Author Topic: How much income do YOU need...  (Read 25232 times)

redbird

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #50 on: February 03, 2016, 08:58:54 PM »
Wow. This thread has my eyes bugging out of my head on how much people think they need to live on.

I'm already FIRE (2 adults in the house) and we set ourselves a budget of $2k/month (this is not a hard cap). We spend less than that. This is including rent. We are frugal, but we aren't depriving ourselves of anything either. We have a lot of fancy things, are paying for pretty fast internet, etc. We have a house fund set aside to buy a house, but since we just moved back to the States in September from overseas, and it's a state we've never lived in before, we need time to look for a house to buy (thus why we're renting).

I can't see how I could spend $5k+ per month if we're assuming a house is paid off.

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #51 on: February 03, 2016, 09:11:07 PM »
Let's see...

I like to separate "needs" and "wants" to get a sense of how comfortable I'd be at different levels of income/burn rate.

NEED: If I average out the results of the last few years of expense tracking, it comes out to a little under 20k/yr. I'd like to build some buffer into that to account for the travel that I don't do much of now, so maybe 25k, not a hard cap. Also could be substantially affected by whether or not I remain in a HCOL area, as rent is a huge budget line item.

WANT: This could probably be scaleless, but I don't envision getting decent marginal enjoyment out of spending more than 50-60k/yr. on myself (no family yet, I'm a single guy who lives relatively simply). A 4% WR suggests a 'stash of 1.5MM would sustainably yield this. Could also probably play with withdrawal rates. Above these levels, I'd give serious thoughts to helpful means of philanthropy.

Nickyd£g

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #52 on: February 04, 2016, 06:25:56 AM »
If my flat was paid off and I continued to live in Scotland, where all medical care and most dental care is free, including prescriptions, I would only need about £800 [$1100] per month, and that would allow me to travel to Europe a couple of times a year too.

neophyte

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #53 on: February 04, 2016, 06:46:22 AM »
(2015 spending - rent - healthcare)/12 = $455/ month

That included some fluff.  I'd prefer to live on more; $1000/month seems like it would be pretty luxurious for a single person.

soccerluvof4

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #54 on: February 04, 2016, 07:20:25 AM »
Family of 6. We planned Ridiculous spending for the next 3years and that money is set aside but were trying to not spend it all. At that time 2 will be off fully funded for college.  After that as we continue our Retirement we will be down to 6k a month including HC as a family of 4. After 4 more years then I cant imagine more than 3-4k. These were all things we had to plan when we did FIre.

« Last Edit: February 04, 2016, 07:24:44 AM by soccerluvof4 »

bearkat

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #55 on: February 04, 2016, 08:25:50 AM »
A couple with no kids: $2.5k / month

Could we be fine with half of that? Sure. Would I FIRE if my stash could only cover half of that? No.

Mtngrl

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #56 on: February 04, 2016, 08:59:23 AM »
We live on $4000 a month -- my husband is ER, I am not. $1400 of that pays our health insurance costs (I am self-employed) and another $200 or so goes to pay medical bills that that insurance doesn't cover (deductibles.) If we could get rid of that healthcare cost albatross, we would be in high cotton indeed. There's just two of us and two dogs. We travel quite a bit and we live in a high COL area.

snacky

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #57 on: February 04, 2016, 09:23:55 AM »
I was calculating this last week - when my mortgage and student loans are gone, and my kids are grown and gone (no ER until then) I could live very comfortably on $40,000 per year. (in 2016 dollars, obviously) That would be extravagant, including travel and good food and hobbies. If needed I could live on much, much less, but that would be a crappy goal.

Exflyboy

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #58 on: February 04, 2016, 10:05:54 AM »
We live on $4000 a month -- my husband is ER, I am not. $1400 of that pays our health insurance costs (I am self-employed) and another $200 or so goes to pay medical bills that that insurance doesn't cover (deductibles.) If we could get rid of that healthcare cost albatross, we would be in high cotton indeed. There's just two of us and two dogs. We travel quite a bit and we live in a high COL area.

$1400 a month?...Wow!

Mtngrl

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #59 on: February 04, 2016, 11:31:45 AM »
Yeah, that $1400 hurts big time -- 2 adults in their 50s in Colorado. $6600 deductible, $45 office visit copay. I shopped like crazy and this is the best we could do. I make too much money to qualify for any subsidy.

Cassie

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #60 on: February 04, 2016, 02:25:41 PM »
That's terrible!  I am mad about paying $900/month for 2 people but at least we don't have deductibles for most things-just co-pays.

Exflyboy

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #61 on: February 05, 2016, 09:20:50 AM »
Thats one of the primary reasons we are looking at moving out of the country.

LindseyC

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #62 on: February 05, 2016, 11:07:37 AM »
I was working on these numbers just a few days ago. With my house paid off and no healthcare costs. I could easily get by on $1100 a month at my current level of spending however, I would want closer to $2000 a month.

I also question in retirement if I would keep my house (it's just me) I would probably sell and rent an apartment in a more rural area which would lower my costs considerably.

Lindy

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #63 on: February 05, 2016, 04:02:00 PM »
For two adults it would be about $2,000.  This would allow for luxurious living and traveling. 

retiredat58

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #64 on: February 06, 2016, 02:12:33 PM »
I'm retired and live on $33,000 per year.

Aussiegirl

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #65 on: February 06, 2016, 04:02:02 PM »
For 2 Adults and 2 (spoilt) dogs - our retirement budget varies from A$3,500 for bare bones (no travel, few meals out etc) to A$6,700 for a more extravagant lifestyle including meals out, holidays, motor cycle each etc.   That's about US$2,500 to US$4,800.

What about the other Aussies out there?

icemodeled

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #66 on: February 06, 2016, 07:48:14 PM »
The 2 of us easily live off of $2500 a month now with a mortgage. If we use your scenario, we would be fine with $1700 a month. We would still be able to enjoy life, eat out and travel.

Squirrel away

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #67 on: February 07, 2016, 04:26:54 AM »
If my flat was paid off and I continued to live in Scotland, where all medical care and most dental care is free, including prescriptions, I would only need about £800 [$1100] per month, and that would allow me to travel to Europe a couple of times a year too.

Yes, we're in England and we could live happily on £1,500 - £2,000 a month for both of us (and our pets) and in fact that would be quite luxurious.

Miss Prim

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #68 on: February 07, 2016, 05:50:11 AM »

I'm planning on living on between $1700-$2100 a month once we hit the road.

I don't know what my husband and I did wrong, but we spent one month total on the road with our paid off 24ft travel trailer and truck and spent over $3000.00.  Gas was cheaper than the year before, we joined boondockers welcome and stayed for free in some places.  We dry camped some.  I froze a bunch of whole dinners which we ate at night, and we stayed with some friends in two places.  Our average night's lodging cost us $22.00, with all the free camping and stuff.  We actually spent a total of $3500.00 but we had to buy 3 tires on the road and I am not including them in the total.  We did eat out some and we had to take our friends out to dinner for staying with them.  We bought a few souvenirs, but most of them were from thrift stores. 

I just don't know if $1500 to $2000 is realistic.  Maybe if you are tent camping, but even then, the camping fees start to add up even in a tent.  I mean averaging $22.00 per night was awesome to me!  Our truck gets 13 miles per gallon, but it is diesel and is needed to pull the camper.  We did spend a lot in gas because we went 6000 miles, so I guess if you stayed in one place for a month, it would be a lot cheaper.

Just wondering how I compare to other mustachians on travelling the country.

                                                                              Miss Prim

PS. The travel trailer was bought used as was the truck. 
« Last Edit: February 07, 2016, 06:26:37 AM by Miss Prim »

ToughMother

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #69 on: February 07, 2016, 07:48:19 AM »
We spent 60K last year, so 5K per month, for everything.
Pay off the house, and we're down to 48K or 4K per month.

That includes a fair bit of travel (nice!), our clothing budget would drop (yay! no more fancy work clothes), and I'd have a bit more time to shop/cook more strategically, so I'd wager I could get it down another 500/month.  I'm keeping our medical expenses in there b.c. I really do think those will go UP not down.

So with a paid-off house and skepticism about health care, call it 3.5K-4K a month for a rich, fun life for us (and our pooch)!

horsepoor

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #70 on: February 07, 2016, 08:11:17 AM »
With no debts and free healthcare, I could get by pretty well on $20K, and that's with boarding two horses and leaving some slush in the budget for activities.  If I didn't have dogs or horses and had no debts, it would be pretty easy to get by on $12k/year or less as a bare bones budget (but still owning a car and eating like a King). 

Mtngrl

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #71 on: February 07, 2016, 08:20:33 AM »


Miss Prim, we have a 21-foot fifth wheel (bought used and we have enjoyed the heck out of it.) We took a 3-week trip last summer, drove 4000 miles and we spent $2200, so I think you are in a good ballpark. A lot depends on where you go and how much you drive. About half of that trip was spent in Canada in paid campgrounds, so that increased our costs. In the U.S. we mostly boondock in National Forests or on BLM land, and cook for ourselves. We're planning a 4-week trip in the U.S. this fall and it will be interesting to see how much the total for that one is. Compare that to 3 or 4 weeks on almost any other kind of vacation and I think it's a real bargain.

Mikila

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #72 on: February 07, 2016, 08:50:38 AM »
We could live off $1600/ month and have change in our pocket.

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arebelspy

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #73 on: February 07, 2016, 12:13:07 PM »
Family of 3 (so far).

I think the range we could live on is $500/mo on the low end, $4k/mo on the high end.

Probably will end up in the middle, 2-3k/mo.  Might do the 500/mo one year, just for fun.

Don't really think about the spending, just spend, but doing a low spending challenge might be a fun lark.
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Cassie

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #74 on: February 07, 2016, 12:24:27 PM »
Miss Prim: we have a paid for RV -27 ft and we took it 8,000 miles last June. WE spent $6,000 miles. It only gets 10mpg. I mostly cooked as we have a full kitchen in the RV. WE only ate out a few times. We spent the most $ on gas and RV sites. As we went to a bunch of places we had to pay the nightly rate. At one of the parks some other retirees said they saved $ by staying for a month because the monthly rate was usually between $300/400/month. Well we had a bunch of people we  wanted to see and some National Parks.  At Yellowstone we paid $55/night & the Grand Tetons it was 75.00/night.  Ouch! I think the cheapest we managed to find was $35.00/night.   WE were looking to stay at a RV park in Oregon next summer on the coast and it is old but well kept. Because you just need to cross the highway to get to the ocean it is $800 for a month. That is the cheap rate-ugh!  WE are looking at a Plan B. One other expense we had is that you can't pull most newer cars behind an RV. So you can buy a  trailer for $4000 to put your car on and pull it, buy a much older junkie car that can be pulled. In the end we rented a car for the 2 national parks because it would be too difficult to drive an RV around the parks all the time. So that expense added up because we had it for a week. 

GuitarBrian

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #75 on: February 07, 2016, 01:21:29 PM »
I have a goal of 3k a month. $100 a day. But this is honestly more than double what I need. But taking into account a potential wife and then even more hypothetical kids. This seems a good round number.

I have lived in an RV 6-8 months a year since I was 8 yrs old. The goal is to never pay for a campground. I have tracked expenses, for long term living, it is exceptionally inexpensive.

Bearded Man

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #76 on: February 08, 2016, 06:05:38 PM »
12K a month if I live plush, in the 7th most expensive city in the US. That's assuming I have a paid for place to live, which I do, both outright and in creative rental situations (multi-plex).

shelivesthedream

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #77 on: February 10, 2016, 02:08:07 PM »
If my flat was paid off and I continued to live in Scotland, where all medical care and most dental care is free, including prescriptions, I would only need about £800 [$1100] per month, and that would allow me to travel to Europe a couple of times a year too.

Yes, we're in England and we could live happily on £1,500 - £2,000 a month for both of us (and our pets) and in fact that would be quite luxurious.

£2000/month and a paid off house in the south east of England (that notoriously expensive place) would definitely be living high on the hog for the two of us. £1000/month and a paid off house would be nice but there would be some things I would want to do but couldn't afford (mostly expensive classes/hobby equipment/materials for me). If we moved somewhere like rural Wales... we'd be rich beyond our wildest dreams!

Jon_Snow

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #78 on: February 10, 2016, 05:25:39 PM »
I've thought about this a bit and I think we could live quite nicely (and happily) on $1500/month. Now, we choose NOT to do this (more like $2500)...but we COULD.

Housing costs for us are less than $400/month...this is the key to EVERYTHING for us.

Rural

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Re: How much income do YOU need...
« Reply #79 on: February 11, 2016, 01:53:41 AM »
We currently live on just under $2k a month with a killer commute and college tuition. In retirement, well, I'm starting to think hard about working until I earn retiree health care (for us both). That comes before Medicare eligibility but after we could otherwise retire.