1500 a month

W

wolfbay

Recycles dryer sheets
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
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It took 10 years longer than we had hoped but finally retired last week! At 3%WR 72K yr.We'll start some travel in 5 Months & know we'll spend it all.Before then we're going to see if we can live on 1500 mo +health ins.I think it"s very doable but we'll keep tract of all expenses & see how it goes.We're in a low cost area with very low property taxes.If we can do it without hardship it will give us confidence that even if investments really crater we'll do OK. We'll keep you posted.
 
wolfbay,

I'm fascinated by your budget plan to spend $1500 per month! How do you do that? That's $18000 annually, probably somewhere below the poverty line. Could you elaborate a little bit in general categories of expenses. $1500 per month makes me feel like a bloated fat-cat. I spend nearly that much on insurance, taxes and auto expenses for heavens sake. I'm I reading that right?
 
Hi Maurice- We're going to go for acruise with our boat. The route is called the GREAT LOOP. We'll start on the gulf coast & go around florida & up the east coast to NY then up the Hudson to Lake CHamplain then St lawrence river to Great lakes chicago &down rivers to Mobile &back to gulf coast. It is a long trip but we'll take our time.We've wanted to do it for a long time but never could take off that long
 
1500

Tightasadrum- I may be off base -we'll see. We live on a farm with very low property taxes in a low cost area.We have a garden & take 2-3 deer a yr. for most of our meat.{also fish in the pond]We don't have any payments &won't be able to eat out much.I think our situation is similar to many rural land owners.We'll keep you posted
 
I'm on 8 acres myself, and we'll be planting a garden in the spring. DW won't let me fiddle with the deer though. Even the rooster is off limits. She would never have made it as a farm girl. If I grew everything I ate, which I won't, it would save about 20-25% of budget. Good luck.
 
tightasadrum said:
I'm fascinated by your budget plan to spend $1500 per month! How do you do that? That's $18000 annually, probably somewhere below the poverty line.
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I would think that is quite possible to live on $18,000 p.a. But I wouldn't want to ... my definition of a comfortable retirement requires almost three times that amount.

To each his own! :)
 
$1,500/month + health ins. = $20,280/year.
 
wolfbay said:
It took 10 years longer than we had hoped but finally retired last week! At 3%WR 72K yr.We'll start some travel in 5 Months & know we'll spend it all.Before then we're going to see if we can live on 1500 mo +health ins.I think it"s very doable but we'll keep tract of all expenses & see how it goes.We're in a low cost area with very low property taxes.If we can do it without hardship it will give us confidence that even if investments really crater we'll do OK. We'll keep you posted.
Click to expand...

I think it is very doable, if you have your house paid off. I have lived on less than that for the past five years (plus P&I part of the mortgage payments on my house before it was paid off). There is only one of me, whereas I gather there are two of you, but then I have been working and haven't really cut my budget down to the bone. I occasionally buy art and other things that I want, but that I do not actually need, plus I furnished my entire house during that time.

I am planning to have more available to me when I retire, but to be honest I don't see how I could spend more than $2000/month, even if I tried. I believe I will have considerably more than that. Good luck to you! I hope you will be pleasantly surprised.
 
Why would you live on so little, when a very conservative withdrawal rate allows much more flexibility?
 
My mom lives on less than that... except for gifts to the kids, grandkids and great grandkids...

Very little taxes, no house payment... drives only a few K miles a year, fixes most of her own meals, senior citizen discounts etc.. very doable...
 
Tried $1500 month for June July Aug this year and I was able to do it OK. I am much happier on $2200 or so. It would have got tight if I would have had any major repairs. I retired on short notice in June just after I had stashed all my spare cash including my reserve into investments that I did not want to cash due to tax implications. Pension cheque showed up in September and October I splurged. New 6KW RMS generator and a couple of other toys.

Bruce
 
1500

Sandy- As I said in the post my wife and I will spend 72K a year and should be in good shape if past history holds true.The 5 month experiment at1500 mo. is for my peace of mind.I'm very negative about the economy and the dollar right now. Hopefully I'm mistaken and we'll continue to draw 3% as we planned.
 
Wow! I live in a big metro area and my property taxes are over $10K/year. I need to rethink this. :eek:
Best of luck to you.
 
I live in a big metro area

and my property taxes, my biggest expense, are $296/mo. Thank you California for Prop 13.
 
megacorp-firee said:
Wow! I live in a big metro area and my property taxes are over $10K/year. I need to rethink this. :eek:
Best of luck to you.
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That seems insane (from an admittedly different vantage point). Last year I paid $414 in property taxes, though that was artificially low due to some Katrina related local tax relief. This year we are returning to pre-storm levels, and I expect to pay about $1,200 - $1,500 in property taxes, and the increase is a Big Deal.

My house is at or slightly above the median price, a 1970's brick 1558 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in an excellent neighborhood. Even if I lived like Donald Trump, I don't think I could pay $10K in property taxes per year around here.

On the other hand, my salary is not on a Donald Trump level either. As has been discussed previously, it's as though we live in different countries with different currencies of different values. Yet the exchange rate is 1:1.
 
I can easily live on 25k per year. That includes country club dues, taxes and all. Pretty much my basic budget. But plan to spend more as time goes on for travel. Haven't done much my first few months of retirement other than a few quick trips to the gulf coast.

Ahhh the good life. Just back from taking my dog on a 3 mile walk at the reservoir. Beautiful day. Didn't cost me a thing other than a couple of bucks for the gas to get me there and back. Wish I had a picture of the sweet thing I saw jogging. :)
 
$1500 per month is about what I have averaged the last few years......that is with no mortgage (I do live on a large lake with a house valued around $550K). This is while working so with planned travel in retirement the expenses will go up some. Helps to have low property taxes (around $1200 a year) -- one good thing about Alabama.
 
Dawg52 said:
I can easily live on 25k per year. That includes country club dues, taxes and all. Pretty much my basic budget.
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Questions:

1. How much of that is health insurance?

2. How much is housing cost?

(Explanation: I'm not trying to say your numbers are bunk. I'm trying to understand retirement costs and net worth... assume a $150,000 house with 20% down... a mortage calculator shows that P&I on a $120,000 30 year fixed 6% home loan is $719.46. Taxes & insurance would be the same either way, so discount them. At a SWR of 4%, that's ~$216,000 before taxes... if a 20% marginal tax rate, then that's ~$270,000. $270,000 / 0.04 = $10,800, or $900 / month. That's a 43% increase in budget, or, owning the house outright, again assuming a SWR of 4%, $120,000 * 0.04 = $4,800, a 19.2% increase in assets. The other thing is health care... at $500 / month, that's 24% of your budget.)

TickTock, trying to FIRE as early as possible! :)
 
Lakedog said:
$1500 per month is about what I have averaged the last few years......that is with no mortgage (I do live on a large lake with a house valued around $550K). This is while working so with planned travel in retirement the expenses will go up some. Helps to have low property taxes (around $1200 a year) -- one good thing about Alabama.
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Lakedog,

These are the kind of factors I'm trying to evaluate.

$1,500 / month = $450,000 at a SWR of 4%. Pre-tax? Assuming an effective tax rate of 10%, that equates to $500,000 assets.

Health care? Maybe $500 /month paid by the company? (guessing) Another $167,000, again assuming 10% tax.

So a person scanning through the forum thinks "Gee, all I need is $450,000 and I can FIRE", but misses taxes, home equity, and health care. Suddenly the assests needed go from $450,000 to $1,217,000.

(Again, I'm not trying to challenge numbers here, just trying to evaluate what I need to FIRE...)
 
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My health plan is $125 per month -- my share of the plan provided by my employer and will be the same when I retire at yearend. I do expect that my post-retirement expenses will be more like $2000 per month.
 
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