Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Question for retirees

I'm a couple of years away from hanging it up for good, but I struggle with how to realistically estimate my "expenses" in retirement. We are totally debt-free and own our home and autos free and clear.

Categorically I have tried to divide our projected living expenses into monthly essential spending: (food, fire/vehicle/health insurance, utilities, public services, home upkeep, and giving.)

After that is discretionary spending: TV, internet, hunting/fishing trips, vacations, holiday spending, and grandmother mad money.)

When you were trying to put together a realistic budget before you retired, did you end up being too conservative, or not conservative enough (as far as projected monthly expenditures?) Also, what did you do to adjust?

Being, politically, financially and religiously conservative, our retirement was very much planned in advance, as was our earlier life.

We owned our home, free and clear, always bought new vehicles and paid cash for them and I owned a retail business that was very successful (no debt whatsoever.) Very boring to some, but that's the way Karen and I are.

About three years before we retired, we started setting up a graph of expenses; taxes, food, clothing, electricity, garbage, home maintenance, pocket money, a new vehicle ever few years and such ... over a couple of months, we couldn't believe how many divisions there were. In about a year, it became obvious that there was the another element ... the absolutely, unexpected expense that would raise its ugly head (a plumbing job, new electric box ... stuff like that).

Anyway, after three years, we had a decent handle on what our YEARLY expenses. Then, we added 20% for every year in the future.

We retired fully at ages 48/49. We are now ages 72/73.

True, we've had a fabulous bull market and I've done a competent job of managing our stock portfolio, but our original graph, plus the 20% added every year has done us well. Also, the home we bought 52 years ago is still very adequate for us.

Over those years, we've managed to hunt our butts off across the western states and Canada, plus two long African safaris.

Our plan was generous enough that it allowed me to donate all of the money I made in gun-writing to fund the Steve and Karen Timm Endowment Fund at our Catholic parish grade school ... quite literally, the gift God gave me in writing was "played forward" to pay for the education of children who could never, ever afford it. And that makes us feel very fulfilled in life.

It all takes planning and the will to be happy with your life that is kept within the bounds of your income.

Invest well, invest long, buy for long term and simply enjoy life to the max.

And don't wait too long to retire. After too many horse and elk rodeos, Karen's and my bodies are pretty busted up.

Best of luck with your plan ... it can be done and quite successfully.

God Bless,

Steve

If you thought waiting on payday was long before...

Work as long as you still enjoy it/your body tolerates it. Being retired for thirty years is entirely possible. Talk to your money guy about his Social Security worksheet. Starting too early cuts potential money recouped to about half.

2 cents

Essential spending, add 15% for repairs and other surprises.

Discretionary spending, double it then add 50%. Being retired is more fun than you can imagine. Our last 4 day excursion took 9 days. You must have a 4wd vehicle so you never have to pass up a dirt road that may lead to something interesting.


mike r

While you are working, assuming a 9-10 hour day counting commute, during those hours you are earning $s.

After you retire that 9-10 hours will be filled with something, and it will likely COST.

Do not forget to factor in the additional 'play' time.....

It's okay to start planning in your twenties and thirties.

Pay your bills, buy the essentials and the play with 60% of what is left. Keep the other 40% for the sheit that always happens when you least expect it.

My wife and I retired at 65/64 from owning restaurants. Prior to that she was a teacher and had an excellent retirement plan. We also have everything paid in full. We found that without changing our lifestyle at all, we use about 75% of what we did before retirement. The one bit of advice I would give is to make sure you are really ready to retire. The first six months were great...then, even with travel, parties and projects...you will have a lot of time to fill. As agazain said, work as long as you still enjoy it. It sounds like you have your finances well planned. Time will be the variable. Too much of it, rather than too little.

You didn't mention where your income will come from. One thing not on your list is taxes - of all stripes.

I used Fidelity's (and others offer the same I am sure) modeling tool five years before I thought I would retire. It was quite detailed with expense breakdown. I retired two years sooner than planned at 53. The only debt I have is on my primary residence (2% money is cheap to invest), owning the properties in Idaho, automobiles, etc. I am fortunate in that I have a pretty healthy pension coming each month and my health care is pretty reasonable ($400/mo for a family). I also do have two boys in college. As such we do take a couple of thousand a month to cover these costs. We just this week withdrew out first chunk for planned upcoming travel. My net worth is significantly higher now than when I retired. Bottom line, it has been fine for us. Do keep in mind that when you hit 70 or so your discretionary spending will likely fall a bunch.

I retired this past April at age 66 + 2 mo.. I waited until 66 so I could keep med. & dental on me & the wife a bit longer and I now get over 400 bucks a month more from S.S. than if I would have retired at 62. Also have a pension from a former employer that kicked in at 62. I've known my financial advisor for many years and she's been invaluable to me because I know nothing about these matters. She told me I could quit last Nov. but my employer offered a 2 day a week part time gig so I did that until this past April. We don't have any big debts and my wife would be financially good even without me. But I feel that having someone who really knows the retirement financial game is key, along with starting to prepare for retirement early. About the only financial thing that we didn't factor into the planning was that I now spend a lot more time in gun shops or shows than I used to and you know what can happen with that.

Excellent point. I am on my second read of a very good book entitled "The New Rules of Retirement Second Edition" by Robert C. Carlson. He elaborately goes through all the taxes a retiree faces. I had no idea. He is the one that recommends reading the "Family Bank Strategy" that I was discussing in the thread about Term Insurance. It helps solve some of those extortionary tax issues.

We spoke with a retirement counselor. Best 1200.00 we could have spent. At 49 and still two kids in college I was worried
to say the least. Been retired for 2 years now and no regrets..

It will take as much as it is now plus money to spend since your aren't going to be working.

I would make sure that State where you are going to live in retirement has a tax burden (property tax, sales tax, and income tax) that is reasonable.

The only mistake I made in my financial planning was in interest rates paid on CDs. I missed the drop they took in 2000 or so by a bunch.

The stock market tanked in 2000 to some degree, recovered and tanked again, and then took off. You can't predict the market well as most all of the stock analysts missed it too. You need to have a well balance portfolio that changes as you age and reflects your risk tolerance for the years you have remaining.

I would also add, as others have noted, it helps a great deal to have no debt and to avoid it as you go along.

After a few months of retirement I found myself asking "how did I have time to work?". 18 years later it is still a valid question.

Does anyone have a guaranteed annuity to take care of your essential bills? Alot of my friends and neighbors have some annuities.

I didn't have a choice. Vertigo and heavy haul truck driving are not compatible. I retired at 62 on SS alone. We are still alive, still having fun, and still loving retirement.

That is encouraging news Scott.

Retired at 57 with no planning whatsoever. Just had enough and said, this is it. Eleven years later....no regrets. Life is good.

Every day is a Saturday when you retire.