Poll: How much money do people have who are retired?

[Earl E Retyre]

I understand that how much money you need for retirement depends on your personal situation (not the least of which is your personal cost of living). However, I was curious to know how many people who are retired on this forum have <$1M, <$2, <$3 or over $4. I have never submitted a poll before on this site so I hope this works ...

 

[bigla]

What is the question underlying the poll? It doesn't include fixed pensions and SS which can make a difference for retirement planning.
Larry

 

[Earl E Retyre]

I agree it does not include SS and Pensions. I was just curious (independent of SS/Pensions, individual's cost of living needs, healthcare needs, etc.), how much people had in overall savings. I would think many would be interested in knowing this information (for different reasons) and this forum uniquely allows this info to be collected/shared anonymously. It also sets some background info when reading posts regarding investment opinions, etc., re: how much of a nest egg people are investing.

 

[travelover]

I have a pension that covers all my expenses as well as paid health care. To ignore that would be ridiculous.

 

[RonBoyd]

I have a pension that covers all my expenses as well as paid health care. To ignore that would be ridiculous.

In what way? The question is "How much money do you have." I suppose one could count future cash flow but that seems (to me) like making it overly complicated. It probably isn't the most well-formed question but it is what it is.

 

[yakers]

Include house value? I know the original question is about money but financial assets are what they are. I have a house, a taxable account and tax free/deferred accounts. Also some gold coins. My biggest asset is my COLAd pension. If one is trying to ascertain their financial condition all of these are relevant.

 

[Rustward]

You may be interested in looking at ORP User Profile. ORP saves some of the parameters that users enter into the tool. This is not really a poll and certainly is not scientific, but it does allow you to see what numbers people are using. There are tables for tax deferred, Roth, and after-tax assets.

 

[W2R]

So far, the poll seems to be confirming my impression that a significant percentage of our members have over a million dollars in stocks, bonds, and cash.

 

[Tesaje]

A cola'd pension has a substantial present value but I used the number my estate would be worthif I died today.

 

[travelover]

In what way? The question is "How much money do you have." I suppose one could count future cash flow but that seems (to me) like making it overly complicated. It probably isn't the most well-formed question but it is what it is.

Perhaps I'm making an incorrect assumption, but I'm under the impression that the OP is asking the question to get a warm feeling about his own estimate of what it will take for HIM to retire. Ignoring substantial other income streams seems like it would render the data useless.

 

[Leonidas]

Perhaps I'm making an incorrect assumption, but I'm under the impression that the OP is asking the question to get a warm feeling about his own estimate of what it will take for HIM to retire. Ignoring substantial other income streams seems like it would render the data useless.

Exactly. Without my diet COLA pension I would still be slaving away down in the salt mine hoping that in "just one more year" I can free myself. The pension means I can retire and live a decent lifestyle, the rest of the net worth means I can send the kids to college on my dime, take some nice trips, and buy a few toys here and there.

 

[W2R]

I wonder if perhaps some people who have significant amounts of their net worth sunk into their housing, or value of pension/SS/whatever, are just embarrassed to admit on an anonymous poll that they don't have much actual money. There is nothing to be embarrassed about, though. Hey, we all wish we had an 80% pension, SS, and a big paid off house. This part of one's net worth sure seems more certain than investing, to me.

The OP specifically said he was interested in "background info when reading posts regarding investment opinions, etc., re: how much of a nest egg people are investing." The nest egg that I am investing consists of mutual funds and cash. My pension is not part of that. My house is just a place where I live.

 

[Amethyst]

I think "How much money do people have" is straightforward. Income isn't money you have; it's money you expect to get. Since I'm not retired, though, I couldn't answer the poll

Amethyst

Perhaps I'm making an incorrect assumption, but I'm under the impression that the OP is asking the question to get a warm feeling about his own estimate of what it will take for HIM to retire. Ignoring substantial other income streams seems like it would render the data useless.

 

[scrabbler1]

Perhaps the OP is asking this of early retiree posters (such as myself) who are not yet collecting a pension or SS to see how much liquid savings they have. I do not know.

 

[RonBoyd]

Perhaps I'm making an incorrect assumption, but I'm under the impression that the OP is asking the question to get a warm feeling about his own estimate of what it will take for HIM to retire.

Yeah, that's what I meant by not the "most well-formed question." The setup was about "need" but the question itself was about "have" -- in the current sense.

 

[RunningBum]

Seems to me if you don't like the poll question for whatever reason, you don't have to answer it.

 

[travelover]

Seems to me if you don't like the poll question for whatever reason, you don't have to answer it.

I didn't.

 

[Moemg]

I understand that how much money you need for retirement depends on your personal situation (not the least of which is your personal cost of living). However, I was curious to know how many people who are retired on this forum have <$1M, <$2, <$3 or over $4. I have never submitted a poll before on this site so I hope this works ...

If you would like to know the net worth of most of the posters there are a few old threads on it . We usually do a poll every few years . A lot of our posters have very large pensions and frankly I do not see the difference between having a $40,000 pension or a million dollars to invest they both give you to same amount to spend . Plus with the pensions you have that same amount of money regardless of what the market does . I have a smaller pension and during the meltdown my pension stayed steady while my investments dropped by 30%.

 

[Rustic23]

I am not sure why the OP ask the question. If he just wanted to know how much money people have, then it appears to be worded correctly. If he is looking to answer a question as to weather he had enough, then it is a bad poll.

I agree with other that say the 'cole'd income and other pensions' must be considered. Our savings is our 'mad money' and has little to do with our retirement decission.

 

[Nova]

I thought that the OP might be a young dreamer who doesn't expect to have a pension and is highly doubtful that SS will be there for him in the future. Then I saw that wasn't the case...

 

[fritz]

I don't mean to step on this poll's/thread's intent, but many of the responses seem to go towards a question I've always been interested in knowing. I've been curious about the composition of the current members of this forum, but more along the lines of knowing how many are (or are going to be) primarily pensioners, or are (or going to be) relying pretty much on investments in retirement. I would offer the following category selections for what I would like to know (and maybe others here):

Are you primarily (or going to be) a retired (early) Pensioner, or a retired (early) Investor?


Retirement Income Stream – (income source ranked largest to smallest for Investor and Pensioner)

1. Investor - Investments only
2. Investor - Investments + pension
3. Investor - Investments + SS
4. Investor - SS + Investments
5. Investor - SS + Investments + Pensions
6. Investor - Investments + SS + Pensions
7. Investor - Investments + Pensions + SS
8. Pensioner - Pensions + Investments
9. Pensioner - SS + Pensions + Investments
10. Pensioner - Pensions + SS + Investments
11. Pensioner - Pensions + Investments + SS

Based on the above:

Investor #1 __, #2 __

(retired) #3 __, #4 __, #5 __, #6 __, #7 __


Pensioner #8 __

(retired) #9 __, #10 __, #11 __


Hopefully I've accounted for all categories of retirement income stream. It would give (me) good insight as to the general make up of this forum - how many are retired, and the percentages of those who plan to, or are retired as pensioners - or were unfortunate enough not to have a pension (but fortunate enough to figure out how to still make retirement happen w/o one, or maybe just a small one). If this has been done already - please point me in the right direction.

 

[LOL!]

If you use the Search function for past polls, I think you will find some of your questions answered. Or start your own poll. You may need a pre-poll (like you have sort-of done) in order to appease the persnickety.

 

[Earl E Retyre]

I apologize for stirring things up with my poll. I see it was not the best formed poll. But I am only a dryer sheet wannabe. In the future, I will try and do better. Having said that, I did assume that since the forum is called FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), that most people on the site would not qualify yet for a pension or SS since they retired early after receiving financial independence. Otherwise the site may have been called Financially Able to Retire Tomorrow. Although that may not make for the best acronym. Anyway, thanks to those that did answer the poll. I still found the results very interesting and informative.

 

[REWahoo]

I did assume that since the forum is called FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), that most people on the site would not qualify yet for a pension or SS since they retired early after receiving financial independence.

You didn't consider many of us here may have retied in our 30's, 40's or 50's and actually lived long enough to be eligible for SS? Or were in the military and became eligible for pensions in our 40's? Or worked for state or municipal govts where retiring with full pensions at age 55 might be commonplace?

There are many roads to FIRE and assumptions should be tempered with reality.

 

[Earl E Retyre]

Those are good points, REWahoo. Anyway, I was just asking a simple question regarding how much money people had ... and did not mean to stir things up too much. I did like the dialog and again appreciate the responses.