Quote:
Originally Posted by Travis Munroe
What would people consider a realistic monthly average as "quite comfortable" in retirement?
Is 5k total per month for a husband and wife with vehicles and primary residence fully paid off and roughly $1,000 in fixed costs such as utilities, property taxes, etc, considered very comfortable?
As I get older, retirement feels like the 30's version of one of those topics such as taxes that people in their 20's talk about as never having learned in the education system.
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It basically depends on what you want to do in retirement, when you retire, and how that lifestyle compares to where you are now. I have some clients who spend frugally (because they’re worried about running out of money, not because they can’t afford more) and I have others who are not frugal. Some people want to maintain their current standard of living through retirement and some plan to decrease theirs.
But as far as the “no one told me!” kind of arguments, it’s kind of ridiculous. There are dozens of options for people to get advice these days. I opened a new credit card through a new bank and they wanted to run me through a retirement discussion to get my online banking setup. Literally any bank will have this conversation with you. There are advisors all over (such as myself) who will gladly sit down with people. I think it’s more a case of people avoiding the topic than it is of having nowhere to get educated. The other factor is there is a lot of people who just think it’s all going to work out somehow without planning how. It might, but to me that’s too large of a risk and I just couldn’t take that approach.