Hi, would like very much your thoughts. I'm 50, single, no kids, no debt except $14K on mortgage. Have $600,000 in savings in the form of my 401(k). Wondering if it's feasible to retire and live off these funds.My overhead is low, just need around $2,000 month,which takes care of apartment maintenance, utilities, healthcare insurance. Thanks for your advice.
you never know where life is going to leave you or lead you. being unemcumbered neither by spouse nor kids nor debt adds lots of value to a relatively smaller nestegg. most of the people here think you need a million plus plus but speak from a perspective of being married and having kids and then grandkids. but we, the childless singles, don't have to buy so many presents. we don't care if we don't leave legacy. who knows where life will bring you tomorrow. all it takes is one little divorce to cut their nest eggs in half or a new & good partnership for you to double yours.
There is no way. Keep working or move to the Ozarks. You think it is $2k but you have not considered all your costs.
hey, i'm considering downsizing to daytona, jacksonville, gainesville or tampa even (no offense, doc), the ozarks of florida. nothing wrong with that. in fact, i've been running numbers and i am way pleasantly stunned by the cost of living savings of downsizing to there.
check out boglehead ..there is a guy there that retired on that amount. He grew his 600000 to 1.4 mil in 10years
haven't seen that but i've been running similar scenerios and guess what, it looks like lbym will work even after you stop working.
Of course it all depends on your projected expenses including health care which is increasing at a rate faster than normal inflation.
that would be a huge concern of mine. but as i want to travel overseas, i'll be able to take advantage of lower cost insurance and healthcare elsewhere. so i just might wind up with, at least somewhat, deflationary health care expenses instead. afterall, i've been in the states for 51 years; time (the time that's running out) to experience the rest of the world now anyway.
Did you factor in large ticket items like car purchases, root canals, purchase of a dog, etc?
What do you plan on doing after retirement that you didn't do pre-retirement? Will it cost more? $2K a month may not leave enough wiggle room for travel and entertainment, although you might be doing activities that don't cost much like walking in the park, reading at the library, riding your bike.
also good points. though you need to account for the dental, i've solved the dog problem. i simply play with other people's dogs whenever i get the chance. as to travel and car, i can solve that with one quick swoop: a vagabond life. sell the home, add that money to the portfolio and suddenly you've got more freedom to travel even then those with more money but also with a house to worry about. you'll use local transport so you don't need a car so there goes that huge expense too. without a house and its rec room, your entire lifestyle becomes your wiggle room.
There, I would buy a house for about $125K. I would add any excess from the sale of my previous home to my nestegg. That nestegg addition of several hundred thousand should give you some extra income as well...
love what want2 has to say on this. in fact. a lot of that thinking is already part of my planning options as well.
edit: think i'm gonna start a thread on cost of living savings that come from downsizing but to check things out i am just now off the phone with my car insurance company. i requested quotes for three different towns in considering downsizing from fort lauderdale. here are the not insignificant savings on a six-month policy: daytona beach $261; tampa $71; gainesville $343. so by the x25 formula, moving to g-ville equals $17k that i don't need in my portfolio, just on my auto insurance savings alone. i have my health insurance company working on similar numbers and should get results to me by next tuesday. will report same on new thread.