Retirement Targets

Honestly, in retirement I plan on having a second home in a warmer climate, another vehicle in that location, probably a few flights a year to it, and hopefully the ability to pay for kids/grandkids to come and visit. And then also pay for fun things to do.
Kinda what we want to try to do also. I love the midwest and about 1 month of winter. After the 4 weeks of it I want the heck out of here until April-ish.
 
Current age is 58, I will be 59 in the fall, I plan on working 3 more years, and get out at age 61. Wife is 60, she wants to work one more year, so she will be getting out at 61. I figure between our IPERS, SS and investments we will be drawing right around $10,000 a month before taxes
Like everyone else, I am worried about the gap years from retirement to Medicare, I talked to my employer yesterday about putting my wife on my plan when she retires and it comes to around $700 a month. She can stay on her current plan, but she would have to pay the full balance. Not sure right now what we are going to do.

My biggest headache besides the insurance, is the wife wants to move to Ames to be closer to the grandkids. I keep telling her, why do we want to leave a house we both love and is basically paid off, to purchase another house in Ames? Getting nowhere with my reasoning.
So are you moving to Ames?
 
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I agree with this concept. Studies have shown that indexing wins 90 percent of the time. You can try to beat the market by picking individual stocks or actively managed funds. However, there is only a 10 percent chance that you will succeed.
Yep, exactly. The majority of mutual fund managers can’t even beat the market average. And these are the guys being paid the big bucks. If they can’t do it, what chance do I have? I’ll take average and be happy with it.
 
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Some people enjoy work. They are lost when it ends. That won't be me, but I have seen it more than a few times.
I keep telling people that you have to have a plan on how to spend your time. You have to have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. I can't imagine sitting in front of the TV all day every day.
 
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So what do you do if you do live to be 95? I know people who are that old. My father is 90. My mother is 88. My father is a walking heart stent, but since they knew from the first attack he had issues they monitored it closely and he is at 90 which is incredible after a first heart attack around age 46 (chain smoker for years).
I only plan to age 92, but should have plenty of money to last well into my 100's if that would happen. I hope like hell it doesn't. I am about 99% certain I will not make it past 85 due to family history, current health, etc. The excess will be an inheritance for my kids (which is also a goal of mine).
 
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You would be surprised. ACA kicks in about $1500/month or so for a 60 yr old couple with $60k/yr income bringing the premiums down to $150-$200/month. If you are relatively healthy, your estimated total out of pocket health care costs are only $3000/yr.

I may be doing something wrong. I effectively retired 01-15-23 when my severence package ran out (Age 59). I'm paying about $1500/mo (me and two 22 year-old kids) for my legacy healthcare plan. I have about $425K in a brokerage accounts and $1.4M in retirement accounts (mostly traditional with some Roth). Sounds like I need to look at ACA next year while living off my brokerage accounts.
 
Well, if you take out 4% per year (which will last forever), that's 44% of your salary. Add on SSI. And only trying to get to 75% of salary... it adds up from that perspective. It's not luxurious but it works.

e.g. $80k salary => goal is $60k; $35k from savings plus $25k from SSI and you are there

That said, I want to replace ALL my income without SSI, so using that 4% rule I need 25x salary.

Keep in mind you won't be saving for retirement at that point either. So, if you're saving 25%, you only need to replace 75% of your income with no change in standard of living.
 
Without getting into my specific situation, short answer, yes.
Some things like home and car insurance went up 18%. Our heating bills went up 40%.

You might consider looking for a new job. In most industries, salaries are up 10-20% in the last 2 years.
 
How is the staff at a place in rural Iowa? They have a hard time finding / keeping staff that care?
The staff has been adequate at this facility so we do not have complaints in that regard. With the COVID there has been changeover many places. I think it is important to monitor your loved ones care and needs and see that they are being cared for adequately. My siblings and I visit my mother regularly so she gets a call or visit most days. We probably average five visits a week, so she actually sees us more often now than when she was at home.
 
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Plan is to stop working my Corp job at 55 and find something fun to do for the last 10 years to get me to 65. Wife I wld expect to do the same but could see her working her Corp job till 60. Last time I checked if we stopped saving for retirement today we would have just over $2mil at 65.

Youngsters, save early and often.
We are moving up the timeline to leave Corp World at 50, we are both over the **** show, fingers crossed we make it till then.
 
We are moving up the timeline to leave Corp World at 50, we are both over the **** show, fingers crossed we make it till then.
Wife found out that she could retire a year earlier possibly, but when I checked about her getting out at 55, she said what would I do anyhow, so I think she is back to 56 now and maybe later. The longer she works the less stress on me because when she's bored, she spends money.
 
For me it's shoot high. I just figure that kind of stress is better than if I hit too low. I'd rather figure out how to spend more money than the alternate. I know many others think differently and when I get to retirement and I am at say 75% instead of 100% I don't think I will stress out much over it.
This is why shooting for a percentage of income is flawed. You need to look at a multiple of your expenses. Aim for 25x your annual expenses, and then you should be able to draw 4% annually forever…assuming you are mostly invested in index funds that mirror the S&P 500 or total market.
 
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This is why shooting for a percentage of income is flawed. You need to look at a multiple of your expenses. Aim for 25x your annual expenses, and then you should be able to draw 4% annually forever…assuming you are mostly invested in index funds that mirror the S&P 500 or total market.
Again I'll point out the 4% rule, at least the original version, is intended to last for a 30 (maybe 35) year retirement. Everything I've seen uses 3% as the "forever" rate.
 
I would highly recommend doing a lookback on your expenses every year. I'm doing it for the first time this year and the first three months are alarming. When I was thinking about what we spend per year I think about set costs like insurance, utilities, groceries, etc. It's easy to forget that I spent $3k on a fridge in January, $10k on flooring 6 months ago, $4k on vacations, etc.
 
I know a few "financial" people have tried to tell me that my wife and I are behind in our number. When you own rental property (especially farm ground) that "number" is not a valid thing. Why I go for lining up replacement of my income. It does get tempting to just liquidate everything and retire today, but I don't have enough hobbies and enjoy what I do. I would actually make a little more if I did that but I'm content now so I will just keep plodding along.
 
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I would highly recommend doing a lookback on your expenses every year. I'm doing it for the first time this year and the first three months are alarming. When I was thinking about what we spend per year I think about set costs like insurance, utilities, groceries, etc. It's easy to forget that I spent $3k on a fridge in January, $10k on flooring 6 months ago, $4k on vacations, etc.

That flooring thing is why I have recommended that when your house gets paid, you start throwing money in a special account and then use that for house improvements. They mount up faster than you think, and as you get older, you can do less of them yourself.
 
That flooring thing is why I have recommended that when your house gets paid, you start throwing money in a special account and then use that for house improvements. They mount up faster than you think, and as you get older, you can do less of them yourself.
I'm doing something a little different.

  1. Our house will be paid off in 3 or so years from now. We will retire and move from this house when we retire in 7 years. At that time, we will have lived in this house for 25 years (bought new). Over the last few years we have replaced the flooring, Furnace Air/Roof, and most of the appliances. We wanted to get some benefit out of these things.
  2. I'm starting an account called "house fund". I anticipate the house we buy in retirement will be smaller but most likely more expensive. Right now, if I had to buy a house in Arizona, Nevada, etc., it would cost about $100k more than our house is worth. I don't want to get another mortgage in retirement so I hope to have about $150k in this account so that we can buy a house with cash and also update anything that need updated.
 
I'm doing something a little different.

  1. Our house will be paid off in 3 or so years from now. We will retire and move from this house when we retire in 7 years. At that time, we will have lived in this house for 25 years (bought new). Over the last few years we have replaced the flooring, Furnace Air/Roof, and most of the appliances. We wanted to get some benefit out of these things.
  2. I'm starting an account called "house fund". I anticipate the house we buy in retirement will be smaller but most likely more expensive. Right now, if I had to buy a house in Arizona, Nevada, etc., it would cost about $100k more than our house is worth. I don't want to get another mortgage in retirement so I hope to have about $150k in this account so that we can buy a house with cash and also update anything that need updated.
We moved into this house on July 5, 2003. If I don't throw money at it earlier, it will be paid off on October 1st of this year. Part of me is considering just paying it off between may and July. I should get a good flow of cash in may from the business but may need to defer getting paid until July 1st so that may make the difference. House is at 3 and 5/8ths interest rate, but when you can see the end with about 10% left, I get tired of the payments and many times pay things off early. The next thing for us will be windows and siding. Hail last year replaced our roof pretty cheap (I know I'm paying it monthly now in higher premium, but was definitely cheaper over the long run). We have done all flooring, appliances, and basic stuff. We have bathrooms and kitchen left. We are starting to piece in new bathroom stuff now (new toilets coming today) and then we will update our shower (wife wants it tiled, but that is going to be a huge hit).

The one part of updating a house that is expensive that most don't think about is doors and trim. You update the kitchen and you get to do all trim and doors if you change the wood much in a house with an open floor plan like ours.
 
We moved into this house on July 5, 2003. If I don't throw money at it earlier, it will be paid off on October 1st of this year. Part of me is considering just paying it off between may and July. I should get a good flow of cash in may from the business but may need to defer getting paid until July 1st so that may make the difference. House is at 3 and 5/8ths interest rate, but when you can see the end with about 10% left, I get tired of the payments and many times pay things off early. The next thing for us will be windows and siding. Hail last year replaced our roof pretty cheap (I know I'm paying it monthly now in higher premium, but was definitely cheaper over the long run). We have done all flooring, appliances, and basic stuff. We have bathrooms and kitchen left. We are starting to piece in new bathroom stuff now (new toilets coming today) and then we will update our shower (wife wants it tiled, but that is going to be a huge hit).

The one part of updating a house that is expensive that most don't think about is doors and trim. You update the kitchen and you get to do all trim and doors if you change the wood much in a house with an open floor plan like ours.

Just did a big reno on the kitchen and flooring.

Can confirm. The cost was higher than my first home in Beaverdale
 
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