Anonymous wrote:Um, people! Half of US households make under $50,000 a year. Forty percent make under $40k. Twenty percent under $20k.
Assuming the $50k folks can retire on an income of $40,000 (80 percent of pre-retirement income) and that there will be two recipients of SS at $15k a piece, they will have an income of $37k - pretty close to $40k.
Yes, it's "unheard" of in DC to to live on so little, but Half of the United States DOES!
Yes, we live in a bubble here!
One important retirement assumption is that you want to maintain a certain living standard. In fact you can retire on much less, if you curb your spending commensurately.
http://catosdomain.com/?attachment_id=9643
Okay, stepping off of my box now. It baffles me why folks don't get this.
Anonymous wrote:Um, people! Half of US households make under $50,000 a year. Forty percent make under $40k. Twenty percent under $20k.
Assuming the $50k folks can retire on an income of $40,000 (80 percent of pre-retirement income) and that there will be two recipients of SS at $15k a piece, they will have an income of $37k - pretty close to $40k.
Yes, it's "unheard" of in DC to to live on so little, but Half of the United States DOES!
Yes, we live in a bubble here!
One important retirement assumption is that you want to maintain a certain living standard. In fact you can retire on much less, if you curb your spending commensurately.
http://catosdomain.com/?attachment_id=9643
Okay, stepping off of my box now. It baffles me why folks don't get this.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Nobody retires if all they have is $7,000 a year plus social security. Those folks live with their kids and work until they drop.
My ILs retired on $500,000 almost 20 years ago. They have almost that much left in their nest egg. My MIL thinks the concern about retirement savings is way overblown. I say it's because she's happy living on $36K a year. I'm the first to say that that is not my idea of retirement. At all.
Do they own their home? My parents probably have about that, but they own their home and car, no debt at all. They don't live hand-to-mouth by any means (cruises every other year, home decorating, eating out). Both get SS and Medicare.
Anonymous wrote:Old news but most people get more than half of their retirement income from Social Security. We would LIKE to have a nice federal pension or a well-funded 401k but it just doesn't happen for most of us.
http://www.ssa.gov/pressoffice/basicfact.htm
Anonymous wrote:Nobody retires if all they have is $7,000 a year plus social security. Those folks live with their kids and work until they drop.
My ILs retired on $500,000 almost 20 years ago. They have almost that much left in their nest egg. My MIL thinks the concern about retirement savings is way overblown. I say it's because she's happy living on $36K a year. I'm the first to say that that is not my idea of retirement. At all.
Anonymous wrote:Nobody retires if all they have is $7,000 a year plus social security. Those folks live with their kids and work until they drop.
My ILs retired on $500,000 almost 20 years ago. They have almost that much left in their nest egg. My MIL thinks the concern about retirement savings is way overblown. I say it's because she's happy living on $36K a year. I'm the first to say that that is not my idea of retirement. At all.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:that's more than I had heard earlier. I thought the $50K number was floating around out there a year or so ago. Maybe that was individual accounts?
Anyway, this is why I am pretty darn sure we're going to work until we die. This is about what we have now - at 35. Yes, I realize we still have 30 years, but it's hard to see how we can build up enough to live for 20+ years without ever adding another penny to it.
Why won't you be adding thousands every year to your net worth?
Anonymous wrote:that's more than I had heard earlier. I thought the $50K number was floating around out there a year or so ago. Maybe that was individual accounts?
Anyway, this is why I am pretty darn sure we're going to work until we die. This is about what we have now - at 35. Yes, I realize we still have 30 years, but it's hard to see how we can build up enough to live for 20+ years without ever adding another penny to it.
Anonymous wrote:that's more than I had heard earlier. I thought the $50K number was floating around out there a year or so ago. Maybe that was individual accounts?
Anyway, this is why I am pretty darn sure we're going to work until we die. This is about what we have now - at 35. Yes, I realize we still have 30 years, but it's hard to see how we can build up enough to live for 20+ years without ever adding another penny to it.