This rat is tired of the race. STOP I want off

[plainchick]

Hi,
I am 52 and counting down until i can quit. I am a nurse and never grew up with money so did not know how to manage it. We live in California. Great weather but very expensive, our cost of living index is 124 which for Ca is low but we live a middle class lifestyle but it costs over $200,000 a year to live average. I want to get motivated to learn how to get to FIRE. Kids are grown but now we have elders to care for.So leaving before retirement is not going to happen.

 

[Bamaman]

It's never too late to get started on saving for your future. But it sounds as if you're behind the eight ball.
Without an active plan to live far below your means, the only suggestion I have is do like so many Californians--and find a second job.

 

[Aiming_4_55]

Hmmm Welcome to the forum.

I'm in Southern Ca with an expense budget under $100k. Is the over $200k middle class lifestyle budget something you can reduce?

 

[njhowie]

As a nurse, your skills/profession are quite portable. Reconsider picking up and moving out of CA for a lower cost of living area. Bring the elders along.

Do you own your home? With a $200k annual budget I am guessing so. Real estate in CA is once again at a cyclical peak - take advantage of it, sell, and take your capital gains to provide a jump start for relocation and a boost to savings.

 

[joeea]

Kids are grown but now we have elders to care for.So leaving before retirement is not going to happen.

Sometimes we have to do what is right for our family - even if it means continuing to work hard when we'd rather quit.

 

[CaptTom]

I would suggest that growing up without money is exactly how you learn to manage it.

Live below your means; in other words, buy only what you need, nothing more. Save the rest. This is far more difficult for someone brought up having their every wish catered to.

There's some good advice above, some of which may or may not work for you. But the bottom line is, there ARE ways to escape the rat race.

Good luck finding the one that works for you!

 

[swakyaby]

Somewhat surprising numbers. I live in California and looked up my city’s cost of living index = 147. We live an upper middle class lifestyle on $110,000/year average, pay lots of income and property taxes, and invest the rest for FIRE. So we definitely LBYM.

Probably the best start to FIRE is to begin tracking your monthly expenses closely. Hard to know what to change without seeing where it’s all going.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

We cut our expenses by putting our budget in the same categories as the Consumer Expenditure Survey and looked for areas we were out of range other than housing. We find most of the expense of living in California is in housing, other than that many of our expenses are not too out of range from the CES and some are even lower.

If you plan on a retirement for 30 years and need $200K annually, your total retirement funding required is $6M. At $100K that drops to $3M, and at $50K it is $1.5M.

 

[ivinsfan]

OP if you want some free advice and tips, you need to share a few more details about your life. If you are just here to read and absorb, Welcome!!!

 

[pb4uski]

Are you a troll? I'm having trouble thinking of anyone here who spends $200k a year... perhaps a couple of our really high rollers. Many of us live very nicely and some live large on a lot less than $200k.

We have two homes, one in a HCOL area, a mortgage and a car loan and still have to try hard to spend $100k a year.

As others have mentioned... even if you have two maximum SS at 62 you would still need almost $4 million to spend $200k a year so unless you can lower your expenses you'll hve no choice but to keep working.

 

[targatom2019]

I am in SoCal in a 3,000 sf home, I have a Honda Accord, a brand new Ford F150 a brand new 911 Targa Porsche, a brand new boat, ZERO debt and I live very comfortable on a $55,000 per year. 200k per year sounds crazy.

 

[Fedup]

Are you a troll? I'm having trouble thinking of anyone here who spends $200k a year... perhaps a couple of our really high rollers. Many of us live very nicely and some live large on a lot less than $200k.

We have two homes, one in a HCOL area, a mortgage and a car loan and still have to try hard to spend $100k a year.

As others have mentioned... even if you have two maximum SS at 62 you would still need almost $4 million to spend $200k a year so unless you can lower your expenses you'll hve no choice but to keep working.

Plus Clovis is not an expensive area. House prices are about $300K- $450k for an average house. It’s north of Fresno.

 

[Fedup]

I am in SoCal in a 3,000 sf home, I have a Honda Accord, a brand new Ford F150 a brand new 911 Targa Porsche, a brand new boat, ZERO debt and I live very comfortable on a $55,000 per year. 200k per year sounds crazy.

I live on a house worth close to $2 million, and I still have a mortgage. Yeah $200K does sound crazy.

 

[ivinsfan]

I am in SoCal in a 3,000 sf home, I have a Honda Accord, a brand new Ford F150 a brand new 911 Targa Porsche, a brand new boat, ZERO debt and I live very comfortable on a $55,000 per year. 200k per year sounds crazy.

You are the one she needs to emulate...mind sharing how you managed to achieve this miracle?

 

[Dtail]

I live on a house worth close to $2 million, and I still have a mortgage. Yeah $200K does sound crazy.

200k is clearly on the high side, but IIRC perhaps 20% of those who posted on a spending poll were over 120k. Not 200k, but not chump change either.

 

[braumeister]

Drive-by posting.
The OP hasn't been here since.

 

[NW-Bound]

"This rat is tired of the race. STOP I want off"

The tired rat may need to reduce spending below $200K.

 

[Fedup]

I wish the rats in my kiddo’s apartment would get off the rat race, they been chewing the carpet, plus making babies. Kiddo just called me to inform she’s been living in her roommate’s parent house in the last 3 weeks and she’s moving to a new apartment to get away from the rats.

 

[cyber888]

"This rat is tired of the race. STOP I want off"

The tired rat may need to reduce spending below $200K.

I guess the rat is eating too much cheese lol .. couldn't help it.

 

[Vacation4us]

Poster is a nurse...working 12 hour shifts I assume possibly working and to tired to return until her next days off....

I am also sure the 200k is income before taxes, she does not spend 200k a year

I am a nurse in California as well, nurses tend to spend and not save. My suggestion start maxing out your 401k,403b, or whatever retirement vehicle offered by your employer. Refi your mortgage to a 15 year term or pay extra to get it paid off. Start .....now...there is always hope.

You will reduce your take home pay but you will also pay less taxes. Pay yourself first in savings.

I max out my 401k compared to a nurse who has the same deductions, we earn the same but I paid 10 k less in taxes and have 18 k saved for the year in retirement so the bottom line is the 18 k in savings only translates to 8k less in take home pay....be smart START now!

 

[NW-Bound]

OK. I believe that. $200K gross income still does not leave you with much after high taxes and a mortgage where house prices are sky high.

My brother refused a job offer from Google when he and his wife went looking at houses in the area. They loved their current 3,500-sq.ft. home too much to give it up. It cost them less than $500K 5 years ago, if I remember right. The higher pay at Google nowhere made up for the difference in home prices.

 

[Retch The Grate]

My wife works at Google, our rent in Mountain View in an 1100sf home that is nothing special is $4150 a month. Taxes plus rent is over $100k a year for us, and we're pretty middle class in our lifestyle.

 

[targatom2019]

Clovis is located in central California and it's not very expensive for housing.

 

[NW-Bound]

A while back, I ran across this Youtube video of a young couple who lived in a small old motorhome while the husband worked at Google. They lived on Google's parking lot for 2 years to save 80% of the take-home income, and were able to buy a home one-hour drive from Google. They said there were other RVs on Google property, so they were not the only ones.

In contrast, my single son was able to buy his first home of 2,600 sq.ft. a couple of years after getting out of college. He paid less than $350K. The home was built in 1995, and remodeled by a flipper in 2017.

PS. One of his classmates went to Silicon Valley, and was still sharing a home with several guys the last time my son talked to him.

 

[Vacation4us]

My husband lived in a 5 th wheel for 2 years prior to me joining him in the Bay Area. We found a cheap apartment old less than 600 sqft for around 1800. We also have 2 house payments in Southern California. Our housing costs are pretty high right now. In 2 years at least one of our houses will be paid for. The entire Bay Area seems to be filled with super commuters , here for the high pay but at the cost of driving hours a day.