How much would it take for you to retire today?

[purbeast0]

I am hoping to have like 4 million. I followed one of those calculators based on what I am doing now and it came to around that. Although now that I can't do a Roth IRA I really need to actually open up some other kind of account and start putting money into that. I've just been lazy about it.

I just filled out some form about an hour ago that made me have to look back at last year's investment totals and compare it to this year, and my 401k went up nearly $50k from last year, and my vanguard account (mix of roth IRA and rollover 401k's) went up $20k.

When I retire I don't plan on sitting around doing nothing waiting to die. I want to continue to live the way I do now and travel and go out to eat nice dinners and have an overall good time.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I'll never stop working although I'll retire when I've reached my tolerance for bs.

 

[ponyo]

I retired 3.5 years ago. I took a pay cut of about 10-15% take home pay, working, to take home pay pension.

I am able to pay my bills, etc. no problem, I don't buy lunch and breakfast at work every day being retired,
I am not having to buy "work clothes" {Jeans and flannel shirts} as often.

I am much happier.

I remember your retirement post. Glad you're enjoying retirement. I think pretty much all of us would retire if we could retire with full pension with only small cut in take home pay. I just have to work until my daughter finishes school and starts working. That's about 12 more years.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Right now, my goals are to 1. Get my kids out of daycare to free up $1200 a month. 2. Pay off cars (3) 3. Pay off mortgage

Once I get that extra $1200 a month the rest of the cards should fall a little quicker to get our minimum monthly expenses down so we can save more for retirement. I could retire quicker than most people as long as my wife keeps working. Once I start pulling money out of my retirement funds when I get older, I wouldn't mind working a "job" somewhere....just for something fun to do.

 

[dullard]

yeah, but if not paying a mortgage or rent or whatever, $40k goes a long way anywhere. even in some of the more expensive parts of the country. Once you eliminate the monthly housing costs, pretty much any city in the country is relatively similar in CoL--assuming you don't eat out for every meal and all that. (i.e: modest, but good grocery outlets are available in any big city). Only two or three states, I think, will truly wreck you with taxes, though.

In the low cost of living states, you often get raped with taxes. For example, I live in a fairly low COL state (Nebraska). But, like most low COL rural states, there is a lot of land (lots of costs for the state to maintain) and not many tax payers. So, the average property tax rate is 1.88% and goes as high as 2.12%. Thus even with a fully paid mortgage on the median house (which is small and falling apart here), you will pay almost $3000/year for property taxes. Add in $300 to $600 per year per car for registrations, since again we have many roads and few drivers. The fixed costs add up quite quickly. Rural land to get away from taxes with a small shack isn't an option since land values have skyrocketed.

Then add in the fact that you have 80% more idle time once you retire, so you get that much more tempted to spend. Retiring to sit around and do nothing isn't an enjoyable retirement.

Yes, $40k is doable now. But it would be very, very painful as inflation keeps eating away at it. In 20 years, that will buy only about $20k of what you get today. And 25% of that will go to properly/vehicle taxes.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

If I retired now I would sell my house (my only real liability) and buy another smaller place outright with the equity from the sale (about $200k, lots of places in NH can be found for that). Once the house was sold, the wife and I could live comfortably on $100k/year + 3% year oover year for inflation - so ~about 2.5 million would do it.

To go a little off topic here - how many people here are reasonably close to retiring (meaning you are both approaching your desired retirement age and expect to have the assets to retire at that age)? I'm 40 and I plan to retire from my current job (patent attorney) in about 14-15 years. So far it looks like I'm on track to meet that goal.

And on a scarier note - I read recently that the average US family has less than $6000 in retirement savings. Dear god.

 

[zinfamous]

And on a scarier note - I read recently that the average US family has less than $6000 in retirement savings. Dear god.

I wonder what the median number for that is, because I wonder how front loaded it is for young "families" that just started in the work force...and also what it means by "families." So, it doesn't take into account unmarried singles, couples and their retirement plans?

At the same time, I have also read that the average US worker retires with $40k in savings (and that figure is at 65/69 y.o.) ....so that would certainly influence the $6k claim.

 

[ponyo]

Right now, my goals are to 1. Get my kids out of daycare to free up $1200 a month. 2. Pay off cars (3) 3. Pay off mortgage

Once I get that extra $1200 a month the rest of the cards should fall a little quicker to get our minimum monthly expenses down so we can save more for retirement. I could retire quicker than most people as long as my wife keeps working. Once I start pulling money out of my retirement funds when I get older, I wouldn't mind working a "job" somewhere....just for something fun to do.

I finished those three goals years ago. I'm on number 4) Pay for kid's education. Part 4 is what worries me. At the rate things are going with higher education, part 4 could cost more than first 3 combined. That scares me.

I've been able to experience semi-retirement the last 9 months or so and only working few hours a week. I have to say it's nice. It took me about 2 months to adjust but I could easily do this full time. But it's about to come to an end and the busy season is coming up. Time to make some money.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

orker retires with $40k in sav

I wonder what the median number for that is, because I wonder how front loaded it is for young "families" that just started in the work force...and also what it means by "families." So, it doesn't take into account unmarried singles, couples and their retirement plans?

At the same time, I have also read that the average US worker retires with $40k in savings (and that figure is at 65/69 y.o.) ....so that would certainly influence the $6k claim.

Good point. Here are some charts that provide some data. It looks a "little" better.

http://www.epi.org/publication/retirement-in-america/#chart1

 

[Exterous]

To go a little off topic here - how many people here are reasonably close to retiring (meaning you are both approaching your desired retirement age and expect to have the assets to retire at that age)? I'm 40 and I plan to retire from my current job (patent attorney) in about 14-15 years. So far it looks like I'm on track to meet that goal.

And on a scarier note - I read recently that the average US family has less than $6000 in retirement savings. Dear god.

To some extent the number is weighted down by the 18-35ish age range. IIRC 60 years old is around $175k. Not exactly a lot but it hasn't changed much over the years and a lot of people seem to be managing it

Personally I have a retirement range that will shrink as it gets closer and the position of the various moving parts becomes clearer. Right now that range is 14-19 years

 

[TXHokie]

$2,264,265.07 exactly, and not a penny less as of 5/4/2017 10:03:35 AM EST

 

[K1052]

Current guesstimate to maintain present standard of living and pay for the stuff I'd want to do in retirement I'd say about 6M.

 

[Svnla]

If I have $10 million USD in the banks right now, I would give 2-3 weeks notice to my boss and then start my side business just for fun and then fly around the world in business/first class. No more be bother in the morning by the alarm clock and no more worry about anything.

 

[Scarpozzi]

If you own your home, you've got choices. I know a lot of people that considered the reverse mortgage stuff, but ultimately just sold their homes to move into an apartment. It makes you more mobile and if you're not tied down by a job, you can sign a 6 month lease somewhere tropical and then move back to be closer to family without missing a beat. You just have to ditch your clunky possessions and go mobile. Not a bad deal if you have all your prized pictures or whatever p scanned into the cloud.

If I retired now I would sell my house (my only real liability) and buy another smaller place outright with the equity from the sale (about $200k, lots of places in NH can be found for that). Once the house was sold, the wife and I could live comfortably on $100k/year + 3% year oover year for inflation - so ~about 2.5 million would do it.

To go a little off topic here - how many people here are reasonably close to retiring (meaning you are both approaching your desired retirement age and expect to have the assets to retire at that age)? I'm 40 and I plan to retire from my current job (patent attorney) in about 14-15 years. So far it looks like I'm on track to meet that goal.

And on a scarier note - I read recently that the average US family has less than $6000 in retirement savings. Dear god.

Since my wife and I both have retirement savings and share a dwelling, we have a slight advantage if we don't consider selling our house. I've got a little less than twice what she has in savings, but she's only saved half the time I have and will eventually pass me up. I'm 36 (37 in a few months) and she's 33. I'll have 30 years of savings by the age of 52.... Retirement is further off than that because 59 1/2 is where you don't lose 10% of what you withdraw in penalties from most accounts... I may start having to throw more cash into traditional stocks and savings to make that 7 years better.

 

[JulesMaximus]

100,000 dollars.

Shit, I have that much in savings.

 

[BurnItDwn]

somewhere between 2 and 3 million would be comfortable life with a house on the shore of Lake Superior or Lake Michigan somewhere.

 

[DigDog]

honestly, if i had $150.000, i would retire. i would set up a small restaurant (which i would "curate" i.e. make sure managers dont duck it up, but otherwise wouldn't work in it) somewhere cheap, like the phlippines, or peru', and spend the rest of my days having sex.

 

[Svnla]

honestly, if i had $150.000, i would retire. i would set up a small restaurant (which i would "curate" i.e. make sure managers dont duck it up, but otherwise wouldn't work in it) somewhere cheap, like the phlippines, or peru', and spend the rest of my days having sex.

I think you are "very" overly optimis about $150K and a retirement with daily sex, even in an developing country.

I have been to a few developing countries and while they are cheap, they are not so cheap that you can have daily sex with a networth of $150K (or another guy above with a $100K requirement).

 

[Svnla]

And on a scarier note - I read recently that the average US family has less than $6000 in retirement savings. Dear god.

Even more alarming is that many people have no savings at all. In fact, almost 30% report having a zero balance, and 62% have less than $1,000 in savings, according to a survey by GOBankingRates.com. An additional 21% report having no savings account whatsoever.

https://www.fool.com/retirement/gen...e-americans-saving-habits-9-scary-statis.aspx

 

[Red Squirrel]

And on a scarier note - I read recently that the average US family has less than $6000 in retirement savings. Dear god.

Not really surprising. Cost of living keeps going up, salaries stay the same, and number of good paying jobs keeps being reduced - heck even low paying jobs are being reduced. Every day you hear of mass layoffs somewhere, you rarely hear of mass hires. Even minimum wage jobs are getting harder to come by due to outsourcing and automation. Companies expect unlimited growth and they are pretty much cannibalizing themselves in order to do this. Unlimited growth is just not sustainable.

As far as retirement I have like 20k in RRSPs myself, that's not even enough for 1 year, and it took me almost 10 years to get to that. I'll also be taxed like crazy when I take that money out so really it's more like 10k.

I'm trying to pay my house off as fast as possible though, so my goal is to save more for retirement once the house is paid off. For each mortgage payment, there is about $300 that goes to interest alone biweekly. The faster the mortgage is paid off, the more money I have in the long run. The argument that investing money would yield more than paying off a debt only works if you have a HUGE sum of money to invest. Mortgage cost's me about $600/mo in interest, I'm not aware of any way I can MAKE $600/mo in interest through an investment with any money I have to spare.

I do have a pension with my company though, but I'm not counting on that. Every union agreement we lose something. By the time I get to retirement I'm sure the pension is going to be one of the things on the chopping block.

 

[dullard]

The argument that investing money would yield more than paying off a debt only works if you have a HUGE sum of money to invest. Mortgage cost's me about $600/mo in interest, I'm not aware of any way I can MAKE $600/mo in interest through an investment with any money I have to spare.

It isn't whether or not you can earn $600/month that matters. What matters is if you can earn a higher return rate on investments than the net interest rate on the mortgage.

For example if you have $100 to invest and can get 10% return, then it is better to earn $10 a year on it than to put $100 extra in your ~5% mortgage and get only $5 back. Note: I'm just guessing on Canadian mortgage rates.

That said: I did the mathematically stupid thing and paid off my mortgage too. The freedom and sense of security far outweighs a few extra thousand dollars in the bank.

 

[cyclistca]

I had my first child in my late 40's. What is this retirement you speak off. I'll be working until I can not stand up.

 

[zinfamous]

If you own your home, you've got choices. I know a lot of people that considered the reverse mortgage stuff, but ultimately just sold their homes to move into an apartment. It makes you more mobile and if you're not tied down by a job, you can sign a 6 month lease somewhere tropical and then move back to be closer to family without missing a beat. You just have to ditch your clunky possessions and go mobile. Not a bad deal if you have all your prized pictures or whatever p scanned into the cloud.

Since my wife and I both have retirement savings and share a dwelling, we have a slight advantage if we don't consider selling our house. I've got a little less than twice what she has in savings, but she's only saved half the time I have and will eventually pass me up. I'm 36 (37 in a few months) and she's 33. I'll have 30 years of savings by the age of 52.... Retirement is further off than that because 59 1/2 is where you don't lose 10% of what you withdraw in penalties from most accounts... I may start having to throw more cash into traditional stocks and savings to make that 7 years better.

Yeah, don't ignore that. Start putting lots of cash in individual brokerage account so that you have savings that aren't restricted by penalties.

 

[zinfamous]

I think you are "very" overly optimis about $150K and a retirement with daily sex, even in an developing country.

I have been to a few developing countries and while they are cheap, they are not so cheap that you can have daily sex with a networth of $150K (or another guy above with a $100K requirement).

Mayne sustains himself on potatoes and cheap beer. He'll be fine.