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After retirement - husband may still be able to bring some income in (not sure) - I think he'd like to....
but...our daughter lives in Manhattan; I would like to be able to fly up there (or drive if weather permitting) and stay for a while and have it not create a budget issue.
I don't want to live my future years complaining I don't have this or that...like I said, we've had to help others for years and years and in 6 months, it will only be us. (Yes, my husband is a good guy).
I also want to enjoy life; I'd rather eat at home 6 nights and go out 1 night to a good restaurant. All in moderation.
There are so many unknowns - maybe we stay where we are; maybe we move to a 55 plus; maybe we buy a 2nd home somewhere closer to our daughter; when to sell his business; if we sell it?
I have some dreams - one of which is pretty crazy but I'd love to try it (business idea) but I'd have to get investors, however, I know people that could help me with that.
I've had ideas before and instead of taking them further, I didn't know I could do anything.
One thing I created when I was 17 but had a chance at 23 and I didn't realize I should have done something with it.
You might consider solar panels. AZ gets lots of sun. Federal tax credit is 30% of the cost and I think AZ throws in a credit also. Our electric bill has gone down to $25/month. But our house is no doubt a lot smaller.
Unfortunately APS changed the rules for solar a couple of years ago and all but eliminated net metering. For those who aren’t up on solar, net metering is when the excess electricity generated by your home solar panels goes back on the grid to offset your energy usage when the panels aren’t making any.
Unfortunately APS changed the rules for solar a couple of years ago and all but eliminated net metering. For those who aren’t up on solar, net metering is when the excess electricity generated by your home solar panels goes back on the grid to offset your energy usage when the panels aren’t making any.
Regarding your water bill: Call your water company (Salt River Project?) and ask if they can do a one-time adjustment. In Tucson, as a homeowner you get one "get out of jail free" card for an extraordinarily high water bill due to a leak or accidentally leaving a hose on for a couple days, which may or may not have happened at my house. They don't advertise it, but a call to the water company may well result in them reducing your bill to its monthly average.
Regarding your water bill: Call your water company (Salt River Project?) and ask if they can do a one-time adjustment. In Tucson, as a homeowner you get one "get out of jail free" card for an extraordinarily high water bill due to a leak or accidentally leaving a hose on for a couple days, which may or may not have happened at my house. They don't advertise it, but a call to the water company may well result in them reducing your bill to its monthly average.
It’s City of Scottsdale. They said they would send someone out to take a look. Maybe if we can prove there’s a leak they’ll make an adjustment.
But there’s definitely a leak. The next door neighbors are getting water seepage under our joint wall from our place. And when we turn everything off except the irrigation shut-off valve, the meter still spins.
I have an internet friend/co-conspirator who retired four years ago in the Spring of 2015. He had a nice pension and a portfolio of other investments and savings from working 30+ years in a well paying engineering managerial job. He also had a child in High School.
Now that child is a Junior in College and college costs have taken their toll on his savings. He will soon be starting a second career due to the magnitude of the unexpected/foolishly ignored educational costs.
He plans to retire for a second time in June of 2020 which I assume coincides with the child's college graduation date, or maybe he signed on for a project specific short term position.
So he for one underestimated his financial needs for retirement.
I am hoping to not make the same error. Our Planner says we were in a financial position to successfully retire in 2016. We are both still working and planning to retire in 2020. I hope that is enough of a buffer.
We're now 10+ years into retirement and living comfortably with few worries for the future.
Prior to retirement, I formulated a retirement plan. Then, in the year prior to actual retirement, we adjusted our lifestyle to verify that we could live comfortably on our retirement income. As part of our retirement plan, I also included LTC insurance, Term life to protect my wife's pension and an Annuity income to start 10-years in the future, to offset unexpected changes and inflation. Each year, I re-visit and update the plan to verify that everything is still on-track.
Except for RMD's, we still haven't tapped into our 401K/403B savings, even though we had planned to do so to assist the 5 grandkids with college. As it turns-out, our increased income (annuity/RMD's) is sufficient for that.
Even though still working my wife and I have been on a retirement budget for exactly one year this month and doing good.
We have all our usual monthly bills such as HOA fees, heat, electric, cable tv, internet. cell phones and all our insurance purchases which are all set up to be paid automatically. I guess you could call them budget items but we don't budget for them they're just fixed.
For food, entertainment, gasoline, clothing, haircuts, beauty treatments, hobby lobby. gifts, charities and blow money we budget $1,900 which we keep close track of by phone app spreadsheet that I add to every day. Not hard because nearly everything we put on our bank credit card and with the phone app I can look up and see where we are at instantly.
For us the new month starts on the 17th and so far this month we have spent $155.50 which leaves us $1,744.50 for the rest of the month or $469.67 on a weekly basis and $67.10 on a daily basis for the 26 days left for the month.
According to the spreadsheet we should have spent $245.16 while we actually have spent $155.50 leaving us $89.66 to the good so far. Probably this coming weekend we'll go to Sam's Club spending $300 on needed things (like food) but the key for me is always knowing exactly where we are. Just because it is left over in the budget doesn't mean we have to go spend it stupidly.
Most of the time we are under budget like we were last month where we were $460 under budget for the month and that just went into savings.
Medical and pharmacy is not in the budget because there we are pretty darn lucky in that my wife has a medical savings account through her state retirement pension and as it turns out all her medications are reimbursed. For my pharmacy the VA gives me my stuff free since my biggest medical issue is associated with my service in Vietnam half a century ago so all our pharmacy is free.
No doubt when I do stop work our expenses will go down even further and I am kind of thinking we should do just fine on $1,200 saving the $700 for a special trip to see relatives or maybe spend a long weekend in Las Vegas.
We have retirement savings but I don't figure any of that into our retirement saving that for emergencies.
Pretty set really and feel good knowing exactly where we stand at all times.
I have been on pension since 2001, so 17 years. We do a lot of gardening, and we sell farm produce on occasion through Farmer's Markets averaging maybe $1,000/year in additional income.
In the time that I have been retired, following these types of threads, etc, it seems to me that more people over-estimate how much they are going to need to survive.
In fact, it is easier to have your total per-bottle manufacturing cost be 2x to 3x the wholesale value of that bottle in the marketplace.
One friend of mine retired, bought a vineyard, and is now selling his wine. At retail, it runs between about $150 and $200 per bottle - and he still loses money.
I have been on pension since 2001, so 17 years. We do a lot of gardening, and we sell farm produce on occasion through Farmer's Markets averaging maybe $1,000/year in additional income.
In the time that I have been retired, following these types of threads, etc, it seems to me that more people over-estimate how much they are going to need to survive.
As carefully as we planned, we did over-estimate. Once we moved to our retirement state, we found that some things were even less expensive than we had estimated. We found that we did some costly things less than we thought we would, and we just found that we like finding bargains. Well, we already knew that. Anyway, we found we could put away a good bit of money most months, and have built up a nice emergency fund. In months with unexpected large expenses, like a big dental bill, we have that to fall back on without drawing from our investments.
Having worked as an energy specialist for many years, when we needed to replace our HVAC, we splurged on a very efficient dual-fuel heat pump, and gas instantaneous water heater. We spend about $300 month less on energy than our neighbors, for the same size, same age home. Our monthly electric bill for a 2700 sq ft home with all the usual appliances plus a freezer is always between $60-100, summer or winter, and our propane is about $750/ year. Most of the propane goes to heating when the temps fall below 35 degrees.
I can easily believe that. Come over to my place sometime and I'll show you the home's lighting system. Endless complexity but technologically advanced. Gone are the days of flipping a switch.
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One friend of mine retired, bought a vineyard, and is now selling his wine. At retail, it runs between about $150 and $200 per bottle - and he still loses money.
Crazy. I met a man on a cruise who owns a small vineyard. You don't do it to make money, that's for sure.
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