How much cash to retire?

[Dave22q]

Assuming you plan to spend consistent with your recent years, compute an annual spending plan. That is your target for after-tax income. A reasonable safe rate of return of 6% lets you approximate your gross income. Some may say 6 seems high but many solid investments yield a lot better in today's market. Estimate your taxes under the current code plus 10-20% Biden hedge. Plugging in your capital will let you see if you are in a safe or risky zone.

[waterman46]

Maybe better to ask this on a financial site, but my answer is,

you will need about the same income from all sources in your retirement as you have during the last few years before retirement. You don't want to take a big step down when you retire. If you are still young, now is not the time to do such calculation because you can't know the lifestyle you will attain or your health at that time.
There's a long list of "to-do" and not to do items. The most important is to save at least 10% of your income every year. If you have to fore-go the new car, fancy restaurants, expensive vacations, then find cheaper alternatives that will make you just as happy.

[garychurch]

Figure $40-$50K for each million invested. Does not include social security. Max benefits at 70 years of age will give you almost another $50k per year. Saving should not be included due to poor rate of returns currently.

Age 70 with $2 million invested and full max social security should generate about $150,000 in annual income. With another $250,000 in savings retirement should be comfortable provided you don't have unreasonable living expenses or a high debt load.

[EmeraldCoastSailor]

If you can live on 4% of your savings you should be good.

[Terry107]

Having been made redundant at age 69 I decided to retire.I have 5 pensions 1 military and 4 work related brings in about £5kper month.Capital assets house £650.000 (not counted as thats for the children)about £125k in savings.I sail at all given opportunities.I have worked out I could easily live on £2k per month possibly less.So its not so much how much you need to retire but how much you are prepared and accept to live a life that you find acceptable.

[Off Trail]

Check out the Cruisers' Forum sister site https://www.early-retirement.org/ for endless discussion and some great advice on this exact topic.


Other great planning sites for retirement nest-egg needs are https://firecalc.com/ , which does a great job at looking at your chances of (not) running out of money, and, for US folks, http://i-orp.com


We used all of these and found the different ways of looking at the issue super helpful in deciding when to pull the trigger.

[Dougtiff]

Hear we go again, with in reason, what ever you income is, except for the 1 % or 10 ?,most of us don't have the resourses of many thousand's of dollar's per month, so make do with what we have, for myself, it's $1000 per month, because of my skill's,[rigger,ect.], it works.

[Wallaby]

Upon retirement, income is essentially fixed, relatively limited, and directly determines the ability to cruise/live-aboard. The question about how much income/investment principal is obviously related to lifestyle. I've seen people do it on $1,000 a month; while others do it on ten times that.



How many of us think about our post-cruising years, when climbing the stairs, getting in dinghies etc, is beyond our abilities? I suspect all of us sell everything, invest the proceeds, and head off, thinking the next 10 years will be great. After that, who knows/cares. Probably need to include it in the plan.



My bigger fear is running out of money and having to go back to work, or adjusting my lifestyle downward. I worry about the financial markets imploding, the US dollar falling precipitously, higher taxes, and higher prices. What if my $1 only buys 50 cents? By the time I am 75, Walmart greeters will be robots that also check masks and sterilize hands.


In the past, retirement planning was simple, and easy to calculate; all the assumptions etc were solid. Now, I am of the opinion the next market drop will make 2008 look like a bump. The Federal Reserve is totally inept, and major problems are looming. I save as much as I can from my retirement income and buy gold.

[Joli]

Pretty simple, you have to spend less then you earn to sustain retirement. The OP is the only one who can answer that question for himself.

But if I do have to guess, $10,000,000 sounds like a nice round number.

[endlesspursuit]

Well let me just say this. You don't live forever. In 2005 I was going to retire at 50 in 5 years. Then 2008 happened. So here I am at 60 finally getting ready to semi-retire. Don't dick around. Figure what you need. Invest as others smarter than me have said and do what you want to do. My only advice is invest some in real-estate that can produce some income but more importantly you can cash out in another 20 years. Appreciation in the right real estate is nothing to sneeze at. And hire someone to manage it. Takes all the pain out of owning. Have fun. "Live long and prosper."

[Bourne Free]

I just retired last year at 59 and bought my boat but I had the same question...How much is enough? It is a personal question and depends on what you want to do.

Read the Book "Retirement Income for life" by Fredrick Vettese.

[Countrypiper]

Originally Posted by Clipper4730

So question, how much cash do think you want/need to retire and be comfortable. We have several friends in our age bracket 49 me and 39 admiral who have retired completely however they are quite hazy on how much they have in the bank etc. we know their budget but we are curious to know how much is enough. Given the current state of things we are seriously thinking of bailing out and enjoying life. Assume no mortgages or other major debts a million enough 2 million just not sure. Mine is not a job you could leave and come back to at the same pay so the decision would be final. Thoughts? Just spitballing and since we can’t discuss it on the cruisers beach though I would throw it out here.

Cheers

I did a complete budget of all of our expenses (including annual maintenance and operating costs for the yacht, and berthing fees in the marina), and made sure we had at least 1/2 of that annual cost in cash to hand, no debt, new vehicles for me and the Chancellor, (including any toys, like a Harley Davidson Road King), and 50% more passive income than needed to cover our normal annual costs - I then decided to retire. It's working out OK

[SalingSue]

Originally Posted by Clipper4730

So question, how much cash do think you want/need to retire and be comfortable. We have several friends in our age bracket 49 me and 39 admiral who have retired completely however they are quite hazy on how much they have in the bank etc. we know their budget but we are curious to know how much is enough. Given the current state of things we are seriously thinking of bailing out and enjoying life. Assume no mortgages or other major debts a million enough 2 million just not sure. Mine is not a job you could leave and come back to at the same pay so the decision would be final. Thoughts? Just spitballing and since we can’t discuss it on the cruisers beach though I would throw it out here.

Cheers

How much does a vessel cost?

Well are we are talking a Walmart kayak or a new fedship?


The answer to your question depends on what you do
A home body who doesn’t buy much and moves to Thailand could live off nearly nothing
A sport car enthusiast, who enjoys the night life who lives in Santa Barbara, that’s a VERY different number

[jim King]

It really depends on your lifestyle. I met some world cruisers that lived on a 25' ancient boat and never paid for a mooring in five years and ate beans and rice everyday with an occasional splurge on instant ramen. Then there are those who live on a mega yacht and eat steak and caviar daily while staying moored to a club dock for $$$ daily. There is also the end of life question whether you want to sail until you cruise off to Valhalla alone or have a nurse attend to your needs when you cant.

[dannc]

You need to have a budget which has been mentioned.

Since this is the Cruising Forum, I assume you want to retire to or have a boat.

As part of the budget, what will be the boat expenses?

To me, that is the hardest budget question to answer.

Later,
Dan