That’s what I don’t understand. How are people who are retired struggling? Sure, I get that your investment may not have the paper wealth form the market top, but if you’re retired your investments should be pretty conservative. Put what I really don’t understand is that when you’re retired your expenses should be very low to nil. Right, food for you and your spouse, taxes, property upkeep, but at this point in your life you don’t really need a lot. You’re not commuting. Not getting it.
We are retired but we still have a house payment and taxes are 8 thousand a year.
Car payment and Rv payment.
So while retiring is getting away from work you still add up expenses.
We live on 60 thousand AND IT IS NOT EASY. But Dh retired at 55 so that is why we have payments still. We lived off our savings until SS.
Not all retirees have the benefit of Social Security, a pension, 401k, and an IRA. Many have only Social Security. I am fortunate enough to have all of them.
when you’re retired your expenses should be very low to nil
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They are, but looking at some relatives, they still eat out, spend a lot on restaurant/takeout, have car payments and continue high-end grooming routines. Also, they don’t do their own cleaning/yardwork. And like to gift big for b-days and Christmas. Being Ds, they live in an expensive suburb of a Big Blue City/Blue State with high costs & taxes.
We’re just the opposite: electric went up 20%, but we used 606 kwH, food, we all know is up, but we cook from scratch and it goes further, we take one 200-mile round trip every 6-8 weeks (about $20 in gas, at the moment), never eat out and get $20 haircuts, which is a 20% price hike, but the beautician has been cutting out hair for 45 years. We do all our own cleaning & maintenance and have cheap hobbies (bird watching, needlefelting (uses tiny amounts of fiber & inexpensive tools), bike riding (DH has an eBike) & gardening. Used books or free/cheap promotional downloads.
We did a lot of traveling 1970-2005 and don’t have the stamina any longer, especially given the airline situation. I buy clothes from consignment/thrift outlets, DH is a Walmart sort of guy (jeans/sweatshirts), we have one 2012 sedan and a 2002 truck. All paid for, no debt,
Some people cannot give up the *successful life”.
To no one in particular:
It is said, and my own experience proves it, that if a family creates a written and accurate monthly budget and can view on paper where exactly where their money is going, they will take steps to reduce their spending on stupid stuff by about 10% at first then as the months go by will whittle away at it even more.
For most of us entering into retirement with a mortgage, in particular an early retirement, is asking for trouble unless they are very sure that they have the income stream to cover it.
Aside from retirement considerations, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to become debt free and live below not above our means. Again from my personal experience there came a day when we got sick of making a decent wage but had nothing in our wallets. One by one we stated paying off our debt including mortgage and went cold turkey on credit cards and other new debt. 6 years ago we had no cash at all, today we have only a residual car loan which gives us a 3.8% debt to income ratio and that’s it. This car will be paid off in December and we will continue to put the payment amount into savings so that we will buy our next car with cash. We have a $5k checking account buffer and a $15k emergency fund, we put $55k in our retirement accounts per year, all this without a large increase in income.
It takes will-power and determination and a budget. An appreciation for a long goal. I expect my wife will work another 3 years and I will work another 6 then we will have more expendable income in retirement then we do now. Our monthly living expenses are, even with inflation, less than what we would get if we were to start collecting SS right now.
Our attitude towards money and “things” is opposite of what it was 6 years ago. If we can do it anyone can but it takes effort. Going to bed at night is a whole lot less stressful knowing that we own outright the bed, the bedroom and the whole rest of the house. We could survive today on less than $22k/year including homeowners insurance, RE taxes and utilities and food. It wouldn’t be pretty but it is doable. We are talking living at the poverty level. More than 50% of us in the USA do not have $1000 available for an emergency. We were not too long ago in that situation but never again. People say they don’t want to give up this or that but if you cannot afford it then you are doing yourself no favors being stubborn.
Not lecturing you or anyone else just giving my perspective on this matter of great importance. We are all worried about the future but not many are taking the necessary steps to deal with it. Our debt didn’t go away because of some government program or because we won the lottery. It went away because we buckled down and took action. It took almost 5 years of real pain but our only regret is that we didn’t start doing it sooner.