How Much Do You Need To Retire?

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Oldgator73

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Glad I?ve already retired. This article would havev scared me into working a lot longer.

https://www.travelandleisure.com/syndication/early-retire-55-how-much-need?utm_medium=social&utm_term=9B4B0CD0-D652-11E9-9C85-C1C296E8478F&utm_campaign=travelandleisure_travelandleisure&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_content=link
 
The article you linked to is about right, but they didn't get into government pensions.  Having a pension that is guaranteed will change the needed savings amount by a large amount.  Most private sector employers no longer provide pensions and most governments do.
 
If you have zero debt and own your own home, you can almost live on your social security, but you need a nest egg to supplement it .
Also it depends on how you want to live

Jack L
 
lynnmor said:
The article you linked to is about right, but they didn't get into government pensions.  Having a pension that is guaranteed will change the needed savings amount by a large amount.  Most private sector employers no longer provide pensions and most governments do.

Between me and my wife we have five government retirements. So yes, we do not need the same amount of savings mentioned in the article.
 
Back2PA said:
More. The answer is more

I would posit not many folks would turn down more. My parents lived on Social Security and a paltry $100 retirement from the Electrical Union. But they made it. We?re pretty content with our retirement. We have close to half a million in investments which we don?t touch. It?s there in case I die before my wife since all my retirements cease when I am gone. 
 
Lots of variables, including "need" vs "want", but we retired at 49 and found 60% to be entirely adequate.  However, as part of the retirement we paid cash for our down-sized home in low-tax area, so that we always had a place to live. Having any sort of pension and/or retirement medical is also a huge assist. Buying expensive RVs and maintaining/operating them was definitely a strain on our financial resources, but we managed that ok.
 
UTTransplant said:
?The key to happiness is to not need very much,? says Mary Chaplin Carpenter in a song. Still very true.

Also,
"It's not having what you want
It's wanting what you've got"
-- Sheryl Crow  ;D ;D
 
SeilerBird said:
Wow, I retired in 1989 with zero in the bank and $1200 a month income. I did just fine. Toured the entire  country on that.

You have to take inflation into account when talking about "way back when" and what's likely to happen in the future.  The dollar has lost over half of it's value since 1989, so $1200 a month back then is equivilent to $2500 a month today.

CPI Inflation calculator:

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
 
Lou Schneider said:
You have to take inflation into account when talking about "way back when".  The dollar has lost half of it's value since 1989, so $1200 a month back then is equivilent to $2500 a month today.

CPI Inflation calculator:

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

?Way back when? I made $.65 an hour and thought I was rich. $10,000 a year used to be a fortune. I bought a brand new Ford F-100 for $2500. It?s all relative. I could live on $500 a month if everybody would.
 
Greetings,

I had a great job that paid well for the most part with pension. I also have a part time business that makes some nice extra dollars for me yet. Combine that with SS and Medicare Plenty to live off. Having things paid off is a biggie. Didn't plan it this way but our budget for a motor home was higher than we spent. Only paid half of our budget. Keeping in mind there are things that will need to be fixed by you or someone else (for bigger dollars) is important to remember when RV'n. Having a savings plan before retirement is an excellent idea as well.
 
The short story:I decided along the way to baseline our wants and expenses.  By that I mean as I got more promotions and increases in pay I didn't increase our expenses.  I retired with a small reduced pension, help with health insurance costs from my ex employer and then later we both drew Social Security and went on medicare...still get retiree help with supplemental health insurance costs.  We decided at some point we had a big enough house, a good enough car, RV and boat, etc. and did not keep buying bigger and better and racking up debt as we could afford to do.  We just replaced things with like items when they needed replacing and didn't do any big upgrades in order to keep expenses down.  As the increases in salary came I kept enough to keep up with inflation and invested the rest in a reasonably conservative portfolio of various bonds and equity mutual funds.  I wanted to retire young and not have expensive tastes and expenses.  It worked.  I retired at 56 with a small reduced pension and investment income.  We have been retired 22 years and are having a ball in retirement.  We are on the road 6 to 7 months out of the year on 2, 3 and 4, week RV trips and a 4 month winter trip.  Our investment account has more in it now then when we retired.  I could draw more income but you never know what the future will bring...we don't have long term care insurance so that can be expensive and a worry.  Buy it young when it is much cheaper...We didn't and that could be a mistake!  I should add that our decision to not have children was a huge aid in being able to do this!!  We do not regret any of our decisions along the way.  Been very happily married for 57 years.  We do have 36 nieces and nephews and great nieces and great nephews and more on the way...there lies an expense with births,  birthdays, graduations, etc., etc! 
 
I think it's obvious if you have trouble making ends meet on your pre-retirement income, it's not going to be easy possible to take a retirement cut unless you reduce your spending habits.  If you made $25k/year, you probably need 100% just to survive.  If you made $100k/year, you at least have the option of sacrificing some lifestyle to reduce expenses.
 
I am in my 50's semi retired, the big question I struggle with is when is it time to start dipping into the savings , and selling off investment property, vs living off of the stock dividends, etc?
 
Isaac-1 said:
I am in my 50's semi retired, the big question I struggle with is when is it time to start dipping into the savings , and selling off investment property, vs living off of the stock dividends, etc?

I would posit that would be different for many folks. Depends on your particular situation. There will come a time, when you are 70 or 70 1/2 you will have to start dipping into certain investments. We have dipped into investments on occasion for various reasons. We had to pay taxes on those withdrawals but it wasn?t too painful.
 

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