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What's so hard about doing the math and halving the number for couples. OR if it's been cited that couples live at about 160% of the cost of singles, just take 75% of the couples number.
If the article says 2 million for a couple, presume 1.5 mill for a single.
Presuming we're talking about the couple and the single retiring at the same age. Because if not -- and if the couple retired at 60 -- and you as a single plan to work until 70. That's not apples to apples anyway.
Sometimes you just have to do your own math.
any good accredited source will never throw a number out . as i say repeatedly it will only stress test the amount you have and the allocation you use and then give you the success rate based on the worst retirees have seen in the past .
as soon as you see an article or person say you need x-amount , move on .there is no such thing .
Some people need or want a formula to do an initial "how am I doing" comparison. And that can help. For example if you read that:
-- you need so much in an emergency fund (and you don't have one so the percolates in your mind and you save more)
-- you should have XX amount saved my age YY (which I was behind on, so I kicked swings in gear)
(however I never bought into you need 1 or 2 million dollars to retire. I knew from the start I personally would not.)
-- you shouldn't (or should try not to) spend more than xx amount on housing (so I at least had that in mind. But also for the Washington DC area, I knew for me that percentage would be "off.")
-- You should have XX count to retire on
Personally when I see articles about how much you need to retire and those numbers are in the millions:
1) I know I'll never have that much, AND using all the income streams I'll have I did the math on how much I would have
2) I know too many people, relatives whose finances I handled when they were elders, who've retired with nowhere near that much who managed quite well (took a trip year, but were frugal in other ways)
3) I educated myself about WHY those articles may say that, what makes them say that? health care costs? retirement age? housing costs?
I'm very good at "taking and using what fits, and leaving the rest." I also do my own confirmation of info.
But I also know what it's like to want to find information you just can't find. I had a devil of a time -- and asked here on CD, and Googled and Googled -- to find the details I wanted on figuring out EXACTLY how much of a person's Soc Sec. will be taxable. People complained about it so much, I needed to research it more for myself.
99% of articles just say if you make over XXX this much of your Soc Sec MAY be taxed, I wanted to find the formula to determine exactly how much it would if based on certain incomes. I finally found an article somewhere that if my income plus half your benefits is more than $32,000 but less than $44,000, I'll only be taxed on one half of the excess over $32,000 OR one half of the benefits(Whichever is lower.) I did some basic math on my own numbers and was OK with the result.
To be honest I thought "oh, that's not that bad. I thought the hit would be worse than that the way people talk about Soc. Sec. benefits being taxed." But that doesn't mean I didn't start investigating ways to keep RMDs low. I sure did.
Believe me, I get being frustrated by not finding the info you're looking for.
what you may have saved while raising a family is all over the map. i don't know anyone who saves in a rising glide path evenly .
while i started investing as a teenager it wasn't until our kids were much much older that savings and earnings were put in to a higher gear. we tend to have different amounts to save at different times .
i mentioned a few times it took the first 50 years of life to hit a million but only 13 years to triple it and 15 years to quadruple it . the more i had the bigger the deals i was involved in and the greater the rewards . so i could never say by this or that age i will have or should have x-amount .
so to try to compare to others really is not very meaningful because there is so much more attached . a penny saved is a penny earned but it will always stay a penny unless compounding co-operates .
life is filled with choices and the more money you have the more choices you have .so it often is not about getting by on an amount- it is about having choices . we can always find a level that suits our budget , we may not like the lifestyle that budget allows us but that is how it is done .
so higher amounts saved generally allow better or more varied choices but it isn't like you can't get by with less .
Last edited by mathjak107; 08-05-2017 at 07:35 AM..
The point is, still, that useful, intelligent financial retirement planning for singles isn't on the internet. Just cosmo crap. Indepth articles specifically geared to singles.
And one can poo-poo the figure thrown out for couples all you want. But it was put out there. And is a clear indication that couples get more information then singles. I want equal treatment, whether one wants to value that information or not, is up to them. If chocolate ice cream was denied me I'd be just as annoyed, and many would consider that crap too.
This thread is about where to find intelligent advice for singles. But instead has become about our (or just my) want for the figure. Yet I assure you, I want so much more. I was really demanding on professors too. I'm okay with that.
Frankly, I think the only way to get that advice is to solicit for the articles to be written. I may just do that sometime this winter.
quite frankly with financial planning being such an important part of our lives whether we are a couple or single , i can't understand why folks insist only on free advice from the internet .
i always say if you think the price of good financial advice for your personal situation is expensive-you can't afford free.
most of the stuff out there is out dated , a myth , or flat out wrong when it comes to modern day retirement planning .
the only info i trust is the info from current reasearchers like michael kitces or blanchett or milevsky .
the stuff put out there by most of these other financial writers and columnists is usually worth what it costs- nothing!
quite frankly with financial planning being such an important part of our lives whether we are a couple or single , i can't understand why folks insist only on free advice from the internet .
i always say if you think the price of good financial advice for your personal situation is expensive-you can't afford free.
most of the stuff out there is out dated , a myth , or flat out wrong when it comes to modern day retirement planning .
the only info i trust is the info from current reasearchers like michael kitces or blanchett or milevsky .
the stuff put out there by most of these other financial writers and columnists is usually worth what it costs- nothing!
Quite frankly, I want to know enough myself so that I can properly evaluate the advice I'm getting. I'm sure we've all experienced going to an "expert" and later finding out they handed out bad advice. I don't just swallow what I'm given - I check it out - but if I have a faulty base of information to begin with I'm not able to do that.
First we're supposed to just take what is given out that is mostly in the form of couples advice. Then we are told to just google it (because we aren't smart enough to do that already ). Then we are told to adjust all that advice. Then told to disregard online info and go to a professional. A professional who probably dishes out stuff based on couples!
Yes, I read Kitces, et al. too - at least their stuff is research-based and usually in enough detail that I can tell where it comes from and how I might need to adjust it...those guys are few and far between.
First we're supposed to just take what is given out that is mostly in the form of couples advice. Then we are told to just google it (because we aren't smart enough to do that already ). Then we are told to adjust all that advice. Then told to disregard online info and go to a professional.
Excellent summary. I really didn't expect that such a thread (initally praised) became about disregard.
Quite frankly, I want to know enough myself so that I can properly evaluate the advice I'm getting. I'm sure we've all experienced going to an "expert" and later finding out they handed out bad advice. I don't just swallow what I'm given - I check it out - but if I have a faulty base of information to begin with I'm not able to do that.
First we're supposed to just take what is given out that is mostly in the form of couples advice. Then we are told to just google it (because we aren't smart enough to do that already ). Then we are told to adjust all that advice. Then told to disregard online info and go to a professional. A professional who probably dishes out stuff based on couples!
Yes, I read Kitces, et al. too - at least their stuff is research-based and usually in enough detail that I can tell where it comes from and how I might need to adjust it...those guys are few and far between.
there are specialized forums with some of the smartest people on the subject . one such forum is run by the creator of firecalc .
it is there i learned much of what i needed to know so i can at least benchmark other advice i see given out with at least a good basic understanding . .
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). Then we are told to adjust all that advice. Then told to disregard online info and go to a professional. A professional who probably dishes out stuff based on couples!
