How much do/would you need to retire??

[ruggy]

Title is simple enough. How much money would you need in the bank to simply take it easy and retire? Retire, in the fact that you will still work, but do what YOU want to do and at your hours and time schedule.

 

So, people, what would you need? A paid off house? 250k, 500k, a million?

[OpenBook]

Frankly I have given up on the idea of retiring. My 401k and other investments have been decimated over the last year, and I'm currently unemployed.

 

All the hard work I've put into my career & saving money over the last 30 years, is swirling down the toilet.

 

I can't afford to retire. I'll work until I drop dead. If I can ever find another job.

[Enema]

It's not a number for me, it's 3 things:

 

1) House paid off

2) No debt

3) Passive income generating approx $100k a year after tax, increasing 5% a year.

 

I'll get there

[carhill]

Retire, in the fact that you will still work, but do what YOU want to do and at your hours and time schedule.

 

You can do that anytime, merely by doing what you love on your terms. If you're good, people will always seek you out. Live frugally but enjoyably and there ya go

 

Personally, around 1MM of residential/commercial investment property would keep me occupied and buy everything I want. My needs are simple. As the tenants cover fixed expenses and pay down the notes, cash flow can go to maintenance reserves and funding a modest lifestyle. Always something to do and, if one likes working with their hands, it's fun and profitable.

 

Hope you find your retirement path

[Glenn Quagmire]

Until a bunch of community college dropouts decided to run the subprime mortgage industry into the ground and dragging the market along with it ... my 401K, IRA and long stock holdings were poised to put me in the Bahamas by age 50.

 

Now, I'm praying at least some of my portfolio recovers to offset my losses in property equity. And my retirement has been set back at least 10 years.

 

Although, there is an outside chance Americans will rebound as stupid as ever and spend themselves into even greater debt, inflating the Dow to the 16,000 mark somewhere around 2030 and I can cash out a bit early.

[allina]

It's not a number for me, it's 3 things:

 

1) House paid off

2) No debt

3) Passive income generating approx $100k a year after tax, increasing 5% a year.

 

 

Same here. In addition, I would need any children I may have to be out of college and self sufficient.

[BUENG1]

Title is simple enough. How much money would you need in the bank to simply take it easy and retire? Retire, in the fact that you will still work, but do what YOU want to do and at your hours and time schedule.

 

So, people, what would you need? A paid off house? 250k, 500k, a million?

 

Well in the above case, I don't think you would really be retired. But in the conventional sense a paid of house and probably about 300,000(or the equivalent income for the rest of your life) depending on where I live.

[Tony T]

Title is simple enough. How much money would you need in the bank to simply take it easy and retire?

 

One hell of a lot more money than I have right now...haha!

[Lucky_One]

Assuming no outlay of college tuition and two houses paid for, I think I could possibly be very content with about $5k net coming in on a monthly basis. So if I live to a ripe old age and collect no life insurance from a partner's dying before me, I would estimate I would need.....$2.5mm in a cigar box under the bed, again assuming that I totally quit work now, collect no interest or income off the money in the cigar box, and get a small amount from Social Security.

 

I would HOPE that I could invest safely and get some positive return off my nest egg, so from a practical standpoint I could have a cigar box with much less, but these days? Who knows.

[clv0116]

I could do it now probably, but I think I would get bored. I'm considering semi-retirement supplemented by some coding contracts. The last few contracts I had were $75 an hour so I could work a few months a year to stave off boredom.

[Trialbyfire]

If I were to retire now, with no debt and a fully paid for home, living a simple lifestyle, I would need $5,243,585.50 in liquid assets that are bullet-proofed against a downward trending market. This figure factors in children and cost of living increases. It doesn't include any insane attempts to extrapolate currency fluctuations or any capital gains or dividend/interest income. The latter is intended to err on the side of conservative...

[BUENG1]

So I guess everyone would suggest a little more than the $900 I have in my 401k plan?

[Eve]

Title is simple enough. How much money would you need in the bank to simply take it easy and retire? Retire, in the fact that you will still work, but do what YOU want to do and at your hours and time schedule.

 

So, people, what would you need? A paid off house? 250k, 500k, a million?

 

Our master plan is to sell the family home in the next 5 years or so, after completing the existing mortgage and then buy a barn conversion. We should have another 5 - 10 years to pay off the new morgage as we will invest nearly all of the money gained from the sale of the family home. Then emigrate to somewhere far cheaper and buy something small and cosy outright. I will have my own practise and Hubby will potter around the garden. In our retiring days we will sell the house and divide most of it between the kids and live out our final days on a Cruise Ships.. travelling the world.

 

We hope that £600.000 + will be enough to retire on.

 

Take care,

Eve xx