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.
Ha ha ha , I would never have retired if all I had was 3600 a month here...
I would be living in the hood...
You're sounding a bit snobby. My expenses total around $4,000, and I live in a $600,000 townhouse in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. Nowhere near the hood,
I'm not in the proper age limits listed, I was able to retire 8 years early, in part because part of my retirement planning included buying a small ranch.
Since I can produce most of our food, including hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants, my food budget is pretty small.
Since I'm completely off grid, I don't have a power bill. My water comes from my own well, got a private septic field, so I don't pay water/sewer bills.
With the ag exemptions, my property taxes are around $600 a year. The land provides enough income to make payments for the next 5 years until the land is paid off.
I have a good pension and supplemental plan, but really, the wife and I live very well on about $800 a month aside from the expenses noted above.
Would that work in Washington state or New York? No.
I knew where I wanted to retire to and what I wanted to do and tailored my plans accordingly.
The best analogy I've ever found for retirement planning is that it's like firewood. When you think you have enough, double it.
Though this question has been asked many different ways, I am going to try and limit the responses to those over 62 and fully (or nearly) retired.
The questions are for those doing it.
How much in Total Assets do you think the average person needs to have to retire reasonable comfortable?
How much Monthly Income do you think the average person needs to have to retire reasonable comfortable?
Not sure if I am fully eligible to respond to your thread because although I am 62.6 I don't plan to retire for another 4 years but I will throw my hat into the ring anyway. No different than the bulk of the responders I too found your questions really hard to answer because everyone has different expenses and retirement goals which will dictate their individual retirement income comfort level.
For me personally, my retirement income comfort level is the pretty much the same net income as my working net income. And the reason for that is my expenses the day before I retire will actually be less than the day or should I say month after I retire because that is when I will begin to pay my Medicare Part B premium. And additionally with more free time and wanting to get back into painting and other hobbies I don't have the time for now those will add to my expenses. Sure I could make due on less income, but that less income in year 10 of retirement will likely be not enough income as a result of that nasty bugger called inflation.
You're sounding a bit snobby. My expenses total around $4,000, and I live in a $600,000 townhouse in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. Nowhere near the hood,
You're sounding a bit snobby. My expenses total around $4,000, and I live in a $600,000 townhouse in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. Nowhere near the hood,
Why are you judging others, a lot of it depends on your situation. My current mortgage payments, homeowners insurance and property taxes are over $6000 /mo. - $3600 (or $4000/mo) would not cut it.
You're sounding a bit snobby. My expenses total around $4,000, and I live in a $600,000 townhouse in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. Nowhere near the hood,
who cares what things cost or are like where you live , or what is an acceptable lifestyle to you to be honest .
you don't live here ..
you may not have the same expectations in retirement , costs or minimum acceptable standards that others do so any comparison is a moot point . 69k still qualifies you for a low income housing project here . there is a reason ....
600k here is a home in areas like jamaica , rosedale or many areas where most of us don't want to live if we can avoid it .... sure you can find cheaper homes in good areas but those homes are going require extensive renovation and are not 600k homes anymore .
in manhattan you can't get a decent studio for 600k unless it was in a less than stellar area.
in fact in our area in queens , not manhattan single family homes start at 1 million . co-ops apartments in apartment buildings are in the 300-400k range with about 1500 a month in maintenance being typical plus your mortgage .
so great you live on 4k a month .... it would not work for us . dont forget those living on social security alone who claim they are living comfortable lives look at your 4k and go that is nuts , no one needs 4k to live on .
You're sounding a bit snobby. My expenses total around $4,000, and I live in a $600,000 townhouse in one of the wealthiest areas of the country. Nowhere near the hood,
Quote:
Originally Posted by ddeemo
Why are you judging others, a lot of it depends on your situation. My current mortgage payments, homeowners insurance and property taxes are over $6000 /mo. - $3600 (or $4000/mo) would not cut it.
that is the problem ... people look at their own lives , where they are and make silly assumptions about places they don't even live and lifestyles that may not be what others even consider acceptable . i would never look at where i live , what i want out of retirement and tell someone else what they need to live on based on my criteria .. that is absurd .
one of the other problems is many who are quick to shoot others numbers don't have enough knowledge as to how to even calculate what it may take to sustain that level of income in that figure they shoot out .
to generate 40k a year inflation adjusted from the portfolio or savings portion initially requires 1 million dollars ... but that assumes they will be using at least 40% equities .. many are anti investing and will be using fixed income only ... trying to draw 4% inflation adjusted from fixed income is as risky as can be with only a 45% chance of actually lasting 30 years .
that person needs to have a lot more money if only fixed income is used . they can require as much as 400k more to achieve the same income level .
it also assumes you can have 1 dollar left in the 30th year under worst case outcomes .. what if you live 31 and you are the 1965 or 1966 retiree? not a comfortable feeling , that is for sure .
that draw also assumes no yearly expenses that take you over budget like new car , major dental expenses , costly home repairs , etc ... if you spend down more in one year that takes away from the future years success rate .
so this whole thing here with people shooting numbers out is just ridiculous . the only thing we can say is how we live on x-amount ... not telling anyone else what they need or they are rich because where they are consumes 2x what someone else needs in another location for the same lifestyle .
Last edited by mathjak107; 07-28-2019 at 03:10 AM..
this would be false ... that assumes a person will be taking a 4% draw rate ... a 4% draw rate requires at least 40% equities to sustain it under worst case outcomes .
25x is only a safe withdrawal rate when the odds of lasting are just 30 years and at least 40% equities is used .. otherwise more than 25x is needed to generate the same income at the same success rate .
so your assumption of them even using any equities is wrong ... many don't understand that a retirement that avoids a certain amount of equities actually becomes dangerous using fixed income only , at the same draw rate as using 40-60% equities .
fixed income has failed so many of the 119 30 year retirement cycles it is as unsafe as unsafe can be at 4% . so to draw 4% that person would need a lot more than 25x to generate the same level of income .
that assumption you made is also for a 30 year retirement and assumes 1 dollar can be left in year 30 .. so that is also a poor assumption without knowing how many years in retirement they are considering ...
once again longer retirements require more savings .
simple answers to very complex question will usually end up being the wrong answers .
the problem is when people pull various things they read or hear out of context and drop all the qualifying details and just boil it down to a simple across the board answer . then other misinformed people parrot it to other mis-informed people and the myth perpetuates .
Last edited by mathjak107; 07-28-2019 at 04:03 AM..
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.
