Retirement Thread

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by philfree

I'm looking at early retirement. Not really by choice as the business I'm in has pretty much run it's course and it's time to shut it down. I'll be 63 in August and I wish I had four more years of business for the income but more importantly at this point the health insurance. I'm going to end up paying for my health insurance out of my pocket for a couple of years and that sucks. I own my home and cars outright, I don't have a lot of bills and I do have a substantial amount of cash in investments and my retirement fund. I should be able to live off dividends alone for four years till I'm 67 so that's good. We're going have to learn how to live on a budget though and we haven't really ever had to do that.

How much a month is enough for a comfortable retirement? $5,000.00, $10,000.00 or somewhere in between?

That is a tough one to answer....my immediate response would be to tell you to find a job to work for 4 more years but that may not be possible for you. That could at least be a job that has company supported health insurance and a monthly wage to alleviate your need to dip into your post retirement funds that early.

I worked until March of this year...but in October of 2022 I hit the "Full Retirement Age" for my birth year and after talking with my retirement counselor, I started drawing my Social Security benefits along with continuing to work. I used that monthly SSI benefit as a supplement to my income without any restrictions...so basically we were adding to our retirement fund a little extra money each month.

As for how much it takes to live?? That depends on your needs and retirement plans...we always lived modestly and as such, our budget for retirement is nothing extravagant but we are happy. We did most of what people call "extravagant travel/vacations" while the kids were Middle school and older...so not only could we enjoy them in good health, but so the kids could also.

Now our travel plans are less extravagant and more about what we see as what we enjoy. I doubt we will travel anywhere overseas (been there done it and not impressed in some cases) or to places we have already journeyed. To be frank...anything above NC/TN is probably not on our radar and most of our journey's will be southern and to my daughter and son in law who live in Walmart Land.

What your needs are....is what you set them at. (Budgeting is the one thing many people stop doing at retirement, when it should be the most important thing you do)

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by Mosbonian

What your needs are....is what you set them at. (Budgeting is the one thing many people stop doing at retirement, when it should be the most important thing you do)

Thats the advice I've seen the most from people. Get a budget immediately. You'll be surprised where your money is going. Decide what to do next when you know what you are spending money on now and what you'd like to spend your money on in retirement.