Can we talk about retirement?

[neatokimmo]

I've been thinking a lot about retirement this past month, I'd like to hear your retirement goals!

Are you waiting to hit a certain age, or a certain dollar amount?

How much are you trying to save for retirement?

Are you in a high or low COL town?

Will your house be paid off?

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement?

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster?

These are my answers:
Are you waiting to hit a certain age, or a certain dollar amount? Certain $$ amount, but then I'd probably work part time for a not for profit type place for healthcare and a little cash.

How much are you trying to save for retirement? 300K

Are you in a high or low COL town? very low

Will your house be paid off? yes

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement? Healthcare costs.

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster? Yes, I am downsizing my household. Next year my goal is to live on 10K for everything and save the rest. Maybe max out my 401K.

 

[blaze1599]

We are planning to work to a certain age that would amass more than the money we need. The extra money we hope we can use to help out our kids and grandkids when that time comes around.

the area we live in is probably in the middle in the COL

Our house should be paid off well before we plan to retire so that will not be an issue for us

Once retired I hope to do a significant amount of traveling and maybe doing part time work with a non-profit group to get healthcare and give something back.

For the retirement we are living on a budget and putting away about 20% of our income into 401K. I also run my own business so at some point that will be sold or kids take over and I can sit back like a fat cat and collect a check while they do the work.

Hope this helps

 

[n2mm]

I'll retire next September when I turn 55. I work for the Federal Government, so will get 55% of my salary for the rest of my life and my spouse will get 50% of that if he survives me. Yes, my house will be paid off. I also own DVC so my WDW trips are also covered for the rest of my life!!

 

[amyy]

I hope to retire between age 60-65. Our house will be paid off (and my student loans). I am saving a very small amount per month ($100). I will be on a teacher's retirement plan (if there is still money in it). They problem is I didn't start in that field until around 37 so I am not sure how much I will get out of it. I will probaby work a few hours a week when I retire. When I was around 30 I realized I would never be able to afford to retire so I went back to graduate school. Now I have a degree in the healthcare field which will let me contract a bit to supplement my meager retirement income.

 

[wdwfan16]

Are you waiting to hit a certain age, or a certain dollar amount?
Sort of both. We want to have a certain amount saved to draw a certain amount until we turn 90. We would then sell the house to love on after that. The house sale would probably happen way before 90, but the proceeds would be used for after we turn 90. As of now we hope to hit that amount by the time we are 62. I tend to think we will both do something at that time. We are not sit around the house type of people.

How much are you trying to save for retirement? Over a million.

Are you in a high or low COL town? I would say middle COL. I think it will get more expensive as time goes on.

Will your house be paid off? Yes. We would never consider retiring with a mortgage.

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement? Being taxed to the poor house to pay for those who did not save.

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster? We both max out our 401K each year and save even more than that. We still enjoy life.

These are my answers:
Are you waiting to hit a certain age, or a certain dollar amount? Certain $$ amount, but then I'd probably work part time for a not for profit type place for healthcare and a little cash.

How much are you trying to save for retirement? 300K

Are you in a high or low COL town? very low

Will your house be paid off? yes

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement? Healthcare costs.

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster? Yes, I am downsizing my household. Next year my goal is to live on 10K for everything and save the rest. Maybe max out my 401K.

Do you have a mortgage? Pay for health coverage? Our health insurance payment is more than you plan to live on for the entire year.

 

[BellyBaby]

DH works for the Feds, so he'd get much more if he works until 60 vs. 55. So a mix of age and cash saved.

I'd say a good goal for us is 400k, I have big travel dreams. Depends on how much our monthly pensions will be, tho. Probably should start doing the math soon, DH is 41. I stay home with DD4, but have very small Fed Pension from prior.

Our teeny tiny town COL is also teeny tiny. Our country home had better be paid off in 15 years. But then there will be 2 education's to help pay for, then maybe 2 weddings. Guess we'll see.

Biggest worry is DH's health as we age, since his dad had prostate cancer. We have no health care bills up here, but to be a snowbird, the insurance while down south can get very high if he ever developed something.

Our biggest retirement action plan was selling our city home a year ago, DH changed jobs, and we're doing the country living thing. House prices out here were 1/2 the city, and we bought a 4 bdrm vacation home just outside Disney with the difference as our down payment. Hoping to rent it out and then sell at retirement time, then buy a little condo for the winters.

This is the theory, of course.

 

[EthansMom]

Are you waiting to hit a certain age, or a certain dollar amount? How much are you trying to save for retirement? Hoping to retire around 60-65 with about $3.5 Million put away.

Are you in a high or low COL town? Moderately high.

Will your house be paid off? Hopefully.

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement? Affording health care; having enough money to last the remainder of our lives; not being overly taxed to care for people who didn't save for their own retirement.

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster? With every pay raise, we increased our 401k contribution by half the amount of the raise (so, increase 401k cont. by 2% if we got a 4% raise). In only a few years, we had maxed out the pre-tax 401k contribution.

Now that I'm home, we contribute to a spousal IRA for me... more money for retirement and we can deduct it on our 1040 to reduce our (current) taxable income.

We also contribute to tax advantaged college savings accounts for the kids since they will be going to college shortly before we want to retire.

 

[DOPEYLUVER]

Are you waiting to hit a certain age, or a certain dollar amount?

I'm not really planning to retire. I don't really have a lot of hobbies except travelling. I would probably cut my hours.

How much are you trying to save for retirement?

Don't really know. DH is a police officer who will have a pension. I have a very small pension plan. I also plan to have income

Are you in a high or low COL town?

I think fairly high as we live in the Northeast

Will your house be paid off?

Yes we actually have a primary residence and a small vacation home on a lake. They are pretty close to each so we could see primary and live in vacation. If either of the kids are interested in buying our primary we could stay in the in-law apartment that is part of the house.

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement?

Boredom. Which is why I don't plan to retire.

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster?

No

 

[MrsPete]

Are you waiting to hit a certain age, or a certain dollar amount?
I intend to retire after 30 years of teaching; at that point I'll have earned a "full pension" and basic health care for life, and staying more years wouldn't be all that profitable for me. I'll be 57. My husband, who will be 59 at that point, intends to retire that same year.

We're not opposed to doing something else job-wise for a couple years, but it won't be full time -- halftime at the most. We want time to do more at church, to travel, and to enjoy our other many interests. Also, I think we'd both want to do something entirely different from our "real careers". This, along with my pension, would allow us to postpone breaking into our retirement funds.

How much are you trying to save for retirement?
A million between his retirement accounts and my retirement accounts. Plus my pension. And IF they don't decide to punish those who saved, maybe we'll see a little bit of social security.

Are you in a high or low COL town?
Low cost of living.

Will your house be paid off?
My house is already paid off. I don't think it's really possible to retire (comfortably) without a paid-for house.

We intend to build a retirement house (small but nice, and exactly what WE want) on family land, which we already own. Our current house isn't fancy, but it is large and solidly built, and -- most importantly -- it is in THE LOCATION, so I expect we'll be able to sell it for a pretty good amount, and that'll be -- hopefully -- enough to cover building our retirement house. If it isn't enough, it'll be close.

What do you worry the most about when it comes to retirement?
Two things: I worry about the government over-taxing those of us who've saved to cover the needs of those who've been irresponsible, and I worry about the skyrocking cost of health care.

Are you doing anything special to save for retirement faster?
No, my husband and I have been saving for retirement faithfully since we started working, and even though we've taken a beating in the last 1-2 years, we are on track to make our plans happen.

Over the next few years we'll most likely do LESS towards our retirement plans because the first of our two children will hit college, and one of our big goals is to help them graduate debt-free. We've prepared, and we're ready for these expensive years, but I doubt we'll be "upping" our retirement investments during the seven years we'll be college parents. Neither can we cut back in large ways; we've always lived frugally. When they are both out of school, assuming we stick to our plans, we'll have about eight years left to work. With the kids gone and our expenses decreased, I expect we'll really sock away some money in those last working years.

 

[neatokimmo]

Do you have a mortgage? Pay for health coverage? Our health insurance payment is more than you plan to live on for the entire year.

The 10K is just for next year. The house we are moving to is paid off but I have a second one for sale. My company pays for my health insurance.

 

[neatokimmo]

Very interesting, thanks for all the responses

I've had several things happen in the last 15 months that have made me re-evaluate what I want to do and when. A big part of it is retiring early or at least cutting my hours back so I can be a more involved Mom.