Comfortable FIRE $$Number in Every State Article

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

In Maine, our biggest city is Portland with 60,000 population. Draw a 40-mile radius around Portland and you have 50% of the entire state population. They have a COL roughly 10X higher than the remaining 95% of the state. It seems that all of these 'studies' assume the COL and level of taxes in that corner of the state while ignoring the majority of Maine.

I find this a little annoying, but such is life.

The average age of Mainers is higher than any other state, we have the highest percentage of retirees. Tourists come here and if they explore anywhere outside of Portland they find that most of the state is really enjoyable, and the COL is low.

As a retiree, I socialize with a lot of other retirees. Nearly all of us are from other states, often from the deep South, though I am from California.

[jazz4cash]

Too many unknowns to be relied upon or useful in any way. The title of the article is "Average Retirement Age in Every State". Im not sure how they determine an average retirement age, but surely everything else is the result of flawed methodology. They use expenses for a 65 year old and somehow extrapolate to local expenses in 50 states. No mention of an adjustment for retiring earlier or later than 65. No mention if SS is accounted for. No detail how this applies based on single/couple/household.

[W2R]

According to that article, I am not spending enough to be having a comfortable retirement in Louisiana!! Oh no. I must be miserable, I am so deprived! Yeah right.

On the other hand, my portfolio is a lot larger than what they seem to think I need.

[stepford]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Offgrid Organic Farmer In Maine, our biggest city is Portland with 60,000 population. Draw a 40-mile radius around Portland and you have 50% of the entire state population. They have a COL roughly 10X higher than the remaining 95% of the state.

Do you really mean 10X or are you just exaggerating for effect? It just seems that Portland must be insanely expensive and/or rural Maine insanely cheap for that kind of ratio to hold.

[Perryinva]

Really people, what kind of other detailed info can you expect from a short article like that? The lack of a basic income sources is a fairly glaring omission, but really, for people already FIRE this is all old hat. More than one person has said it would be a cold day in Hades before they would live like Off-Grid does, so do his very low numbers mean anything? Of course not. You’d never catch me retiring so I would be heating with wood, slaughtering my own meats, etc. And yes, rural Maine is actually very very inexpensive and the cities very large towns are average in costs, except heating is much higher. Add all the cities and large towns together and you probably cover 90% of the population. It is a general article that no one seriously is going to make a decision off of, but gives a rough idea of what it takes and food for thought. Giving numbers to the penny IS just plain stupid and shows the results were generated by a formula with little human common sense input. Based on the tone, the assumption is no pension, and average SS, so substitute a lower savings amount needed for what the pension covers, IMHO. It states a 20% savings buffer was added. Click bait, of course. The only real question I had was why is it so expensive to live in Oregon?

[finnski1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Offgrid Organic Farmer In Maine, our biggest city is Portland with 60,000 population. Draw a 40-mile radius around Portland and you have 50% of the entire state population. They have a COL roughly 10X higher than the remaining 95% of the state. It seems that all of these 'studies' assume the COL and level of taxes in that corner of the state while ignoring the majority of Maine. I find this a little annoying, but such is life. The average age of Mainers is higher than any other state, we have the highest percentage of retirees. Tourists come here and if they explore anywhere outside of Portland they find that most of the state is really enjoyable, and the COL is low. As a retiree, I socialize with a lot of other retirees. Nearly all of us are from other states, often from the deep South, though I am from California.

Well the 10x figure is obviously a wildly over exaggerated figure but I get the general point.

We love Maine and spend most of our vacations(is that the right term when you are retired) along the midcoast or above or in the Moosehead Lake area.
Apparently in NH I need to spend $27,000 more per year to be comfortable.

I better start blowing that dough.

[ckelly78z]

Ohio
Average retirement age: 63

Annual cost of a comfortable retirement: $57,468.72

Retirement savings needed: $1,149,374.40

I'm not sure i'm going to hit that number in my investments, but with my pension, and SS, I should be close.

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stepford Do you really mean 10X or are you just exaggerating for effect? It just seems that Portland must be insanely expensive and/or rural Maine insanely cheap for that kind of ratio to hold.

Friends of mine who live in Portland, complain about their taxes every time I see them.

From the numbers that they report, yes they are paying well over 10X what I am paying for property taxes.

I own 150 acres of river frontage forested land for which I have been paying $157.50 a year. I live in a 2400 sq ft house which is taxed at $600 a year.

We have friends in the city who own 0.25 acre of land and a 2000 sq ft house paying $6000 a year in taxes.

If they owned 150 acres of land in the city, I am confidant they would pay well over $8000 a year.

[Koolau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Offgrid Organic Farmer Friends of mine who live in Portland, complain about their taxes every time I see them. <SNIP>

Heh, heh, if I lived in Portland right now, I don't think taxes would be my biggest worry, but YMMV.

[brett]

Absolutely meaningless.

Does this include the value of home equity, the value of your DB pension, or the value of your SS pension?

[daylatedollarshort]

The maximum SS benefit at age 65 is currently $2,857 a month. That is a lot of cash not take into account in a how much do I need to retire kind of article, especially for a household with two maximum SS incomes. Plus in higher cost of living states, retirees would likely have had higher wages during their working careers, and may have higher retirement expenses offset by having earned higher SS benefits.

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koolau Heh, heh, if I lived in Portland right now, I don't think taxes would be my biggest worry, but YMMV.

BLM-Maine had promoted a protest for last weekend, but the day before they canceled it.

They have not seen any rioting [so far] and the marches have been fairly peaceful.

[kgtest]

I agree. We are aiming for 1.5 to 2.5m investable assets and no debts before we ER "comfy"...

We have at least 3 to 4 more legs of our stool though,

[Katsmeow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by daylatedollarshort The maximum SS benefit at age 65 is currently $2,857 a month. That is a lot of cash not take into account in a how much do I need to retire kind of article, especially for a household with two maximum SS incomes.

Exactly. The combined SS for DH and I is over $50k a year. That is really enough to cover our necessary expenses. (We do spend more but that is for the more descretionary stuff). So, retirement articles that act like people never get SS are absurd for many people.

[HI Bill]

Well, like most things, it depends on your desired standard of living, how much house you have, and your desired budget. I could easily live on $30K in rural California, or on $50K in a Waikiki apartment. Try buying a house on Maui, and you're likely to need $2-4M+ to RE. Travel? Cars? Race horses? Race airplanes? Yachts? Ocean view? Oceanfront?

What's necessary, and what's desired...it's the tradeoff between time and those desires...that kept me w$rking five years longer than I wanted. The payout is that now I can afford a decent home in a gated community, and still do a few international trips a year...hopefully, starting next year.