These folks are in the same "ballpark" as I am. DW and I possibly could have been potential subjects for that article. so I found the article and interesting comparison.
The positive thing is that they did the basics very well: lived below their means to save and invest, to even have the opportunity to retire. They are comfortable in retirement, and doing what they want to do.
The pension aspect does make a difference. While my pension is not as large, and not a COLA pension, it is large enough to cover the majority of our spending. I would have retired if it did not.
A breakdown of the spending in more detail would be helping, but I did not find their spending outrageous. Across the 4 of them, the average annual spend is about $111,500. That is less than our annualized spend, in 50 months of retirement, of $114,000. Now, if you take out our taxes, charity, and gifts, the rest of our annualized spending - which one could argue is what we are actually living on - is about 64,000. I would be curious what their spend exclusive of those categories are (they may or may not have been included, it was not clear to me unless I missed something).
Grocery spending expenses can be a function of ones taste. I do not find $600/month in groceries terrible; ours has averaged $533/month (it does include about 18 months of having a DS at home with us). Our total food spending (groceries + takeout + dining out + snacks) averages closer to $700/month. However this is something we would be comfortable controlling more, if we felt a strong impact from the strain of inflation.
Some of the expenses mentioned I would not have retired if they were large. One of my retirement "conditions" was to have no college expenses for children left to pay. And the balance on my mortgage was > $70K, small enough relative to my cash that I could pay if off early if I wanted (which I did 2 years after retiring). I would not feel comfortable with a large mortgage and payment to deal with.
Their stock allocations are much higher than mine (never been more that 40% since I retired), that is why some concerns over the market were brought out. I could not sleep well at night with that allocation, but that is me.
They have been much more productive than I have, still doing things to generate income. That would be the main difference from my situation - I have enough to choose not to work, have been selective in my volunteer activities, and am fine filling my time with hobbies, family, and friends right now. Their "work" energy puts me to shame
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Overall, it was interesting to read and compare how they were doing in retirement. While not as detailed, to me it was similar to the Money Magazine "profiles" of people they publish, with which I use to compare to see how we were doing, and see what ideas/actions/things to avoid I could gleam from them.
The comments on the article were also an interesting read
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