Some early retirement data

[dmc]

I thought I’d look over some data to see where I’m at since I retired 11 years ago.

We currently spend 50% more than we did in 2007. This was a surprise.

Our net worth is up 66% since 2007. And this was at the beginning of the year, not after the crash.

Im going to have to look into if I take my SS next year when I turn 62. I’m thinking I will as taxes will be a concern if I wait.

So far financially things are better than I hoped. I figured if my net worth stayed stable that I would be happy.

A lot of the increase in spending was because of purchasing the plane. I did not plan that, also moving to Florida is costing us a little more as we seem to be doing more hobbies.

[Yppej]

Is the other part of the "we" still working? Or is that a royal we?

[Teacher Terry]

That is great! Enjoy your money now while you can. That’s why you worked all those years.

[dmc]

Is the other part of the "we" still working? Or is that a royal we?.

i quit just a few months before I turned 50, the wife was a few months past 50. And she is a couple of years younger so I believe she worked till 2009 or maybe 2010. She needed to put in enough years to be eligible for medical benefits. We have to pay the full amount now, but can stay on her plan. Currently it’s $1450 a month for both of us.

We both had good incomes and were saving 50% or so. And we had some good investments over the years.

And we just had our 38th wedding anniversary last week. She was a old maid of 19 when we got married. Still finished college and got her masters and specialist degrees while raising two kids.

I had just gotten out of college and had a job in Texas lined up and owned a pickup truck that my dad bought for me. She had no car and some school loans and borrowed some for the wedding.

[Teacher Terry]

DMC, glad it worked out so well. Life is work and luck and when they intersect it is awesome.

[Yppej]

Congratulations! 38 years is impressive.

[SteveinMN]

Doing well, dmc!

[Gardnr]

Congrats DMC! Great journey this has been for you and DW.

I had to go to my data for comps.

Our current year we are spending just 87% of what we did in 2007 (no mortgages are part of that). Our income is up only 15% so not keeping up with COLA. According to data, we're behind by $11000.

Our net worth is up 232%.

We are currently 57. I'm retiring at 60 (as long as I continue to enjoy my work) and DH plans to work until 65 because he loves his new IT security work.

One thought would be to put your SS into a ROTH IRA in the lower tax years?

[dmc]

I’m not sure I can buy a Roth IRA without earned income. I may take some out of my reqular IRA and do it that way, I still have to watch my tax rates.

[rosarugosa]

Yes, either you or wife needs earned income to do a Roth.

[iris lilies]

We are spending more in retirement, but it is only a guess,
I would say $10,000 more a year. Health insurance premiums change the picture, as do trips to Europe.

And then, we bought another house, so yeah, big spending changes. We are spending easily 2X our income, not including the expenditure on a weekend house. Soon I will start to draw Social Security income and that will narrow the spending/income gap, obviously.

Over the last two years our assets have gone up slightly despite spending in the red of income.

I look at our net worth statement annually, and I expect it to be down next year due to spending 2x our income and the market rise slowing.

[pinkytoe]

Congrats! Our monthly expenses are roughly half of our retirement income so I continue to sock away the savings. We have spent quite a bit on house fix up, but hoping it returns or exceeds when we sell. I would like to work very part-time but need to figure out how much it will increase our taxes if any. With new tax rules in place, it's a little unclear to me how best to invest/spend. Moving to a much cheaper city has really made a difference too on things like property tax expense.

[Rogar]

I’m not sure I can buy a Roth IRA without earned income. I may take some out of my reqular IRA and do it that way, I still have to watch my tax rates.

I'm not sure about earned income, but you can sure move funds from a traditional IRA to a Roth. I've been doing this with relatively small amounts every year since I retired.

[Teacher Terry]

We are spending more than when working. Our health insurance went from 200 month to 1k. We also are taking 2 big vacations a year so spending between 10-14k year on that.

[Gardnr]

Yes, either you or wife needs earned income to do a Roth. My bad. Didn't think about that.

[Yppej]

I having always felt I am doing so badly, but saw on the news the average family retirement savings at 65 is $60,000. (The story was about rising rates of senior bankruptcies). Barring further hiccups in employment I should be able to hit that average before 65, and that as a single.

[Rachel]

Good on you and your wife, dmc! This kind of data is fascinating. I would love to see a lot more posts here, maybe even a book with different people describing their finances and lifestyle 5-10 years post retirement. Helps those of us who are looking at that retirement date from this side of the fence (still working).

[sweetana3]

We have been retired about 10 years (retired at 56). Expenses are still low since we are well trained to continue being frugal. Changes are to contributions which have been raised and maybe the number of trips but not the total average cost of travel each year.

Husband continues with his 6 day a week volunteer capacity with Habitat for Humanity which keeps him in town (no snowbirding or really long trips) and two other groups.

Net worth has actually doubled since we retired. No plans in place to change anything. Might change our oldest car but only because of all the new safety features. I am doing less and less driving though.

[dmc]

Before I retired and till just a few years ago, I would track all my spending and net worth. We never really budgeted, but it let me know how we were doing. I believe it helped as i was able to see how our investments were doing and making sure our spending wasn’t getting out of hand.

Now I just keep track of our investments, it’s a lot easier to do. Now after 11 years I know unless there is a total economic collapse, we will have plenty.

I don’t know exactly how much we spend these days, I know its a lot more than when I was working. But I know it wouldn’t be difficult to cut back if need be, but there is no reason to. We do and buy pretty much whatever we want these days, within reason of course.

[iris lilies]

Before I retired and till just a few years ago, I would track all my spending and net worth. We never really budgeted, but it let me know how we were doing. I believe it helped as i was able to see how our investments were doing and making sure our spending wasn’t getting out of hand.

Now I just keep track of our investments, it’s a lot easier to do. Now after 11 years I know unless there is a total economic collapse, we will have plenty.

I don’t know exactly how much we spend these days, I know its a lot more than when I was working. But I know it wouldn’t be difficult to cut back if need be, but there is no reason to. We do and buy pretty much whatever we want these days, within reason of course.


We tracked but didnt “budget” either. I have never “budgeted”, i guess because I like money too much.