% of income from Soc Sec & Pensions

[Meadbh]

Pensions and social security will definitely account for less than 10% of my retirement income. That's why I want a cushion beyond 25 times my yearly budget.

 

[aenlighten]

It's early retirement - 0% for a few decades

It should give me a nice boost when it kicks it, but by then may be limited compared to my portfolio.

 

[Khan]

Right now it's 100% (partly COLAd) pension, ~$30K; it will decrease by ~$7K when I turn 62 (in today's dollars).

 

[tangomonster]

Living 100% on investments, from age 52 to now (54). Next year, DH will get a very small pension (will cover the cost of utilities). May take SS at 62, but it won't be much, due to small salaries while working and retiring at 52.

I do have pension envy, but it just wasn't in the cards for me to get one, so I did the next best thing and funded my own "pension!"

 

[FIREd]

Income will come 100% from investments until we start receiving SS (if we ever do). After that, and assuming we get 100% of the benefits quoted on our SS statements , SS could represent up to 42% of our retirement income if we start taking SS at 62 and 62% of our income if we wait until the age of 67 to start collecting. For planning purposes though, we always ignore SS benefits in our calculations and assume that our portfolio will have to provide 100% of our retirement income until we die. SS would just be gravy.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

social security won't start for 15 years (at 66 & 1/2--lots of long-lifed genes in family) and pension (non cola'd but very likely it will still be there) starts in 14 years.

i don't know yet what percentage will be. guess that depends on how well i manage my money between now and then. after i sell these houses, my plan is to live below the 4% swr (without factoring in ss & pension) though i don't know by how much as yet. (i'm currently spending a tad over that figure, and though likely still very safe, i'm not comfortable with it.)

if i project that my net worth will neither in- nor decrease by the time i collect on pension & ss, they would amount to about 34% of my then spendable budget which i'm hoping will be 34% more than i'll need.

 

[jclarksnakes]

It really is an interesting poll but the results may not mean so much. Three VERY independent variables (pension, SS, investment income) can skew results in either direction. With a nice pension and SS and no investment income you probably vote greater than 80%. Add to the nice pension and SS a portfolio worth ten million and you vote less than 20%. Someone with no pension and not yet collecting SS and living off a small portfolio would vote less than 20%. When that same person starts collecting SS they would vote greater than 80% if they had depleted the portfolio along the way. The posts here tell the real story for each individual. Or do they? I voted 61 to 80 percent on the possibly wrong assumption that my portfolio will still be large enough to provide a reasonable amount of income in additon to our pensions and SS. Also at present age of 55 SS is still too far in the future for my vote to be very accurate. SS means testing may come sooner than we think and change things.
Jeff

 

[FANOFJESUS]

I will get about 600 a month SS in twenty years. I hope that is enough to pay the utilities.

 

[walkinwood]

I'm 20 years away from SS, and have no pension plan.

 

[Alan]

My percentage will change but by the time I'm 65 we should be drawing 3 pensions and 2 SS's which will put us at 80%. But I'm not RE'd yet so the big pension is not for certain yet, plus it is none of them are COLA'ed.

 

[unclemick]

There is a hooker here - if I feel the need to leap into my 'cheap bastard mode,' I can run up pension and SS north of 60% with rest from stock dividends.

So to bookend:

27% pension + SS and the rest from nest egg = party til you puke, Mr Market is ok, and you aren't getting any younger.

75% pension + SS and the rest taxible dividends - don't take any Roth or Trad. IRA til old age cause the sky is falling. Of course in 6 yrs The IRS will make me an offer I can't refuse when I turn 70 1/2.

I have a lot of wiggle room. 15th yr of ER - moving spending around can be fun.

heh heh heh - Depending on which retirement calculator I embrace - I can probably wiggle the above numbers even more - etiher way.

 

[Bikerdude]

The first 3 yrs I lived on 100% savings. At yr 3 pension (non cola) was 45% of needed living expenses at year 9 it will be less than 30%. Year 10 SS & pension will be 60% of needed expenses.

 

[hogtied]

Non-cola'd pension/SS will amount to 53% of needed funds at the start of retirement in 2010.
Will choose a "level income option" with 66% survivor benefit for pension. It works out the most favorable when run thru FireCalc.
Level income is when the pension is elevated for all the years before one starts to draw SS at 62, at 62 it drops and remains at a lower amount. Pension has 14 different options. I've run all 14 thru FireCalc.

 

[laurence]

My company has a unique offer in that if you take the pension at 55, you can either take a small check for the rest of your life, or take a large check from 55 to 67 and then get nothing (presumably SS takes care of you then). I'm leaning towards that choice as the pension is not COLA'ed. I voted 41-60% since I will still have to supplement the larger check. We could survive on it if need be but wouldn't be having much fun.

 

[chinaco]

Between DW and I it is almost half of our projected income need.

Of course, we could live on those funds if we reduced our lifestyle.

However, the pension does not have a cola and if one of us passes on, the amount is substantially reduced.

 

[Midpack]

This has been interesting, the distribution is broader than I was guessing. People who have a generous COLA'd pension (and that's wonderful) would have a very different view from those of us who do not (like me). And when I read comments on the long term outlook for all of us, it would be nice to know what "camp" folks are in. I assume MegaCorp pensions will continue to decline and completely disappear pretty soon. Thanks...

 

[Rambler]

If SS still exists when we are at the age to receive it, it would be 10% or less, due to working overseas for a while, and from retiring early. I have the requisite number of quarters to be eligible, but the total years/quarters is pretty low. For planning purposes, we do not include a figure for SS, and we figure a withdrawl rate of just a bit more than 3%.

R

 

[NotSoonEnough]

This has been interesting, the distribution is broader than I was guessing. People who have a generous COLA'd pension (and that's wonderful) would have a very different view from those of us who do not (like me). And when I read comments on the long term outlook for all of us, it would be nice to know what "camp" folks are in. I assume MegaCorp pensions will continue to decline and completely disappear pretty soon. Thanks...

Yep, very interesting. The poll's distribution is skewed, I was expecting to see something resembling 'normal'. Wonder what a poll which excludes pensions would show...? Would the lower tail disappear?

 

[audreyh1]

So far, almost 30% of the folks are in the <20% camp!

Audrey

 

[dandetour]

Very very interesting. Thanks to the OP for asking the question.
I voted >80%. It will be 86% when everything kicks in, in 8 years.
Dan

 

[Retire Soon]

40% of our current income comes from a COLA'd pension. SS will eventually cover an additional 10% of our income.