What income are you aiming for in retirement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 85-year-old mom has $6,000/month in a federal pension + SS benefits from my (deceased) father's job. That money is more than enough to cover everything she needs & many of her wants. I keep her budget for her, and she travels every few months, has a nice wine budget & generally has enough.

I keep that in mind when I evaluate how/when to retire. Having excess is fine if you want to leave a financial legacy to your kids, but it's unnecessary for enjoying your daily life, especially as you get older and are less on-the-go.

A lot of this has to do with when you retire. At 85 yo, I expect that amount would do me just fine. But we intend to retire at 62 and 59. We'll be in good shape, have lots of energy, and want to travel - some overseas, some in the US, and some visiting friends. When we stay with friends in Park City, we'll ski for a week - that's not free. When we visit NYC, shows aren't cheap. When we visit Paris, I don't intend to stay in a hostel, or eat (only) street food. Michelin starred restaurants aren't cheap. The trip(s) to Vietnam, Korea and Thailand will be much more enjoyable with first class plane tickets. Same for Australia.

I don't expect to be doing all those things at 85 yo. But I do think we'll do them, or some of them, for a decade (at least). So I want enough, when we retire, that we can withdraw enough to do all the things that jobs, kids, and life haven't let us do up until that point without worrying that doing so will impoverish us in later years. And if that means we need enough cushion to leave a nice chunk to our only child, so be it.

Barf. I'm very well-off and a 2x Trump-voting Republican, but posts like this are why people justifiably want to eat the rich.

Because people want to enjoy their retirement, and do things they weren't able to do while working? You don't like good food? Or is it just anything coastal or international that your Trump-loving self dislikes.

But by all means,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s comical that so many posters will have retirement incomes higher than 97% of working Americans.

I am in this category. I consider myself unbelievably fortunate. It is not at all what I expected from a career as a fed "lifer".

DMV is a relatively highly paid area too, so this result isn't that surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 85-year-old mom has $6,000/month in a federal pension + SS benefits from my (deceased) father's job. That money is more than enough to cover everything she needs & many of her wants. I keep her budget for her, and she travels every few months, has a nice wine budget & generally has enough.

I keep that in mind when I evaluate how/when to retire. Having excess is fine if you want to leave a financial legacy to your kids, but it's unnecessary for enjoying your daily life, especially as you get older and are less on-the-go.

A lot of this has to do with when you retire. At 85 yo, I expect that amount would do me just fine. But we intend to retire at 62 and 59. We'll be in good shape, have lots of energy, and want to travel - some overseas, some in the US, and some visiting friends. When we stay with friends in Park City, we'll ski for a week - that's not free. When we visit NYC, shows aren't cheap. When we visit Paris, I don't intend to stay in a hostel, or eat (only) street food. Michelin starred restaurants aren't cheap. The trip(s) to Vietnam, Korea and Thailand will be much more enjoyable with first class plane tickets. Same for Australia.

I don't expect to be doing all those things at 85 yo. But I do think we'll do them, or some of them, for a decade (at least). So I want enough, when we retire, that we can withdraw enough to do all the things that jobs, kids, and life haven't let us do up until that point without worrying that doing so will impoverish us in later years. And if that means we need enough cushion to leave a nice chunk to our only child, so be it.

Barf. I'm very well-off and a 2x Trump-voting Republican, but posts like this are why people justifiably want to eat the rich.

Many people want that lifestyle in retirement. I’m not going to work my whole life, and save aggressively, just so I can fly coach on the longest flight to Myrtle Beach (Honolulu).

Not all Trump voters live in a trailer park and fly Spirit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s comical that so many posters will have retirement incomes higher than 97% of working Americans.

Welll, most of DCUM has current or previous earning much higher than the average American…..

[Anonymous]

DMV is a high cost of living area before and after retirement. We want to age in place, in order to do this we need to account for a $25K/year property tax bill that keeps climbing around 5% each year. We love our house but it costs money. For all of the people that think they can live cheaply, be prepared for increased expenses in healthcare and prescription drugs. Medicare doesn't cover everything and the out of pocket expenses will increase over time, if health issues arise such as dental, vision, hearing, etc...

[Anonymous]

I have no idea what to aim for. How do you determine this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what to aim for. How do you determine this?

Take your current expenditure as a base. Subtract the things you won’t need anymore (eg kids may have graduated so no college costs/savings, mortgage may be paid off), and add the things that you will need that you don’t buy now (eg more travel).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what to aim for. How do you determine this?

Take your current expenditure as a base. Subtract the things you won’t need anymore (eg kids may have graduated so no college costs/savings, mortgage may be paid off), and add the things that you will need that you don’t buy now (eg more travel).

You also have to factor in taxes. I am surprised few have mentioned them in these posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what to aim for. How do you determine this?

Take your current expenditure as a base. Subtract the things you won’t need anymore (eg kids may have graduated so no college costs/savings, mortgage may be paid off), and add the things that you will need that you don’t buy now (eg more travel).

You also have to factor in taxes. I am surprised few have mentioned them in these posts.

You have to factor in a million things. Like IRMAA. But you have to start somewhere. And this was a good place to start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just retired last summer. DW has a few years to go. When she retires our pensions will amount to about $14k a month plus annual COL adjustments, which should be fine.

The addition of SS payments is still a dozen years or so away.

It is shocking to me there are still employers paying pensions to people in their 50’s. No wonder those of us younger all have $hitty benefits.

People call them pensions, but they paid into them.

But they are still able to access them in their early or mid 50’s. Most people aren’t able to access accounts that early without penalty. Those of us younger don’t have access to this and have way crappier benefits to fund the crazy benefits of the older folks.

The feds can start accessing them at age 58 at the earliest but there are major benefits to waiting until 62 which many / most do. I'm not familiar with other pensions in the DC area that start in the early or mid fifties. Are you?

Do people not understand replies? I was replying to the person I quoted above who is collecting a pension and yet still has "a dozen" years until they can collect social security. I bolded it to help you.

I said a dozen years. It’s more like 15.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what to aim for. How do you determine this?

Take your current expenditure as a base. Subtract the things you won’t need anymore (eg kids may have graduated so no college costs/savings, mortgage may be paid off), and add the things that you will need that you don’t buy now (eg more travel).

For us, food, water, and electricity costs went down when the older left for college. It'll go down even more once the younger leaves, and even more so when both leave the house permanently.

I told my spouse we should take the food cost difference and just eat out more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no idea what to aim for. How do you determine this?

The only thing I can think of is mortgage. But also perhaps what we are currently saving for retirement?

All of our living expenses will be the same, and it seems like health will definitely increase and perhaps travel and hobbies will increase, assuming we can afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s comical that so many posters will have retirement incomes higher than 97% of working Americans.

Welll, most of DCUM has current or previous earning much higher than the average American…..

Also, most of the time higher income folks don't have a ton of time to enjoy country clubs and extensive travel. We for one, intend to spend more on travel and healthcare than what we spent in our working years out of our paycheck as a percentage of income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s comical that so many posters will have retirement incomes higher than 97% of working Americans.

Welll, most of DCUM has current or previous earning much higher than the average American…..

What people are discussing is also very high for the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s comical that so many posters will have retirement incomes higher than 97% of working Americans.

Welll, most of DCUM has current or previous earning much higher than the average American…..

What people are discussing is also very high for the DMV.

+1
Example: The $25k property tax bill.