Posted on 03/17/2018 6:41:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
You probably think of your own home as your largest expense in life. Perhaps your kids, if you think of them as expenses.
A recent study, in fact, estimated that buying a house and raising a child cost about the same — $245,300 for the house and $278,300 to raise a child from birth to age 18.
How does that compare to the cost of retirement?
Quitting work costs three times more, believe it or not. The average retirement in the United States runs $738,400.
That feels like a made-up number, as precise as it might appear. Naturally, what you will personally need is anybody’s guess, but let’s go with that rough figure.
The presumption behind this number is that you will receive some support from Social Security. That won’t be enough to live comfortably, so the difference must be made up in pensions and private savings.
Simple math here: $750,000 earning 4% creates an annual income of $30,000. Add the average Social Security income of $16,000 and you get $46,000 a year to live on.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the cost of living in the United States at $20,000 per person. For a couple, the $46,000 figure minus taxes turns out to be just about right.
There is a veritable truckload of caveats here, such as what happens to people who live in high-cost areas (they move) and those who encounter unexpected health care costs.
But let’s not put the cart before the horse. If you have $738,000 saved up right now, your retirement is in reach, broadly speaking.
Most people don’t. And that’s where your investment decisions today can really make a difference. To help, here are some truths about investing to keep top of mind.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
The cost of raising a child is inflated in a deliberate attempt to discourage middle class people from having them.
We know the numbers are a lie because working class families often have multiple children and still get by.
I don’t know where you live in CA but my property tax per month is double that and that is only because I bought my house in 1992 when prices were much lower.
Thank God for Prop 13. Saved us all.
Retire to a Third World country.
You’ll be amazed how comfortably you can live because the cost of living, taxes and expenses are much lower than in USA.
RE: You’ll be amazed how comfortably you can live because the cost of living, taxes and expenses are much lower than in USA.
Better hope you are healthy and don’t need much healthcare. Third World country medical technology are not as good as in the good old USA. Sure they’re affordable but still...
You have expats going to Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama and the Phillipines.
Get more bang for the buck and live out your golden years in a less stressful place.
Plus, in El Salvador and Panama, the good ol’ US greenback is legal tender.
Great place - lots of cheap lobster and other great seafoods, but it really depends on the time of year when the drug smugglers come out to play near you. Very exciting, but at least they speak English ... Healthcare? What’s zat?
The numbers in the article aren’t accurate. Anyone who has $800,000 of investment assets gets much more than $16,000 in social security; especially a couple. To accumulate that much they have paid in the maximum SS tax for some time. The article is a come on for Fidelity.
The 4% rule assumes you get that return and really don’t need to draw down your assets unless there’s a change in your health.
I watched two mothers live into their 90’s with more modest assets than these figures, and they had small legacies to pass on.
Of course being frugal helps.
Yes. you are correct. That is why people do not take the “INVEST NOW” warnings to heart. We all know people with no such situations living quite well, and we know our own truthing eyes. Furthermore, saving for retirement is not exactly the same as saving to leave it all, every dime, behind intact when laid to rest.
“I’ve been retired over 25 years and my net worth has increased. So there!”
i’ve been semi-retired now for about 18 years. I say “semi” because wife and I still work a bit, but we work for ourselves in our own businesses.
I’d say our liquid net worth has stayed about constant, what with our business income and social security. Overall net worth has increased because home value has skyrocketed, but fundamentally all that means at my age is that my property taxes cost more.
My expenses are low because I have no debt, with home and cars fully paid off; in fact my last car (low-mileage Honda-certified pre-owned) i paid cash, and i drive my cars until the wheels fall off.
I cook at home, saving a bundle on crappy restaurant food, eating much healthier,much tastier and much higher on the hog than restaurant food.
I do most of my own lawn work and most of my own home repairs, repair my own appliances, and always try to fix something that’s broken before discarding and replacing. As I get older though, I’ll have to start farming out the heavier work.
Also, am a value shopper, always trying to find high quality items for the best price, almost all online because selection in B&M stores is limited.
i have good friends who just came back from vacationing in Panama, and they said the cost of pretty much everything there was the same as in the U.S.
I bought my place in 1985. I am in the Central Valley.
...If you have $738,000 saved up right now, your retirement is in reach...
Let’s get real.
Hmmmmm. I pay 1900 a year on a 205K home. Of course this is Florida with homestead.
That depends.
The article starts out with a bunch of wrong assumptions.
It shows retirement savings yielding 4%. In recent years most have 401k savings that are securely invested paying only 1.5 to 2.5% and taxes that have to come out at 10% to 20% when the income is withdrawn. What happens is that the principal is being drawn down as good income producing savings is much too risky for many of us.
Stocks that will split one day. Get rich.
Look at the 5 year chart to see the rise of these stocks.
NVDA – Nvidia - $102 to $250 in 1 year. I bought at $62.25 in Aug 2016
In the last year and a half it will have made any future retirement much easier for me even if it never goes up again.
Here are some others to look at.
ANET - Arista Networks Inc - $127 to $296 in 1 year
IPGP - IPG Photonics Corporation - $119 to $263 in 1 year
All our retirement is in our property and hopefully the sale of our business. Trying to get up to speed with an updated website for our business. Also for myself, thinking about going back to work for about 4 years until I’m 65 - this will pay for our health insurance ($1k a month) and pay down our mortgage.
Both top notch. US Expats are the biggest booming population there.
Way to go!
The investing advice is nothing new, but restating doesn’t hurt. As for the prelude ...
Going into retirement debt free and owning your own home will make life much easier. It is possible to get by on the average SS alone, but there’s not much left for anything else.
As for the forty thousand dollar income figure, he says ‘after taxes.’ There is no need to pay income taxes on SS plus an IRA draw down not exceeding half your SS.
As for the $750,000 figure, if you have that much cash, you probably see money as just a way to keep score. If you can’t make it through retirement on that, then chances are you aren’t the one who accumulated it.
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