"Achieving Life of Riley easier for seniors"

[yaosio]

Riley sounds like a jerk, regardless of expenses you can't be financially independent unless you make more than 3/4 of the country. How about the "if your expenses are lower than the growth of your wealth you are financially independent" index? The best part of that index is that it gets easier every year you are a part of it and does not require your death as part of your investment strategy. On the other side, every year you are not in the index it gets harder to get into it.

 

[beowulf]

Here ya go - all the Life of Riley you can handle:

Life Of Riley, The - Free Shows - Listen Now!

 

[myself]

Here is the first installment on the Life of Riley.

Life of Riley Index Reaches New Record: $3.1 Million - Registered Investment Advisor

I get the point he is making.

If I had $3.1M, I'd retire today, and I'm only 47 right now. I could afford to pay all of our current bills as they are including a 15 year mortgage, and feeding 4 kids at home. But I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go.

 

[packrat44]

"When the going gets tough, the tough go to work."

)...

Or, "I owe. I owe. so off to work I go."

 

[old woman]

The article assumed a huge amount of SS and that retired people are married. I didn't much like his assumption you only need to plan to live 20 years if you are the normal retirement age. He made no allowances for if you lose a spouse so SS is cut in half.

 

[Alan]

The article assumed a huge amount of SS and that retired people are married. I didn't much like his assumption you only need to plan to live 20 years if you are the normal retirement age. He made no allowances for if you lose a spouse so SS is cut in half.

I don't think he is too far out. He says a retired couple should plan for one of them living 25 years. (age 90)

I think a widow or widower after full retirement age receives 100% of the SS benefits, unless I'm reading the SS site FAQs wrong.

Looking at the estimated SS income for me and DW at FRA is over $35k/year so I find that figure in line with our expectations. (we are age 56 now)

While a young person has to live on investment income to have his money last as long as 50 or 60 years, a retiree couple need only consider individual life expectancies of 20 years, or a joint expectancy of about 25 years. As a consequence, they normally can make withdrawals at a 4 percent or 5 percent annual rate with no fear of running out of money. This implies a nest egg of "only" $875,000 (4 percent) or $700,000 (5 percent) to provide $35,000 to supplement Social Security income.

How much will my widow or widower benefits be?
We pay widow's or widower's benefits based on a percentages of the deceased worker's benefit amount. The percentage varies depending on the widow's or widower's age at the time of retirement. Here are the most typical situations:

• A widow or widower, at full (survivor's) retirement age or older, generally receives 100 percent of the worker's benefit amount;
• A widow or widower under full retirement age receives about 71 to 99 percent of the worker's benefit amount; or
• A widow or widower with a child younger than age 16 receives 75 percent of the worker's benefit amount.

 

[old woman]

The widow/er receives the higher of the two SS amounts. So if a couple is getting two checks of say 1,400 and 1,600 and one of them dies the survivor gets 1,600. So the household loses 1,400 but cost might not go down that much.

In my family many women are widowed for 25 years or more living to 97-98. Great grandma was widowed from 1948 to 1968, grandma 1980 to 2007, mom 1993-current. I have a long term relationship but will probably outlive him a decade or two. I don't count money he gets in my budget since his SS and pensions will be gone when he is.

I may have made you think I was talking about a person who wasn't a worker being a widow/er but I assumed both people had careers to get that much SS.

 

[Alan]

The widow/er receives the higher of the two SS amounts. So if a couple is getting two checks of say 1,400 and 1,600 and one of them dies the survivor gets 1,600. So the household loses 1,400 but cost might not go down that much.

In my family many women are widowed for 25 years or more living to 97-98. Great grandma was widowed from 1948 to 1968, grandma 1980 to 2007, mom 1993-current. I have a long term relationship but will probably outlive him a decade or two. I don't count money he gets in my budget since his SS and pensions will be gone when he is.

I may have made you think I was talking about a person who wasn't a worker being a widow/er but I assumed both people had careers to get that much SS.

Gotcha - thanks for the clarification.

 

[Chester_A._Riley]

Riley sounds like a jerk

Yeah, you may have a point. I used to hear something similar from my (former) Mother-in-law on a regular basis.