Author Topic: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement  (Read 30026 times)

radram

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Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« on: July 14, 2016, 08:09:42 AM »
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/could-you-live-on-just-dollar32000-per-year-most-retirees-do/ar-BBukkwQ?li=BBnbfcN

$48,000 married and $19,000 unmarried to get to median household income of $32,000.


I agree that the $19,000 single figure would be tight, especially if you are still saving for retirement, but the married figure is higher than many of the early years when we were building our stache.  Interesting that even with all the "struggling to make ends meet", 9 in 10 retirees are "happy".

Our spending is currently higher than that figure, but only because it can be.  If needed, we could drop our spending to well below these figures without even noticing.

How many here can still SAVE FOR RETIREMENT with these numbers?


HPstache

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2016, 08:14:08 AM »
Do I own my home outright during retirement? If so, no problem whatsoever.

Dicey

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2016, 08:35:52 AM »
Here's a story they never publish. Two non-executive, average earners espouse mustachian principles. Over time, they save, invest, buy real estate, avoid sukka consumer debt (BAD), but not mortgage debt (good). One day, they sit down and do the math and are shocked to discover that their retirement income will substantially exceed their working income. WTF? It could happen to any diligent mustachian. Who knew? Doesn't sell ads though, so you might not hear it anywhere but here. ;-)

andy85

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #3 on: July 14, 2016, 08:59:52 AM »
considering i make about $48k/year right now, yes i could. If i only got COLA adjustments of 2.75% every year (and not an actual raise/promotion), i could have a million dollars by the time i'm 50....assuming a 6% return

I will spend about $32k this year. $10k will have been paying off debt, another ~$7500 will be my mortgage. I plan to be between $25k-$28k in spending after this year.

GuitarStv

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #4 on: July 14, 2016, 09:26:22 AM »
I could live on 32k a year.  I'm aiming a bit higher than that as a safety margin though.

BlueHouse

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #5 on: July 14, 2016, 09:28:57 AM »
Not yet.  I"m working on reducing my expenses, but I'm nowhere near that yet, not even if I removed my mortgage payment.  I don't think there is any way to get below $32k for me unless I move out of my clown house in my clown neighborhood in my clown city. 

acroy

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #6 on: July 14, 2016, 09:37:55 AM »
Sure, in our best couple years we lived very comfortably on $35k including mortgage and having to feed all the mini-mustaches running around.

Chris22

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #7 on: July 14, 2016, 09:51:49 AM »
I could survive on it, but my property taxes alone would eat about 25% of that figure.  I'm aiming a bit higher than "survive" for retirement. 

Socmonkey

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2016, 09:52:42 AM »
Easy peasy - even with the mortgage (which has $67.5k left on it).

ender

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2016, 10:17:38 AM »
I'm pretty sure we could, though I've yet to see how expensive/cheap our house will end up being and we don't have kids yet so we can't really estimate there :-)

iris lily

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #10 on: July 14, 2016, 10:20:58 AM »
Sure I could but I don't wanna.

SeaEhm

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #11 on: July 14, 2016, 10:32:32 AM »
Sure I could but I don't wanna.

Came in to post this.

I could live on $32,000 but I definitely do not want to. 

Assuming paid off house, my property taxes would take up a big chunk of that right off the bat.

stoaX

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #12 on: July 14, 2016, 10:33:13 AM »
Because of the difficult housing prices in SoCal I am currently renting (and loving it!).  If I remove rent from the equation I could easily live on that amount.  If I had a paid for house and had to add in property taxes, maintenance and insurance it would be difficult but doable.

Helvegen

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #13 on: July 14, 2016, 10:36:21 AM »
I could, but it would require moving to a lower COL area.

tonysemail

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #14 on: July 14, 2016, 10:41:20 AM »
I don't think i could come close to it :(

Metric Mouse

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #15 on: July 14, 2016, 10:42:41 AM »
I'd struggle on 19,000 before my house is paid off. Though, I was making that and still saving for a few years while younger, but home ownership would have been out.  At 32K I'd be golden, and at 48K I'd have no idea how to spend it all...

mm1970

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #16 on: July 14, 2016, 11:05:02 AM »
I could survive on it, but my property taxes alone would eat about 25% of that figure.  I'm aiming a bit higher than "survive" for retirement.
Yep, same here.  Prop taxes ~$7k

PencilThinStash

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #17 on: July 14, 2016, 11:19:29 AM »
Last time I sat down and added up the numbers, my living expenses are only ~$17k after all taxes/saving/giving are taken out. Assuming that nothing in my life changes and I always rent, always have roommates, never get married, don't have to fund a child's college, never get hit with various cancers that run in the family, stay young and immortal, etc etc etc... I'm not quite sure how I'd even spend $32k a year. Maybe I'd buy a pony as an expensive hobby.

Take away all the assumptions above, and $32k probably won't stretch quite as far.

randymarsh

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #18 on: July 14, 2016, 11:31:42 AM »
Fun exercise. My expenses right now after removing debt repayment are about 25K so having another 7K to spend would be tight.

FerrumB5

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #19 on: July 14, 2016, 11:45:32 AM »
There's no way we could do it. Property tax alone is (today) 8200 (no, we don't plan to move to LCOL), then medical ins. 12000 or so, car + home ins 2500. College for kid(s). Food for us. Travel. Take care of at least my side of family which is abroad. That's part of life and I accept it.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #20 on: July 14, 2016, 11:47:07 AM »
$30k/yr is my anticipated spending (in today dollars) when I FIRE in 2022.

TheAnonOne

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #21 on: July 14, 2016, 11:47:35 AM »
We probably spend 60k currently on an income of 200k-250k  (4-6 grand a month)

So, I'd have to say "No" in the sense that it would be radically changing our lives. Though, it probably would not kill anyone physically to do this.

Giro

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #22 on: July 14, 2016, 11:54:47 AM »
It wouldn't kill us, but I don't want to.

We spend over $70k a year now with no mortgage so that would cut our spending damn near in half.  And I consider us semi-mustachian. 

DTaggart

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #23 on: July 14, 2016, 12:04:11 PM »
$32k per year is exactly the spending we are targeting! We have a paid-off house (in soCal no less).

TravelJunkyQC

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #24 on: July 14, 2016, 01:19:45 PM »
We currently live on this for the two of us. But we both have condos at the moment. So would be lower if we owned our home.

gimp

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #25 on: July 14, 2016, 01:54:09 PM »
I've done the math - even living in the bay area, I could (just barely) survive on $32k/yr income. Even living alone it's possible at my current level of rent.

Would be kinda difficult though. Down to the wire.

Jack

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #26 on: July 14, 2016, 02:09:13 PM »
Aside from student loan repayment (but including our mortgage), my wife and I live on less than $32,000/year now, easily.

horsepoor

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #27 on: July 14, 2016, 02:26:30 PM »
Sure I could but I don't wanna.

Came in to post this.

I could live on $32,000 but I definitely do not want to. 

Assuming paid off house, my property taxes would take up a big chunk of that right off the bat.

Ditto.  It would be no problem for us without the mortgage, but we'd be giving up fancy horses and ski trips, but could probably still a modest hobby/travel budget.  With the mortgage, depending on healthcare costs, I could see it being somewhat difficult.

Chris22

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #28 on: July 14, 2016, 02:27:39 PM »
Last time I sat down and added up the numbers, my living expenses are only ~$17k after all taxes/saving/giving are taken out. Assuming that nothing in my life changes and I always rent, always have roommates, never get married, don't have to fund a child's college, never get hit with various cancers that run in the family, stay young and immortal, etc etc etc... I'm not quite sure how I'd even spend $32k a year. Maybe I'd buy a pony as an expensive hobby.

Take away all the assumptions above, and $32k probably won't stretch quite as far.

Wouldn't that renting be a big impediment?  Who knows what rent prices will be in 30-40+ years from now...

forummm

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #29 on: July 14, 2016, 02:27:49 PM »
Aside from student loan repayment (but including our mortgage), my wife and I live on less than $32,000/year now, easily.

Same here. $24k including interest excluding principle. Pretty good life.

Sailor Sam

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #30 on: July 14, 2016, 02:27:53 PM »
Staying under $32k would be a stretch for me, assuming my current living conditions and habits stayed the same. I'd have to shave off $850/month to get to the $32k line. I could do it, but I'd have to make some pretty drastic changes.

That being said, I know I can change. The adjustment period might not be all kinds of fun, but it's fully within the bounds of possible.

FerrumB5

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #31 on: July 14, 2016, 02:35:02 PM »
Aside from student loan repayment (but including our mortgage), my wife and I live on less than $32,000/year now, easily.

Same here. $24k including interest excluding principle. Pretty good life.

Do you have medical insurance?? It runs up to 12k/year alone easily

forummm

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #32 on: July 14, 2016, 02:36:37 PM »
Aside from student loan repayment (but including our mortgage), my wife and I live on less than $32,000/year now, easily.

Same here. $24k including interest excluding principle. Pretty good life.

Do you have medical insurance?? It runs up to 12k/year alone easily

Paid for by work now. Would be under 10k here if we bought plans.

stoaX

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #33 on: July 14, 2016, 02:37:05 PM »
Last time I sat down and added up the numbers, my living expenses are only ~$17k after all taxes/saving/giving are taken out. Assuming that nothing in my life changes and I always rent, always have roommates, never get married, don't have to fund a child's college, never get hit with various cancers that run in the family, stay young and immortal, etc etc etc... I'm not quite sure how I'd even spend $32k a year. Maybe I'd buy a pony as an expensive hobby.

Take away all the assumptions above, and $32k probably won't stretch quite as far.

Wouldn't that renting be a big impediment?  Who knows what rent prices will be in 30-40+ years from now...

Over that long of a period of time I think it is safe to say that rents will track with inflation.  In short time frames and specific geographies they can, of course, veer widely from that.   If rents escalate at an unusually high pace, more housing stock will become rentals, either through new construction or from converting existing structures...and the escalation in rents will slow or stop as landlords look to attract tenants.

PencilThinStash

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #34 on: July 14, 2016, 02:42:41 PM »
Last time I sat down and added up the numbers, my living expenses are only ~$17k after all taxes/saving/giving are taken out. Assuming that nothing in my life changes and I always rent, always have roommates, never get married, don't have to fund a child's college, never get hit with various cancers that run in the family, stay young and immortal, etc etc etc... I'm not quite sure how I'd even spend $32k a year. Maybe I'd buy a pony as an expensive hobby.

Take away all the assumptions above, and $32k probably won't stretch quite as far.

Wouldn't that renting be a big impediment?  Who knows what rent prices will be in 30-40+ years from now...

Replace one of the etceteras on my list of ridiculous assumptions with "COL matches inflation at 4% while market consistently returns 7%"

Problem solved ;)

Miss Piggy

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #35 on: July 14, 2016, 03:29:06 PM »
The one thing that would prevent us from living on $32,000 is health insurance. Last time we had to pay for it ourselves, it was $1500/month for two people. When we FIRE, we'll be older than we were at that time, so it will be more expensive. We HAVE to have very, very good coverage due to existing conditions.

FerrumB5

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #36 on: July 14, 2016, 03:34:40 PM »

Paid for by work now. Would be under 10k here if we bought plans.

Share details, pls? I'm interested. I'm very far from FIRE but I'd be willing to look into such plans as my work plans are pricey. Thanks in advance

Jack

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #37 on: July 14, 2016, 03:59:40 PM »
Aside from student loan repayment (but including our mortgage), my wife and I live on less than $32,000/year now, easily.

Same here. $24k including interest excluding principle. Pretty good life.

Do you have medical insurance?? It runs up to 12k/year alone easily

Paid for by work now. Would be under 10k here if we bought plans.

Also paid for by work. Admittedly, I have no idea how much it would cost separately. However, $32k is higher than my budget, I'm still young and healthy so insurance shouldn't be that expensive, and according to the OP the real median for married households was a whopping $48k anyway.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2016, 04:03:23 PM by Jack »

stoaX

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #38 on: July 14, 2016, 04:05:40 PM »
The one thing that would prevent us from living on $32,000 is health insurance. Last time we had to pay for it ourselves, it was $1500/month for two people. When we FIRE, we'll be older than we were at that time, so it will be more expensive. We HAVE to have very, very good coverage due to existing conditions.

Will your income in retirement be low enough that you will get the ACA subsidies?  That will help.  Of course, depending upon how far away retirement is, who knows what the health insurance landscape will look like...repeal of some of the ACA?  Single payer?  More subsidies?

Spiffsome

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #39 on: July 14, 2016, 06:27:05 PM »
Pre or post tax? My husband and I were living on about $33,000 post-tax for a few years.

gooki

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #40 on: July 14, 2016, 06:47:48 PM »
32k would be plenty for my wife and I.

talltexan

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #41 on: July 15, 2016, 07:30:54 AM »
As a graduate student, I recall living a very satisfying single life on $28,000/year, with $8,400 of that being rent in a Tony suburb of Chicago. Based on what I've seen on this forum, I was an amateur.

Shalamar

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #42 on: July 15, 2016, 09:40:17 AM »
My husband and I talked retirement numbers with our investment person last October.  She asked how much we'd need.  I said "We could easily get by on about $30,000/year.  Luxury would be $60,000/year."  She smiled and said "Good news - you should be able to swing $50,000/year."*  Sweet!

*That's a combination of RRSP savings and our pensions.

Khaetra

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #43 on: July 15, 2016, 10:00:58 AM »
My home is paid for and I have no debt.  I live on $36K/year and live very well!

BlueMR2

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #44 on: July 15, 2016, 10:06:17 AM »
I could live on 32k a year.  I'm aiming a bit higher than that as a safety margin though.

Same here.  In theory, might be as low as $25k, but am realize it might turn into $32k due to the way health care costs are exploding.  And am actually targeting $37k to be extra safe.  :-)

bgsnyder

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #45 on: July 15, 2016, 10:25:14 AM »
My son and I are living on <$23k now. Should be $10k less when the house is paid off, which should be right about the time I FIRE if my calculations are correct.

forummm

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #46 on: July 15, 2016, 11:15:45 AM »

Paid for by work now. Would be under 10k here if we bought plans.

Share details, pls? I'm interested. I'm very far from FIRE but I'd be willing to look into such plans as my work plans are pricey. Thanks in advance

https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/

FerrumB5

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #47 on: July 15, 2016, 11:23:15 AM »

Paid for by work now. Would be under 10k here if we bought plans.

Share details, pls? I'm interested. I'm very far from FIRE but I'd be willing to look into such plans as my work plans are pricey. Thanks in advance

https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/

Thanks. I'll pass on giving them emails and/or phone. Last time I had to buy my own insurance (current employer had 3 mo waiting period), when I bought one, everyone still called me 60-70 times a day. Record was 34 times from ONE provider in 3 days, even after I explicitly asked them to take me off the list :)

Could you post here the details, if not a top secret? Many thanks

SeaEhm

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #48 on: July 15, 2016, 11:35:55 AM »
These threads always hinge on what people define as "living"


forummm

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Re: Who in this forum could NOT live on $32,000 in retirement
« Reply #49 on: July 15, 2016, 12:02:10 PM »

Paid for by work now. Would be under 10k here if we bought plans.

Share details, pls? I'm interested. I'm very far from FIRE but I'd be willing to look into such plans as my work plans are pricey. Thanks in advance

https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/

Thanks. I'll pass on giving them emails and/or phone. Last time I had to buy my own insurance (current employer had 3 mo waiting period), when I bought one, everyone still called me 60-70 times a day. Record was 34 times from ONE provider in 3 days, even after I explicitly asked them to take me off the list :)

Could you post here the details, if not a top secret? Many thanks

This is the federal Marketplace. You don't have to give them contact info (and they don't ask for it) unless you actually want to enroll. They just need ZIP, age, and tobacco status to give premiums accurate for that location. You could even lie about your age or use a neighboring ZIP code if you are worried about that (the estimate will be close but not exact). And if you do start to enroll but then stop, no health plans contact you.