Parents of College Students

How Much Money Do You Really Need to Retire?

Most basic online retirement calculators say that you need 85 to 90 percent of your previous income in order to maintain your quality of life after you retire. This may not be the case for everyone though, advises CNBC personal finance expert Carmen Wong Ulrich. The amount of money that you'll really need to retire depends on many factors including whether you live below your means and if your mortgage will be paid in full. Watch Carmen explain the variables and how you can tell if you have enough savings to enjoy your retirement. 

http://housecalls.ivillage.com/home/archives/2009/10/how-much-money-do-you-really-n.html

How are you all planning for retirement?
How do you think your lifestyle will differ when that time comes?

My lifestyle I imagine won't be too different, because I'll probably still have to be getting up at the crack of dawn to catch fish and harvest the garden to stay out of the heat down here for my dinner ;)

WOW 90% of our income...

guess I'm not retiring anytime soon any how!

I have been thinking about changing my career to one that is not as physical. I'm in Christmas prep and installation week. I know my body can't keep running 32 decorated Christmas trees down the steps from the attic and then up ladders to catwalks and five foot shelves for display forever.  May the next career be more lucrative!

We are in that pre-retirement stage now.  We are extremely lucky & extremely fortunate that dh is a public high school teacher & is entitled to collect a public pension when he retires next year or in 2011.  He also will receive medical benefits until Medicare kicks in. 

A major problem with the older baby boomer generation (55+) is we started our working lives with employer sponsored pensions & it wasn't until our 30's or 40's that suddenly our pensions were gone & we were told to save money ourselves in a 401K.  Unfortunately, many adults failed or weren't able to save enough for future retirement.  Now that we're about to retire, the majority of older baby boomers don't have the finances to last through their retirement years.  After paying off their mortgages, college education for their kids, cars, technology, etc., the Federal Government is now in the position of what are we supposed to do esp. that the Feds don't have the money to bail us out.

Honestly, if dh did not have the pension, we would probably be in the same predicament as everybody else.  His pension will not cover all expenses, but it definitely will help.  Also we chose the option that if he should die before me, I will be able to collect on his pension.  The amount will be lower because of this. 

One thing I've mentioned here before is when we do retire & after his father dies, it would be MUCH cheaper & easier on finances if we would move to anywhere in the U.S.  We live in a suburb of New York City & you can imagine how expensive everything is here esp. housing.  I keep telling dh that we could live like kings on his pension if we move away from New York City.  His excuse?  There's no place on earth like New York.  We're both born & raised here BUT STILL he wants to retire here.  Back to being paupers.  I've checked around - Florida, Texas, the Carolinas, Arizona - get my picture - warm weather, no snow, ice, cold biting winds LOL

Kathy

  Unfortunately, many adults failed or weren't able to save enough for future retirement.  Now that we're about to retire, the majority of older baby boomers don't have the finances to last through their retirement years.

Hi Kathy,

I disagree that the boomer generation failed to save for retirement.

I believe we have actually been a generation of producers. How else did we get this high standard of living or extended our parents lives with medical advances or paid for our children to go college?

I don't think it was our generation that allowed the financiers to do away with pensions in 1978 with the 401K invention do you?

I believe if all the $ made by the lucrative financial service jobs and their corporate CEO buddies making millions more in salaries from the fees these funds created had been spent more equally on the needs of all our citizenry from energy, education, and transportation infrastructures to health care and housing; we have a strong economic base to pay for a retiring population.

Write your Congress person.