But living on 25-30k a year is Spartan. When I write I think about a married couple. But even for single guy who needs to buy medical insurance 25-30k is not splurging by any way.
I think reasonable money start at 60k a year as a minimum. This not far from average US Family income. I am not talking life style of rich and famous here. I am talking about decent living.....
For that you would need 1.6 Million in your computations. And that puts you into my numbers
I think you need to look at several things. What is your annual budget (including taxes).
I have a family of 4 and just retired with less than 1.6M of investible assets. I'm over 50 - but not by much, currently 52, but will be 53 soon. But I still think I'm ok because of the following:
- I have a paid off house. No mortgage payment or rent saves a lot. I only need to cover taxes, insurance, maintenance... not the mortgage payment as well.
- I have an income unit on our property. That adds a nice COLA adjusted income stream.
- I have a small pension that will kick in at age 55. (very small) - it's enough to cover utilities and a few meals out.
- DH is collecting SS already.
- I prefunded the kids 529's and the balance will be paid with the SS they get as dependents of a retiree collecting SS.
- I *will* be getting social security in the future... so I can draw an amount closer to 4% now, dropping when the pension kicks in to 3.5%, and dropping even more when I start drawing SS.
Our total budget for a family of 4 is $84k/year. This is slightly more, per person, than your $60k for 3 people - but it's what we have been spending - so it requires no extra belt tightening. It works primarily because of income streams we already have or will have in the future.