I know we'll be poor in retirement - it's inevitable (salary, raise)
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Altruistic is fine as long as it’s your own money. It’s not fine when you think others have to pay for it. I gave $100 to one wife whose husband died suddenly in my office, she couldn’t afford money for grocery. I didn’t tell anybody until now.
I think the poster I am referring to made it clear it was her OWN money and she was doing it because that is just the way she is. Which is my point and why I was specific to her and not as part of the overall ongoing and ongoing for almost a decade now back and forth banter in this forum. Didn't always be this way.
Id like to advise you to go and watch a short documentary on YouTube by the Quartz channel called "The future of aging"
They explore the future of retirement and how its seems people will stop working much, much later as the years go by hence one reply recommended you consider getting a side job. That is the very future of retirement in todays world unfortunately with costs getting higher and higher seems many will have to work until they cant anymore (sad af but its true) Real retirement (sitting doing nothing is what I mean by REAL) will soon be a thing of the past.
You are also assuming that anyone will hire them at that age. Go to any job market board, and you'll find that age discrimination is frequently discussed. The trend is that people are living longer, but are being jettisoned from the "real" labor force earlier. People have to accumulate enough wealth in a shorter period of time to hold them through a long retirement.
You are also assuming that anyone will hire them at that age. Go to any job market board, and you'll find that age discrimination is frequently discussed. The trend is that people are living longer, but are being jettisoned from the "real" labor force earlier. People have to accumulate enough wealth in a shorter period of time to hold them through a long retirement.
Something will break.
And you can’t assume they don’t get hired because of their age either. It’s in Boston, lots of jobs I assume. Everybody in my family was able to find jobs, multiple jobs after age 50, 55, 60, 65. How? they are in healthy job market area where unemployment rate is typically 2-3%, I’m not sure where it is now but I can’t believe it’s far off.
We will have 1 car, no debts, and very simple needs. Moving isn't an option, we're in metro-Boston, have no funds for a downpayment and cannot find a rental for less than what we are paying now.
Could you do live on about $3300/month, after housing costs? What would you do to get ready?
AFTER housing costs? Hell yes. What's the problem man, that's fat city!
I am poor too. Here's the real scoop. 2 people with a monthly income of 5K will not qualify for subsidized housing. Except for MAYBE NYC? Won't happen. My cousin gets subsidized housing. He is 68 and his total income is 1K per month. His rent is $500 per month with all bills paid. Most of the people in his complex are in a similar situation income wise.
Both coasts are very expensive places to retire. I think the more you research this the more untenable you will find this option to be. Snow and ice are not great for old people who want to continue driving and stay fit. New England also taxes everything but the air you breathe. The property taxes you pay are higher than mortgage payments. Unless you are well off the coasts are not for you. If I had a lot of money I would be on 1 coast or the other. But I don't.
I moved to Las Vegas. I own a 1500sf house and my property taxes are $700 per year. No state income tax and SS is not taxed either. I have 1 car. My monthly bills run about $350. Compare that to Boston or just about anyplace in NE. 5K per month would leave me with disposable income for fun stuff like vacations. Plus, Vegas is full of low income, crappy, customer service jobs. Things have to stay cheap here or people leave and they lose their workforce. So food is cheap and we have a lot of choices. 5K per month here is doing well!
I am not trying to say come to Las Vegas. There are many other places that are good deals too. I am saying it may be impossible to live well in Boston for 5K per month. But there are tons of other places where you can live well on 5K per month. It's a lot more fun to be OK than it is to be poor!
Just to correct one piece of info in this post: MA (at least Boston, but I assume it holds for the rest of MA too) has a really favorable property tax structure. You get a huge tax abatement for your primary home (whether it is a house or a condo), I think it has to be at least 50%. For a Boston condo assessed at $420,000 in value, you pay something like $1,800 in taxes per year (for comparison, for the same condo in San Francisco you would pay around $5,000 in property tax per year, and the exemption for the primary home is almost nothing, it's something like $100). Unlike in many large cities, it is incomparably better to own rather than rent in Boston. Annual ownership expenses for my Boston condo (ie, maintenance fees, taxes and utilities) are about what I would pay for 2 months of renting it.
One more thought about OP's retirement - would you consider getting a little further out of Boston metro area, and retiring to Worcester? It is almost in Boston metro area, yet substantially less expensive. A monthly income of $5k could go VERY far in Worcester, and you are still less than an hour of central Boston by commuter rail.
AFTER housing costs? Hell yes. What's the problem man, that's fat city!
I can't even imagine someone struggling trying to live on $3300 a month after housing costs. There must be a lot of money going out on new clothes, expensive cars, eating at expensive restaurants on a regular basis and expensive vacations.
This is all fine if you have the extra money to do it but it's not like you're going to starve or live in rags on $3300 per month after housing costs. That's hardly poor or someone that needs any kind of subsidies.
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