I just got this in my email...
http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2004/commentary04120903.htm
Who here actually agrees with this?
http://www.fool.com/news/commentary/2004/commentary04120903.htm
Who here actually agrees with this?
What is the reader supposed to take away from this? I believe most non-savvy folks will do some simple math and think "hmm, we make $100k/year... and we will live for 20 years... therefore we need $2M" and conclude that it's hopeless, especially if they are like most folks in their cohort and only have about $50k in their 401k. Dispair will lead to inaction, further compounding the problem.
Courtship was the one area
where I didn't spare the horses
I have thought that these popular estimates of what percent of your current income you need when you retire made little sense. If you currently have 200,000 of income, why would you need 150,000 when you retire? If you make 30,000 you may very well need 30,000 when you retire, not 22,000.
These formulas are assuming you live a certain lifestyle and you need to maintain the lifestyle. If you are retiring early, you probably did not live the assumed lifestyle.
Martha: I have never responded to one of your posts, although I have read most of your posts. You show good commen sense, and seem to really have it together.
You're absolutely right, regarding income pre-retirement and post retirement. I think most of the hype is because of the folks that have an axe to grind. (Brokerages, financial planners, etc.).
I retired 18 years ago, (our kids were out of household and had no opposition from my wife as her career was
was running the household, and I guess she trusted me.
We actually have had more spendable since I retired on
less than half of the income. (And I'm not a cheap date).
Next to no taxes, no longer kids to worry about, (to a point), no longer saving for retirement, all add up to a much smaller requirement.
I honestly think that the main derailment of retiring is not having a game plan on what you are going to do with your extra time. If you can come up with that potential problem, you have it pretty well whipped.
Being an ex-athlete, and now having time to play as much golf, and fly-fishing as I want to it has been a very easy adjustment to me. What I have been surprised about over the years is how my wife adjusted to having an empty-nest, and enjoying it as much as she has.
Apparantly we were both cut out to be "bums".
Good luck to you, Jarhead
These articles always seem to confuse income and expenses. I'm planning on having 100% of my current expenses in retirement...
I'm not really sure what the difference is. Maybe for someone who only tracks income/expenses loosely your method makes sense, but in my house we track *everything* - every single expense. It's easy to do since we use hardly any cash at all, and instead use the credit card for everything possible. And cash withdrawals get tracked too - I usually indicate what they're for (buying vegetables at the farmers' market, mostly) but otherwise they're a "misc expense" that still shows up as an expense.I agree, and have pointed it out before. The number to use is expenses, but don't get there by adding them up. I much prefer using income minus taxes, minus long term savings. That is what you are really living on, and adding up expenses is error prone. If you got the money, and didn't save it, you spent it and that is the expense number to use.
I'm not really sure what the difference is. Maybe for someone who only tracks income/expenses loosely your method makes sense, but in my house we track *everything* - every single expense. It's easy to do since we use hardly any cash at all, and instead use the credit card for everything possible. And cash withdrawals get tracked too - I usually indicate what they're for (buying vegetables at the farmers' market, mostly) but otherwise they're a "misc expense" that still shows up as an expense.
Exactly. And there are many of those, maybe among the early retirees, but among the wanabees who will be running numbers.... Maybe for someone who only tracks income/expenses loosely ...