[I_H8_Crawford]

Originally Posted by Slava

But there are all kinds of other considerations. Like prescriptions are covered, but not 100% depending on what you're on (and of course that's really not that predictable). And as far as shelter costs, it depends on what your situation is. Like fully able bodied, living in a paid off house, I can see it. But living in a condo means condo fees, and it really depends on where that is as far as what that ends up costing. Then you have that other potential burden of needing to pay for care. Yes, that could just come from the sale of your house, and certainly people do that, but there are several moving parts.

And as you allude to, a lot of people have things they want to do when they retire. It doesn't really matter what those things are (hobbies/travel/experiences), they all cost money. Travel is super common as something that my clients want/plan to do, and travel at say 65 is completely different than at 25. When you're 25 you can kind of slum it and do the "Europe on $10/day" kind of trip. People who are 65 aren't doing that; they want a good bed, they want tours and they want good meals. It's not a cheap undertaking, and that's almost any kind of travel as you age. I don't think that's a stretch to suggest that this kind of thing applies to a lot of things as people age either...they like nice things and they're not going to live forever.

And finally...don't forget about kids/grandkids. I know there are a lot of people who think "the kids can fend for themselves because I had to" and that's up to personal preference and such. I'll just say that peoples thoughts on these matters can change pretty quickly when they're in that situation and debating whether they should help their kids out with whatever the issue is.

Of course, if you're perfectly healthy, don't want to do anything that costs much money and have no kids/don't plan on helping them in any manner and things like that, $40k/pre-tax might be great.

So what is a good range for annual spend in retirement? $100K? $200K?

Just curious as to your opinion