First million is enough

[Chuckanut]

The first thing that crossed my mind when I read that spending drops 40% was that doesn't apply to me.



Do you provide this help as part of a formal volunteer organization? Someone recently mentioned to me that they were trying to get to $100k in savings. I asked that person what interest rate they were getting on their savings and the response was something like 0.05%. I replied that you can get a little over 5% today in various T-bills and the interest is state tax free. They were surprised and said they would look into it. I was thinking I could volunteer if there was an organization in my area that provided money saving tips to those that wanted help.

Nothing formal and no organization.

I let them know they can earn about 5% these days on CDs in the 3 ,both to 12 month area if they use Schwab or Fidelity. I’ll walk them through setting up the account and their first transactions. Nothing formal. I show them what I do, and let them decide if they want to do similar. Their biggest issue is security so I show them where to find the FDIC letters in the CD info. No FDIC, NO DEAL.

One guy told me doing his tax return was a pleasure due to the big increase in interest income thanks to brokered CDs in a Cd ladder. He didn’t realize until then how much extra interest he had earned.
He had more than doubled his interest income at no increase in risk. These are people for whom an extra two or three thousand is a really big deal.

 

[Rianne]

Nothing formal and no organization.

I let them know they can earn about 5% these days on CDs in the 3 ,both to 12 month area if they use Schwab or Fidelity. I’ll walk them through setting up the account and their first transactions. Nothing formal. I show them what I do, and let them decide if they want to do similar. Their biggest issue is security so I show them where to find the FDIC letters in the CD info. No FDIC, NO DEAL.

One guy told me doing his tax return was a pleasure due to the big increase in interest income thanks to brokered CDs in a Cd ladder. He didn’t realize until then how much extra interest he had earned.
He had more than doubled his interest income at no increase in risk. These are people for whom an extra two or three thousand is a really big deal.

How wonderful you're doing that. Best volunteer thing to do. I joined RSVP, a senior organization connected to AARP Tax Aide in our area. Senior financial mentoring is one of the volunteer options. I went to the appreciation luncheon on Thursday. Tax Aide saved $270K for seniors and students based on a $300 tax return service. Some are much more.

 

[Time2]

As a middle, middle income couple, we over saved, worked 6 more years then needed, and I only got my wife to retire, by summoning up a hurricane that destroyed our small business and did $90k worth of damage to our home. Tough job, but somebody had to do it!
However I don't regret having worked those 6 extra years. It allowed us to pay for my daughters medical education, we bought our son a home, so he has a big head start on his peers. Plus he is a very good saver, so is way ahead there too!
If working a few extra years is not something you dread on a daily basis, then having that extra money in your portfolio is an easy thing too tolerate.

 

[Koolau]

I'm averaging about 2000 miles a month between my two daily drivers. My new truck only gets 12 to 13 mpg on the highway "if" I drive the speed limit and it takes premium gas. My other truck get a little better (maybe 15) but uses regular gas. Adds up quick at gas prices these days.


Example of 2/3 fill-up recently.

We've been spending about $50/month on gas but we always joke about the fact that we can't drive any direction farther than 23 miles without hitting the ocean! On the mainland this summer, we'll probably double that $50/month.

 

[foxfirev5]

If I take travel and Roth conversions out of our annual expenses we're left with 2023 net expenses of about 60k. SS and my small pension just about cover that. Our travel plans are shrinking with the realization that our second lake house provides the bulk of our recreation wants.

Based on 46 years of married life budgets I'm confident we could do just fine with less than a million.

 

[Time2]

FWIW, whenever we have these types of discussions, I try to use the phrase "invested assets" or something like that, to differentiate from NW which would include equity. But, sometimes I'll still slip up and say NW, anyway.

I use then term liquid net worth. I'm one of those people, I don't count my house.

 

[mathjak107]

only assets we are interested in is our liquid assets we use to set our spending goal posts each year

that gets added to our income streams like ss and pension

 

[kilkoyne]

I forgot about this forum. It's great to hear people not "needing" multiple millions of dollars in retirement.

I'm the type who could get away with a million comfortably at age 60 y/o. Of course I always want to increase that amount "just in case". Threads like this remind me that I have enough now to stop working and will do so when I choose.

 

[skyking1]

That is the right attitude. If you attempt to account for every possibility, you never get to the goal.

 

[TheWizard]

only assets we are interested in is our liquid assets we use to set our spending goal posts each year

that gets added to our income streams like ss and pension

Exactly right.
The English language can be a bit confusing here in that lifetime income streams like SS and pension are definitely assets in a generic sense, but not in a Net Worth sense...

 

[skyking1]

This is true but you can calculate the value of them based on your age. It's basically what open social security.com does for us.
I would not use that number and add it to net worth. It's just interesting to examine it. What it would be worth on the average lifetime.