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I sorry, but what are you trying to accomplish? Living on $20K/yr, but then here you say you just spent $20K for the above activities. Something doesn't add up.
Which is it?
The whole thread smells .......but why let facts get in the way of a good story
I sorry, but what are you trying to accomplish? Living on $20K/yr, but then here you say you just spent $20K for the above activities. Something doesn't add up.
A 35 year old today, considering themselves only, you'll need 2.2 to 2.8 million accumulated (in assets, investments, money, pension, trust fund/inheritance), and maintain a FICO >800) to be able to retire before 65 or so. This is a minimum amount for living above trailer park level, and being relatively immune to unexpected mega-debts.
Just for comparison, a 35 year old in 1985 to do the same thing, needed $1,250,000. A 35 year old in 1965 only needed $200,000. Yes, COL has increased non-linearly.
This assumes that political things remain as is; and real estate maintains its appreciation as it has for 70 years and from place to place remains stable, and medical or food, HOA's, possibly, taxes, and, of course, services do not escalate in price faster than they have in recent years. These are things you keep an eye on in the meantime, and you adjust for accordingly.
That's about as accurate as one could be, considering we are talking about retiring in 2050, and remembering that 85% of people, planning to retire at 65, unfortunately, underestimated.
If you were to retire completely at 35 today, those figures increase approximately 1.75 X, assuming you expect normal longevity and assume a "retired" standard of living. It is slightly cheaper to live retired as opposed to intra-career costs, all considered.
I call BS on 2.2M-2.8M. I retired in my 20s...I’m living the ultra young retired life...I have more money now than when I first retired. And I didn’t start with 2.2-2.8M.
Location: Formerly Pleasanton Ca, now in Marietta Ga
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cabound1
I don’t avoid real estate investing because I find it morally wrong, I don’t do it because there are easier ways to make money, imo. That’s just me, I’m lazy. I don’t consider taking free medical if you legally qualify for it immoral, regardless of whether you “paid into” the system. If you qualify legally, it’s all good.
Would you turn down free healthcare if your assets were arranged in such a way to minimize MAGI? I doubt anyone would.
Well we will disagree until the cows come home. Despite our opposite views, I don’t hold anything against you. Which Porsche’s do you,own (were you serious). California is a great state to have a sports car except for gas prices. Lots of great places to drive.
Care to share those easier ways to make money but keep your income so low as to get the free healthcare?
Well we will disagree until the cows come home. Despite our opposite views, I don’t hold anything against you. Which Porsche’s do you,own (were you serious). California is a great state to have a sports car except for gas prices. Lots of great places to drive.
Care to share those easier ways to make money but keep your income so low as to get the free healthcare?
No hard feelings here. Everyone has a different perspective. I have a 2000 Carrera with its 14k original miles. The ultimate garage queen. The 2019 Macan S does get driven. You mentioned you had a Ferrari. I bought a new 360 Modena the same year as the Carrera. Quickly sold it though - made even less sense than the Porsche. It was beautiful though.
I’m an equities person. I have virtually nothing income producing in taxable accounts. Think individual stocks and index ETFs. Most of my income is in the form of capital gains when I sell appreciated equities in taxable accounts. No SS (too young) , no pension or other income streams. Because I own the home and cars outright, my cash needs are minimal, generally around 35k a year. I can easily generate 35k spending money while incurring less than 17k (medi-cal limit for a single) MAGI. That’s how I get the free medical....CA opted for expanded Medicaid and my Kaiser plan happened to be a medi-cal option in my county (contra costa) for those who had had Kaiser for at least 12 months when the ACA came in. Trust me, I couldn’t believe it either.....
I do still hold a handful of losers from years ago that I liquidate to pay for the very occasional big expenses like the Macan S I bought a year or so. I probably won’t have an expense like that for a long while.
Oh, and the discounted PG&E (gas and electric) ..... when I qualified for medi-cal the county sent me a bunch of stuff basically saying “hey, you may qualify for this too”. All the programs had asset tests except the PGE program....all they required was low income. My gas and electric bill totaled less than $5 last month. Of course, October is a friendly month for utilities bills here, mild month, and PGE always does a yearly rebate that month. The thermostat was at 68 all month. I’d guess that my total utilities bills for the year were about $900. A 2500 sq ft one level home.
I’d like to point out that tone is hard to convey in writing. I’m not writing all this to brag. I’m writing it because someone out there “lurking” like I did for years might benefit from it. Otherwise, I’d just DM you. I learned an awful lot from the regulars here over the years and I’m grateful they shared their knowledge. Whether you, or anyone else approves of my actions really doesn’t matter - this information could be useful for someone so I feel compelled to share it. Again, no hard feelings.
Well we will disagree until the cows come home. Despite our opposite views, I don’t hold anything against you. Which Porsche’s do you,own (were you serious). California is a great state to have a sports car except for gas prices. Lots of great places to drive.
Care to share those easier ways to make money but keep your income so low as to get the free healthcare?
A gentleman I retired with, currently in his early 60's, has virtually all his assets in retirement accounts (his condo and car are paid for). He only draws what he needs from these accounts, which isn't a whole lot (he collects SS which pays the vast majority of his bills) and this allows him to be subsidized for health care from the Feds. He probably has a net worth of maybe $900K. Riddle me that, Batman, the Gub'mint works in strange ways.
Well we will disagree until the cows come home. Despite our opposite views, I don’t hold anything against you. Which Porsche’s do you,own (were you serious). California is a great state to have a sports car except for gas prices. Lots of great places to drive.
Care to share those easier ways to make money but keep your income so low as to get the free healthcare?
if you plan in advance it is not hard to draw a 6 figure income the early years of retirement ..
the typical strategy for someone looking to get a subsidy from 62 to 65 on insurance is :
first off delay social security ..
start to spend down ira money . for a couple , up to 24k can be drawn out tax free using the standard deduction . you can go up to more than 40k and still have very low taxable income in the 4-5% tax range . this can be a better deal for some than roth conversions while still working can ever be . this is truly a gift from the tax gods ... you got to write it off while working and perhaps even at the peak of your earning years and then pay near nothing to access it .
i have met many retirees who actually had to create taxable income , or instead of a subsidized aca plan they would have been shuffled off to medicaid health health insurance since once you fall to low you have no choice , it is an automatic process to be put on medicaid insurance and not an aca .
have some roths you did early on to provide more cash flow that is tax free .
for those with whole life policies you can actually over fund them for decades .. yep , many had 3 and 4% interest minimums and by law there can be no expenses taken out on over funding ..
you can over fund up to what is called the modified endowment plan limits . that is the point the irs no longer considers it life insurance but an endowment and it all is taxable .
at retirement you can borrow out all the over funding , never pay it back and that is tax free money . the death benefit is just reduced by the amount not paid back .
set a side some cash too and you can see a 6 figure income with very little of it taxable .
i wasn't smart enough to see a good adviser early on who really knows how to play the 2nd half of the game . so i ended up having an overly expensive aca plan with poor coverage .
Last edited by mathjak107; 12-07-2019 at 04:37 AM..
A gentleman I retired with, currently in his early 60's, has virtually all his assets in retirement accounts (his condo and car are paid for). He only draws what he needs from these accounts, which isn't a whole lot (he collects SS which pays the vast majority of his bills) and this allows him to be subsidized for health care from the Feds. He probably has a net worth of maybe $900K. Riddle me that, Batman, the Gub'mint works in strange ways.
the aca subsidies are not like medicaid or welfare ..
they simply allow you to keep more of what YOU EARNED like a rebate would .
it is no different than your fair share of taxes is the lowest amount you have to pay using the laws and legal tools left in place .
both simply let you keep more of what you earned .
the rules are strictly income based because most retirees have most of their net worth in their home and they can't spend the living room for health insurance .
so the aca is only income based and it is really a rebate system unlike medicaid health insurance which is welfare .. you don't even have to work to get it so it is not keeping more of what you earned .
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