Who needs a million $ cash to retire

[EarlyBirdly]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound ^^^ What's new? A poster would state "2+2 = 4". Another would reply "But 2x2 = 4". Then, both maintain that they are right.

Very succinctly stated Sir!

[daylatedollarshort]

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Originally Posted by rothlev I travel in your crowd. I think the posters here lean towards the upper class and way upper middle class. Most of the middle class and upper middle class professionals do not accumulate near the numbers mentioned here. Having a pension helps a lot. But without it they still manage a reasonable retirement.

In our area we seemed to have unintentionally freaked out some of our friends and neighbors when we retired early. I never quite understood that because many of them are in the same kinds of careers and must have similar household incomes as we did. Most of our neighbors are in white collar professions like doctors, dentists, college professors, lawyers, nurses, small business owners, and middle managers. I think the difference is we both grew up blue collar and kept much of those spending habits even with white collar careers, so we were able to save more when we were working and are probably happy living on much less in retirement than they would be.

Most of the households I grew up around wouldn't have enough money if their cars needed new tires, let alone $1M in savings.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rothlev I travel in your crowd. I think the posters here lean towards the upper class and way upper middle class. Most of the middle class and upper middle class professionals do not accumulate near the numbers mentioned here. Having a pension helps a lot. But without it they still manage a reasonable retirement.

A lot of people get their stash due to risk taking, and not because their income is beyond the norm.

For example, my brother-in-law took a big gamble when his megacorp took a stumble in the early 90s. While others moved 401k money out of company stock, he went all in! The gamble paid off, and when the company recovered he increased his stash 2x or 3x.

A friend of my younger brother was an engineer working in California, where he hung around with like-minded people and picked up on the tech trend in the 90s. He invested heavily in Qualcomm early enough to make out like bandit. And in contrast with other fools who joined in too late, he bailed out when the market went nuts in 2000. Smart guy. I think he made a 7-figure just on his after-tax investment alone, let alone what he did with his before-tax savings. And that's 20 years ago.

Me, I did not take these kinds of big risk, so do not have as much. But I still have enough. I have no pension though, so I need more than people who do.


PS. Just looked at Qualcomm stock. Share price was $4 in Jan 1999, becoming $88 in Dec 1999.

[ncbill]

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Originally Posted by cbslc So the short answer is NO, you can't retire EARLY on 1 mil. Most estimators will tell you 1 mill will last around 20 yrs (depending on cost of living). If you throw in a pension, then you adjust the no to a maybe. And if you are just retiring at a normal age and have SS and/or a pension, then sure. I'm 47, with no pension, no way would 1 mill suffice for 2 of us over what could be 40 yrs of retirement.

$1 million works just fine for those of us in MCOL/LCOL areas.

For a 40-year retirement, best to use a 3.3% "perpetual" withdrawal rate.

Here, given our family's size & ages a $33,000 mAGI would qualify us for a heavily subsidized silver-level ACA plan with a premium of ~$100/month ($2,600 max OOP)

Home maintenance (HOA fee), home & auto insurance, property taxes, utilities (electricity/natural gas/internet) run ~$900/month.

So I can see why people here report spending $30,000/year (or less) in retirement.

[EarlyBirdly]

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Originally Posted by youbet Be careful not to confuse retiring into an era of very favorable sequence of returns and low inflation with a hard and fast rule that says your FIRE portfolio will always grow and prices will always be relatively stable...

UH...That would be the very definition of "Stupid" as regards finances and planning wouldn't it ?




Not to worry. All too familiar with down markets. I retired the first time in 2008 at age 49. Well, I changed that plan after almost 2 years and could have adjusted to the failing markets, but coupled with the housing market crash and an additional property dragging me down I decided to return to work in late 2010 when a great opportunity came along. I didn't have to, but it gave me the opportunity to pad the nest a bit more and also accomplish a few additional life goals.

As it now stands, I have enough cash to make it the next 6-7 years ( with 3% cola/inflation allowance factored in ).

When S.S. kicks in, less than 18 mos. from now, I will pretty much be able to live off of it alone and the above cash becomes nothing but Fun Money.

Oh, and then ...there's all those pesky IRA's, 401K's etc., etc., that just keep sitting there (growing and shrinking as they always have) until the day I feel like taking a few Bucks when the markets are ripe...And ONLY when the markets are ripe.


Basically, I am not dependent on a monthly/yearly income stream from the tax deferred portion (which is the bulk) of my investments to enjoy life in retirement. I consider them to be the " icing on the cake" if you will.


B. Man


P.S. - I'm fully aware that most folks consider Investments as primary and then S.S. etc. as the "Icing" on the cake. It seems I use a different recipe. Works for me..

[Teacher Terry]

Roth, thanks for the company). I can’t relate to some of what I read on here.

[ShokWaveRider]

More Food for thought, Cannon Fodder, pondering and criticism. "Where Millionaires Live".

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/where...162709775.html

My opinion, there are so many of "us" now, they live everywhere.

[LRDave]

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Originally Posted by ShokWaveRider My opinion, there are so many of "us" now, they live everywhere.

I wonder if there is any county in the entire U.S. that doesn't have at least one person with $1M or more of investible assets?

[joeea]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound Yes. If people are reasonably resourceful, they will find a way to live with less. People keep talking about the homeless living on the streets, but the truth is that they all have a mental or drug problem and cannot be independent.

What about living on the streets tells you that they cannot be independent?

[joeea]

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Originally Posted by EarlyBirdly 3 yrs into retirement and I have more money than when I started.

Other than "it's been a good 3 years", it's hard to draw any conclusions from that.

[NW-Bound]

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Originally Posted by joeea What about living on the streets tells you that they cannot be independent?

Not all, but many have problems that keep them from being able to take care of themselves.

Apparently, it is not an easy problem to solve by simply giving people more money. It would be similar to giving 10-year-olds money and tell them to take care of themselves, or ask Alzheimer patients to be independent.

In another thread, I shared some statistics on homelessness across the world. Some countries poorer than the US had fewer homeless. Some socialist countries have more.

It's not an easy problem to solve.

Sorry for the thread hijack. People who want to see more can go to Youtube and search for "homeless".