Are you totally dependent on investments

[VanWinkle]

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.

Good time for QCD's to your favorite charity to reduce the tax hit. Instead of having to hit the new 26,600 thresh hold to deduct charity, you can do it direct as part of your RMD and save some of the tax hit. Anyone taking RMD's should use this method if giving to charities. Up to 100,000 per year(a little rich for my blood).

 

[candrew]

Currently, our portfolios cover 60% of expenses, pensions the rest. Once DW reaches FRA in 2.5 years, portfolios will cover 22%. More if we want to "blow some more dough"!

 

[Teacher Terry]

Pensions are 2/3 of our budget. Teaching one class a semester is the other third. Our savings pay for travel and other irregular expenses. Due to WEP our SS will be very tiny.

 

[JustCurious]

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

Yes, I would have.

 

[FIREd]

Yes, we are fully dependent on our investments until we reach the age of 70. Then, under the best scenario (no reduction in currently stated benefit), SS should cover our core expenses. But we are still many years away from SS and who knows how much we will actually receive from it. So, at this time, we ignore it for planning purposes.

 

[kcowan]

High expenses this year forced a sale of principle.

Is that not the definition of Blow that Dough? If you are clipping coupons, you are way too conservative!

 

[Nature Lover]

Not dependent on investments (yet). Pension income covers all current living expenses and taxes, with some left over.

 

[SecondCor521]

My non-portfolio income is about 53% of my current spending. NPV of future SS represents about 17% of my current spending. No pension. The remaining 30% comes from the portfolio.

 

[brucethebroker]

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

Don't forget scrap aluminum & copper in discarded air conditioning units at the curb on trash day..........

 

[panacea]

Will be dependent on portfolio and sale of my business. Although I consider the business to be part of our portfolio. Assuming 75% of Social Security will be available at 67 and have no pension.

 

[HFWR]

About 42% each SS and SWR, and 14% non-cola pension.

 

[NW-Bound]

Don't forget scrap aluminum & copper in discarded air conditioning units at the curb on trash day..........

I left on the curb an old pool pump. Just as I thought, it was gone in a day.

 

[NW-Bound]

... High expenses this year forced a sale of principle.

I would not know what is principal and what is cap gain or investment returns anymore.

Ever since retiring 6 years ago, I have spent so much money (without intentionally blowing it), that I wonder if my total life savings were not already exceeded. If so, the rest that I still have is all investment gains.

 

[JustCurious]

I left on the curb an old pool pump. Just as I thought, it was gone in a day.

This reminds me of something that I did years ago when I was a new homeowner. I was cleaning out my back yard and shed I wanted to get rid of some stuff that I cleaned up and put into my new weelbarrow, I think it was some old tools and pots for plants and other miscellaneous items, so I wheeled the weelbarrow with the stuff inside of it to the front yard and put it at the edge of the road next to the end of my driveway near where the trash is picked up, and left it there overnight. The next day I went out to see if anyone had picked up the stuff I left inside the wheelbarrow, and I found that all the stuff was gone, including my new wheelbarrow!

For a long time after that I was upset that someone had stolen my new wheelbarrow! It wasn't until years later when it occurred to me that it was a custom to put stuff that you wanted to be picked up at the curb, and by leaving my new wheelbarrow neatly at the edge of the curb, I was indicating that it was free to be picked up, so it really wasn't stolen, it was my own foolish mistake to think that people would somehow divine that I meant to give away the stuff inside the wheelbarrow but not the wheelbarrow itself.

 

[Tallman4123]

We are 100% dependent on our portfolio for the next 9 years when I hit 70 and DW hits 62 just four months apart and we will take SS. Until then, our withdrawal rate (I hesitate to call it a SWR!) is between four and five percent depending on our annual spend. The variability is mostly around travel expenditures and other discretionary spending.

Once SS kicks in - and assuming it's 100% of the current projection - our withdrawal rate from the portfolio will drop to ~2.5% of the current portfolio value.

 

[Retch The Grate]

Like so many others, no pension, not counting on SS, if it is still around, great, but I'm not stopping till my investments are enough to carry me. About to turn 46, so still a lot of years to go till SS, which is part of why I'm not counting on it being there.

 

[mistermike40]

I'm a recent retiree, currently my pension covers all bills/expenses (including beer!) with enough left over for clothes, smaller trips, etc. Pension decreases in four years when I turn 62 but SS will more than make up the difference.

Investments and 401k are for higher-end discretionary items (travel, need to replace lease car next year, etc)... I haven't had to tap into anything yet.

 

[street]

Interesting the mix of how we support ourselves in retirement. There really isn't a right or wrong and what really matters is WR verses what you have to make it to the end.

 

[friar1610]

COLA pension + SS > 100% of normal expenses. Many months we bank SS. We did dip into port recently to pay cash for a new (used) car. Also decided to use our 2018 RMDs (quite modest) to pay for an upcoming trip. But up until now RMDs have been reinvested in taxable. Portfolio will carry the load for my wife if I depart first.

Reading this thread I feel very fortunate to have a COLA pension.