<p>When I worked in hospice, I probably visited over three dozen different nursing homes over the years. Some were better than others, but one thing I learned is to never judge a book by its cover. Some of the places where better care was taken were not the sparkly, new places with all the amenities. In fact, I’d say, of two of the best places I visited, they both took Medicaid. Visiting so many nursing homes made me realize a lot of it is about your attitude. Residents with a good attitude had much better experiences than those who didn’t. </p>
<p>according to that video, 7.3% of seniors live with adult children. </p>
<p>but most seniors don’t want to live under the same roof as their children, but want to live in the same city, so they bunk up with other seniors.</p>
<p>I expect my dad will probably move in with either me or my sister within 10 years (probably with whoever lives in the warmer place), but probably not for lack of money, but because he’s lonely and has nothing else to do. I don’t have a problem with that myself if I have a house with a room for him or anything. My mom’s dad moved in with us a few months after I was born. It seems normal to me. And we are American. </p>
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<p>1.8M/2014 dollars to retire at age 50 is a number I made up because you can draw 50K/2014 a year which should be enough money, and the account balance will diminish very slowly with real 2% returns, leaving you with plenty of money for unexpected expenses.</p>
<p>Doesn’t seem absurdly unrealistic. 30K/2014 at age 23, 31K/2014 at age 24, and so on increasing 1K/2014 a year until age 50 with 4% real returns is about 1.8M/2014. Especially if you don’t have many kids. </p>
<p>1.8M/2014 (probably about 3.5M/2040) is gonna be my goal for age 50 I guess at least. </p>
<p>My parents were both retired when they were 44 and 46. They’re gonna live longer in retirement than they lived working. Sounds like the right way to go. For them combined they had a net worth of about 1.5-1.6M/2011, and that seems to be about the minimum you can really be secure with and live comfortably, though that’s for 2 people. </p>
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<p>I’ve seen this before and it makes a grand total of not a single bit of sense to me. If someone’s saving 20% of their income, they’re already not spending more than 80%. If they don’t have to go to work, transportation costs go down. If they don’t have to live near work, housing costs go down. If they’re not saving 20% they’re gonna have to work a long time. </p>
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<p>Takes a lot of inflation to go 1 year from needing 30% of your income to needing 80% the next. At 2.5% annual inflation, it would take about 40 years for that jump to occur. It’s hard to talk about anything without stating the year of the money though.</p>
<p>I’ve given some thought to this, within the context of some personal experience with an in-law.
Given that nursing homes want to charge a posted price of 6-12K per month, I just don’t see how they can make ends meet without taking medicaid. There aren’t enough people out there with enough savings to last very long at the private pay rates. (I believe the most highly “taxed” people in the country are private-pay nursing home residents. Their tax is the extra amount they pay to make the numbers work out because federal medicaid reimbursements and regulations don’t work out financially.)</p>
<p>@Vladenschlutte - remember that you will suddenly have a lot of time on your hands & need to fill it. Some of the ways I plan to spend my time in retirement (travel, movies & theater, visiting museums, eating out, pursuing hobbies) will cost a fair amount of money that I’m not spending now.</p>
<p>“I have told my kids that my money is to be spent on me. I don’t care if my kids receive no inheritance because I’ve given them everything they needed and they agree.”</p>
<p>I am hoping to leave money to my kids. My generation benefited from much more fortunate conditions. Housing prices have exploded over my adult lifetime. A $90K starter house in 1980 has turned into a $1M house now (two houses, but not that much difference between their values in the 1990’s). This means that my kids’ generation will have a very hard time finding affordable housing. It was relatively easy to get jobs out of college when I was young, and to establish oneself in a career. SS will probably be there, and not means tested, for at least part of my retirement. It is a high priority for me to help my kids, and I would be happy to have a lower standard of living in retirement in order to do so.</p>
<p>LTC Ins - see who is licensed in your state and then look up if company is solid. Start with best companies and see what their insurance is.</p>
<p>Another route is using an insurance broker to sift through.</p>
<p>Insurance licensed through your state has state protection - for price hikes etc.</p>
<p>On term insurance, Dave Ramsey advertises Zander Ins - and we found great term ins there. I am planning on replacing a policy we have had and I think we can do better with Zander.</p>
<p>I am considering term ins on 18 and 20 year old kids - to have in place for them. In their young years they will not get, and you never know. We could use the money to honor them in some way if something happens.</p>
<p>I am looking to get back to work so we can fix up house, so when it is time to retire and move, the house will be ready over time and not major stress all at once. I like the poster who has a plan over each weekend to whittle away at lining up contractors and various workers.</p>
<p>The more we think about these things, the more we can respond to what is going on around us and have our actions help us with retirement money being available.</p>
<p>OP has everyone thinking about expenses and how we want to live in retirement.</p>
While this is true, right now the trend is toward less tax for estates; my state, Maryland, just enacted a new law that will increase the size of an untaxed estate until, in 2019, it will match the federal level, which should be about 5.9 million by then. Also, the federal law, and now Maryland, allows unused levels from one spouse to carry over to the other, meaning that the real untaxed level will be over $11 million. So the benefit of having life insurance proceeds be untaxed isn’t likely to be a big deal for many people.</p>
<p>By the way, according to what I just looked at online, I might be able to find term life insurance that’s a lot cheaper than what I’m paying. So it’s worth a look, if you’re deciding whether to continue with life insurance or not.</p>
<p>I have told my parents to please spend my inheritance. I don’t want them to go without or have less pleasure in their golden years. I certainly want them to have the best medical care. I want them to have wonderful experiences of travel and comfort in the years they have left. They worked hard and made many sacrifices for me as I was growing up. At some point, they deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labor to the fullest. </p>
<p>My siblings may not all agree, but that’s how I feel about it.</p>
<p>@sally305, I am divorced. And love my life right now. I like being able to plan my own retirement and make all the decisions, too.</p>
<p>@Hunt, glad to hear Maryland is changing their estate tax, but I wish they would also do something about their 10% inheritance tax. I am considering a move to the DC/Baltimore area – but do not want to give up that much of a bite of my expected inheritance when my parents die.</p>
<p>A couple of things to consider - a million in a 401k or regular IRA is not a million in the bank. You have to pay taxes, and while your income will be lower than pre-retirement income, the rates may have gone up. Also a significant aspect for people relying on defined pensions is whether or not it’s fixed or keeps up with inflation - ours is fixed, but it’s not a significant part of my planning because it was frozen years ago and it’s under a grand.</p>
<p>Health worries me more than money mainly because I’ve never been really sick or dependent and am not sure I can handle it. Earlier generations had a large support system within the family who took care of people like my grandfather who was pretty much cookoo for the last ten years when he was well into his 90s, or others who were bedridden or otherwise physically disabled, but were mentally OK.</p>
<p>LTC - Yep, current plans are not as good a deal as those from 20 years ago. And…it probably won’t cover a nursing home. Our hope is that it will cover home care that keeps us in our own home. </p>
<p>Original question: Enough to live on 100% of our current lifestyle cost (minus the college tuition), we have no mortgage or debt-We were surprised to see the states that are retirement friendly (live in one). We live well below our means so this will not be an adjustment. It has been comfortable however. Age ? possibly 60 and 64. We shall see.</p>
<p>What I would really like to do, is definitely retire by age 60 (maybe earlier), with no debt at all. It might be a fantasy to think we could pay off the mortgage by then. And then live off of our pension and savings alone, leaving our 401Ks and Roths to grow, only withdrawing the RMD from the 401K at age 70 1/2. That might be a fantasy, but it’s a goal.</p>
<p>@sally305 I’m also divorced and happy with my life. I’m not sure whether I’ll feel differently a few years after the kids are gone though. Facing the empty nest is making me question whether I’ll remain content alone. Although, I also have a very difficult time considering living with someone else too because I’m pretty set in my ways and appreciate my alone time. </p>
<p>I’m quite confident I won’t need anywhere near 2 or 3 million to retire. I did some figuring as a result of this thread and in my 25 years in the work force, I have made just barely over a million. If I raised two kids paying day care and college tuitions, food and clothing for three, etc. on much much less, I don’t think it will be a problem in retirement. </p>
<p>For me the 85% number didn’t make a lot sense either. However when presented as a one size fits all number it probably does make sense. The savings rate in the US is abysmal and the average assets per household is also pretty abysmal … so most retirees are going to living in retirement almost totally on their retirement income … so it then makes sense that if they want to live essentially the same life style they would have to make essentially the same income.</p>
<p>For Mom3ToGo and I it really does not make any sense. Our finances from 30 to 55 went something like this.
16% = Mortgage
8% = 401k/403b
6% = 529s</p>
<h2> 4% = IRAs</h2>
<p>24% = Social Security … this is not the SS tax expense … but what our expected payments would be</p>
<p>We’re somewhere around 66% before considering SS which takes us down to about 42%. The one thing that could botch this all up is a serious or long term health issue.</p>
<p>PS - we timed things to pay off our mortgage just as FirstToGo started college so you could switch the mortgage payments to college payments without changing our lifestyle. When we finishing paying for ThirdToGo college bills we will get the biggest raise we will every get!</p>
<p>A potential reason for many parents to be unable to pay off their mortgage is: They move before they pay off their mortgage. I heard that on average, Americans move every 5 years. When the mortgage is 30 years or 15 years, it is not easy for many to pay off their mortgage before they need to move to a new house.</p>
<p>An alternative is to stay put. Let the children attend whatever school they could conveniently attend. If the parents can only afford a house in a not so good school district and can not afford a private school, they could just said: “sorry sons or daughters. This is the only (elementary/middle/high) school you could possibly attend. We won’t jeopardize our retirement plan just because you want to attend a “better” school.” Is thos what the parents should do?</p>
I like being able to plan my own retirement and make all the decisions, too.</p>