01-18-2010, 11:53 AM
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: united states ohio
Posts: 1
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Re: Exactly how well do you want to retire?
Quote:
Originally Posted by 7million7years
I read an article from the Epoch Times in Australia recently.
Apparently, Australia is the country most people around the world would like to live in 20 years time (presumably, this means when they retire).
So, how well does the typical Aussie live in retirement?
AXA (the big French multinational insurance giant) questioned workers in 26 countries and here is how the Aussies perform:
The average retired Australian EARNS $1917 a month.
The average retired Australian SPENDS $1437 a month.
By my reckoning, that means that the average Aussie is living an idyllic retirement lifestyle of $17,000 a year (I couldn’t buy much more than a Big Mac and a Starbucks Latte a day for that!) …
… and, for the really big yearly shindig, they have a whopping $5,800 a year spare to spend on holidays, cars, boats, cigars! By the way, these are Aussie dollars, so take off 20% to convert to US.
The concept of an ‘idyllic retirement’ in Australia (or the US, or most Western countries) takes a lot more money than that … unless, your only passion is surfing every day!
So how do financially astute Americans compare?
… pretty similar: living off $27,000 a year in retirement, and somehow ’saving’ $11,000 for all those fine things the Aussies are also chasing!
My question is this?
When you calculated your Number, was it anything like $30,000 or $40,000 a year? I bet it was MUCH MORE. And, that’s the problem with these surveys …
... they assume that you can (or want to) live off just 70% (or even 100% or 120%) of your current salary when you retire.
Do you?
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One needs to figure out what his or her expense's are going to be and your income for SS and pensions if you are lucky to have a pension. These two numbers will tell you how much money you need saved to compensate for short fall.
I recently retired with less than million saved and still have a small house payment but my pension and SS cover 99% of our bills. Understand you may think you have lots of extra money sitting in the bank but do not take it out to buy new cars or go on crazy spending sprees. Keep it invested and live off of the interest only! Someday you may really need the money.
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