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Old 02-04-2021, 12:40 PM   #41
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You get to have 2 or more wives in America?

What a country!

Is that just limited to pilots?
Nope, this a democratic country. Any fool can have as many ex-wives as he wants.

I even knew one guy who had five of them.
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Old 02-05-2021, 06:17 AM   #42
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Originally Posted by Shinge1233 View Post
Thanks for all response, helps , and advises.

Actually I am a state worker and have worked more than 25 years. Therefore I have 100% medical coverage when I retire. I may require to pay a premium if I want a better HMO or PPO coverage.

By the way, I am still planning to retire anytime but still not firm yet. I would like to get more examples and nice experiences here for reference. Hope to have a good life after retire.
I think you are in a situation where the services of a financial planner could be useful. A good one will have seen many different situations and can spot things that you may not have noticed, and ask questions to ensure you have covered your bases as some here have mentioned such as taxes, lumpy expenses, insurance, etc.
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Old 02-05-2021, 10:11 AM   #43
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Hi Shige,
Welcome to ER community.
Sounds like in your mind, retirement is doable and you would like confirmation. Also, you would like to know some success stories to encourage you to make the leap.
So good thing you found this forum b/c it is full of personal experiences of FIRE -> check out the “Life after” section for post retirement updates. You will find threads detailing the emotional, physical, and psychological journeys of retirees spanning a wide age spectrum, including plenty in their 50’s. Many experiences starting from T+1 (The First Day of Retirement).

Also, this is a chatty group. Now that GME and COVID have been pretty much talked out... the more info you give and specific advice ?’s requested, the more response you’ll get. This forum is almost 20 years old, while the human experience remains constant. I encourage you to dive deep into the threads. You’ll learn a lot, and probably gain some new friends/acquaintances to take on your journey.
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Old 02-05-2021, 12:08 PM   #44
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Hi Shige,
Welcome to ER community.
Sounds like in your mind, retirement is doable and you would like confirmation. Also, you would like to know some success stories to encourage you to make the leap.
So good thing you found this forum b/c it is full of personal experiences of FIRE -> check out the “Life after” section for post retirement updates. You will find threads detailing the emotional, physical, and psychological journeys of retirees spanning a wide age spectrum, including plenty in their 50’s. Many experiences starting from T+1 (The First Day of Retirement).

Also, this is a chatty group. Now that GME and COVID have been pretty much talked out... the more info you give and specific advice ?’s requested, the more response you’ll get. This forum is almost 20 years old, while the human experience remains constant. I encourage you to dive deep into the threads. You’ll learn a lot, and probably gain some new friends/acquaintances to take on your journey.
Just remember that we are a bunch of strangers in cyberspace and therefore our advice is worth what you pay for it. In the final analysis, it's your life, so you must make your own decisions and live with them. Most of us are happy to talk about what happened to us, but we don't know your situation well enough to actually "advise" you. SO, take what we say with many grains of salt. Do your own research and analysis. But DO keep us up to date on your decision and let us congratulate you when you do make your move.

Aloha.
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Old 02-05-2021, 12:53 PM   #45
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... the more info you give and specific advice ?’s requested, the more response you’ll get.
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Just remember that we are a bunch of strangers in cyberspace and therefore our advice is worth what you pay for it. In the final analysis, it's your life, so you must make your own decisions and live with them.
Very important. Any post should be understood as opinion, and a response to any preliminary or situational info provided.
If someone reads a response, and accepts it and acts on it as financial advice, caveat emptor.
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Old 02-06-2021, 08:58 PM   #46
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Ok, so your pension is $5,200 and your expenses $4,100.

But what about income taxes ? Will you be paying another 10%-12% in income taxes (or $500-$600). This will reduce your pension to $4,600



Quote:
Originally Posted by Shinge1233 View Post
Thank you for your comments!

Let me talk you my exact number....

Every month average basic expense includes house, food , entertainment, repair...are $ 4100.

My pension is $5200 monthly plus 2% every year living adjustment.

$450000 457 k fund ...based on 4%rule.. I have $1500 every month to use for emergencies or vacation.

Social security at 62 , I have $2200 monthly approximate. But I am only 57 yrs old and need to wait 5 more yrs.

So... Total retirement income before 62 is $6700 monthly and average monthly expenses are $4100 . After 62, I will have $8900 monthly retirement income and $4100 expense plus inflation and living adjustment.

Therefore, I am thinking to retire...
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Old 02-07-2021, 12:18 PM   #47
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Originally Posted by P.S. View Post
Hi Shige,
Welcome to ER community.
Sounds like in your mind, retirement is doable and you would like confirmation. Also, you would like to know some success stories to encourage you to make the leap.
So good thing you found this forum b/c it is full of personal experiences of FIRE -> check out the “Life after” section for post retirement updates. You will find threads detailing the emotional, physical, and psychological journeys of retirees spanning a wide age spectrum, including plenty in their 50’s. Many experiences starting from T+1 (The First Day of Retirement).

Also, this is a chatty group. Now that GME and COVID have been pretty much talked out... the more info you give and specific advice ?’s requested, the more response you’ll get. This forum is almost 20 years old, while the human experience remains constant. I encourage you to dive deep into the threads. You’ll learn a lot, and probably gain some new friends/acquaintances to take on your journey.
Thanks a lot for your info and advise!
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Old 02-08-2021, 02:37 PM   #48
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If you move from California to Florida will your health insurance stay the same at the same cost? DH is a former state employee and insurance changes and costs more if we leave the state. I would look into that prior to retiring.
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Old 02-08-2021, 07:06 PM   #49
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Originally Posted by cyber888 View Post
Ok, so your pension is $5,200 and your expenses $4,100.

But what about income taxes ? Will you be paying another 10%-12% in income taxes (or $500-$600). This will reduce your pension to $4,600
pretty much exactly, using 2021 rates
~63,000
minus standard deduction for single 10,850
52,150

Taxes for first 9950 = 995
Taxes for next 30,575 = 3669
Taxes for next 11,625 = 2558
total taxes = 7222
~600 per month in taxes on the pension for single person.

If you had not figured taxes in your 5200 monthly, there it is for a single person in 2021
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Old 02-09-2021, 04:17 PM   #50
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This how I started out for retirement...before I retired I went and got two credit cards that gave me 100K miles for airlines...

Then I started to put every single item that cost me money on those cards and of course I paid the cards off each and every month...

if you do this you get a real idea of exactly how much it costs you to live for a year... so now you have, taxes,insurance,health care, food, gas... other items you paid for .... after the two year period I knew up to the penny how much I spent...

I then multiplied the average of the two years of money spent and I doubled that figure and divided by 12...

by doing that its more than I actually need but it does a couple things... I get more after tax dollars in the bank account, my after tax dollars savings account grows in case I need extra funds, and I know I can afford a vacation if I want to take it... or splurge on some item(s)...

Its worked perfect for me all these years... before the travel industry shut down last year we had enough free airline miles we would take trips each month... now we just have a ton of miles piling up...
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Old 02-09-2021, 06:36 PM   #51
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Originally Posted by Shinge1233 View Post
Hi, I am new here....
Just have a simple question for all experienced people here... If my monthly pension (not include SS and only 57 yr old ) can cover my monthly expense, then, should I retire?

Thanks
i'm late to this thread but the answer to your Q is...it all depends. depends on your chosen lifestyle. if we were to maintain our current level of living and spending and have zero cushion we would need around $9500 per month. but we live waaaaay beneath our means and want for nothing. some could likely live on less (and i'm certain we could as well' while others would require more.

my advice: do not live on the financial edge.
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Old 02-09-2021, 07:23 PM   #52
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i'm late to this thread but the answer to your Q is...it all depends. depends on your chosen lifestyle. if we were to maintain our current level of living and spending and have zero cushion we would need around $9500 per month. but we live waaaaay beneath our means and want for nothing. some could likely live on less (and i'm certain we could as well' while others would require more.

my advice: do not live on the financial edge.
I am late to this thread too but must make a point. Lots of discussion about tracking expenses to the penny, and I think that is great, but if anything Retirement taught me is that it has nothing to do with my life while working. I was free to move from a HCOL area to. LCOL area, but I took up Golf and Tennis and joined a club ($$$$). Prior travel expenses for vacations while working was much lower as I had no time to get away and when you fly every week for work you don’t want to do it on your vacation... dining out went way up as corp expense account was lost. There is hardly one pre retirement budget number based on actual expenses ad time that is within 25% of post retirement actual numbers.

But if you are flexible and willing to eat lots of noodles you can probably make anything work

Also it is not the things you budgeted for that will bite you in the butt, but the ones you didn’t even think of..
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Old 02-09-2021, 07:46 PM   #53
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I trended all of my expenses in an excel spreadsheet for many years (many = over 10 years) before I stopped working. I still trend every dollar spent .....and I have been retired for 11+ years.

Information is power for me. If I know what expenses are trending, I can anticipate an added 2-5% (minimum) for each year in the future and sort through what the costs will be. That's how I knew when enough was enough for me.

FireCalc can certainly help. But garbage in is garbage out....so making sure your data is true is very important. Only then will you know for sure what amount you need.
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Old 02-09-2021, 07:57 PM   #54
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Actually I am a state worker and have worked more than 25 years. Therefore I have 100% medical coverage when I retire. I may require to pay a premium if I want a better HMO or PPO coverage.
My wife's pension fund and mine also covered health insurance until they didn't. Both decided to put pre-Medicare retirees on Obamacare and provide a fixed stipend to help defray part of the cost.

In many states including ours, Obamacare plans do not work outside of the area where we live, not even in other parts of Ohio. So if we travel we're buying travel insurance or taking a big potential risk.

Oh, and like yours, those are both State employee pension plans. Hers is Ohio Police and Fire and mine is Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. The State Legislature agreed with the change to Obamacare because medical costs were on track to bankrupt both plans. One plan, hers, actually had thirty years of pension payments in the bank but the skyrocketing medical costs threatened to bankrupt the fund in seven years.

Ray
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Old 02-09-2021, 07:59 PM   #55
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My question ...When should I retire? What mean enough? . We always think not enough then never retire... If I have enough pension for my basic expense and have emergency or saving fund , and 457k set aside. Why do I need to work for?

I think you answered your own question. Good Luck!
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Old 02-09-2021, 08:58 PM   #56
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I am late to this thread too but must make a point. Lots of discussion about tracking expenses to the penny, and I think that is great, but if anything Retirement taught me is that it has nothing to do with my life while working. I was free to move from a HCOL area to. LCOL area, but I took up Golf and Tennis and joined a club ($$$$). Prior travel expenses for vacations while working was much lower as I had no time to get away and when you fly every week for work you don’t want to do it on your vacation... dining out went way up as corp expense account was lost. There is hardly one pre retirement budget number based on actual expenses ad time that is within 25% of post retirement actual numbers.

But if you are flexible and willing to eat lots of noodles you can probably make anything work

Also it is not the things you budgeted for that will bite you in the butt, but the ones you didn’t even think of..
+1. to the OP....this is just another way if saying...'it depends'. expat's post exemplifies differences in lifestyles. his lifestyle in retirement is much different than ours which is about the same as when we were still working. IMO the younger you are when you retire the more likely your lifestyle will undergo several changes during retirement.
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Old 02-09-2021, 11:54 PM   #57
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Gotta ask - does everyone have full faith that their pensions, from whatever source, will continue? Guess I'm just not that confident. What happens when a pension fund fails/ company goes bankrupt? I'd want a backup plan. Of course this is from someone with no pension and a whole $200/month this year in SS coming in. Spend my time worrying that the value of a dollar is getting chopped in half and that our savings might not be adequate.
My pensions are from the US government (1 military, another civil service (small) and the third Social Security) so if these fail the whole world is probably FUBAR. That said, I can envision SSA being taken away from us with proposed means-testing. We have low 7 figure investments and mid-6 figure cash for backup plus I mined Bitcoins back when it was profitable. Worst case we will always have those.

We also own our properties outright and here in Hungary, where we retired, there is no property tax so we could live our remaining 20 years or so on cash alone if necessary (assuming cash retains value). I never thought the US government was at risk of failing but I am seeing it more likely now with massive debt and horrible foreign policy that may cause the dollar to lose its reserve currency status. I also envision the abuses of MMT as leading to massive inflation. I am seeing the path the Soviet Union took looking more and more likely for the US.

With that in mind, we are moving our US dollar cash reserve to a Swiss Franc account here locally as you cannot open Swiss Bank accounts unless you are a Swiss Citizen and living inside Switzerland (sucks as an option due to negative interest rates). Physical gold would be another option. My next-door neighbor is a Swiss citizen and cannot have a Swiss account as she doesn't live there despite her pension being from the Swiss government. However, you can open accounts in Swiss Francs outside Switzerland. Her son is a Billionaire bank manager in Switzerland and also our friend so I get some good advice from him. I see this as the only potentially stable currency if you want to avoid US Dollars, Euros, Russian Rubles, or Chinese Yuan.
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Old 02-10-2021, 12:10 PM   #58
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Gotta ask - does everyone have full faith that their pensions, from whatever source, will continue? Guess I'm just not that confident. What happens when a pension fund fails/ company goes bankrupt? I'd want a backup plan. Of course this is from someone with no pension and a whole $200/month this year in SS coming in. Spend my time worrying that the value of a dollar is getting chopped in half and that our savings might not be adequate.
we have three public pensions two of which are mine. we each have one from the illinois state govt, my other is municipally based. the state pensions are worrisome as they represent 37% of our monthly income but they are roughly only 40% funded. less worrisome is my municipal pension. it's managed much better and is 91% funded and represents 40% of our monthly income. SS fills in the remaining 22%.

but our net worth is in the low 7-figures with an asset allocation ratio of about 70/30. a review by a fee-only financial advisor a few years ago was of the opinion that, given our ages, life expectancy and our standard of living, we should should be able to maintain our lifestyle should all three pensions and SS disappear and the nest egg somehow survives which, IMO, is unlikely. so i have quit worrying about that. it's out of my control.
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Old 02-10-2021, 01:25 PM   #59
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Gotta ask - does everyone have full faith that their pensions, from whatever source, will continue? Guess I'm just not that confident. What happens when a pension fund fails/ company goes bankrupt? I'd want a backup plan. Of course this is from someone with no pension and a whole $200/month this year in SS coming in. Spend my time worrying that the value of a dollar is getting chopped in half and that our savings might not be adequate.
Old Megacorp is going 'gangbusters' right now - it has been a bit up and down since I started there 50+ years ago and during the 15 years since I ERd. BUT I have almost as much faith in my pension as I do in SS. For one thing, the gummint is WAY more likely to mess with SS than they are to mess with Megacorp's pension plan.

Also, we get the pension statement every year. It shows that the plan has always been funded at least 80% (bad years) to near 100% in good years. Is anything "safe"? I suppose nothing is truly safe. My pension just happens to be way down on the list of stuff I worry about though YMMV.
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Old 02-10-2021, 03:11 PM   #60
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No pension boy here again - need to correct an earlier statement. Said that I was getting $200 in SS after my medicare and drug payments were made. That was true last year. This year the gubbernment will be putting (per today's deposit) $91.30/month into my Discover account. For which I am grateful. And am also grateful that rentals did very well for us as far as stacking up the cash for our waning years. Getting that monthly SS check is the closest feeling to a pension I can imagine, and it is real gratifying having the checks click into the bank so regularly. Makes me have a touch of envy for pensions, but not my style to count on much from others.
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