escape_nyc
Dryer sheet aficionado
It seems we may never retire. Late 30s couple with 2yr old and newborn. High earners (500k+, but maybe not high in Manhattan), high taxes (50%), high spend rate (120-150k). I know the answer is to get out of NYC when we decide to pull the plug, which is fine by us. But we can't find our jobs anywhere else and are essentially stuck here, its hard to walk away from the high income and yearly savings despite our high COL. I don't hate my job to be clear, and actually enjoy it, but cannot find an equivalent job and pay anywhere else (highly specialized). We would love to move to CA, where at least you get better weather, lifestyle, natural beauty, outdoor activities for the high taxes you pay (besides we'd be retired in theory and not paying too much tax as the only income would be from our portfolio). We have no pensions (extremely common on this forum for some reason), no windfalls, no inheritances. The issue is when I put together an annual budget even for a lower COL area far away from NYC (anywhere is lower than Manhattan) I still get a figure around 110k-150k..
Approximate Monthly Budget in a lower COL area (say in CA or FL):
Housing: $3000
Cars (insurance, gas, etc.) $300
Child supplies: $300
Utilities (cellphones, internet, Hulu/Netflix, electricity, gas) : $300
Household supplies: $200
Insurance (medical, disability, life, home, umbrella) : $2000
Groceries: $1000
Discretionary (eating out, shopping, etc.): $1000
Vacations/travel: $1500
Total (X 12): $115,200
Assuming a portfolio that needs to last 50yrs, at 125k annual spending,
that works out to about $6.25mm!! We don't have that kind of money and probably won't until we are 50+. I understand that people here retire on smaller portfolios (of course many have pensions). I'd like to get some feedback on what we can do to speed things up, including dissecting the rough budget above. Cheers.
Approximate Monthly Budget in a lower COL area (say in CA or FL):
Housing: $3000
Cars (insurance, gas, etc.) $300
Child supplies: $300
Utilities (cellphones, internet, Hulu/Netflix, electricity, gas) : $300
Household supplies: $200
Insurance (medical, disability, life, home, umbrella) : $2000
Groceries: $1000
Discretionary (eating out, shopping, etc.): $1000
Vacations/travel: $1500
Total (X 12): $115,200
Assuming a portfolio that needs to last 50yrs, at 125k annual spending,
that works out to about $6.25mm!! We don't have that kind of money and probably won't until we are 50+. I understand that people here retire on smaller portfolios (of course many have pensions). I'd like to get some feedback on what we can do to speed things up, including dissecting the rough budget above. Cheers.