[Cliff Fr]

How do the majority of workers who have hardly any savings and only social security ever retire? They also have no civil service pension or military pension.

[vintageogauge]

Yes, you can retire with one Million in savings/investments but do you want to live on a tight budget in a Historic District Mobile Home?

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Cliff Fr

How do the majority of workers who have hardly any savings and only social security ever retire? They also have no civil service pension or military pension.

Very poorly. One million is not enough to live a comfortable life style without worrying about running out of money

[RRGuyNJ]

I know a guy that was forced into a disability/retirement at age 49 (late 2009). They had roughly $400K saved in investments. Moved to NC for lower taxes and cheaper home. After the move they were mortgage free in early 2010 and broke the $1 million mark briefly in 2022. They now go on at least one, month long vacation per year plus a month in The Villages. (I'm jealous) The mortgage is what could bite back depending on the amount. Be careful, do your math and good luck. Enjoy retirement, especially if you are healthy!

[kkimball]

As others have stated, the answer depends on your other sources of income and your expenses -- including healthcare.

Not that I recommend taking the advice of just anyone one YouTube, but the guys are Root Financial have good advice and for a small one-time fee, you can get lifetime access to the RightCapital retirement planning tool.

You can enter your financial details into RightCapital and it will give you ***some*** idea of what to expect from your retirement savings.

Search "Root Financial" on YouTube. Both James Canole and Ari Taublieb have great videos and offer access to RightCapital using the link in their video descriptions. Before paying any money, watch some of their videos on how to use the platform to see if it's something you're comfortable with.

[Craig Vernon]

If you have no debt and can cover your medical expenses within a reasonable monthly budget related to your current income absolutely yes. I am not sure who these folks are on here but a million dollar savings is top 5% of savers in the United States regardless of age. The one killer to any savings plan is long term healthcare need or assisted living requirements. Working away healthy years in defense of the unknown is truly what you need to weigh. Good Luck in your individual decision.

[Justputt]

Originally Posted by AMB444

No real estate so need to pay mortgage.

Let's say this person is not yet 65.

There are places in the US that can be cheap to live in that are nice in their own way. If you were debt free (no mortgage, etc.), healthy with no family history of illnesses, planned on living a simple lifestyle, maybe.... I'm over 65 so I have Medicare, but my wife is under 65 and her crappy insurance via ACA is $1000/mo. If you both need insurance, that's $2k/mo assuming you never get sick, injured, or need meds. With $1M, if you follow the 4% rule, you can take $40,000/yr and of that, $24k/yr is going to health insurance, leaving you $16k to live off (food, gas, cars, homeowner insurance, etc.) plus whatever you get from Social Security. HOWEVER, you aren't at full retirement age so your SS payments will take a hit. You still have a mortgage, so, IMO the writing is on the wall, and you need to keep working, pay off debt, SAVE and not waste money, until you're both at least 65. Ideally, pay off the mortgage unless you plan on selling the house and downsizing or otherwise moving into housing that can be paid off with the equity in your current house. Most banks offer you free retirement planning, as well as other investment PROFESSIONALs, so use it.

[kkingston57]

Originally Posted by vintageogauge

Yes, you can retire with one Million in savings/investments but do you want to live on a tight budget in a Historic District Mobile Home?

Wife and I received $5500 a month in SS and have no mortgage. If we spread out the 1 mil over 30 years it would give us 30K a year and that does not include interest. 96K a year will pay for a lot more than the Historic District.

[kkimball]

Originally Posted by kkingston57

Wife and I received $5500 a month in SS and have no mortgage. If we spread out the 1 mil over 30 years it would give us 30K a year and that does not include interest. 96K a year will pay for a lot more than the Historic District.

Don't forget to include inflation in your calculation. $30k in 30 years will only be worth $12k assuming 3% average inflation.

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

$1M to live on? Not even close to live comfortably. If you want to live like a hermit, watch every dime you spend, and hope there is no recession (there always is and can last a couple of years), then yes, you could get by.

Comfortably??............depends.......

$75,000/yr pension, plus $30k SS, plus $1mil savings = Comfortably.

[jimhoward]

Prices double about every 10-15 years. SSI only goes up 3% or so per year. Large unexpected unbudgeted expenses happen to everyone, notably medical, but other things too. Those can kill your savings.

Its easy math to add SSI to assumed draw on a $1M nest egg, and say hey I can live fine on that. But it won't necessarily work out that way.

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by kkimball

Don't forget to include inflation in your calculation. $30k in 30 years will only be worth $12k assuming 3% average inflation.

And the calculations don't include taxes.

[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by Cliff Fr

How do the majority of workers who have hardly any savings and only social security ever retire? They also have no civil service pension or military pension.

Don't eat out much. No vacations. Groceries from Aldi instead of Publix, and rice/beans instead of steak. Inexpensive housing, shared if necessary.

It can be done, since most people have to do it. The Villages is not the real world.

[rsmurano]

I don’t care what others do, what they have in pensions, SS, expenses, all I care about is to be in a financial free state which means:
“having enough income, savings, and investments to cover your expenses and live comfortably without relying on a traditional job or feeling financially stressed“, and IMO, that requires a lot more than $1M, more like $3M or more.
If you get into your 60’s or later, you want to enjoy life, do the things that you couldn’t do while you were working. I have friends that go on 20 cruises a year, something they couldn’t do when they worked. I like a brand new car every 2 years. Remember we also pay $10-$15k a year on house expenses like real estate taxes, bond payments, home insurance, car insurance, umbrella insurance, new roof every 15 years for $20k, and everything else we need, not want. The wants can even cost more: a few cruises, a couple other week long trips, plane tickets, and now you are spending $25-$30k a year.
Also remember, if you only have $3M in investments and it was 2007/2008 being retired, now your portfolio is $1.8M and a 4% withdrawal is less than $80k a year.

[manaboutown]

IMHO a couple over 65 needs $3-5M in investible assets in order to live a relatively worry-free upper middle class comfortable retirement. If one's SS is on the high side, $2500+/mo and one has a good solid pension $3M should easily work, otherwise $5M would be safer. Under these conditions the money needs to be sensibly invested and capital not invaded for extravagant living expenses.

My brother has in-laws who literally have no savings whatsoever except a hoard of gold acquired over many years and some collectible guns. They have lived high on the hog, large primary and vacation homes, a motorhome, a boat and so on but they have very solid pension income of $200,000 per year.