Are you totally dependent on investments

[savory]

Pension and DW SS cover 50%+ of living expenses. The rest is from investments but mostly deferred income while working. It was set aside to bridge to my SS at 70.

 

[Hermit]

Retired at 63 with my non-COLA pension and SS on the late DW's account, and a large bucket of cash to cover building my house and to fund the rest of DS's college. I thought the pension and SS would just cover my living expenses because that was what I had been spending while living in Virginia. It hasn't worked out that way. The cash is pretty much gone. I have been withdrawing the difference between DW's SS and my SS at 70 each year to bump the cash income up to what it will be at 70. I am still spending liberally on the house and DS education. My withdrawals are less than 2%, but I hope my extra expenses are done by 70 so I can buy some toys and find other ways to Blow That Dough.

 

[ABQ2015]

I’m 62 and delaying SS to Medicare or FRA or a big market drop so currently 50% investments/50% very secure government pension. Once I start SS, investments will be 15-20% of income. A fourth of my budget is for discretionary costs (travel, etc.) so worst case I could tighten my belt and live on SS and pension alone or on investments and pension alone. I would like my investments to grow because of the usual inflation concerns as my SS COLA and pension diet COLA may not keep up with rising healthcare costs, etc. I struggled with whether or not to delay SS as I’m single and not that much benefit to delaying but decided to wait a few years.

 

[GoodWishes]

Always peeks my curiosity of the current age of someone when they say not counting on SS.

Don’t need it to survive, but certainly would like that monthly deposit. And being in spitting distance I full well expect it to be there...

We were almost 20 years from FRA when we were seriously thinking of ER. We thought it would be best to not include any SS in our planning/calculation. DH finally ER at 51 and I ER a year after him. After several years in, our withdrawal rate is less than 3%. We would like the SS monthly deposit as well but never planned on it.

 

[eytonxav]

SS + small pension = 70% of expenses, the rest is from port. RMDs starting next year will be tough on our tax bill since most of my assets are IRA and will result in ~ 45% more $s than we need to live on.

 

[jollystomper]

Pension will cover about 58% of our planned savings. Until we decide to take SS the rest will come from savings/investments. However, we have (if we stick to our planned spending) 6-7 years of cash that can cover the other 42%, without being forced to touch investments. We will have to shift money from 401K to other investments to avoid massive RMDs at age 70.5.


When we choose to take SS, the SS amount and the pension will cover 90% of planned expenses. So what we spend from our investments we hope is based on lifestyle choices and not need.

 

[Walt34]

We have one of those nearly-extinct COLA'd pensions (that is well funded) that covers all necessities and SS that I started at FRA a few years ago. The SS is nearly all gravy so half of that goes for luxuries like not paying much attention to prices in the grocery store, hobbies (R/C airplanes and DW's gifts for grandnieces and grandnephews) and other non-essentials. The other half goes to savings for new vehicles, roof, and other lumpy expenses. So far it all seems to be working, there's more there now than when we started.

We haven't touched the IRA or DW's Thrift Savings and barring unforeseen calamity probably won't until RMDs force us to. We'll probably just plow that back into savings, more out of habit than anything else I suppose. Gotta learn to Blow that Dough!

 

[joeea]

Are you totally dependent on your investments earnings/growth for income through retirement?

No.

Will SS, a pension or other income be sufficient for your expenses to live on or does your investment need to grow to have enough for expenses through retirement years?

Pension? What's that?

Between SS and our current portfolio, we could live just fine for the rest of our life with a < 2% withdrawal rate.

If the market grows at any reasonable rate, we'll leave a very nice legacy.

If the market tanks for several decades, we might tighten the belts a tiny bit.

We are not worried.

 

[Nemo2]

Totally dependent upon investments? Naah...not as long as there are empty beer cans to be collected and returned for the deposit.

 

[kevdude]

100% on Investments (rental property income + cash when needed). We’re both 54 and I plan on receiving SS, but not sure at what age at this point. I also only use about 75% of expected amount for planning purposes.

 

[Bir48die]

Pension and DW's SS are about 40% of current budget. When I take SS maybe 25% of income will be from investments

 

[calmloki]

At 62 we both took SS; at almost sixty-nine mine is enough to cover my Medicare and drug premiums plus $199 to blow however I feel. She worked for other people much more, but thought she would be paid commensurate with her abilities without asking, so she can blow $591. We don't do anything with the dividends from our Vanguard holdings and rent payments and loan/contract payments much more than cover our modest expenses.

 

[LuckyDog]

My pension and an annuity cover our base expenses plus a lot of extras pretty well. For a big purchase (like a car) we will tap DW's emergency stash. No dependence on the portfolio. When SS kicks in at FRA in three years, we will be living 'high off the hog'...

 

[Rickt]

Yes, we are drawing 2.5% from our portfolio.
No Pension/Annuities for us but expect to get SS in 12 years at age 70 which will cover 100% of our living expenses but nothing more.

 

[whaleknives]

Are you totally dependent on your investments earnings/growth for income through retirement?

Will SS, a pension or other income be sufficient for your expenses to live on or does your investment need to grow to have enough for expenses through retirement years?

We are totally dependent on savings for the first 5 years of retirement, until we finish Roth conversions and claim Social Security at 70 and 66 (FRA) in the same year. At that point our net worth should begin growing again.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Currently SS pays about 53% of expenses and my wife's job and RE pay the rest. When we move to the USA and I go off SS and RE is sold we will live off my children's SS and about 80% from portfolio for 4 years until wife is finished University and starts working again. At that point SS will kick in again, wife will be working and portfolio grows for another 20-30 years till wife's retirement.

 

[Splash]

DH and I retired in 2017 at 55 and will be dependent on our portfolio throughout retirement.

We are 100% dependent on our portfolio until SS starts (62 for DH and 70 for me).

DH SS will cover 15% of expenses. SS will cover 50% of expenses once we are both on it, assuming no reduction in SS payments.

I have a non-cola pension that I can start any time or rollover into an IRA. I haven’t decided what to do yet. However, if I were to start receiving payments at 65, it would cover 25% of our expenses.

ACA subsidies and Roth conversions are considerations for pension options as well as SS timing.

 

[mamadogmamacat]

non COLA pension currently covers 55% of spending
drawing down cash still at 2 1/2 yrs into ER, plus earnings to cover the rest
expect to continue this way until at least 59 1/2
will make decisions on selling shares in taxable and taking distributions (am doing some Roth now) and when to take SS all based on market conditions
turned out it was a great time to retire early

 

[I was misinformed]

From ER at 58 to 62: 85% from portfolio, 15% mini-pension.

Starting this year when I turned 62: 95% from two pensions, 5% from portfolio.

Will start SS at some point in the next few years....

 

[JustCurious]

Always peeks my curiosity of the current age of someone when they say not counting on SS.

The correct word is "pique" not "peek." Sorry, can't help myself.

 

[pb4uski]

^^^^ I suppose you would have said the same thing if LARS had written "peak" too.

Gotta love the English language.

 

[Nemo2]

^^^^ I suppose you would have said the same thing if LARS had written "peak" too.

Gotta love the English language.

It may have whet his appetite when he glanced at it, but at least he was on top of things.

 

[redduck]

Here's my 2¢. All caps is harder to read. If one wants peole to read, understand and reply it is important to give the reader the visual cues that help him/her read easily.

I Googled PEOLE . Amazingly enough, there is no such word. Even Urban Slang doesn't have it. Seems impossible. In any case, if one wants PEOLE to read (and I'm all for it) where do we go from here?

 

[Major Tom]

The correct word is "pique" not "peek." Sorry, can't help myself.

Oh, you went there. I have to consciously curb my grammar nazi tendencies on a regular basis, because I don't want to come across as a meanie.

Also, I remember when I began cottoning on to the fact that there were some very successful and intelligent people who had definite blind spots in the areas of spelling and grammar. Contrary to my previous belief, being gud wiv wurds n' all didnt make me a better peeple.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

SS and pensions will cover all our base retirement expenses including home repairs and some travel. We can use the portfolio for expenses like new cars, long term care, extra travel or most likely just reinvest the income to leave for the kids and charity. Prior to SS, we've been living off pensions, home business income and the portfolio.