Net worth Today

[RobbieB]

I don't worry about the market because I've always been in the market.

 

[JJpop]

The irony of covid is that the government of course stepped in and saved the market and created a situation for all the already wealthy investors with a lot of cash to make ridiculous returns. The rich got much richer. Like always.

 

[2177V]

Ironic that my Dad never worried about money but he died early at 73. My Mom worried a lot about money but she passed away at 88. However, my Dad died a happy man while my Mom was way less happy. People chose to be happy or less happy.

 

[cyber888]

Amusing, but false. Retired and live in HCL area. Our bare minimum spending in a 'do nothing, go nowhere, buy nothing, stay at home kind of a pandemic year (i.e. 2020) was $150K. No liabilities, no mortgage.
45K here most probably qualifies you for food stamps.
So no, 2M NW wasn't gonna cut it for us.

That would be a miserable life - $150,000 for doing nothing, but surviving.
I have travel 3 European countries as my of my 60,000 a yearly budget. I love my low cost area.

 

[2177V]

That would be a miserable life - $150,000 for doing nothing, but surviving.
I have travel 3 European countries as my of my 60,000 a yearly budget. I love my low cost area.

I agree. Low cost area is the way to go. I am planning to maintain a house in California and a condo in China where the COL is 1/3 of California. 6 months in California and 6 months in China. The money I save while living in China easily pays for the RT airline tickets plus vacations to nearby Japan, Korea, Thailand and Philippines. Health cost in China is also so low that you do not need health insurance.

 

[stan101]

Congrats. No offense but I would call you a house husband not retired. You went from a double income household to a one income household. Plus I am assuming your wife’s employer provides your healthcare. Your expenses for healthcare could be $30k/year for just healthcare if there was no other source. Again congrats for your milestone, but it does irk me when people say they are retired but their spouse works and provides healthcare. With this concept my wife retired 20 years ago when she stayed home with the kids. Not the case. We went from a two household income to one income.

 

[watchman3135]

This stock market has created a lot of millionaires. It can also take it back.

I see a very large number of people in a state of euphoria over their new wealth because of stocks, Bitcoin, real estate.

I am forever the pessimist but I would feel a little uneasy right now letting it ride.
Easy come easy go, and a lot easy money has been made.

Exactly. and the two few things I keep in mind as we sit at recorded breaking all time highs is:

1. Rebalance your portfolio.

2. 50/50 to no higher than 70/30 asset allocation when "in retirement"

And again I am speaking to those who are "in retirement" and no longer earning income that now more than ever is a perfect time to identify you won the game and don't get to greedy. Because the market continues to break new highs I see tons of proponents for a 80-100% equity portfolio in retirement to which I just think of greed and complacency. But that's just my opinion.

 

[watchman3135]

Congrats. No offense but I would call you a house husband not retired. You went from a double income household to a one income household. Plus I am assuming your wife’s employer provides your healthcare. Your expenses for healthcare could be $30k/year for just healthcare if there was no other source. Again congrats for your milestone, but it does irk me when people say they are retired but their spouse works and provides healthcare. With this concept my wife retired 20 years ago when she stayed home with the kids. Not the case. We went from a two household income to one income.

My wife and I came to an agreement that since I retired at 53, she retires at 53 with the goal of building up her 401k as much as possible as neither of us have pensions. She lost all of her savings from her previous marriage and was actually in debt when we married in 2003 which I paid off. Because she is five years younger we agreed 2024 is when she drops of her resignation letter however she said we will talk at that time because she said I don't know if I could fully ER but maybe go part time. I told her the choice is yours. She unlike myself seems to decently get along well with her job and co-workers with recently being promoted. I said whatever you decide is fine.

My wife works in the healthcare field dealing with patient scheduling and billing and is fully aware of the many minuses of Obama care\the affordable care act which has higher deductibles and much depends on the subsides you get but it is coverage and we will make it work until Medicare.

 

[watchman3135]

Amusing, but false. Retired and live in HCL area. Our bare minimum spending in a 'do nothing, go nowhere, buy nothing, stay at home kind of a pandemic year (i.e. 2020) was $150K. No liabilities, no mortgage.
45K here most probably qualifies you for food stamps.
So no, 2M NW wasn't gonna cut it for us.

So just to maintain a basic no frills standard of minimal living it cost you 150k?

We currently reside in a 3,000 sq. ft. 5 bedroom newer home recently appraised for $365k in Illinois which with the kids grown and out is way to big for us now. A home that if it was in a HCL say San Francisco would go for my guess over $1.5 million. I own 2 Porsches I now never drive, daily a old BMW and own eight Rolex watches and now look at all this crap through 55 year old eyes and ask what was I thinking or more importantly what was I trying to fix in my life when I was working with buying all this useless luxury crap? My current home is paid however my annual property taxes are 8k. Yes 8K. No matter how much I can spend to live even in a HCL area I refuse to and overall minus property and other taxes I don't consider Illinois (outside of Chicago) to be a HCL state. We plan to move to a more affordable state as I refuse to give Illinois one more dime of my money than I need to. I say none of this to boast but say you can either stay in a HCL location-state or vote with your feet.

Some hate aging. I say aging has been a real eye opener for me.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Amusing, but false. Retired and live in HCL area. Our bare minimum spending in a 'do nothing, go nowhere, buy nothing, stay at home kind of a pandemic year (i.e. 2020) was $150K. No liabilities, no mortgage.
45K here most probably qualifies you for food stamps.
So no, 2M NW wasn't gonna cut it for us.

We live in an above average Cost of Living city but the community where we live is HCL. We live on $200K a year, which does pay for country club membership dues, some travel and guard gated HOA. We cannot live on $45K a year as our home already costs $30K a year, with no mortgage and no home maintenance included in the amount. $2M won't allow us to live here. However, if all we have is $2M we would choose to live in a different home and play limited golf at public courses. We are adaptable.

 

[watchman3135]

We live in an above average Cost of Living city but the community where we live is HCL. We live on $200K a year, which does pay for country club membership dues, some travel and guard gated HOA. We cannot live on $45K a year as our home already costs $30K a year, with no mortgage and no home maintenance included in the amount. $2M won't allow us to live here. However, if all we have is $2M we would choose to live in a different home and play limited golf at public courses. We are adaptable.

Yep. We are all different for sure. At our current net worth the math says I we could pull $84k per year at 4% until SS kicks in. Two years into retirement I'm finding I need no where near that. Don't play golf or really any other expensive activities and don't have the personality to live in a home that I have to hire a maid to clean. My happiness is my dogs, watchmaking and few others. Maybe my introverted personality lends to requiring less money in retirement the others IDK. I also view paying a premium to live in one area vs another to be extremely annoying unless a true value can be attached and defined but again that's just me.

 

[RobbieB]

All places have their advantages and disadvantages. Employment led more to my location than anything else.

Now that I'm retired, it works better than when I was working, much less driving -

 

[Gumby]

All places have their advantages and disadvantages. Employment led more to my location than anything else.

Now that I'm retired, it works better than when I was working, much less driving -

I originally moved to Connecticut in 1983 because the Navy sent me here. After I left the Navy, we tried Texas and Ohio (because that's where I got a job), but quite deliberately chose to return to Connecticut in 1989. Yes, it is a higher cost of living area, but we planned for that when we planned for retirement. In my view, any retirement plan that required us to move somewhere cheaper in order to make the numbers work would not have been a good plan. I'm still happy with our choice.

 

[Almost There 2021]

Most people tell me how much money they have saved and most think that they have more than enough. I then tell them not to forget the state and federal taxes owed on their "wealth". Unintended but realistic the smiles fade quickly. I could add inflation but don't want to totally ruin their day...

 

[GTFan]

Amusing, but false. Retired and live in HCL area. Our bare minimum spending in a 'do nothing, go nowhere, buy nothing, stay at home kind of a pandemic year (i.e. 2020) was $150K. No liabilities, no mortgage.
45K here most probably qualifies you for food stamps.
So no, 2M NW wasn't gonna cut it for us.

If you choose to live in a mansion for two, sure.

 

[jkern]

Here in the SF Bay Area our essential spending for two is $45K/year and discretionary routine and non routine spending averages about $65K/year. Total $110K/year for a comfortable yet modest standard of living.

 

[W2R]

All places have their advantages and disadvantages. Employment led more to my location than anything else.

Now that I'm retired, it works better than when I was working, much less driving -

+1

I came to the New Orleans area more than a quarter century ago, because this is where the job was. It is a reasonably low cost of living area, I suppose. Maybe low to moderate.

 

[gauss]

Congrats!
The first M is the hardest.
The second M is the second hardest

(And so on...)

 

[GTFan]

Here in the SF Bay Area our essential spending for two is $45K/year and discretionary routine and non routine spending averages about $65K/year. Total $110K/year for a comfortable yet modest standard of living.

Yeah I'd totally buy $50k/yr in a HCOL area with no debt. But $150k for bare min, no matter where you live (by that I mean mainstream ER areas, not the uber-rich areas like the Hamptons, Marthas Vineyard etc.)?

No way.

 

[Koolau]

Here in the SF Bay Area our essential spending for two is $45K/year and discretionary routine and non routine spending averages about $65K/year. Total $110K/year for a comfortable yet modest standard of living.

The Islands are probably a bit less expensive than SF and NYC but not by a lot. We've never spent $150K and do not live a do-nothing life style. We remain frugal and practical, but we do what we want. Once you own a place to live, $75K/year is enough to make it in the Islands. It's probably more than enough. YMMV