I hate to say this but most will not save enough.

[Helena]

I wonder why I have to save millions for retirement

Methinks a lot of this is broker/government propaganda...
after all... what's in it for them to keep telling us we need to
save more and more and defer our retirement until it's too late.

 

[Corporateburnout]

Just talked to my Aunt a few days ago. She is in her 70's. She and her boyfriend are living with an $800 budget per month. Paid for house. She says it's no problem. I would think Social Security would generate that much alone. When I was growing up most older people said to have your house paid for when you retire then you will be alright. Could be they were right.

Made me think, I can generate more than that now. What am I working for? I always figured about 2 to 3K per month to spend would be enough for a good retirement lifestyle.

This will lead us again to the discussion about the geographical area you live in or plan to live in retirement. Here in the northeast I will have a difficult time living on anything less than 55K/year even with no mortgage and no car payments.

 

[Helena]

This will lead us again to the discussion about the geographical area you live in or plan to live in retirement. Here in the northeast I will have a difficult time living on anything less than 55K/year even with no mortgage and no car payments.

I missed that discussion.

So, where in the USA are the cheapest places to retire ?

I live in DFW Texas... and while the cost of living here is less
than in most large urban areas... and there is no state income
tax... the property taxes here are terrible. Even though I own
my $150,000 home, I pay $4000 each year in property taxes

 

[Retire Soon]

My DW knows her mother made the right decision to begin collecting SS at 62, instead of postponing it in hopes of reaping higher benefits. DW took her 67 year old mother (who was in good health) down to Kaiser Urgent Care many years ago. While the RN was checking her blood pressure at the nurse's station, she suffered a massive stroke and died in the chair she was sitting in.

 

[rs0460a]

I always figured that I could live easily on just 24K/year...once the house and car are paid off. Maybe ER will be sooner than I thought...

Only if you never buy another house/car till you drop. I don't expect to upgrade my home (4th in 36 years) but I certaily do expect to buy another car in the future (BTW, I'm retiring in '07, at age 59).

- Ron

 

[martyb]

Definitely depends on where you are.....I live in northwest Louisiana. OK, hold the Louisiana jokes, I'm not a native, however have been here 10 yrs. I moved here in '96 due to my Austin, TX employer getting closed down (Uncle Sam & BRACC). Now we reside in Bossier City, LA, where I plan to continue to work for the Air Force until 01/18/2013 when I'll be 55 & will hang it up. There are of course negatives to living here, just like anyplace else on the planet. However, there are some definite pluses. The jury's out as to whether DW & I will stay here after retirement, but odds are we will. I bought my current home almost immediately upon arrival, and we picked a good neighborhood in terms of appreciation. Of course, that's the crucial part and it's not always easy to determine what might happen down the road. We bought in a good mid-price range neighborhood, about 1/2 mile away from the highest rated elementary school in the state. That had great appeal to us since we had younger kids at the time. Home prices were pretty decent in general locally, but of course it's all in a buyer's perspective. The one thing that caught my attention right away is the low property tax rates. The first $75000 of assessed value is exempted. If you live outside the city limits, that's all you need to know. If you're inside the city, then of course you have city property taxes, which un-exempted. Here's my current situation: My home will sell for a little less than $200K when I sell it in the next couple of months. I feel confident about this because a. I used to be a realtor, and am pretty good with comps. b. Even though I'm not a realtor now, I still know people who are & their comps match mine for my home. I'd have to dig through the records to find the assessed value for taxes, but it's not far behind my comp numbers. Anyhow, what I'm getting at, is my taxes last year on my property inside the city were <$1200 total. When I moved here from Bastrop County, TX in 1996, my home that sold for $109,500 (assessed at $96000) cost me $1965 in taxes, and that was living outside the city limits, but including the ISD taxes. Property taxes are really low here in LA. Home prices are on the rise, just like most other places, but in general you can get a heckuva lot of house for much less than some of the numbers I've been reading about on this board. New construction now is over $100 sq ft now, with some going higher up to maybe $130 but if you pay more than that you're not too bright. If you're smart enough to buy ot of the city, you can really save on the taxes. I have talked to several folks who have sold their places in California & elswhere for a huge profit, then came here & bought a nicer place than their old one for 1/3 to 1/2 of their profit. I'm talking brand new 2500-3000+ sf homes in great areas for $250-$300K. If you want a real deal, buy an older home where your money really goes a lot further. It's not hard to find a deal on some waterfront property here if that's what you're into. We have so many lakes, rivers & bayous that the supply of property to choose from is plentiful and probably not as costly as it is elswhere. Depends on your lifestyle. I'm a hardcore angler, so I'm looking towards someplace on the water. This is a great place for an outdoorsman and the winters are very mild. It can reach nearly 100 in the summer, but that won't last very long and temps cool back down to the comfy 90's.

 

[martyb]

I might be able to give Nords a run for his money on long posts! Sorry 'bout that, I do tend to be a bit long winded.......

 

[Nords]

I might be able to give Nords a run for his money on long posts! Sorry 'bout that, I do tend to be a bit long winded.......

Hey, it's not a competition. Quality counts too.

Friends of ours in Mandeville are moving as soon as he retires. She's done too many evacuations, and too many hurricane repairs, to want to stay any longer.

 

[martyb]

I hear ya on the hurricane thing, I wouldn't want to have to deal with that stuff either. That's the main reason I never accepted any of the job offers down in south Florida, even though I could fish my a$$ off down there! Up here where we're at, the very north-western corner of the state, that's not an issue. We did have a tornado several yrs ago on Easter Sunday that tore up some stuff, but that's not a regular occurrence either.

 

[Corporateburnout]

I missed that discussion.

So, where in the USA are the cheapest places to retire ?

I live in DFW Texas... and while the cost of living here is less
than in most large urban areas... and there is no state income
tax... the property taxes here are terrible. Even though I own
my $150,000 home, I pay $4000 each year in property taxes


It seems it is much cheaper in TX than Boston but a 4k tax bill on 150k home is quite high. I pay about 5k on a 500k home. I hear places in North and south carolinas and the midwest states are pretty reasonable.

There are numerous threads on this topic.

 

[martyb]

Since North Carolina is my home state, I can tell you that in addition to a real estate property tax, they also tax some "personal property". I don't think it's terribly high, but still something to look into. Don't know about SC.

 

[mmg2681]

"This will lead us again to the discussion about the geographical area you live in or plan to live in retirement"
I live in the city of Akron, OH.
The house was very affordable, and I felt comfortable as a single female living in the area I live in when I purchased the house. It is actually where Tiger Woods plays at Firestone every year - right down the road.

Property tax on my $68,000 home are only $85/month.
At $65/sq ft for this 1921 2-story with alot of character... how could I go wrong?
I really love this house ... but most likely because of all the blood, sweat & tears I've put into it over the last 3 years I've had it.

"always figured that I could live easily on just 24K/year...once the house and car are paid off. Maybe ER will be sooner than I thought...

Only if you never buy another house/car till you drop."

I agree...but, now that I am engaged (to a frugal handyman), we have been looking (not actively) for houses LESS expensive in nicer areas for him to fix up. We have a realtor who has us on a list for repossesed/foreclosed homes that he emails us as soon as they are for sale : we have seen 2 or 3 in the last 6 months that seem to have had alot of potential, and less expensive than the home we have now.

We will be living in this home for several more years before we take the plunge into a newer home. It breaks my heart to think that I may not live in this home forever. But only time will tell.

Maybe by the time we are ready to buy another home, hubby wont want to because he's too old and has too many aches and pains (he already does at the age of 35!). The expenses are so darn low here. I would rather RE than buy a new home elsewhere with higher expenses.

~M

 

[getoutearly]

Way to go Clifp. I sensed a "let's bash the U.S.A." rant coming from ole Trek. He seems to have gone silent since your response.... he he he

How about the World Bank's report on Estimating National Wealth: Methodology and Results Appendix A .
US per capita national wealth $402,000 (1998) rank #1 , #2 Switzerland $352,000. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/1998/11/17/000009265_3981013134540/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf

And that is on a per capita basis, if you estimate the total wealth of a country (i.e. total assets minus liabilities of a country and its people the US with 300 million wealthly people would blow anybody else out of the water.

Not trying to be a jerk, but I dare you to find a reliable source to confirm this opinion.

 

[flipstress]

I might be able to give Nords a run for his money on long posts! Sorry 'bout that, I do tend to be a bit long winded.......

Hi, martyb.

No offense meant but paragraph breaks would encourage us to read any long post.