<p>Igloo- if you are in NJ that type of assessment is illegal if I understand what you are saying. I believe there was a court case in Summit that outlawed basing the assessment on what the new owner paid for the home. The assessment had to take into consideration the town ratio not just the purchase price.</p>
<p>Hmmmm⊠I thought I posted this. Averages from 2009. </p>
<p><a href=âProperty Tax Rates By State 2023 - Tax-Rates.orgâ>http://www.tax-rates.org/taxtables/property-tax-by-state</a></p>
<p>4 percent of market value is insane.</p>
<p>tom, I am not in NJ unfortunately. Itâs not necessarily market value since people stay in their house for a long time and real estae was appreciating. My house doubled in value over the 20 years since we moved in. I donât know what they did after 2008.</p>
<p>Igloo, a 4 percent property tax rate is probably the highest in the country.</p>
<p>If home prices doubled in 20 years, the appreciation is less than the property taxes.</p>
<p>^Good point! I think we should move.</p>
<p>You better live in an awesome mind blowing place. :)</p>
<p>4% property tax sounds pretty awful. I think where I live itâs 2.08% or something like that and Iâve heard a lot of complaints about how high it is.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Thatâs part of the reason large parts of Detroit are abandoned. </p>
<p>How much money in the assets is considered as enough by YOUR family when you retire? Half a million? 1 million? 1.5 million? Assume that you do not have pensions but will have moderate amount of social security income in retirement?</p>
<p>When I said âit is enoughâ, I meant that you can find some cheaper place in US to have a comfortable living in your retirement years.</p>
<p>I think 1 million in accumulated assets (assuming that it is mostly before-tax, like the money in 401K or deductible IRA) at retirement may be enough. (Not that our family could reach that goal in our life time.) But I think 0.5 or even 0.75 million may not be enough - unless a paid-off house is not included in the assets.</p>
<p>To me when I say I have enough to retire on, I mean I have enough assets to generate the amount of income I think I need to live on, be it $50K, $100K, $250K or even $500K per year without the need of withdrawing any principal in my lifetime.</p>
<p>Depends on the income, expenses, how long is retirementâŠrate of return and inflation.</p>
<p>$750,000 can work. $50,000 in income including SS. $50,000 in expenses. 30 year retirement. Excellent chance you are ok.</p>
<p>We pay property taxes of a smidge over 4.5% of assessed value. It is absolutely a killer in the budget. However, I have to say that the schools are very, very good. Everyone except the very, very wealthy send their kids to public schools and they do fine. </p>
<p>Many (not all) of the ĂŒber wealthy send their kids to private schools, but the reasons Iâve heard have less to do with any perception of better quality, and more to do with buying the private schoolâs clout in getting into the ivies. </p>
<p>I guess the high property taxes can be worth it if you can send your kids to great public schools.</p>
<p>4.5%? That is tough.</p>
<p>I live in the west coast. It is hard to tell who went to what college. </p>
<p>I see Stanford grads marrying people who did not go to Stanford. I donât think these Stanford grads are marrying dummies. :)</p>
<p>@cbreeze, why the reluctance to draw down principal but willingness to take out interest and dividends? Please take a look at <a href=âYour Retirement: Dividends Or Capital Gains?â>http://www.forbes.com/sites/billharris/2012/09/26/your-retirement-dividends-or-capital-gains/</a></p>
<p>Among other things,
</p>
<p>Tomorrow DH and I will start a Finances / Retirement Planning class held at the Community College. It will be 3 consecutive Thurs nights. </p>
<p>He gets a lot of flyers for this kind of thing now that he is is 59. We picked this one because it claims no selling, and the modest fee ($50) for 3 nights covers both spouses and materials. We turned down a few with free dinner to avoid a pressured sales pitch. At this point we just want education and talking points for home discussion. Ha, as if this thread does not already provide enough talking points 
</p>
<p>Sounds like a good planâ3 nights for 2 people with materials and lecture should give you sufficient info to at least figure out what and if you need anything else. I hate pressured sales pitchesânot attractive to me at all. I rather choose how we spend our time than have some over-priced dinner in a room full of strangers. </p>
<p>We did a similar class a few years ago. That got us in gear for some preliminary steps⊠like arranging Long Term Care insurance, writing wills. It also gave us a free (no pressure) 1 hr consultation. which helped us feel we were on track for retirement savings. This one will have some repeat info and some new topics too. </p>
<p>
This is assuring. Even if we may not get there, we could be not very far off.</p>
<p>I notice many in California have had a lot of equity built up in their house. If the housing market is good when they retire, they can sell the house - assuming that they are willing to relocate to a cheaper state or area. They could have accumulated quite large assets just because they own the house for a long time.</p>
<p>What works against us is that, after we finish paying childâs education, we do not have many years to pay into our retirement account. We have a small pension (only slightly over 10000 a year. We think the SS may be 2500 to 2800 a month including the spousal SS amount. But it is not possible for us to have IRA/401K accounts as large as 750000 before we retire.</p>
<p>Mcat2, I dont know how much you are going to spend. For a retirement of 30 years, with a 10,000 a year pension and SS of 2500 to 2800 a monthâŠif you spend 50,000 a year when you start your retirementâŠyou probably wonât need $750,000 unless there is a health problem⊠Like dementia. $600,000 may be more than enough. No guarantees though. Canât predict the future. </p>
<p>Some retirees work a little during their earlier retirement years. There are millionaires working at retail stores part time. I know a couple. 
</p>
<p>Most people do not have a net worth anything close to $750,000. The net worth is much less. College confidential skews wealthier than the rest of society. </p>
<p>If people have a lot of equity in their homes they may have more choices where to retire. Depends. They may be house rich and everything else poor. </p>
<p>@IxnayBobâ, that is just a simplistic easy to understand explanation.
Principal does not mean all in securities and generated income does not mean just dividends and interest. Like any diversified portfolio, it could mean income from an established business partnership and rents from debt free triple net commercial real estate.</p>