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It's going to be lower, but that's fine because right now although I "earn" 125K, I live on about 40, due to paying $$ in self employment taxes, and having to save $$$ to fund retirement yearly, and also paying $$$$ in health insurance.
My pension is about 1/4 of what I was earning in my Navy paychecks when I was working.
We also gathered a collection of Multi-Family-Residences, that we lived in and had tenants. So while they were expenses, they also provided income. All of which was re-invested at the time. Depending on how you did the books [we kept multiple sets of books] by the time I was nearing retirement, our gross income was a large amount more than my Navy paychecks were.
When I retired, we consolidated our MFRs down to one property. We cashed-out the equity and used it to buy our homestead. Then the 'crash' caused us to lose that property. Today we no longer have rental income, but we have no mortgage either.
Year 2000 was the last year we both worked. If I include my RMD, We are 15% ahead of year 2000, as reduced by 401k deductions.
If I use an inflation calculator we are 20% behind what the calculator says we should have for the same buying power in 2015.
The inflation calculator is wrong. We're doing fine. and it gets better when her SS and RMD kicks in.
When I retired I make roughly 56% of my work income.. BUT since I do not have a standard retirement package, I do not have an annuity amount in bulk that I use from.. I receive a deposit every month for the rest of my life.. EVEN if I live to be 150 years old...
I fell into retirement unexpectedly with the death of my husband ....after 4 years between SS, small miltary survivors pension, lump sum pension payout, 401k, and insurance investments I have been surprised to find my taxable income is close to what we earned. My medical is covered by tri-care. My investments by a trusted financial advisor.
I figure my retirement income when I start taking SS in 2 years will be about 60% of what I was earning when I stopped work this year. I know that's lower than advised but there will be changes such as....
No mortgage, no saving 30% of my gross in retirement accounts, no commuting costs, no buying 3-meals/day 6-days/week, no paying social security tax anymore + my SS income isn't taxed by the state + a state break on property tax + I will be in a lower tax bracket. I will be using a senior discount for public transportation - my primary mode of transportation .
So I think my lifestyle may not be affected too much, we'll see.
I put down more based on net pay. Based on gross pay, it would be less, but now I don't have pension and SS taken out. My health insurance is also a smaller payment in retirement.
I currently make less in retirement at this point... Approximately 72% of my previous monthly "net" income. I also have a retirement savings account that I haven't touched at this point and if I should and just live off of the earned interests, that would bring me up to about 97 to 98% of my previous earnings.
I've been retired for the last 9 months and I'm now seeking P/T work to add to the pot. I'm still in my early 50s and plan to save most, if not all of this income for the next 3 years, at which point, I'll start drawing from my retirement savings account on a monthly basis. Which will then boost up at or slightly past my previous working monthly net income.
I estimate that I will be earning 35% to 40% more in retirement at age 60, once my military reserve payments starts to kick in. And afterwards, at age 62, another boost when my Social Security payments starts up.
At this point, I have ZERO regrets for retiring early
folks will always make do with what they have and the lifestyle will fit the budget . if you have less available to you then it will work , if you have more it will work too.
if we didn't have enough to stay put in nyc which is where we want to be , then we would have just relocated and made the budget work .
it isn't so much a choice that can be voluntary many times so it is hard to get a fix on whether retirees.are spending less in retirement because they want to or whether they are spending less because they have to because that is all the resources they have .
it is like yeah we can live on what we have but as much more as i had access to would just become our new retirement budget .
^^^^ Exactly this, though that wasn't the question. All that counts is net compared to expenses. I'm quite sure ER knows this but is just getting some Interest generated on the forum. I think the vast majority will have less as a gross income, but close to the same or close enough in net minus costs that are eliminated in retirement, and the favorable tax treatment of seniors over 65 and and less taxes on SS income and none on Roths. If all goes well in my plans, I will have less or more whenever I want it because of discretionary use of Roths.
Last edited by Perryinva; 09-21-2015 at 05:52 AM..
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