Poll: What is your basic income need (floor) in retirement?

[Sarah in SC]

1. $32k year, includes regular living expenses, house paid for, some travel.
2. 2 people, innumerable pets (10 right now)
3. Lowcountry of SC -Rural
4. One FIRE in 6 yrs, other in another 6-7 years more. May work PT for big ticket items if desired, like a boat or expensive travel.

Sarah

[tiredofwork]

1. $56K/yr with house paid for
2. 2 adults, 2 teenagers
3. Florida
4. RE 3/07. May do some part time work or consulting.

[lazygood4nothinbum]

1) think i'm paying off mortgage so will be $35k including all the goodies plus about another $10k/yr for domestic travel over next few years. after that possibly a few years living in third world with international travel and after that maybe a liveaboard cruising life.

2) one person unless i find that rare compatible rich, handsome, well-built stud either with daddy complex or someone who actually enjoys someone their own age. or as i said, one person.

3) fort lauderdale now, maybe third world later, after that i'll be a man with no address.

4) at age 50, i have almost 2 years of early retired experience.

[fazerman]

1. $40K/yr with house paid for
2. 2 adults, 3 children (14, 11, 5)
3. Western US (non Coastal)
4. Working, plan to FIRE June 2012 (not set in stone)

[loosechickens]

For a basic floor income that supports all non-discretionary expenses and what is needed to keep us fed, etc., would be $10,000 or so. This would be a budget that should times get hard, investments way down, income streams drying up, we could live on without invading capital.

Of course, we would prefer not to ever have to go that low, especially living here in the U.S., but we could. For a comfortable lifestyle that still allows for some eating out, movies, and other discretionary expenses and extra travel, we could still keep it under $20,000.

Because of our nomadic lifestyle in a motorhome, with no property taxes, producing our own electricity on the roof, etc., our actual NEEDS are very small. If tough times hit, we would locate in an area with good weather, not move around much, etc. With the skills we have of carpentry, plumbing, electrical, solar photovoltaics, sewing, gardening, food preservation, etc., we could probably barter for a lot of stuff, would be able to stay free, and could probably get even below $10,000 if we were forced to without really "doing without" anything we needed. We certainly know people today who are living rewarding lives on that little without untold difficulty.

we're lucky in that a huge number of the things we like to do don't cost money. Our problem in recent years is that our portfolio has exceeded our spending to the point where even when we spend pretty much all we want to, it's still not much over half of what we could spend with a safe withdrawal rate.

It's funny, but so long as we are healthy, I don't really worry about money, how much we have, how much we might need, etc. Even when there was very little, we felt abundance in our lives and now that the actuality really IS major abundance, that doesn't seem all that different either. it's fun sometimes to just marvel at the numbers on the brokerage statement, and it's certainly nice not to ever have to concern ourselves with what that funny noise is in the engine and whether a repair will be expensive, but we didn't worry overly about those things when we didn't have money either.

It's almost seemed through our lives that the less important money was to us, the more seemed to accumulate. We would watch friends and acquaintances focus their lives on getting it, keeping it and worrying about it, while all we did was be frugal, not go into debt, learn to do things for ourselves and not worry about it, and it just grew like Topsy........

Nice feeling to know that you can live, and even relatively comfortably on $10,000 per year. Even if the economy takes the biggest dive in history, we'll still be fine. Sure helps us sleep at night.

LooseChickens

[MasterBlaster]

For basic livin' you people are way too high.

You need to git those expenses down so that you can start livin'.

Maybe a sack of beans, and a sack of rice every month would cover food. I figure that you could git your expenses under $50 a month if you are smart about what you spend your money on !

Stop workin' and start livin'

The good life starts right here !

[teejayevans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by loosechickens For a basic floor income that supports all non-discretionary expenses and what is needed to keep us fed, etc., would be $10,000 or so. This would be a budget that should times get hard, investments way down, income streams drying up, we could live on without invading capital. LooseChickens

I think we're comparing apples and oranges. I'm guessing you don't need to buy
health insurance. Others who are RE probably spending close to 10K on health
insurance alone. (my definition of RE is < 65)
The way I see it, there is 4 major areas of "required" expenses:
health insurance
auto/fuel
housing/utilties
food

The rest can be considered optional, you eliminated 2 of the 4, combining
auto/housing into 1 and I'm guessing no/cheap health insurance.
TJ

[megacorp-firee]

1) retirement: 60,000 including health ins, mortgage, taxes, food, utils, ....etc.
2) 2
3) Chicago suburbs
4) working with FIRE plans in July

[Celany]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masterblaster Maybe a sack of beans, and a sack of rice every month would cover food.

I can't begin to describe the number of sicknesses one would probably get, on a diet entirely of rice & beans.

An earlier retirement that's an unhealthy retirement doesn't sound so appealing...but that's just me.

As for my #s:

1) 55k (to cover rent, health insurance in NY, some travel, good eating, hobbies)
2) 1 person, at least 1 cat
3) Manhatten
4) currently still working full-time, & saving as much as I can, no FIRE date in sight (probably another 10-15 years)

of course, circumstances could always change radically in 10-15 years...

[CyclingInvestor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by teejayevans I think we're comparing apples and oranges. I'm guessing you don't need to buy health insurance. Others who are RE probably spending close to 10K on health insurance alone. (my definition of RE is < 65) The way I see it, there is 4 major areas of "required" expenses: health insurance auto/fuel housing/utilties food The rest can be considered optional, you eliminated 2 of the 4, combining auto/housing into 1 and I'm guessing no/cheap health insurance. TJ

In parts of the country (like LA), a car is not required, especially for an
early retiree - no commute, still young enough to get around on a bike,
pretty much any service you can think of within a couple miles, busses
and rental cars as backup.

[Mwsinron]

48000 includes everything. About 38000 if I remove the vacations. House paid for and no car payment. 2 adults. West Coast USA.

[MasterBlaster]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Celany I can't begin to describe the number of sicknesses one would probably get, on a diet entirely of rice & beans. An earlier retirement that's an unhealthy retirement doesn't sound so appealing...but that's just me. As for my #s: 1) 55k (to cover rent, health insurance in NY, some travel, good eating, hobbies) 2) 1 person, at least 1 cat 3) Manhatten 4) currently still working full-time, & saving as much as I can, no FIRE date in sight (probably another 10-15 years) of course, circumstances could always change radically in 10-15 years...

On special occasions maybe you could go "whole-hog" and have some oats or some alphalpha.

By the way, my post wasn't too serious. My personal standards are considerably higher than that. However considering that most of the world lives under very simple conditions, the point is, is that what we really need is very very little. The rest is up to you and your standards.

[OKLibrarian]

1)20K bare-bones, currently spend about 28K, 30-35K ideal FIRE cash flow with travel, etc.
2) 2 plus 1-2 cats
3)OK
4) working away, FIRE in about 15 years.

[kat]

My floor is $20,000.

1 person, 1 dog

upstate NY city

early semi-retired

[aenlighten]

I never spent as much as these when I was working and I am not about to begin now. Absolute minimum would be about $10k, more realistic long term average $15k, and comfortable $20k. Other than travel, I don't know what I would do with more. Property taxes are my largest expense. 1 Person, 1 dog, Socal, FIREd.

[Charlotte]

1) ~$50,000-$55,000 per year is floor (house is paid for)
2) 2 adults, 2 children
3) North Carolina
4) Still working, plan to retire in 2011

[CybrMike]

1. Floor is about $180K. Really need $250K to be where I want. Including mortgage.
2. 2 adults, 1 infant.
3. midwest
4. retired. meddlin' in real estate.

[happy2bretired]

1. $35,000 bare bones expenses - no mortgage
2. 2 (daughter living at home while attending college)
3. Midwest
4. Retired 1 year

I could do it for $35,000 but it wouldn't be much fun.

[SecondCor521]

1) $9,873. That is my annual spending rate of all categories in Quicken except mortgage interest (currently assuming I will pay off mortgage in retirement), kid-related expenses (assumes kids will be grown or there will be a separate depletion fund for those expenses), and taxes (as you requested). Does not account for any FIRE-related adjustments, which I expect/hope to be neutral.
2) 1 adult male.
3) northwest US
4) working

2Cor521

[Moemg]

I could make it on $36,000 but I would have to trim my travel budget a lot .Realistically I'm at $ 48,000.If I downsize the house which I'm planning to do it should be less.
One person S.O is usually around
Florida
Retired
No mortgage .No car payment