Finances for retirement

[woodstock]

 

[Bushwick100]

WOW....good timing....
I turn 62 this year.... Just got off the phone with the wife and told her I want to be "retired" by end of this month.

You need to understand what your costs will be. But you are 20 years out.... Inflation will be a factor.

Will your house be paid for?

I am targeting $100k annually (before taxes) in retirement....

Pension will be about a third, SS will be a third, but I will try to postpone taking that until 65-66
Investment income will be the rest.... Maybe think about a 5% annual return... be conservative...

And I am lucky... Have great health insurance until Medicare kicks in... Then my previous will assist in funding Supplemental plans

This is how me and my wife have done our later years. Our, medical is taken care of I pay for Tri-Care which is $540. a year with a $12 deductible. Our take home after taxes will be over $85k after taxes. My wife is retired she is 43yrs old. But her retirement pay does not kick in until she's 55yrs old. We, have over $250k in our 401k, but once a year we will be taking anything over the 200k to go vacations or to help animal shelters. We, have NOT included our Social security checks because we don't trust the POLITICIANS anything can happen to that program. This plan was worked out for me by My military officers when I was still in the service. I'm just trying to stick to it.

 

[fast306stang]

Thanks... Have sons 31 and 28.... I wish I could get them to think and plan like you are...

I will say congratulations to you.. I didn't start thinking this way until I was 40....

Thank you sir! I was in my mid 30's when I started actually trying to somewhat plan for it, but every year that passes, I feel the pressure more and more of getting a late start and needing to catch up! It took me about 4 or 5 years to get a grip on it and learn the ropes...

I seriously envy the guys I work with that I've coached...most are in their late 20's and early 30's...10 years makes such a HUGE difference in a 401K/retirement fund! I wish someone coached me about this stuff 10 years ago!

 

[Dixietoolz]

Fortunately you actually have 3 different retirement plans. TSP, FERS and S.S. The S S. I don't even count on. The FERS is based on the # of years employed and your high 3. The one you can control is your TSP. Dump as much as you can in TSP and every time you get a cost of living increase or a pay raise increase your percentages. I'm figuring I need at least 600k to retire in 10 years.

 

[WinstonSmith]

Its never enough if you are 20 yrs out. I think people are in for a rude awakening soon. People look at the "increase" of their property value or investments. Lets use property values as the example. Have you ever looked at what you can replace your home with if you were to sell? How far out would you have to go to increase to a nicer property for what you could sell your home for? Most investments and property are NOT increasing in value because you can not sell and purchase any more goods than you would have if you had taken the original amount and bought goods with it at the time. In fact I would contend you would get a lot less now than then. While values look good on paper what you are looking at is inflation not an increase in assets. And its only going to get worse as we continue to expand the supply of currency. We have been exporting our inflation successfully for a while by selling our debt (increase in currency supply) overseas. Now we are talking about bringing back overseas funds that will only increase the currency supply, and thus inflation, further. Retirement funds is a dream whose ship has sailed for people our age. Unfortunately I do not have an answer for you besides that. I think we are all ****ed. Once inflation hits the point where people have to spend 40% of income on food then , as is shown historically, we will see social unrest. At what point all that turns into deflationary meltdown I dont know but I dont give us too many years. Only real wealth is no debt, land with access to clean water, the ability to produce basic necessities off of that land and the ability to protect it. The sooner we all accept reality and start making moves to protect us and ours in this situation the less dismal our future will be. Just my 2 cents.

 

[fast306stang]

Fortunately you actually have 3 different retirement plans. TSP, FERS and S.S. The S S. I don't even count on. The FERS is based on the # of years employed and your high 3. The one you can control is your TSP. Dump as much as you can in TSP and every time you get a cost of living increase or a pay raise increase your percentages. I'm figuring I need at least 600k to retire in 10 years.

It took me awhile and I've made some mistakes, but I've got a handle on this part, finally.

The part I'm struggling with is making sure my projections meet my needs when that time comes. I'm having trouble figuring out what my actual needs will be...I don't plan on having a mortgage, but I have to cover 10-15 years of my wife not working before she can take SS, etc...

 

[Realstudent368]

A few million

And everything paid off...

 

[fast306stang]

Its never enough if you are 20 yrs out. I think people are in for a rude awakening soon. People look at the "increase" of their property value or investments. Lets use property values as the example. Have you ever looked at what you can replace your home with if you were to sell? How far out would you have to go to increase to a nicer property for what you could sell your home for? Most investments and property are NOT increasing in value because you can not sell and purchase any more goods than you would have if you had taken the original amount and bought goods with it at the time. In fact I would contend you would get a lot less now than then. While values look good on paper what you are looking at is inflation not an increase in assets. And its only going to get worse as we continue to expand the supply of currency. We have been exporting our inflation successfully for a while by selling our debt (increase in currency supply) overseas. Now we are talking about bringing back overseas funds that will only increase the currency supply, and thus inflation, further. Retirement funds is a dream whose ship has sailed for people our age. Unfortunately I do not have an answer for you besides that. I think we are all ****ed. Once inflation hits the point where people have to spend 40% of income on food then , as is shown historically, we will see social unrest. At what point all that turns into deflationary meltdown I dont know but I dont give us too many years. Only real wealth is no debt, land with access to clean water, the ability to produce basic necessities off of that land and the ability to protect it. The sooner we all accept reality and start making moves to protect us and ours in this situation the less dismal our future will be. Just my 2 cents.

You make some strong points. My new neighbor bought his house next door to mine and paid $20k more than I paid for mine 9 years ago. I'd love to sell mine and pocket the money, but I'd have to move into an apt lol...

 

[bigt61]

You make some strong points. My new neighbor bought his house next door to mine and paid $20k more than I paid for mine 9 years ago. I'd love to sell mine and pocket the money, but I'd have to move into an apt lol...

It’s not considered making money,if you’ll spend whatever profit you have or more just to buy the same dwelling or less lol

Remember it’s not all about what you make,it’s also about what you spend

 

[Greg_D]

As you get closer to retirement you'll want to convert you portfolio from growth to income generating.
I have started this conversion as I am <5years to when I plan to retire.
Here are some income generating ETF's I've been trying for the last year:
AMLP, FPE, KBWD, PFF, PFG, DIV, SDIV, YYY, ZMLP
All of these pay >5% dividend, Most pay monthly. My retirement plan is to live off the SS and Dividends (not touching the principle).
PFF & PFG are both an ETF made up of many Preferred Stock (a.k.a the modern day Bond).
Let me know what your favorite Income Generating positions are.