How much do you think you need for retirement, salary and age (and when you expect to retire)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our goal is $4 million with house paid off. We are 45 and 47 and currently have about $2.5 million and house is 1/2 paid off.

What is your hhi? That is an important part of this equation because people living on upward $300k hhi in their 40s may expect a higher standard of living in retirement than those of us with much lower hhi. Also very important are whether you will have any pension and whether any of your health care will be covered as part of a retirement package.

Not necessarily. Many of us with High incomes are spending most of our income on 529s, mortgage and retirement savings. We won’t have any of these costs in retirement. We make 425k HHI and I calculated we spend over 80 percent on our mortgage, 529, retirement savings, and taxes.

This can be true even at a much lower (than 425K) HHI. Our HHI is $245K and we net $12.6K/month. Of that, $7500 goes to our mortgage or savings. A large portion of the rest goes towards raising our kids. Since we will (hopefully) not be raising our kids or saving in retirement, and our home will be paid off, our retirement income should theoretically be much lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I retired at 53 with a $4.5 million net worth. Three plus years later I'm at $5.5 million (about $1 million of which is home equity). We live off of $200k per year after taxes. Health insurance for the two of us is about $1300 a month. Kids are all out of college and settled. It's a nice life.

-- former Biglaw partner

You did it wrong. I retired at 13 with $45mm in net worth. Three years later I'm at $55 million. We live off $2 million per year. Kids are all out of college because luckily I had them when I was four and a partner in Big Law.

You guys are all going to the soup kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are both retired and have more money than we need for retirement (we are very blessed!) but one thing we have discovered is that we spend far more in retirement than when we were working. We are both healthy and in good shape and with a ton of leisure time available to us a lot of it is filled in with different sports and travel both domestic and international. We have the luxury of being able to do all of this but you really need to factor in what you would like your life to be like in retirement. Do you want to travel, do you want to escape the winters or awful summers, do you want to take up a new hobby? All of this costs money and is often not in one's current budget. Our travel expenses are probably 3-4 times what they use to be and our overall expenses are likely up 25% or so because when we were working we were not spending money!

Or you just never developed self-control. If I don't have the money, I don't have the money. My mom told us that all of the time and I tell my son that too. You are choosing to spend all of that money to keep yourselves occupied in an expensive manner. My mom is retired and on a budget and she occupies herself by reading, watching Netflix, etc and walking the dog. So her expenses include some overdue library fees and the cost of a dog (she uses my Netflix).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are both retired and have more money than we need for retirement (we are very blessed!) but one thing we have discovered is that we spend far more in retirement than when we were working. We are both healthy and in good shape and with a ton of leisure time available to us a lot of it is filled in with different sports and travel both domestic and international. We have the luxury of being able to do all of this but you really need to factor in what you would like your life to be like in retirement. Do you want to travel, do you want to escape the winters or awful summers, do you want to take up a new hobby? All of this costs money and is often not in one's current budget. Our travel expenses are probably 3-4 times what they use to be and our overall expenses are likely up 25% or so because when we were working we were not spending money!

Or you just never developed self-control. If I don't have the money, I don't have the money. My mom told us that all of the time and I tell my son that too. You are choosing to spend all of that money to keep yourselves occupied in an expensive manner. My mom is retired and on a budget and she occupies herself by reading, watching Netflix, etc and walking the dog. So her expenses include some overdue library fees and the cost of a dog (she uses my Netflix).

I think you missed the point. They have the money and are enjoying their retirement and can afford it. No self control would be retiring and spending money you don’t have. This poster recommended thinking about what kind of retirement you want to figure out what you need. Me, I want to be able to afford to travel and engage in activities that cost money, so I am saving for that.

[Anonymous]

Five million is the new one million

[Anonymous]

We are 37, plan is to retire at 57 with $5-6million. DH will also have a small pension, and we'll have whatever the house is worth at the time (current value is $550k). I don't know the exact amount currently but we are on track to meet that mark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are 37, plan is to retire at 57 with $5-6million. DH will also have a small pension, and we'll have whatever the house is worth at the time (current value is $550k). I don't know the exact amount currently but we are on track to meet that mark.

Whoops HHI is $250k, 1 child.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious why are people expecting to spend over 10k a month in retirement

No mortgage no kids no retirement savings where is all that money going

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious why are people expecting to spend over 10k a month in retirement

No mortgage no kids no retirement savings where is all that money going

Healthcare will take a large chunk out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious why are people expecting to spend over 10k a month in retirement

No mortgage no kids no retirement savings where is all that money going

Healthcare will take a large chunk out of it.

Agree - we are on medicare but with the supplement, drug, dental and vision we are close to $1500 a month. Don't forget that you also have to pay taxes on your retirement and investment income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are both retired and have more money than we need for retirement (we are very blessed!) but one thing we have discovered is that we spend far more in retirement than when we were working. We are both healthy and in good shape and with a ton of leisure time available to us a lot of it is filled in with different sports and travel both domestic and international. We have the luxury of being able to do all of this but you really need to factor in what you would like your life to be like in retirement. Do you want to travel, do you want to escape the winters or awful summers, do you want to take up a new hobby? All of this costs money and is often not in one's current budget. Our travel expenses are probably 3-4 times what they use to be and our overall expenses are likely up 25% or so because when we were working we were not spending money!

Or you just never developed self-control. If I don't have the money, I don't have the money. My mom told us that all of the time and I tell my son that too. You are choosing to spend all of that money to keep yourselves occupied in an expensive manner. My mom is retired and on a budget and she occupies herself by reading, watching Netflix, etc and walking the dog. So her expenses include some overdue library fees and the cost of a dog (she uses my Netflix).

I think you missed the point. They have the money and are enjoying their retirement and can afford it. No self control would be retiring and spending money you don’t have. This poster recommended thinking about what kind of retirement you want to figure out what you need. Me, I want to be able to afford to travel and engage in activities that cost money, so I am saving for that.

I think he/she missed the point as well. There are so many things I'd like to do now that I don't have the time to do - like travel - but it will take money so I'm doing all I can to build up a nest egg. If I'm 65 and in good health I don't want to just sit around watching Netflix and walking my dog. That may be fine at 80.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired at 53 with a $4.5 million net worth. Three plus years later I'm at $5.5 million (about $1 million of which is home equity). We live off of $200k per year after taxes. Health insurance for the two of us is about $1300 a month. Kids are all out of college and settled. It's a nice life.

-- former Biglaw partner

You did it wrong. I retired at 13 with $45mm in net worth. Three years later I'm at $55 million. We live off $2 million per year. Kids are all out of college because luckily I had them when I was four and a partner in Big Law.

You guys are all going to the soup kitchen.

Ha! This forum has gotten so obsessively competitive & greedy, some folks won't even see the sarcasm here...