Comments on: How Active Income in Retirement Impacts When You Can Retire: Part 3

By: Zach @ Four Pillar Freedom

Zach @ Four Pillar Freedom — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 23:29:57 +0000

In reply to Matt @ Spills Spot. Thanks, Matt!

By: Matt @ Spills Spot

Matt @ Spills Spot — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 18:30:30 +0000

This was a very well done series! I never realized how big a role that active income could play for retirement savings. I think using these type of examples helps make the huge retirement number feel much more attainable for people.

By: B2

B2 — Wed, 14 Feb 2018 12:31:28 +0000

Another great post on this subject.
Lost in the usual retirement math is the available income from future SS retirement benefits. When added to savings and earned income, the whole 25 x earnings argument is turned on its head. In our case, my SS (was taken at 62) will soon be expanded by my wifes’ SS. That will be a huge bonus.

BTW, youngsters. SS WILL still be there when you retire. The retirement ages and benefits may be tweaked, but it will survive. As a young insurance salesmen in the late 1970’s, we were taught the nuances of SS benefits. Popular wisdom was that SS would not be available for us young boomers in the future. WRONG. But we did realize that SS alone would not be enough so we planned accordingly.

By: Dave @ Married with Money

Dave @ Married with Money — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 14:35:56 +0000

We spent ~$40k last year on things I’d consider normalish. I’d expect that in retirement we’ll aim for something around the 40-48 range, so our target is let’s say ~1.2M just to be safe. I actually asked my wife what her number was, and she didn’t seem super comfortable with 1.2M but I also think she probably doesn’t know that math yet 🙂

Anyway, I would love to do some part-time consulting for a few years in “retirement”. I think I could charge $75/hr, maybe $100 at that point. My goal is to work no more than 3 days a week, 6 months a year.

$75/hr x 24hr x 26weeks = $46800 = more than enough so that we’d barely have to touch our nest egg, most likely.

That’s my ‘early retirement’ plan as of now, and I think it’s semi-reasonable. Other people in similar roles in my industry are making $90-$120 an hour, so the hourly rate should be reasonable.

Thing about all of it though is that I don’t think either my wife or I would feel comfortable shifting to this setup until we have our house paid off. I don’t think either of us want to draw down our nest egg to pay for the mortgage, so we’re kind of timebound by that.

That means I’m trying to find the “perfect” balance where mortgage payoff intersects the amount of money we need to have saved.