$2.27 million to feel wealthy - 3% withdrawal rate

[gwraigty]

I agree and I'm going to do this myself. All my online pays are from checking and so are the checks, as well as the atm hits. Cool idea and easy! Thanks -

You're quite welcome!

 

[RobbieB]

RobbieB if I had your money I would throw mine away. LOL Have fun and I would die on the spot if I spent that much in one year. Lol

Hehe, Thanks!

A lot of "lumps" in there. Moving, marriage, home improvement, paying off wife's Fed tax balance that she was making payments on. The good news is that my net worth hasn't changed.

 

[Lewis Clark]

Yep - our city is "supposed" to have 2 main cable providers, and does in many parts. Problem is - the second provider only built out in Phase One of our sub, and for whatever reason never built out in the other phases (including ours).

Wouldn't a satellite device such as DirecTV be a second option? They could be used for negotiating purposes even if you wouldn't want to use them. Unless the HOA doesn't permit satellite dishes.

 

[aja8888]

A case in point. A gallon of milk in our area has been selling for $1.49 recently. Regular price. Not on sale. No coupons. At 2 different stores. What do you pay for a gallon of milk? A gallon of gas? $2.41 lately here. Multiply those differences by other common mutual expenses we might share.

Gallon of milk here in Houston averages about $3.50. MAybe you mean a 1/2 gallon? We are not in a HCOL area.

Gasoline (87 octane) is about $2.40 gallon.

 

[gwraigty]

Gallon of milk here in Houston averages about $3.50. MAybe you mean a 1/2 gallon? We are not in a HCOL area.

Gasoline (87 octane) is about $2.40 gallon.

No, I do mean a gallon.

https://www.meijer.com/shop/en/dairy/milk/traditional-milk/meijer-vitamin-d-whole-milk-gal/p/4125010200

https://grocery.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Whole-Milk-1-Gallon-128-Fl-Oz/10450114

 

[brett]

Never mind poverty levels in other continents.

Ever had a look a child poverty levels in America lately? It is not getting better either. Or the growing number of homeless people in our cities? Or our slums in North America? Not everyone lives in an 1800 sq. ft split in a nice, safe, suburban setting.

We feel incredibly wealthy. We have good health, we have a good home, more retirement income than we need, financial resources, and the physical ability and financial resources to travel where, when, how we like and as often or as long as we like.

Even so, our vehicles are 2006 and 2007 vintage with zero inclination to replace either. And DW also gets her hair cut at some Great Clips joint. We buy milk in gallon containers for the reason above even though neither of us drinks milk and never have. Coffee, cooking, the occasional cereal. Gas from the Co-Op, staples from Costco.

We have the ability to choose which is one reason why we feel so very fortunate. Lots of people in North America simply do not have choice when it comes to the basics of food and shelter.

Our budgeting takes max five minutes a month and 5 minutes at YE. We simply add up the cash withdrawals and the bill payments from our cheque account. Same as above. Don't care if we are over on gifts, under on food, or over on travel. The YE balance is our only gauge. Cannot imagine following every conceivable category down to the last cup of coffee at Starbucks or the last birthday gift we bought our children or grandchildren.

 

[NW-Bound]

Gallon of milk here in Houston averages about $3.50. MAybe you mean a 1/2 gallon? We are not in a HCOL area.

Gasoline (87 octane) is about $2.40 gallon.

I don't know offhand what a gallon of milk costs here. I don't drink it due to lactose intolerance. But I recently paid more than $3 for a gallon of gas.

And just in Portugal recently, I paid 1.65 euros/liter or 1.65 x 1.15 x 3.8 = $7.2/gal. The cheapest gas was in Andorra, where I paid 1.25 euros/liter.

Good thing European cars are gas sippers, and I only put in 4 or 5 gallons each fill-up.

PS. Compared to what I paid to fill up my motorhome on long treks, European car trips are dirt cheap.

 

[NW-Bound]

I hit the bank site and added up the last 12 months. Two hundred and thirty five grand!

Woo-Hoo, Blow That Dough!

I did not spend anywhere near that the last 12 months.

But my portfolio "lost" more than that in the month of May.

Which is worse?

 

[Independent]

What I found most interesting though is this:

"For many people, being wealthy means being financially independent and not having to work for a living, says Bradley Nelson, of Lyon Park Advisors. He says a family with a net worth of $2.27 million could easily be wealthy.
If that family spent a conservative 3% of their assets each year, they would have $68,100 a year to live on. That's more than the median household income in the United States of $61,000 -- without even having to work."

This is a common error - he is confusing "family" with "household".

About 28% of US households have just one person. But a "family" is "a group of two people or more ... related by birth, marriage, or adoption and residing together".

In 2017, the median income of married couple families with children under 18 was $97,622.

 

[Sunset]

True. Although some of us complain that we aren’t wealthy, most of us here are wealthy as measured in health and happiness.

I feel very contented, but not wealthy. To me it's the freedom of time, and ability to travel a bit even if on public planes, but most importantly to know I will be able to afford to eat

 

[RobbieB]

I did not spend anywhere near that the last 12 months.

But my portfolio "lost" more than that in the month of May.

Which is better?

Bummer dude. I was kinda surprised myself as I don't track expenses, this was the first time. B of A makes it simple. And I'd rather spend it than paper loose it for sure. Man there was limos, the Cyrill Magnin suite at the Mark Hopkins, the 5 course reception dinner with full bar, step daughters dorm rent at UCLA, new flooring and carpets, lobster and caviar. And lots of stuff I forgot.

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, you got some pleasure out of that money, while I only have pain.

But on the other hand, that wayward money may, just may, find its way back to me.

"Come home to daddy", I have been pleading.

 

[RobbieB]

The cool thing is even with all this rampant spending my net worth remains the same. Kudos to Merrill Lynch -

 

[REWahoo]

the cool thing is even with all this rampant spending my net worth remains the same. Kudos to [-]merrill lynch - [/-] mr. Market.

fify

 

[RobbieB]

I go with Merrill because he beats Mr Market -

 

[REWahoo]

 

[NW-Bound]

I feel very contented, but not wealthy. To me it's the freedom of time, and ability to travel a bit even if on public planes, but most importantly to know I will be able to afford to eat

Yes. No work and still get to eat. Compared to a lot of people in the world who work and still have little to eat. I feel blessed.

My wife's last job was so stressful, she left her job early at 50. She was just grateful to be able to stay home and not go to work. No desire for Hermès bags from her, although she likes to go on travel sometimes. She does not demand to go to somewhere, as long as I take her some places, whether by RV into the boondocks, or flying internationally.

I would wake up early in the morning to go make coffee before heading out to the backyard to work on my solar project. She would linger in bed until 8AM or even latter, while muttering "life is so good".

Then, later in the day, she would ask me if I want to drive her on a grocery errand (she does not want to drive). And she shops for little else besides groceries, and that's why our two big fridges are chocked full to the gill. Gah! I told my wife we'd better stop buying any meat, only produce. Even so, it is going to take 6 months to eat up the hoard.

 

[24601NoMore]

Wouldn't a satellite device such as DirecTV be a second option? They could be used for negotiating purposes even if you wouldn't want to use them. Unless the HOA doesn't permit satellite dishes.

Not sure how you'd get hi-speed internet over DirecTV. I did look into HughesNet when we were considering building our retirement home in the boonies (thought the neighborhood was not wired for cable at the time) and it was just as expensive as cable - with a lot worse performance and a lot more intermittent outages due to weather, etc.

 

[NW-Bound]

And while on the subject of being able to eat, I am just as guilty for the food hoarding.

Because we have time to go grocery shopping and to look around, we would occasionally find some exotic "good stuff" on sales. Don't know about you, but we do not see wild-caught Alaskan salmon that often. Nor veal shank. Nor elk frenched rack. Nor duck prosciutto. And I am the one who said we needed to stock up on exotic deals because they were rare.

 

[24601NoMore]

And while on the subject of being able to eat, I am just as guilty for the food hoarding.

Because we have time to go grocery shopping and to look around, we would occasionally find some exotic "good stuff" on sales. Don't know about you, but we do not see wild-caught Alaskan salmon that often. Nor veal shank. Nor elk frenched rack. Nor duck prosciutto. And I am the one who said we needed to stock up on exotic deals because they were rare.

Do you own a Foodsaver? That thing has saved us a TON of $$ being able to buy in bulk, freeze and use many months - and at times a year or more - later. Tastes just like it did the day we bought it.

I absolutely love our Foodsaver. We can buy things (usually meat) in bulk, vacuum seal it, and have it many months later without constantly having to go to the store. Not only does it save us quite a bit of $$ with the lower cost bulk purchases, but it's a HUGE time saver also..it's also been great for making BBQ or Kamado cooked food - make up a whole pork butt or brisket, vacuum seal it and eat great BBQ for the whole next year..super convenient..

 

[redshift]

This is what has kept us in So CA also. However we also highly value nice beaches with warm water and great viz for diving. So CA falls short on this. We are trying to find another place we could live that would meet our diving/warm beaches need while also offering at least some of the other benefits So CA offers. Haven’t found it yet, but still looking.

We 'snowbird' to Hawaii. COL a bit more than the Seattle area, but the water/beaches make it worth every penny to us. The diving is not world class, but nice.

 

[NW-Bound]

Do you own a Foodsaver? ...

No, we don't, though I have thought about it. I was afraid that it would allow us to hoard even more.

We do not go shop for much other than for food and consumables. And the truth is that food stuff is not expensive in the US. And we eat less and less as we get older, but the eyes are bigger than the stomach.

 

[karen1972]

1. Define subsidies. Our health insurance is reasonable from my husband's employer. They self-insure. See my post #144.

2. See my post #139. I account for everything. This year will be a new roof, contracted for $7,600. I'll have to write out a check for that to avoid the CC surcharge. That will, of course, easily show up as a debit in the checking account that I use to tally the total for our annual spending this year at the start of next January. It would be pretty hard to miss.

3. But I do need some new towels. Some of ours are over 27 years old, for a fact.

Not specifically addressing anyone in particular, but it seems there's some disbelief here that families (or individuals) can live on what is perceived as so little. Either we're not accounting for everything we're spending, or we're getting subsidies (does this mean government handouts), or something else that I can't quite figure out.

Why is spending these modest amounts of money to live any more unbelievable than the disbelief some have posted getting from co-workers when announcing their early retirements? Same thing, IMO.

1. Thats exactly what I mean, reasonably priced health care from an employer skews the comparison if you are paying for a family of 4 without subsidy, its not a negative towards anyone, it just means you are comparing apples and oranges, so you need to factor that in.

2. I see that you accounted for it which then put your number up to $37k which is roughly twice the $18k-25k I was referring to.. thus your not exactly in the category I was referring to since $37k to me seems about average once the house is paid off.


I don't think its that people can't fathom its just there are lots of details people leave out, which was my point. You can't compare numbers without those details.. ie my brother spends roughly $25k a year; however he drives a company car, talks on a company cell phone, gets his health care for free thru his wife's work, etc.. I'm super happy for him, but if I tried to live on $25k a year without factoring all those things in it would be completely unrealistic... ie hard to fathom.

 

[marko]

"...We have seen some horrendous poverty in our travels. In Europe the places that we have visited most families don’t live in more than 1000 sq ft, have one bathroom and no dryer or dishwasher. Many can’t afford to travel...."

Marko, Italy and Poland.

Poland I can understand. Italy....(?). Like everywhere including the US, there are places with extreme poverty but I wouldn't categorize 'most' Italians living that way. Just hasn't been our experience.

We were in Rome/Avezzano a few weeks ago and a cab driver was telling us how he just got back from 6 weeks travelling the US; he went everywhere! Claims he visits different states every other year. Not something I'd expect to hear from a US cab driver.

As far as having no dryer, that is a more common European thing with no reflection upon income. Our apartment in Paris was 5,000 Euros a month and had neither dryer nor dishwasher.

 

[gwraigty]

1. Thats exactly what I mean, reasonably priced health care from an employer skews the comparison if you are paying for a family of 4 without subsidy, its not a negative towards anyone, it just means you are comparing apples and oranges, so you need to factor that in.

2. I see that you accounted for it which then put your number up to $37k which is roughly twice the $18k-25k I was referring to.. thus your not exactly in the category I was referring to since $37k to me seems about average once the house is paid off.


I don't think its that people can't fathom its just there are lots of details people leave out, which was my point. You can't compare numbers without those details.. ie my brother spends roughly $25k a year; however he drives a company car, talks on a company cell phone, gets his health care for free thru his wife's work, etc.. I'm super happy for him, but if I tried to live on $25k a year without factoring all those things in it would be completely unrealistic... ie hard to fathom.

Thanks.