Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107
People back in to what they have and make it work .
It may not be the lifestyle they wanted or it could be one they like
I can tell you this , I don’t Know any retiree who said they wished they saved less .
I wouldn’t worry about what others think of their lives …concentrate on your life and goals .
One thing that baffles me here is you have a wealth Of knowledge among the group about retirement planning , methods and investing .
Yet so many questions here are concerned about how much is enough to others .
Asking people who live in different locations ,different lifestyles, different goals and different priorities about their situation really doesn’t improve the question askers situation….
So excuse me if I miss the point of a lot of these kinds of questions , particularly the how much is enough question , which is like asking how long is a rope.
I think the better questions pertain to how to improve one’s own plan
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Amen jak!
We don't have any $10 million retirement portfolio.
Spouses SSDI isn't much.
My SSDI is just under the median for SS in general.
I've had a long work history, was never a slouch, always had more than one job. At least in my 20s, even after injuring my back at work and having male "plumbing issues and surgery um, yeah, you know where when I was 24.
The more serious medical/health issues started in my 30s, and by 40 I was on SSDI.
Even while collecting SSDI, thanks to present Bush jr, I even worked. Part time for most of my SSDI collecting years, which also boosted my SSDI each year for additional credits upping my SSDI check each year.. before the annual COLA came in.
We will have our 30yr fixed no penalty mortgage paid off in less than 10 years. We're at 7 years in now.
We have a '16 Honda HRV, bought last year, paid off in just 6 mos.
We bought a '22 brand new CR-V cash paid.
We have $16k in Efund in Money Market accounts local, and another $16k in local CDs at some nice rates...for the current year standing
We bought have Roth IRA s, from earnings that exceeded the max allowed invest. We add, $7k max each, or whatever our earnings are, split. Each account has the same in them.
We can trade ETFs, stocks, bonds while on SSDI.
Roth, like for everyone ONLY if we earnings...we can pretty much do without the earnings to live on, so in the Roth's it goes.
Even WITH the higher costs of fuel for the cars, higher food costs, house insurance up by 20%. Higher car insurance (rate increases PLUS newer vehicls) Energy costs (house) up by 50%, getting added insulation in the attic (another 14"), and (groan!!!) Higher medication costs, we can still live on our SSDI and bank another $300-500/Mon. Add another $500 in spouse' earnings per mon.
And that's with 4 day vacations several times a year (extended weekenders), and still have change left over after adding that $500-1k each month.
We live modestly,
No, we're not millionaires.. working on that first million!
We are a couple hundred thousand-aires.
FIL passed, a couple small military whole life insurances (which saw that we got the new card is all.
Well add another $100k if the sale of his house goes through soon, but we already have that couple hundred thousand-aires of our own.
His house needs so serious updates, so we sold as is where is, estate deal.
Our house is a 2/1 750+144 sqft "starter" house...we bought what we NEED, not more than we could want in house.
I traded in my '06 minivan for the '22 AWD, and half the cost of the '16 AWD came from spouses old trade-in. That short term 6 mos balance loan was just a ",bridge loan" till the small life insurance came in.
Even if costs continue to rise, we are a ways from SSDI only will be pinching pennies with nothing left to invest in anything.
We will move to the Midwest (where my father mother and I came from for dad's job at ibm brought us to upstate NY) To where we will be close to my cousin's in case we need help, and their kids and grandkids to help out...when we urgently need it.
My 88 yo father is still here,band I'll gain control of the family trust fund and I have no idea what all's in that. But ye should still be around another 4-5 years.
Yes THAT will boost our retirement funds, but we still have 4 years and about another $48k to parlay into larger couple hundred thousand-aires funds!
Spouse is 63, still loves to work part time, but my very bad back hips and knees forced me to retire from standing on concrete floors for a couple hours several days a week.
Slowly looking for a part time job that I can SIT at.
That will add additional funds freely to be invested before dad passed.
We won't starve yet... Not for years to come. Come what may.
We will survive! Even with less than $1+/- million in the bank.
So each person, couple or retiring people WILL, as MJ said..make it work.
We're not greedy, and at this point, not even needy!
Best to all.
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Sounds like an attempt to open up yet another debate between savers and spenders. Plus, a bit of virtue signaling thrown in for good measure.
Actually the dead contribute significantly by contributing with or with inheritance and what estate planning occurred and the subsequent results. 
