Informal Survey of Retirement Expectations

[dasmarian]

A big topic on this board is retirement savings. One thing, though, that I think would be interesting to know is where we as individuals actually feel that we stand in our own personal retirement outlook. I'm not trying to get specific or pry into peoples' personal situations, just to start a good discussion. I am trying to be very vague.

So let's try these questions (please respond in your posts):

1) If a 65 year old person that YOU considered middle-class retired today and was to live 20 more years, how much money saved do you think that they would need to maintain a reasonable standard of living for those years? Assume no income (no SS) except 5% annual interest on any savings.

I realize that question is extremely subjective. That's ok. It is meant to be vague, I am not trying to pry.

So here is the 2nd part:

2) If you were forced to work until 65 and then be required to retire, would you expect to be above or below the savings amount that you have just listed above?

[peacebird]

1. a couple questions: does the retiree have a home which is paid for except property tax?

Do they have health insurance (ie: is medicare/medicaid still solvent)?

[monmouth]

2. The average retiree should not expect to live life "as usual." My advice

prior to retiring is to "downsize". Make sure credit cards, autos, are paid for. Look for a part-time job to pay for the added hospitalization/doctor/meds. Actually, for many, retirement does get a little boring, a part-time job is a cushion and gives one a comfort zone. Life can change drastically, too much time spent on expectations vs. the reality is a waste of time. Get rid of the big house and the overhead. I now live in a lovely, smaller apartment with a view of the intracoastal, electric and cable is included. I only have rent and phone/DSL to meet every month along with the medical. Life will change, keep expectations real, forget those ads you see with those smiling seniors riding golf carts, there aren't that many of them that don't have a part-time job just like me... I do have a nice savings account that is treated as a cushion, I often make "loans with interest" to one of my sons. Thank God he pays me back. I rarely have to touch it.

[SoCalDem]

3. I hate math "story problems".. Let the trains hit each other

:)

[youngdem]

4. My plan?

1. Own my home outright under the homestead exemption value, with garden for food.
2. Own an energy hedge.
3. Save like a motherfucker, spending nothing.
4. Drink like a fish and try to shorten the trip a little.
5. Annuity Life Ins policy.
6. Carry only catastrophic health ins., prepared to declare bankruptcy if catastrophe strikes. Give the house to a 'friend' who will let me live there at the beginning of my last illness, so the greedy hospitals can't try to take it to pay their rapacious bills.
7. I only pay cash for cars, and never buy new.

[alarimer]

5. I plan to work until I die

Or I will retire and then go play in traffic. I can't do anything else. I can't afford to buy a house and certainly would not have paid it off by retirement even if I could afford one now. No savings and none possible on my salary. No expectation of any salary increases other than 2-3% every couple of years when the legislature sees fit to give it to us peons.

[theoldman]

6. If the house is paid for you need $500 at 5% to be safe.

Remember that as time goes by inflation requires more income so you have to take out more than 5% each year. In other words you need $25,000 each year now and about $50,000 twenty years from now.

[Wcross]

7. 500,000.

That's the figure I was thinking myself. I am being a little more optimistic and counting on a 8-10% long term gain. Maybe a little less safe and more work but its possible. I am planning on being very active in managing my money in retirement.

[Wiley50]

8. I'm Here. $623/mo SSI Disability. Was doing great until my back operation in 2000

Owned a lake house that grew to $100,000 equity in 2002
when my addition was finished.
But the back operation in 2000 put me out of work
Soon after Bush stole 2000 my wife's employer saw the writing on the wall
and downsized her out of a good job
Took the contractor two years to get the addition finished so we could re-fi
Spent our savings paying payments for two years

By then, our credit was trashed and we couldn't get one
Couldn't sell the house either
So house was foreclosed along with $100,000 equity

Wife and I had fought so much trying to keep everything afloat
that when we got the certified letter telling us they were selling it on the courthouse steps
She bailed out on me.

Disability I filed for in 2001 finally came through in 2005
Screwed me out of SSDI by saying my claim wasn't dated
so it's SSI

Bought an old 28 ft sailboat for $2500 when I got my SSI back pay

And here I sit