How much of your retirement income is "guaranteed"?

[NW-Bound]

About 40% of mine if from a local government pension ( Large CA city, not in the state Calpers system ) If they go BK and stop paying , I will start seizing city assets to sell or lease out. Part of this draconian plan would be to commandeer a group of parking meters in a busy area, and collect the quarters and nickels until my tiny pension $ is met for the mo.

Heh, heh, your back-up plan didn't work out too well for Cool Hand Luke (but YMMV.)

It is safer to acquire city parking meters legally, but that takes some capital.

For example, in 2008 the city of Chicago sold all 36,000 parking meters on a 75-year lease for $1.156 billion to Abu Dhabi. That's $428/meter/year.

Chicago is not the only city doing this. And in one instance which I do not recall, the new parking meter owners started to charge for weekend parking, which had previously been free. Ka ching!

 

[devans0]

I couldn't answer the poll. No SIRE currently. It will change in stages to 25% SIRE, then 35% SIRE. In eight years, SIRE will be 50%. FIRE in real terms is assumed to be steady through out, and enough, should everything SIRE takes a dump.

 

[FI by 2024]

Can someone explain SIRE? I've been reading this forum for ~4 years and never seen that used before. Secure Income-Retired Early?


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[hnzw_rui]

Can someone explain SIRE? I've been reading this forum for ~4 years and never seen that used before. Secure Income-Retired Early?

DB COLA pension.

And yep, Secure Income Retired Early.

http://www.early-retirement.org/for...slang-frequently-used-on-the-forum-34884.html

 

[Live And Learn]

Won't your healthcare drop when your husband goes on Medicare and again when you do?

Under current conditions, yes. Because of my conservative nature I don't include the reduction in my calculations. Whatever I do end up saving will be partially offset by having to pay people for things we do ourselves today (gutter cleaning, lawn care). If I'm not blown up by sequence of returns risk I will use the remaining savings for travel.

 

[mickeyd]

As of today, all of it.

 

[scrabbler1]

Do any of you consider at least some of the monthly dividends from a bond fund "guaranteed?" I have a big chunk of money in a bond fund and while 100% of the monthly income is not guaranteed, I'd say that 85% or 90% of it is. It isn't like each and every company whose bonds are within the bond fund are going to go belly-up even if a small portion of them could do so in any given month.

 

[2017ish]

I answered on basis of our projections, with more weight on the closest decade.

first 10 years of retirement, 0%
Assuming we can claim SS under current rules, I claim on spouse when she hits FRA and files restricted, then 5-10% until I hit 70.5 and she the year after....

after DW is 70.5, we are probably looking 20 to 40%, but very unclear. Possibility of inheritance (which, like social, we don't presently account for), and our withdrawal plan is variable 1% of previous quarterly closing balance.... Plus, an SPIA could well be in store after age 70, but that is a long way out.

 

[NW-Bound]

...how much from "guaranteed" income streams not directly related to the stock or bond markets, like SS, pensions, SPIA, CD interest and perhaps even rent.

I did not vote.

Right now, the guaranteed portion is 0. Relative to what we spent in the last 12 months, if we both claim SS at FRA it will be roughly 1/2 and if we both wait till 70 it will be 2/3 (we are the same age).

And I do not see myself keep on spending like the last 12 months. There have been many extraneous expenses that should not be recurrent.

 

[papadad111]

FIREd @46. Zero guaranteed income. 21 years till SS. Heavily equity weighted AA ( 90% to equities, 10% cash).

Can not see going away from equities due to need for 2 percent dividend yield and capital gains in this low rate environment. May be taking on too much risk now but still feels like time is on our side for the next decade and with a 40 year retirement window it's foolish to be too conservative now or next 10 years.

Have considered annuitizing some of the portfolio but think I'll do better longer term to stay in equities (dividends and cap gains) -

Series of return risk has me worried, will likely to shift to more conservative stance in about 10 years. Then go aggressive again in 20 years as we approach SS age til the end.

 

[Eagle43]

Megacorp pension, military pension, two social securities (DW and mine) are all guaranteed, I guess. We can live on that income and never touch the investments. But, of course, RMD is making us do otherwise.

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[mickeyd]

Megacorp pension, military pension, two social securities (DW and mine) are all guaranteed, I guess. We can live on that income and never touch the investments. But, of course, RMD is making us do otherwise.

Agreed. But of course, RMD is only a requirement to pay taxes, not a requirement to spend.

 

[Rustic23]

+1 and it makes my SWR .9% I think the money should last.

 

[Alan]

Currently 50% of our spending comes from pensions, the rest coming from savings and investments.

Over the next 10 years, through to age 70, we have another 4 sources of pension income coming on line which may well cover all our expenses, certainly all our essentials. ( a private pension for me, SS for DW, SS for me plus UK SS for me).

 

[pb4uski]

Agreed. But of course, RMD is only a requirement to pay taxes, not a requirement to spend.

That is what my Mom does... the RMD just goes from her IRA to her taxable account... between SS and rental income she has more than what she spends so there is no need to spend her RMDs.

 

[imoldernu]

Cash, SS, surrender value of small annuity, IRA Bank CD's calculated @ 1% for planning, IBonds calculated @ base purchase interest rate only, and a planned sell down of assets.

As we plan to eventually sell our home, and move to a rental CCRC apartment, we calculate the amount based on our purchase price, while the estimated value is 30% higher today.

We calculate all of that as totally conservative, so "guaranteed".

Very small amount in conservative stocks.

Empirical estimate 85% "guaranteed"

Only need to plan for 5 years... 10 years at the most. Money doesn't seem important any more.

 

[nun]

That is what my Mom does... the RMD just goes from her IRA to her taxable account... between SS and rental income she has more than what she spends so there is no need to spend her RMDs.

That's success in my book!

 

[Nunthewiser]

For the present, my $36k pension covers everything. We can exist on that, but it would sure be nice of we could get 3% guaranteed on the cozy nest egg we have stashed instead of the 1.5% in stable value. We have about 20% stocks, but I dont trust the market for much more than that.

 

[ls99]

From Columbia U, $29.83 per month. Guaranteed for life!

 

[NW-Bound]

From Columbia U, $29.83 per month. Guaranteed for life!

Do you get COLA with that too?

 

[ls99]

No COLA. They offered a lump sum payout. Considering their generosity I opted for snail mail check delivery.

Have fun once a month, on my way for coffee, to stop at the bank and ask them to cash my pension check. Their reactions are priceless.

 

[NW-Bound]

I recall reading somewhere on the SS Web site that in case your SS benefit turns out to be less than $1/month, they will not send you the check. I have trouble finding that passage again.

It is theoretically possible that one can work for 40 quarters hence qualifies for SS, but with so little hours for so little income so that the calculated benefit turns out to be less than $1.

Note that if one worked for at least 44 quarters, he would qualify for the minimum benefit of $39.90/month. Why bother requiring this extra 4 quarters, I wonder, but SS rules as most gummint's regulations are full of arbitrary thresholds.

 

[nun]

For the present, my $36k pension covers everything. We can exist on that, but it would sure be nice of we could get 3% guaranteed on the cozy nest egg we have stashed instead of the 1.5% in stable value. We have about 20% stocks, but I dont trust the market for much more than that.

$20k COLA pension and $15k in rent cover my annual expenses. I also have 18% of my assets in TIAA-Traditional which guarantees a minimum of 3% but is currently paying 4%.

 

[Nunthewiser]

^^ good deal on that TIAA_CREF. I am jealous.

 

[nun]

^^ good deal on that TIAA_CREF. I am jealous.

It's an excellent stable value substitute, but the money is locked up for 10 years. As I approach SS age I will be slowly transferring out of TIAA-Traaditional using a transfer pay out annuity and taking on a bit more risk.