HI....Want to ER but Want a Good Lifestyle TOO!

[nicolette]

HI ...I'm posting here because some members recommended it from my very first thread yesterday in "Fire & Money" under "Fill in the Blanks".

I've been reading the forums for awhile and have learned a tremendous amount from alot of you...LBYM, etc and even followed advice of 'downsizing' .......DH (53) and I (46) moved to a cheaper area to ER in the future, but came to the conclusion we much prefer the city and all it has to offer. Yes, this means working alittle longer but I guess being city folks has its price. So with this realization we'll need more $$ to live the city lifestyle AND have a nice home in a good neighborhood, etc.

So the motivation to my first post was....how many are along the same path?

To repeat our LIFESTYLE GOALS and WISHES....we wish:
1. $75K - $100K/yr after tax
2. $1M - $1.5M in the City on the west coast (preferably Vancouver, BC)
3. $500K - 750K secondary home to avoid the rain and winter.

How about you guys?

 

[Moemg]

Welcome , I live in Sarasota, Fl. which is about 50,000 . I find that to be a good size for me . I do not have a real frugal lifestyle nor do I have a ultra lavish one . I'm probably going to downsize in the future not because of money but more the size of my house . If a large city is what you want go for it we are all different in our plans & lifestyles .

 

[Meadbh]

To repeat our LIFESTYLE GOALS and WISHES....we wish:
1. $75K - $100K/yr after tax
2. $1M - $1.5M in the City on the west coast (preferably Vancouver, BC)
3. $500K - 750K secondary home to avoid the rain and winter.

How about you guys?

Hang around for a while and you might be able to reach Goal #2 somewhat cheaper than that!

My goals:
1. Ditto
2. $0.5m home somewhere congenial, probably not a big city
3. Vacations as needed.

 

[W2R]

Nicolette,

Hi, and welcome to the ER Forum.

I think you have made a significant step towards your goals, by identifying what you want in retirement (as you list in your post), and what you will have to give up to get there (the additional years of working required to accumulate the nestegg that can give you your chosen lifestyle).

Like you, I have identified what I want in retirement. In my case, I can afford a significantly more expensive lifestyle than I want or need, so cost of house and retirement income that I desire are not delaying my retirement.

The same has been true while working - - being single, I really do not use more than about half the square footage of my present home and the rest is wasted space that I really don't use or appreciate. I buy whatever I want, but it seems that I already have nearly everything I want.

I know that many people dream of having multiple homes. In my case, I can think of few things that I would desire less than a second home (or RV) to have to hassle with! I do not have any desire to travel much, but if I want to spend time in another area then I will just rent.

I will retire next year when I can remove the unknown expense that medical insurance now presents forever from my ER budget, as well as wind up a few other things here. I plan to move to a medium sized town, away from the negatives of big city life. But that is just my preference.

Even though we have both identified what we want in retirement, it seems that what we want is very different. That's OK, because there is room in the world for differences.

 

[Alan]

Welcome to the forum Nicolette and good luck with your goals. One thing I would suggest you consider is that instead of a 2nd home to get away during the winters that you look into Vacation Rentals By Owners (VRBO.com). We have done this several times now and each place we have rented has been really nice and very inexpensive. You may find this a good way to get away for 2 or 3 months into warmer / drier weather and try out various locations.

We plan to do this a lot in Retirement, and also live in a place with nice restaurants, theatres, shopping malls etc (already know where that is - lived there for almost 4 years and looking forward to moving back)

 

[bubba]

Agree with W2R about identifying goals as a first step. We have no desire for a 2nd home as we will want to travel to Florida one winter and Arizona the next. Renting will work better for us. We think about $75K after tax will support us, but with 8-10 more years before we actually retire, that number is very fluid.

 

[Ronstar]

1. $75k after tax
2. $700k in northern Illinois - current house
3. $350k in Az - current 2nd house (condo) - may sell in a few years since it is far cheaper to rent a place for a few months than it is to pay taxes, HOA, and utilities year round.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I'd echo some caution in wishing for the second home. With it, you have two sets of payments for insurance, taxes, upkeep, the occasional major repair, and an unused property most of the year. Also, you may find that escaping to the same house every year is not as much fun as moving to different snowbird escapes from time to time.

With the money you save by not having a 2nd house you'll reach your goals that much sooner. Like they say, careful what you wish for.

 

[Rambler]

Welcome Nicolette

Another point on the second home is that some states tax you as a resident there if you own a home there and do not rent it out to a third party. We had been thinking about a home in northern Utah for a while, which we would not rent out and leave open for ourselves as a base to visit some friends and for the myriad outdoor activites in and around that area. Another friend bought a home there that they visited a couple times a year for skiing and summer activities, and the state ended up considering them residents, even though they lived 7000 miles away in Asia (ehere we live most of the year). They had to pay income tax to the state, in addition to the similar residence taxes they payed here. Eventually they moved there, but were double taxed for a while.

Moral of the story is to check thoroughly the tax situation before buying a second home. We still would love to have a home there, but for a variety of reasons will probably go the RV route instead.

R

 

[Meadbh]

If you really want a second home, consider fractional ownership. It's associated with fractional costs too.

 

[chris2008]

For us it is
1. 50 k annual - almost there
2. House in location with lots of options, pais off - achieved
3. Enough fun money to go on extended vacation whenever desire comes. There is so much to see in the world - no second home for us. Why buy the cow if we can have milk, ice cream, joghurt, cheese or buttermilk at so many different places?