Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
However, for many retirees a significant portion of what they live on comes from Social Security and/or a defined benefit pension, in which case continued "saving" is still possible. There could be various motivations for this. For example, suppose we anticipate wanting to replace an older car two or three years from now; we may be saving up in order to pay cash and not finance the new car.
.
Exactly, which is why I consider my savings to be fat. Depending on any given year and what a major expense is, I tap my savings. So, some of it is also discretionary and could be cut if necessary.......like the next car I could decide to wait longer or get a cheaper car than I saved for or like I said, go down to one car. I budgeted for a certain amount of routine home repairs to come out of current income, but major expenses like a roof replacement if needed will come out of savings.
As has been pointed out to me and I have to agree , retiring with pensions and SS are just like the working years without going to work. Money in on schedule to be managed as planned or not planne. Money not spent is saved/invested,
True and also RMD's that you don't need maybe saved/invested.
Interesting post. I say follow your comfort zone! It doesn't have to be the same as the comfort zone of other people. Obviously there is nothing strongly pulling you to stop working, so no need to stop prematurely, even if other people would consider it to be high time. You would consider it premature. A deep level of comfort is a precious thing! Good for you.
I can certainly see your point and respect it, but here's another viewpoint for Nicet to consider.
Someone correct me if I did the math wrong, but are we talking about gaining an extra $12 a week by waiting a year?
While I realize there are probably lots of people for who $12 a week more means something, I don't think Nicet is one of those people.
So, I would say, maybe its time to tell that 23 boy to be quiet and that everything will be ok. What you resist persists and it might just be time to sleep better at night because you have taken the leap and conquered your fear rather than because you have an extra $12 in your pocket.
And, I don't say this lightly because I could but wont tell my own "As God as my witness I will never be hungry again" story......ironically also involving a literal last dime.
Thank the 23 yr old boy for helping you get to where you are which from all your posts seems a place of success and let him go. You don't need him holding your hand the rest of the way.
Unless of course you just really enjoy working more than what you could be doing retired, then by all means carry on.
We live a pretty frugal life, always have. Though we don't feel deprived, there is just not a lot we'd like to have or do. So not a lot of fat and if we had to, we could probably do something about a few things, internet speed, less cell phone, cut the satellite dish. I've no doubt we could get used to that.
But hopefully will never have to do that. Thinking about inflation and unexpected expenses, though, one never knows. We do have some backup for emergencies. And we're adding to that while we don't have to use the SS checks.
We eat out a lot and give monetary gifts to our kids and grandkids on Christmas and birthdays. We buy most of our foods from pricey Whole Foods. We spend several weekends a year away and sometimes a more. All that is our fat. If the going got tough we would cut out the trips, restaurants and gifts and resort to nonorganic foods (the latter a last resort). I don't know what % that is. There are predictions of rough times ahead, but I won't get into that.
We are in a similar situation as above but DH is still working. We would be able to "weather" changes better than most I would say based on a lot of what I read here from other posters, but it WOULD require a lifestyle change and would not be pleasant for sure! Our saving grace would be we have "forecast" our retirement to be able to live on our pensions and not touch our 401K investments, which as of today are substantial; but with the market doing what it is right now, how long that will be a true and correct statement is ANYONE's guess.
It sounds like you are not yet retired. That makes a difference. Retired people are done saving, because we no longer have an income.
Some of us retired folks still do. It's second nature for us, and I figure you never know.
We also save so we can pay for unexpected big time expenses that may come up, without having to go into debt or jeopardize our health or welfare by having to do without something that we need.
Some of us retired folks still do. It's second nature for us, and I figure you never know.
We also save so we can pay for unexpected big time expenses that may come up, without having to go into debt or jeopardize our health or welfare by having to do without something that we need.
Sure, if you have enough income to travel, you have enough income to continue saving.
If you are living in a rented hovel on $1000 a month SS, not so much.
I think a big difference exists between those who are self-employed with fluctuating income a norm compared to someone who earned a predictable salary month end and month out. That has been my world for over 30 years. Ditto for expenses. Mine tend to vary month to month with rental property repairs and maintenance expenses. Also, April is brutal because income tax balance due and first quarter estimated tax payments are due as are real property taxes in my part of the world.
I believe what was our norm during working years carries over into retirement because behavior once established is harder to change.
Not only do we have a financial summary of the prior year which is helpful, but I also keep a 6-month forward cash flow worksheet because each month is not a constant amount in and amount out. Sure I could wing in in my mind's eye but I work better with structure; it's how my brain works. I have a rather hefty line of credit available in those instances of a cash crunch. The balance on the line is very small and whenever I have excess change, it goes to pay down the line. Never try to have more than $10,000 cash at any one time. A little more, however, in the business account.
Now insofar as a budget, again it's a tool and not a punitive document to help me see not only what has been but what it might be. To me, it's like a bodyweight scale. Some people jump on it often to manage things and others once in a while to their sometimes surprise that they've added some bodyweight and fat. To each his/her own. It's all good and the way we go about it has got to match our personality.
When I was working, income far exceeded outflow probably because we had no time to spend a lot of money. I do not believe that we had a budget for nearly 30 years.
When retirement hit, we decided to start budgeting again. We pulled a number out of the hat that represented what we thought that we could live on and reflected a 2-3% withdrawal rate so that my wife still has assets when she reached age 100. We really made no great effort to do a "line by line" budget as I did not want to have all those stupid discussions of week to week expenses.
We started tracking expenses in a spreadsheet. After a while, I created a few pivot tables and after 2+ years, we have a darned good idea of what we are spending. There are some categories that were a lot higher than we expected and some areas that we were surprised how little we spend.
As for the OP's question, about 20%. If we got into an emergency situation, perhaps 30-35%. Our big issue is the escalation of health care costs. Most other categories are down, which reflects the current state of DEFLATION in the economy.
Having a budget does not mean that you cannot have some fun. I renewed my membership to the local independent cinema and will be taking classes at the local OLLI. I just planned my vacations for the rest of 2016. It did lead me to cancel memberships in things that I am no longer using and the like.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
