haven’t been here all that long, but it seems that the audience here is mostly lower end of the scale (1/2 - 1 1/2 large) given above for “middle income” with only a few having any pension It also appears that many are taking SS early (62) to supplement and are trying to reduce costs as much as possible. The audience seems to also be more diverse with a wider range of salaries, locations, and (potentially) retirement expectations
Contrast that with the (apparent) audience of:
Bogleheads - - larger numbers, generally, with expectations of lower than 4% WR, due to fixed income returns. It also seems to have a bias of more coastal (NE, NY, Bay Area, LA) with higher costs as well as having more individuals as physicians, lawyers, business owners, etc.
Mr Money Mustache- - those with lower wealth, cutting costs to the bone, those trying to exit the “race” as fast as possible.
Us: w exited the race later than most here (59, for me) but had high earnings beforehand (in 33% marginal bracket) but saved (a lot) and have pension. (here, 59 isn’t considered “early” while at BH it’s slightly early to normal) But even before retirement, we spent between 57-62 k/yr and saved the rest....(and had taxes more than most here spend in retirement). We planned on a max 3.5% WR, and haven’t come close to that yet, but also expected that the gravy train we were in would end (...and indeed it did for those left behind for spouse as a massive layoff occurred a couple of years after, and I was already maxed out with only half of any COLA added to salary if I had stayed .... so we exited at about the right time)
based on the chart given above, while we could be above the forth quintile if we wanted, we only spend about 40k above pension (and that’s before SS for either). we try not to extrapolate our situation to others; there’s plenty of people around us that are nowhere near the typical “early-retirement”crowd here much less the BH crowd...so we can understand (plus we both were the “struggling student” types in earlier times and I certainly remember when the cupboard was bare in childhood, living in a trailer, ...)
{but we have a harder time trying to understand the mindset of those in HCOL or VHCOL areas who seem to need well over 100k; indeed, when someone posts that 100k is near poverty level in their area we cannot help but shake our heads... we certainly wouldn’t want to live there, and we (might) be able to}