Top 1% of Retirees Have 16.7M

[Anonymous]

99th percentile of retirees have $16.7M of wealth.

95th percentile of retirees have $3.2M of wealth.

90th percentile of retirees have $1.9M of wealth.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/super-wealthy-retirement-looks-savings-095900179.html

Does this change the way you think in terms of how much you need to save to retire?

[Anonymous]

Why would it? We all know the baby boomers were pretty bad at saving. Most of how they did it was by lucking in to homes that increased in value exponentially. My parents in law (retired boomers) are not who I want to emulate in terms of savings. They still have to count every penny in retirement.

I don't want that.

[Anonymous]

So I'll be in the 90th percentile. Fine with me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would it? We all know the baby boomers were pretty bad at saving. Most of how they did it was by lucking in to homes that increased in value exponentially. My parents in law (retired boomers) are not who I want to emulate in terms of savings. They still have to count every penny in retirement.

I don't want that.

I thought the evil boomers were all sitting on piles of cash that they refuse to give their children?

[Anonymous]

No, since I want to travel when I retire early, and that costs a lot of money.

-95%ile

[Anonymous]

So my parents, who never made more than $45K (both working, and one parent only worked for 10 years--they are in mid 80s ) managed to be frugal and save $800K for their retirement. Impressive I must say, probably puts them at 65-70% despite being much lower for earnings.

[Anonymous]

The media generally lacks perspective and context and likes to talk about "the never-before-seen transfer of wealth between the boomers and their kids".

What they fail to mention is that people have higher standards of living than in past generations and we are on our way to a multipolar world, leaving behind post-WWII American supremacy.

So yes, we'd better have money saved.

[Anonymous]

What's wild is that this is total assets, not just retirement accounts. So for many of these retirees, if they are still in the house the were in before retiring, that house is likely a significant portion of their overall wealth.

I think a lot of people overestimate their ability to spend money in retirement. Like my dad has tons of money but doesn't travel much because he doesn't like traveling alone. Same with my MIL. MIL also has an elderly dog who she doesn't want to leave alone for long periods. Before my mom passed, her main focus was grandkids and spending time with them and buying things for them, not expensive travel all over the world. My parents did do a few big bucket list trips and those were expensive and they enjoyed them, but they didn't have the energy or time to do stuff like that all the time.

When you don't have a mortgage, and you have a lot of time, you can actually live an incredibly nice life while spending significantly less annually than you did when you were working full time and had kids depending on you. My parents/ILs don't even eat that much anymore. My dad spends money on very good wine but can't drink more than a glass or two at a time, so even this "expensive" habit isn't really that expensive for him.

Most of their money will likely wind up going to healthcare and assisted living once they are no longer well enough to live independently. Even then -- some people die slow and some die fast (my FIL got sick and died in 18 months -- we were working on plans to get him into 24 hour care when he just died).

What we always tell our parents is "you can't take it with you." We want them to enjoy their life now and spend the money they want to spend. But it's harder than it looks. My dad joked that the only way he's going to actually spend his full retirement is if he gets a gambling habit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would it? We all know the baby boomers were pretty bad at saving. Most of how they did it was by lucking in to homes that increased in value exponentially. My parents in law (retired boomers) are not who I want to emulate in terms of savings. They still have to count every penny in retirement.

I don't want that.

I thought the evil boomers were all sitting on piles of cash that they refuse to give their children?

Well, I never said that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's wild is that this is total assets, not just retirement accounts. So for many of these retirees, if they are still in the house the were in before retiring, that house is likely a significant portion of their overall wealth.

I think a lot of people overestimate their ability to spend money in retirement. Like my dad has tons of money but doesn't travel much because he doesn't like traveling alone. Same with my MIL. MIL also has an elderly dog who she doesn't want to leave alone for long periods. Before my mom passed, her main focus was grandkids and spending time with them and buying things for them, not expensive travel all over the world. My parents did do a few big bucket list trips and those were expensive and they enjoyed them, but they didn't have the energy or time to do stuff like that all the time.

When you don't have a mortgage, and you have a lot of time, you can actually live an incredibly nice life while spending significantly less annually than you did when you were working full time and had kids depending on you. My parents/ILs don't even eat that much anymore. My dad spends money on very good wine but can't drink more than a glass or two at a time, so even this "expensive" habit isn't really that expensive for him.

Most of their money will likely wind up going to healthcare and assisted living once they are no longer well enough to live independently. Even then -- some people die slow and some die fast (my FIL got sick and died in 18 months -- we were working on plans to get him into 24 hour care when he just died).

What we always tell our parents is "you can't take it with you." We want them to enjoy their life now and spend the money they want to spend. But it's harder than it looks. My dad joked that the only way he's going to actually spend his full retirement is if he gets a gambling habit.

Lord, don't joke about that. My wife's grandmother developed a gambling habit in her last years because she had diminished mental capacity due to a brain tumor and gambled away all of her wealth.

[Anonymous]

OP, are you trying to dissuade people from saving for retirement?

If so, why do you care what other people choose to do with their own money?

[Anonymous]

I skimmed the source documents Yahoo gave, and they describe only the 90th to 100th percentile with no breakdowns within that decile.

Perhaps there is another source?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's wild is that this is total assets, not just retirement accounts. So for many of these retirees, if they are still in the house the were in before retiring, that house is likely a significant portion of their overall wealth.

I think a lot of people overestimate their ability to spend money in retirement. Like my dad has tons of money but doesn't travel much because he doesn't like traveling alone. Same with my MIL. MIL also has an elderly dog who she doesn't want to leave alone for long periods. Before my mom passed, her main focus was grandkids and spending time with them and buying things for them, not expensive travel all over the world. My parents did do a few big bucket list trips and those were expensive and they enjoyed them, but they didn't have the energy or time to do stuff like that all the time.

When you don't have a mortgage, and you have a lot of time, you can actually live an incredibly nice life while spending significantly less annually than you did when you were working full time and had kids depending on you. My parents/ILs don't even eat that much anymore. My dad spends money on very good wine but can't drink more than a glass or two at a time, so even this "expensive" habit isn't really that expensive for him.

Most of their money will likely wind up going to healthcare and assisted living once they are no longer well enough to live independently. Even then -- some people die slow and some die fast (my FIL got sick and died in 18 months -- we were working on plans to get him into 24 hour care when he just died).

What we always tell our parents is "you can't take it with you." We want them to enjoy their life now and spend the money they want to spend. But it's harder than it looks. My dad joked that the only way he's going to actually spend his full retirement is if he gets a gambling habit.

Lord, don't joke about that. My wife's grandmother developed a gambling habit in her last years because she had diminished mental capacity due to a brain tumor and gambled away all of her wealth.

This is why I think someone you trust needs to be a joint account holder, or at least be able to see your transactions. Maybe put an alert or threshold on your bank account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would it? We all know the baby boomers were pretty bad at saving. Most of how they did it was by lucking in to homes that increased in value exponentially. My parents in law (retired boomers) are not who I want to emulate in terms of savings. They still have to count every penny in retirement.

I don't want that.

I thought the evil boomers were all sitting on piles of cash that they refuse to give their children?

My in-laws are rich and still act as though they could be homeless tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

How do you calculate a pension for total retirement assets?