Places Where You Can Retire on $200,000 and Feel Rich

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by redneckrob

All Federal employees hired before 1984 are in that same boat for their civil service time at least. If you lasted long enough to get retirement then FERS is a pretty good deal, it's what my dad is on. If not then you lost some years of SS contributions, but of course you didn't get it withheld either. Glad they never treated military pay that way. I got hit by Reagan's REDUX cut in retirement but luckily Clinton repealed it before it impacted me.

In a way they do, if you do 19 years and 29 days active duty, you get nothing at all.

My plan on Retirement planning was to expect that I would only be allowed one Government check, sort of like how it used to be that if you had a federal job and were Military Retired it cut your Federal Retirement and or pay.
Not sure which or how much as I was never affected.

So planning wise I never counted on SS, if I get it, it’s a bonus

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

you people make it sound sooooo hard and worrisome

Interesting how using the same amount of money some here are all positive and some all gloom and doom

People are different, how many big Cats have you seen sitting in a Marina while the person goes to work every day in order to make the payments, cause they just couldn’t live on anything smaller.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Saleen411

I never said that.....don't ascribe made up quotes wingssail. What I said was...

"If one is used to a first world lifestyle, living in a third world country can be eye opening and not something everybody would willingly do.."

As to your response about what's so great about living in the US? Personal choice mate. And when I mentioned first world, that includes A LOT of places that are NOT the US. You implied something I never said.

As to your idiot comment.....forum rules prevent me from replying in kind...not that I would stoop to your level.

I didn't quote you Mr Saleen, but if the shoe fits, wear it. And don't hold back on your true feelings, If you want to insult or offend me, go ahead. I've got thick skin and I won't report you.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I don’t really have a good handle on how any of that works to be honest, and tried to set up an account online, and after a few unsuccessful tries now receive a message that an account can’t be set up for my SS number.
So I guess one day I’ll have to go in and find out?

It can be a pain to set the account up, but once you do, it has everything about you and your social security numbers you could ever ask for. They will also mail it to you once a year, I think, if you request it.

[a64pilot]

I used to get the mailings, but haven’t in a long time.
I’m afraid I likely tripped a security thing with my stupidity trying to set it up on an IPad, I have learned many Government sites don’t work on other than Internet Explorer, at least Military sites, but they don’t tell you that, until you go in and ask.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I used to get the mailings, but haven’t in a long time.
I’m afraid I likely tripped a security thing with my stupidity trying to set it up on an IPad, I have learned many Government sites don’t work on other than Internet Explorer, at least Military sites, but they don’t tell you that, until you go in and ask.

Well worth it and advised to figure it out and then start using the calculators. I bet you have lots of time currently

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Well worth it and advised to figure it out and then start using the calculators. I bet you have lots of time currently

Bored shirtless, have some boat chores of course, but keep procrastinating them. Coolant flush is due. It’s been three years. Supposedly having a swim platform made
Etc.
It would be interesting to know what my SS will be, those years in the Army aren’t going to help I’m sure.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by KTP

There are a lot of free things in the USA that I don't know if people appreciate. Once you get to retirement age, parks are half price, some licenses are free or half price, air conditioned libraries are free, the internet there is free, most city parks are free.

How much of this do you get in these other countries where $200,000 goes a long way? How available are air conditioned lounges with good bathrooms and free internet and how much do they cost compared to the libraries in the USA?

Yes it is expensive to retire in San Francisco, New York, Miami or Seattle, but there are at least 100 places around the USA on the coasts and in the middle that are far cheaper.

A number of countries have good senior citizen discounts. Two that I am familiar with are Panama and Portugal. Panama even includes resturants, hotels, and airfare.

Individual cost of living depends a LOT on lifestyle. Choose a relatively invexpensive location, live a modest life style, and you can still live relatively inexpensive in the USA. Look at SailorChic, she's living cheap even in California.

Living large can be expensive anywhere.

[KTP]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Living large can be expensive anywhere.

Indeed.

Also, having $2,000,000 you can feel poor. Just buy a boat.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by KTP

Indeed.

Also, having $2,000,000 you can feel poor. Just buy a boat.

And/or move to "paradise". A common expat joke in Belize is "Whats the easiest way to make a small fortune in Belize? Arrive with a large one!" [emoji6]

A relevant little tune for this thread, which could likely be substituted for other venues:


https://youtu.be/B49ZY0lvXrQ

[cj88]

Just thought I'd throw this into the mix. It's the latest Cost of Living Index by country.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-livin...by_country.jsp

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

You know, there is this other thread where a cruising couple quotes their monthly budget in a wee boat. I think they are at about 2k per head.


Hence 24k per year.


Hence 200k gets burned in some 8 years.


I think in the US the retirement age is 66?


Apparently the person who wrote that piece of material has chronic cancer and intends to die at 74. Give or take.



Nonsense.


I am going to live for ever. And never retire. And I feel rich every day the sun shines, or someone smiles back at me. In a place with low criminal rates and high quality med services.



b.

If you read the article, buried down low is they also assume you have Social Security checks coming in.

Average check is $1400 per person, so an "average" couple will have $33.5k/yr in SS before touching the $200k...but wildly disingenuous to imply you can retire on $200k by itself without other assets or income streams.

PS: If you aren't beating inflation on your investments (long term), during retirement, you are doing something wrong. It's not hard and having a license doesn't prove you are any better at investing than the average joe. In fact, if you look, most managed mutual funds (ie: they have super star financial guys heading them), they almost always under-perform the comparable index.

[Mr B]

If Financial advisors were so good, Why are they still working for a living,

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I used to get the mailings, but haven’t in a long time.
I’m afraid I likely tripped a security thing with my stupidity trying to set it up on an IPad, I have learned many Government sites don’t work on other than Internet Explorer, at least Military sites, but they don’t tell you that, until you go in and ask.

If you have an old mailing and recent tax returns, it's not hard to calculate it manually with a spreadsheet. I actually prefer this because the SS estimate, assumes you will work until full retirement age and will continue to earn at a similar rate...which may not be true if retiring early.

- Set up a table by year of the SS wages.
- Go online and pull the inflation index table (it's basically a multiplier for each calendar year).
- Multiply out to get your inflation adjusted wages.
- Take the average of the highest 35 yrs (if you have less than 35yrs, average in zeros). Convert to an average monthly amount (ie: divide the average annual by 12)
- Then look up the bend points (last year they were $926, $5583).
- For monthly earnings up to $926, multiply by 0.9
- Above 926 and below 5583, multiply by 0.32
- Above 5583 to the max, multiply by 0.15
- Add up the totals, this is your minimum social security check at full retirements if you never earn another dollar and there is zero inflation between now and then.

I assume your wife is still eligible for spousal benefits, so she would get 50% of yours if she doesn't qualify on her own. If she is close to having 40 quarters (ie: jobs from before she was a teacher), it may be worth it to have her put in a year or two, so she qualifies on her own. The formula is heavily weighted towards low income earners, so even with minimal earning history, it may still be more than the 50% spousal benefit.

Now you have a baseline and can do various calculations:
- If you won't be collecting for 10yr, it's simple to at a 2-3% inflation factor to the calculated amount to get an idea of what the monthly check will be.
- If you will be working for a couple years more, it's easy to throw in estimates for how those years would change the average monthly income.
- You can add or subtract based on early or late claiming.

We then set up a second table where we can enter the assumed annual spending, ROI and Inflation. Then based on either 62 or 67 (full retirement age), we calculate the amount each year in the 401k assuming that SS offsets part of what we would pull from the 401k. At that point, it's easy to plug in various assumptions about spending, ROI and Inflation and see what they do.

[belizesailor]

Im not a big fan of these "best places to retire" articles as they are usually based on someone else's criteria (not likely the same as mine) and are often thinly veiled marketting. The article below was published by International Living (which is really just a marketting entity...so take all their info skeptically), but it is better written than the terribly bad initially posted article and does recommend some realistic places. Weve been to many of them and are currently based out of Volcan, Panama which is on their list.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/five...k&par=sharebar