How did you retirees finally make the financial decision to retire? 80% of last year's income? 90%, 100%, 110%, or more?
I am getting ready to retire but I can't seem to find the answer to how much will I need. I own stock in the company which I work for, and it is going up at over 20% per year, but I can't figure out if I need to make 100% of what I have been making in the past or less or more. Anybody have some thoughts on this one?
When I retired in 2000 after 40 years with the Company I retired at 97% plus I signed up for SS. But wished that I would have waited until I was 65 as I did not need the money. Now I have to start drawing $1,000 out of my IRAs since I will be 70 half. We have no problem living on my pension since every thing we have is paid for
We are living off about 60% of what we were making when we were working. Soon I'll start getting SS and that will be a big raise. Our decision to retire was helped by me getting laid off at 58 years old and our financial adviser told me I didn't need to go back to work and the wife could retire anytime, so she did a year later. We both hated our jobs so it was an easy decision to make.
What you need to live on depends on your lifestyle. We haven't cut back on anything and still travel a lot, just fewer expenses not working.
Good luck and just do it, I doubt you'll be sorry. Retirement is the best job I never had!
Well Steve, for me it was a matter of health. I knew I would take almost a 50% reduction in earned income but it was worth it to get away from that stressful situation. I left at 55 and one week after a 30.5 year career.
I did relocate myself from New Jersey to California. The money I made on the home sale went back into a new home. I still have a 30-year mortgage here. I do own my 2003 Chevy Tahoe and 2003 Thor Wanderer trailer outright.
My property taxes are a third of NJ. My car insurance is 1/2 of NJ. Gas is higher here than most everywhere else. Food comes out a wash.
Savings is the daily drive to work. Lunch and coffee buying has been reduced. late nights at work (office or home) has stopped. Plenty of time for home projects now.
I am not able to collect Social Security so working till 62 or 65 was not in the picture. So far, after 3 years of retirement I have not needed a job. Wife and I just got back from a North carolina trip to see our son. Yes, we saved for almost a year to go but it was worth it. Will start saving now for a South dakota trip next year.
I hear on television that as retirement nears you should consider reducing stocks and investing in something less risky like bonds. All my money is in short term IRA CD's and regular savings. Maybe not the best for making money but it does OK by us.
I am 60 years of age, I have worked since I was 14 on a commerical fishing boat out of New England. At 55 I was told I had colon cancer. Had a bowel resection. My brother passed at 63 from testicale cancer. Four months ago I had to have an Arota Stint put in and have felt as good in years. I decided at that time, to pack it in and enjoy how ever many years I have left. I was lucky in the fact that my lemonade stand made enough to allow me retire at the age I'm at. My wife is also retired but she is older. Were not well off, but we have enough income to provide. I know inflation will eat up what little edge I have, but I will be counting on SS to kick-in when I'm 63.
I wasn't going to wait till the reaper came looking for me. I also wanted to be able enough to enjoy what years we have. So to a dollar sign on it. I make about 10 percent less then when working. But I don't have the fuel cost of going to work every day, launches, I don't have to wash my (outer wear) cloths every day and don't need my shirts pressed. I now wear sneakes so shoe polish is a thing of the past. The clocks were unpluged an sent to my kids. I am thinking of buying one of those clocks that show the day of the week, not the hours of the day.
My wife was the Nurse, I was the maintenance man, so home repairs and mechanical things are not a problem.
Have fun, and you decide when you want to pack it in. You can always downsize, but once you pack it, it's hard to up size. LOL,,, Bill
Here's what I did, which will give you a good answer. I went back over all the bills for the year before I retired, and established a budget. I then added extra to cover medical insurance, and the things like travel that we wanted to do in retirement. This budget was after tax expenditures, so you need to figure what you'll pay in taxes and add that to get a gross number. In my case, my wife and I are living comfortably on about half of what we made while working (remember, no 401K contributions, no SS, ,and no college tuitions). In our case, everything is paid for, and I budgeted a fixed amount each year to cover replacement of the cars. I escalate the budget each year by 4%, and it's worked OK for 5 years now. At the end of each year I review how we did against budget, and we can adjust our spending next year if needed.
I also got a software program to extrapolate our expenditures, income and nest egg out for 40 years. It is a good reminder that inflation is a big issue- a $100K/year budget is more like $400k/year after 40 years!
Ed
My wife and I are facing the "when to retire" issue also. We both are mentally ready to retire. I retired from the Navy in 1995, so we know we can count only on that income if we decide to go next summer. If I work for three more yrs to age 61 I can retire from the school system and get about $1000.00 a month (10yr retirement). We have IRA accounts that will generate about $20,000 in interest income, but we are not planning on using this unless we just had to. At 62 additional income would be available from SS. If I decide to wait the three years I don't think income will be an issue.
If we go next summer (I'll be 59) we plan to workamp to make some income about 4 mo out of the year.
We want to go ahead and go while our health is ok. We both are ready for a little less stress in the work place. Did I mention that I am a middle school teacher!
steveolds wrote: How did you retirees finally make the financial decision to retire? ...Steve
When I realized how old I was, when Uncle Sam started taking 50% of my income, and how much I was missing of life spending 14 hours a day at work and commuting. For What? Money that you can't take with you when your expiration date comes up.
And the state of SS? Do the math on taking that early. If you wait so you get more per month? Based on the longevity charts they win.
In the state that the economy is in and government dipping into SS daily.....early retirement to get all that I can while it is still there. SS funds for many of us will be completely non-exsistent by the time the majority of baby boomers are of age. I say get as much as you can as early as you can before they stick it to us.
31 ft Four Winds
Chevy Tracker 4x4 BlueOx Aventa LX We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
We each have a pension plus social security. I am now required to make minimum withdrawals from my IRA and my wife will have to in two years. We don't spend all we take in. We never thought about those percentages. We just went ahead. Some things to consider: you'll drop into a lower tax rate, you'll no longer pay into social security, you won't be saving for retirement any more because you'll be there. We have quite a bit less gross income but far more disposible income than we've ever had. Everything is paid for. Life is good. Sometimes you can overthink things and confuse yourself.Good luck.
RRUGG
2008 Dodge 2500 QC 4x4 SB Cummins 6 speed auto 3.73
1997 Holiday Rambler 29FK travel trailer
2006 Summit 22RB travel trailer
2003 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport
Bob & Grace professional retirees
Good Sam life members
For some folks, there's never enough money. Our preacher says he never saw a money wagon hooked to the back of a hearse. Another fellow we know says go first class or your kids will. I am retired but facing the dilemma of going back to work part time for 3 more years to have enough $s to do what we want when we want!
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