Nice thing about a passbook savings account is that it is about as liquid as you can get.
I retired four years ago and my wife and I are living off social security. But before I retired we became completely debt free. We own our home, four cars, and a fully stocked shop building. We also have 25 acres of forest that is harvestable every ten years or so, for many thousands of dollars.
BTW, I dreaded tax season every year back in the day. Now it takes me about a half hour to do my taxes. I pay no income tax any more. If push came to shove, I could even work a part time job and make almost $30k and still pay no income tax. But so far there is no need.
Our monthly cost of living is half our SS checks. But the big key to this whole thing is that we simply need very little money to live. Part of it is the ridiculously low property taxes: 32 acres and a home, for the price of a large pizza every month.
And the other part is that we just don’t want much of anything. My one extravagance is that I pay for Youtube premium because I use it constantly, and it is also how I learn songs for my bands, which are really a hobby experience. It only earns me a few hundred a month.
But I feel richer than I have at any time in my life and I also enjoy more dayly joy than I have at any time in my life. I’m 71, and had an 11+ hour heart surgery two years ago that knocked 15-20 years off my age.
I know it won’t last forever, but I certainly never anticipated this retirement when I was a young man.
Great points! Lowering your expenses by being debt free changes everything for retirement.
I envy you! Hubby and I have a 28 acre hunting property - it has a well, septic, and a small cabin. All off grid. Just a few hours from here, so still near our kids.
We currently live on some small acreage north of Altanta, but we are at least debt free. I would really love to retire to our hunting property with my goats/chicken/garden. Raise a cow or two. Plus a crazy amount of turkey and deer there. But hubby doesn’t so I guess we are stuck here. With taxes that cost more than our mortgage ever did 🙄
The difference between he and I, is he always has to be surrounded by people, while I love solitude with animals and nature 😁. We will get it all figured out.