$15M

Anonymous wrote:By the time we would have retired, we would have paid for
- college, masters, professional schools for both kids
- their weddings for around 200K each.
- our mortgage (currently 200K left on a 800K house)

In retirement we would have - 2M in our savings and investments and 200K pension.

Here is what we will use the pension for -
- our living expense, home and car maintenance, taxes, insurance, travel.
- annual max gifts to our children
- help with down payment for homes for our kids.
- some money for our grandkids college education
- Outsourcing chores and services for ourselves and our children when our grandkids are young.

Here is what we will not use our pension for -
- pets
- 2nd vacation home
- Travel expenses with our children for family travel
- Sports cars
- Jewelry
- Yacht or boat
- Swimming pool

Ok to pay for the swimming pool...best exercise when you get old, saves you tons of $$ in healthcare

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, the cost of care is exorbitant. My mother in law is paying $15k a month for my father in law’s nursing home (technically a rehab, but he cannot do physical therapy anymore and is just in bed for the past year.) they are Umc but not very rich.

OP here. Thanks for mentioning the cost of nursing home care. $15k a month for 2 people would mean $360k a year. It seems like it would take $10m in investments to pay for that. DH also wants both of us, and our parents, to avoid nursing homes but instead have in-home care. Who knows how much that would run.

Find a top notch CCRC and enter while still healthy enough (ideally by 75). Sure you pay $300-500K+ in entry fees, but that covers your nursing/memory/assisted living care when you need it. Good ones mean if you "run out of money/investments" you don't owe anything else---they cannot touch your SS, only your other investments.
My parents are in one, and there are currently 4 people (all widowed women) who are late 90s/over 100 who "have run out of $". They no longer pay anything. Two are still in independent living, the others are in higher level care.
My parents pay their $7K/month for their apartment and that covers 1-2 meals per day and all utilities/cable/etc. All they pay is renters insurance.
Should they need advanced care, all we pay more is for the full 3 meals a day (so extra $300/month/person).

Everyone I know who suggests one of these facilities is a HUGE spender and terrible with money management.

$7k a month for rent on top of 300-500k to buy in? That’s laughable.

The average American is in LTC 2 years max. Most people do not spend anywhere close to what you’re suggesting.

I particularly don't understand people who insist on working longer to hit numbers like 10m in retirement assets so that they can afford expensive LTC facilities because the question of LTC is a quality of life issue -- it's driven by the fear of winding up in a substandard care facility. Which I agree is a concern. However working well into my 60s or 70s in order to afford a luxury LTC facility makes no sense because that's a huge decline in my quality of life in my 60s and 70s.

We'll have an 80k per year pension and about 2.5m in retirement assets at 58. College and house will be paid for by then. Good enough for us. I want to enjoy my life for the next couple decades after that. If or when we have to enter LTC we will have the option of selling our home to do it. Good enough. I'm not going spend my 60s working so I can be in the cadillac version of LTC in my 80s with dementia. Willing to roll the dice in order to enjoy my life while I'm young enough for it to really count.

OP here. The irony is that delaying retirement can prevent or delay dementia.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, the cost of care is exorbitant. My mother in law is paying $15k a month for my father in law’s nursing home (technically a rehab, but he cannot do physical therapy anymore and is just in bed for the past year.) they are Umc but not very rich.

OP here. Thanks for mentioning the cost of nursing home care. $15k a month for 2 people would mean $360k a year. It seems like it would take $10m in investments to pay for that. DH also wants both of us, and our parents, to avoid nursing homes but instead have in-home care. Who knows how much that would run.

Find a top notch CCRC and enter while still healthy enough (ideally by 75). Sure you pay $300-500K+ in entry fees, but that covers your nursing/memory/assisted living care when you need it. Good ones mean if you "run out of money/investments" you don't owe anything else---they cannot touch your SS, only your other investments.
My parents are in one, and there are currently 4 people (all widowed women) who are late 90s/over 100 who "have run out of $". They no longer pay anything. Two are still in independent living, the others are in higher level care.
My parents pay their $7K/month for their apartment and that covers 1-2 meals per day and all utilities/cable/etc. All they pay is renters insurance.
Should they need advanced care, all we pay more is for the full 3 meals a day (so extra $300/month/person).

Everyone I know who suggests one of these facilities is a HUGE spender and terrible with money management.

$7k a month for rent on top of 300-500k to buy in? That’s laughable.

The average American is in LTC 2 years max. Most people do not spend anywhere close to what you’re suggesting.

I particularly don't understand people who insist on working longer to hit numbers like 10m in retirement assets so that they can afford expensive LTC facilities because the question of LTC is a quality of life issue -- it's driven by the fear of winding up in a substandard care facility. Which I agree is a concern. However working well into my 60s or 70s in order to afford a luxury LTC facility makes no sense because that's a huge decline in my quality of life in my 60s and 70s.

We'll have an 80k per year pension and about 2.5m in retirement assets at 58. College and house will be paid for by then. Good enough for us. I want to enjoy my life for the next couple decades after that. If or when we have to enter LTC we will have the option of selling our home to do it. Good enough. I'm not going spend my 60s working so I can be in the cadillac version of LTC in my 80s with dementia. Willing to roll the dice in order to enjoy my life while I'm young enough for it to really count.

Anonymous wrote:By the time we would have retired, we would have paid for
- college, masters, professional schools for both kids
- their weddings for around 200K each.
- our mortgage (currently 200K left on a 800K house)

In retirement we would have - 2M in our savings and investments and 200K pension.

Here is what we will use the pension for -
- our living expense, home and car maintenance, taxes, insurance, travel.
- annual max gifts to our children
- help with down payment for homes for our kids.
- some money for our grandkids college education
- Outsourcing chores and services for ourselves and our children when our grandkids are young.

Here is what we will not use our pension for -
- pets
- 2nd vacation home
- Travel expenses with our children for family travel
- Sports cars
- Jewelry
- Yacht or boat
- Swimming pool

We are really similar. The stuff on your second list is honestly stuff I just don't want to pay for (except maybe if my spouse died I'd get a cat or a small dog). If I wanted a pool I'd move into a community with one which would likely mean downsizing anyway so I'd wind up with an extra 200-300k to save and invest. I'm happy to use travel points to help our one kid join us for certain trips when she's younger but we will never be the sort to pay for her entire spouse and kids to fly to Europe with us -- they can pay for their plane tickets and we'll split accommodations to bring prices down and then we'll be generous with meals and souvenirs to make it more affordable for them. Our parents didn't pay for any of our vacations when she was young and we still traveled a lot. It's about budgeting and knowing what is important to you.

When people say they have to have 250k or 300k in retirement to be happy I am just grateful that isn't me. A few years ago I splurged on a kayak and boathouse membership for myself for my 50th and that's one of the things I most look forward to in retirement -- being able to get out on the water a few times a week. DH and I also want to spend maybe 10-15k to make our yard and patio really nice so we can entertain out there more and enjoy it more. DH looks forward to spending more time cooking and perhaps taking classes with a local culinary institute. This is the kind of stuff we look forward to when we stop working and none of it particularly pricy. I think we could probably happily live off of 70-80k to be honest. We'll have a lot more than that but as far as I'm concerned it's mostly gravy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’ll get such a wide range of answers here. For example, 250k is a lot.

I’m part of a financial forum and most who have been retired a while say they spend less than they planned. Some do choose to pay a lot for health insurance plans. Those on the ACA are paying low costs for good care.

I’d consider:
Any deferred maintenance (roof, etc)
Mortgage and property taxes
Travel
Utilities
Groceries
Cars
Etc

I added ours up and could barely get past $50k / year and that included traveling.

If you don’t calculate correctly, you might end up thinking you have to work longer than you do. No problem working longer if that’s your life goal but most want to have more time for other pursuits.

Guess it just depends on how you live. Our property taxes on one house are over $20k, and we need a new fridge which is north of $20k. One vacation is $10k at least. Our car tax is over $7k for the year and insurance is over $10k, not including health insurance.

A freaking fridge is north of 2oK - you are out of your mind

Anonymous wrote:I approach it from the expense side. I think for us, we will need $14K per month to stay here in a home mortgage free.

We have a pension that will generate $6K (if taken today at age 55), another $6K (today) in SS for two at FRA. Not all of that income will be there the day we retire.

So for a certain number of years our funding gap is $8K per month or $96K annually. And then that gap goes down to $2K.

We have $4.5M in retirement, brokerage and cash. Assuming a 3% withdraw rate to be conservative.

if you have no mortgage, what are you spending 14K a month on?? Sheesh! Kids will be out of the house...etc

I love how DCUM keeps telling me we will be wrapped in thermal blankets eating past-date cat food.

By the time we would have retired, we would have paid for
- college, masters, professional schools for both kids
- their weddings for around 200K each.
- our mortgage (currently 200K left on a 800K house)

In retirement we would have - 2M in our savings and investments and 200K pension.

Here is what we will use the pension for -
- our living expense, home and car maintenance, taxes, insurance, travel.
- annual max gifts to our children
- help with down payment for homes for our kids.
- some money for our grandkids college education
- Outsourcing chores and services for ourselves and our children when our grandkids are young.

Here is what we will not use our pension for -
- pets
- 2nd vacation home
- Travel expenses with our children for family travel
- Sports cars
- Jewelry
- Yacht or boat
- Swimming pool

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, the cost of care is exorbitant. My mother in law is paying $15k a month for my father in law’s nursing home (technically a rehab, but he cannot do physical therapy anymore and is just in bed for the past year.) they are Umc but not very rich.

OP here. Thanks for mentioning the cost of nursing home care. $15k a month for 2 people would mean $360k a year. It seems like it would take $10m in investments to pay for that. DH also wants both of us, and our parents, to avoid nursing homes but instead have in-home care. Who knows how much that would run.

Find a top notch CCRC and enter while still healthy enough (ideally by 75). Sure you pay $300-500K+ in entry fees, but that covers your nursing/memory/assisted living care when you need it. Good ones mean if you "run out of money/investments" you don't owe anything else---they cannot touch your SS, only your other investments.
My parents are in one, and there are currently 4 people (all widowed women) who are late 90s/over 100 who "have run out of $". They no longer pay anything. Two are still in independent living, the others are in higher level care.
My parents pay their $7K/month for their apartment and that covers 1-2 meals per day and all utilities/cable/etc. All they pay is renters insurance.
Should they need advanced care, all we pay more is for the full 3 meals a day (so extra $300/month/person).

Everyone I know who suggests one of these facilities is a HUGE spender and terrible with money management.

$7k a month for rent on top of 300-500k to buy in? That’s laughable.

The average American is in LTC 2 years max. Most people do not spend anywhere close to what you’re suggesting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As others have said, the cost of care is exorbitant. My mother in law is paying $15k a month for my father in law’s nursing home (technically a rehab, but he cannot do physical therapy anymore and is just in bed for the past year.) they are Umc but not very rich.

OP here. Thanks for mentioning the cost of nursing home care. $15k a month for 2 people would mean $360k a year. It seems like it would take $10m in investments to pay for that. DH also wants both of us, and our parents, to avoid nursing homes but instead have in-home care. Who knows how much that would run.

Find a top notch CCRC and enter while still healthy enough (ideally by 75). Sure you pay $300-500K+ in entry fees, but that covers your nursing/memory/assisted living care when you need it. Good ones mean if you "run out of money/investments" you don't owe anything else---they cannot touch your SS, only your other investments.
My parents are in one, and there are currently 4 people (all widowed women) who are late 90s/over 100 who "have run out of $". They no longer pay anything. Two are still in independent living, the others are in higher level care.
My parents pay their $7K/month for their apartment and that covers 1-2 meals per day and all utilities/cable/etc. All they pay is renters insurance.
Should they need advanced care, all we pay more is for the full 3 meals a day (so extra $300/month/person).

Anonymous wrote:lol at the poster saying that you’ll have to maintain your spoiled adult child in retirement. That’s on you! Raise them to be independent and cut them off once they get a job lol. So ridiculous

If loved ones are struggling, and I have the means, I will help them. My values, my money.

Retirement spending is high early on as travel and entertainment expenses generally soar from pent up demand. Then, they dip as travel becomes more physically challenging. Then it again soars from medical expenses especially 24/7 care. Is difficult to budget for all three but end of life expenses can be enormous so either have a bigger nest egg or more conservative early on spending.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UMC income is likely $250,000, so you will need over $6 million in income generating assets.

Do you really need that as a senior citizen? House is paid for. If it’s a large house it’s a good time to downsize. You’d be debt free. Your bills would be taxes, cars, utilities, travel if you want. Not all that much in expenses.

Debt free is great, but worry free is better. Once you’ve exited the job market there is no looking back.

lol at the poster saying that you’ll have to maintain your spoiled adult child in retirement. That’s on you! Raise them to be independent and cut them off once they get a job lol. So ridiculous