing the same thing with lofty retirements on the horizon in many cases. Not all but many. Planned Parenthood works for many not all but many. Whatever worked for you is good also.
i can tell you i live in a rent stabilized apartment in queens and that is exactly my pretax retirement budget .
120k and we live a pretty normal nothing special lifestyle on it..
we do have money beyond what we set as a budget that pays for our hobbies and trips when we do them but we keep it out of the retirement budget for daily living. if i include it we would need even more.
You would spend almost as much anywhere else for that lifestyle.
The rent stabilized apartment is not a real big expense by NYC standards.
A car would cost relatively the same in Houston. Insurance somewhat less.
NYC outside of housing and taxes is not that much more than anywhere else.
and NYers have the option of no car, but probably not the case with the retired set.
What about just outside of NYC further up in Westchester county ?
Still have the train to go into the city so it's not much of a hassle.
My brother still lives out on LI. While his home appreciated a good deal the taxes went up as well.
He's told me he can't stay there once he retires.
westchester has some of the higest property taxes in the country . rents are insane. our kids live in white plains and rents are soooooo much more than queens.
The study cannot be very realistic.
Maybe if one is living in Manhattan with high rents or ownership costs. Most dont
State income tax in NY
But everything else.....similar
I would strongly disagree. Lots and lots of things are not similar. I can only talk about Long Island. Electric rates are 3x the national average. Same with the cost of auto repairs or any other sort of service. Shall we talk taxes? People in many parts of the country cannot believe $10k-20k for property taxes on a modest house.
I can't find a reliable plumber or electrician. When I finally get one to do some work, I pay under the table cash rate of about $750/day plus parts. Well, I would like to believe it is only $750. Actually the last time was a lot more than that. I paid without a complaint and still could not get a follow
up job done in less than a month. You cannot even leave this place without paying huge tolls to cross the bridges.
At one time I had all the hard facts and figures for Long Island versus a small city that interested me on the West coast. It was truly about 1/2 of the cost based on my expenses, not some generic calculator.
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