Did Anyone Retire with "Only" .75M$ Saved?

[SpinDoctorTX]

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Originally Posted by ER Eddie I'm late on my input (just saw the thread), but the answer is yes absolutely it's possible. It depends heavily on how much you spend, i.e., what sort of lifestyle you want to maintain. This forum and Bogle's tend to be occupied mostly by people who've had 6 figure salaries and done very well for themselves, financially -- although that's not true of everyone, of course, in fact I've been surprised and pleased to see how many people have chimed in with "I did it!" But this forum is not representative of the general population, so your answers are likely to be skewed toward "oh no, we couldn't possibly live on that." It's all about lifestyle and spending levels. If you check out other forums, e.g., Mr. Money Moustache, you'll find plenty of people retiring on 500K. There's another forum, I think it's called Early Retirement Extreme (?), which has people who're retiring on much less than that. There's a broad range of options, from extravagant to very minimalistic. It all depends on what sort of lifestyle you want and what your spending levels will be (well, other factors, too, such as those that have been mentioned). Good luck!

Spot on! Funny anecdote... We are very good friends with another couple. About 10 years ago, they told us how much they got back from their points with Costco Credit card as a result of spending 60k there. I spit soda out of nose because I was so surprised! Now I don't normally talk about my income, but I blurted right out that I"d only brought in 85 k that year including my bonus (usually 10kish so they could stiff you a bit on the raise). At the time I was maxing out 401k & IRAs, so my take home pay was about what I'd brought home as a 25yo- pitiful.

Anywho the look of horror on their faces was priceless. We ALL just fell out laughing! Their min spend is about 100k. They have it, so no worries, but OMG it was the funniest thing. They think they are frugal, but really they are a marketers dream.

I was still working (for a bit more thank God), but we'd already run the #s and we knew that with no debt & the 500k+ nut combined with several other income sources would do us nicely. I was delighted to report this winter that for 2018 we paid no taxes. At all.

They are dear friends but it just goes to show you that very different people can get along just fine. When we get together, it is always at the other's house & we alternate, then play Dominos or some other game. DH and I consider ourselves as value minded.