sorry delete me.

sorry delete me.





^^^ actually, this is a very good question to bring up !!! It's a bit subjective, though, because inherent in any answer are more questions like ...
- what is the cost of living in the area you plan to retire ?
- what other sources of retirement income will you likely have (i.e. SSI) ?
- what interest rate / inflation rate is projected between now and retirement age ?
In very rough terms, this usually leads to a retirement 'nest egg' in the $500,000 ballpark for a person retiring today - on the assumption that they own a house which has been paid off, and on the assumption that they will receive SSI checks & medicare benefits in addition to their retirement 'nest egg' earnings, and on the assumption that a 4-5% after tax rate of return is available versus a 2-3% inflation rate.
Future risk factors re retirement, of course, revolve around just how much gov't sponsored retirement benefits will be available. This is a HUGE unknown - particularly in the area of future 'means testing'. It has been proposed that in order to avoid a future SSI budget crisis that SSI and medicare benefit eligibility be made contingent on the financial 'means' of the retiree ... in other words if a person has saved for their own retirement they would NOT receive SSI or medicare benefits at gov't expense until their own savings had been spent first to cover living expenses and health/medical costs. If this comes to pass, it may very well become necessary that a retirement 'nest egg' which provides the same standard of living as $500k does today would need to be $1 million dollars plus some 20 years in the future (not factoring in inflation over the 20 years either).




Personally I think you need to own enough investment property/businesses to keep providing you with income to cover all your costs. Around what you are spending now on expenses, needs to be the amount you are earning through your investments.
Theres no sense crying over every mistake,
you just keep on trying till you run out of cake





^^^ this is basically what I was shooting for above. A 4-5% return on a $500,000 nest-egg would yield $20-25k per year in interest/dividend earnings forever ... plus gov't sponsored American SSI 'pension' payments add another $10-15k per year ... yielding a retirement income in the $30k-$40k ballpark. If the retiree's house is paid for such that all they need worry about is paying property taxes, buying food and paying utility bills, this amount is probably adequate - but won't allow for anything fancy.



The big question for us all.
Inflation is the long term problem. The earlier you retire, lucky you, the longer money needs to last and therefore the bigger a problem inflation will be. It is hard to imagine that it wil be possible to rely on bank account interest in the coming years...
No matter how distasteful it may be, we can't really retire. We need to purchase working assets and become some form of asset manager instead. That may mean property management, website publishing, investment / asset management or business ownership, but not 'doing nothing' as we all wish retirement to be.
Wow. That depressed me! I'll stop now.





What's enough for me to retire:
$1000 per week income -- after tax it is still a decent income for me personally. Granted, this $1000 per week or $52,000 per year income is passiveor so I hope it will be by the time I retire... that's my MINIMUM... that as well as $10,000 in a term deposit earning interest (no bank fees) so as I can access it whenever I need (it's my emergency fund)
Hopefully this will come from businesses that I own and kinda run. Whilst I want to be an owner and only have to deal with the big issues and thus employ other people to run it day to day as such.... I won't retire as in "do nothing" retire. I want to be able to have that passive income so I can do what I have always wanted to do... purchase a property/acerage... and turn it into my own little wildlife hospital as well as adopt heaps of animals (cats, dogs, etc). That's my retirement... I won't be WORKING.. I will following my dream... my true calling.. my passion.
Last edited by GoldCoastGirl; 01-05-2007 at 07:44 AM.
enter: E3167322D9 for your 10% discount
sounds boring to me. I had no work the last two weeks and feel like a total lazy bum. I guess I'll just work forever.but not 'doing nothing' as we all wish retirement to be.
^ me too. I don't plan on retiring ever. I'll work less, obviously, but I always want to be doing something, making a bit of income. Always moving forward, in a way. Retirement as a winding down of life is just frightening to me.
As for the OP, a million is what I'd say right now. I don't know what inflation will do to that figure by the time you retire.
Feature costumes for sale!
My parents invested in rental property which seems to be a good way to go. It gives you something to do and once it's all paid off you have a continuous income. My mom told me that when you retire that real estate income is not taxable but maybe that has changed.
As far as working late into life, my dad has a friend that is in his 70's and runs his company and seems a lot happier than his wife who has anything and everything she could want without having to lift a finger.
Its still taxable as income. Tax don't end in retirment. Hell, if you've built up enough of a legacy, they don't even end when you're dead!
Rental property is fine and dandy until you can't get your place rented out, the area goes to shit, and/or your tenants trash the place. I wouldn't put all my eggs in THAT basket....
"Have you ever been to American wedding? Where is the vodka, where's marinated herring?" - GB
"And do the cats give a shit? No, they do not. Why? Because they're cats."-from The Onion
Originally Posted by Mia M
well, I dont' recall what my mom said, but something about it is (or at least was years ago in my state) untaxable or less taxable once they retired. I can't recall now though. Yeah, still not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket though.
Bookmarks