Living on my means-retirement budget

[cronewitch]

Tell me if this will work. I don't plan on saving anything because investments will grow more than I withdraw I hope.


INCOME SOCIAL SECURITY 21600
INCOME 401K 10000
INCOME RENTAL INCOME 8840
INCOME ROTH 3500
INCOME TAXABLE GAINS 3500
INCOME TOTAL INCOME 47440

EXPENSES
HOUSING MORTGAGE 7349.64
HOUSING HELOC 1200
HOUSING PROPERTY INS 900
HOUSING PROPERTY TAX 4000
HOUSING REPAIR OR REPLACE STUFF 3600

MEDICAL MEDICAL 4400

SPENDING FOOD 4800
SPENDING ENTERTAINMENT 2400
SPENDING HOUSEHOLD ITEMS 2400
SPENDING CLOTHING GIFTS SHOES 2400
SPENDING CHARITY 2400

TAXES INCOME TAXES 3000

TRANSPORTATION GASOLINE 800
TRANSPORTATION LICENSES 600
TRANSPORTATION REPAIR 600
TRANSPORTATION VEHICLE INS 1200

UTILITY CABLE 1400
UTILITY ELECTRIC 1020
UTILITY GARBAGE 450
UTILITY NATL GAS 1020
UTILITY PHONE 480
UTILITY SEWER 720
UTILITY WATER 300



TOTAL EXPENSE 47439.64
LEFT OVER MONEY 0.36

[qofcc]

$800/yr for gas $15/week, really?

[Deleted]

Tight budget. No room for travel or much entertainment.. Are yo going get bored or go stir crazy>?

[cronewitch]

My spreadsheet has inflation built in and goes until I am about 110. My income should keep up since I am taking less than 4% and so 17K out of what should be about 650K total. I want to work to 65 so this is my 2014 budget.

[achelois]

What happens if the ISO dies and you lose the rental income?

[Deleted]

She'll find another boy toy!

[cronewitch]

I don't know yet where I want to live. Maybe a suburb slightly cheaper but city services like bus and access buses for when I am too old to drive. Since I won't need to drive to work I should be able to use nearly no gas so a tank every month or so to get groceries and visit people. If I need more money I can cut the spending categories like household items.

[cronewitch]

I have the loss of ISO factored in around 2020 but expect an inheritance about 2025 and can start spending down my investments later on so will up my withdrawals if needed. When ISO dies I will inherit a small ROTH and if he plans ahead to die he will marry me one year before he dies so I can get some of his pensions. Then I could be a merry widow and find a new boy toy.

[achelois]

[Gardening Grandma]

Crone
You are doing a better job of planning than we did before retiring. You will probably do just fine. The only caution I would add is that in some years your investments will give you a negative return, so you'll have to decide whether to take a withdrawal or not. Do you have that flexibility? (my guess is that you do)

I have a regular budget, but also have a "bare bones" budget that we'd go to in bad years -it's based soley on pension,SS and rental income. No withdrawal.

[cronewitch]

I am thinking of keeping some money in buckets besides 401K, ROTH and taxable. I might have a bucket called spending money with 50K or so that I can spend in bad years instead of selling investments and my spending categories can be postponed. The 401K will have a RMD of about the total divided by 27.5 when I am 70 so if it had 275K I would need to keep taking 10K then increase as life expectancy decreased according to the chart in publication 590. So a 50K spending bucket would last about 10 bad years replacing other money.

I could replace ISO rent money with roommates renting out other bedrooms. I could probably get 800 a month from renting out rooms to other women like on golden girls. I might get more renting to men and get them to mow the lawn because I am a helpless woman and can't do hard things.

[Plain Old Petunia]

Since you're cutting back on retirement savings for the next couple of years, maybe you could get the HELOC paid off before you retire? That's $100 per month to spend however you please.

And that $1400 per year for cable could be $132 per year for Netflix.

[qofcc]

When ISO dies I will inherit a small ROTH and if he plans ahead to die he will marry me one year before he dies so I can get some of his pensions.

As a committed couple, you guys really should do some financial planning scenarios based on getting married/not getting married. With an iron clad pre-nup and no kids, you shouldn't have to worry about finances in the event of a divorce and there's probably a lot of upside financially to both of you to getting married before one of you passes. Nobody would put a gun to your head that you have to combine finances or wear a ring or even tell people.

[cronewitch]

I won't marry him if he won't die soon after. This is a community property state so if I were to die first my assets would be his except as beneficiaries were different on accounts. Then when he died my assets would go to his half sister and half brother that were born much later than him so neither of us hardly knows them. We don't even know the names of spouses and children or have an address for the half brother. I have never been to either of their homes and he is seeing his half sister now for the first time in her home. He was mad at her for 25 years or more and is trying to forgive her now that they don't have a mom anymore and she is trying to be nice.

I don't want her to inherit from me. I will leave the ISO my taxable account and ROTH but the 401K and house stay in my family.

[qofcc]

IMHO, not wanting his sister to inherit after both of you are dead is not a good reason not to get married. Many people leave a later-in-life spouse life use their home and income from assets held in trust for the remainder of their lifetime then the assets revert to beneficiaries named by the person to die first. The surviving spouse is then entitled to survivor benefits from social security and any other retirement accounts.

[stats45]

This looks great. It looks like you 'rounded up' or at least have a good amount of breathing room on many of the expenses.

[ihearyou2]

You can set things up however you want married or not married with the proper paperwork. I don't see the issue from either side.

[qofcc]

You can set things up however you want married or not married with the proper paperwork. I don't see the issue from either side.

Because she said his pension has a surviving spouse benefit. Also, unless they will be getting close to the same amount from Social Security, the surviving spouse gets to choose to keep the higher of the 2 checks. Plus, a person can choose to claim spousal benefits only upon full retirement and delay claiming under their own account. There are some financial benefits to being married, there are also benefits to being single. As 2 single people, they may each qualify for tax credits or income based programs not available to them as a couple. I'm just saying that it should be researched from both sides.

Not getting married because you don't completely love or trust the person or you don't believe in the institution of marriage or there are financial benefits to being single is one thing. Not getting married because you're worried about someone you don't like getting money after you die is not a good reason IMHO.

[Plain Old Petunia]

May 4, 2011 13:54:41 GMT -5 cronewitch said:

I am thinking of keeping some money in buckets besides 401K, ROTH and taxable. I might have a bucket called spending money with 50K or so that I can spend in bad years instead of selling investments and my spending categories can be postponed. The 401K will have a RMD of about the total divided by 27.5 when I am 70 so if it had 275K I would need to keep taking 10K then increase as life expectancy decreased according to the chart in publication 590. So a 50K spending bucket would last about 10 bad years replacing other money.

I could replace ISO rent money with roommates renting out other bedrooms. I could probably get 800 a month from renting out rooms to other women like on golden girls. I might get more renting to men and get them to mow the lawn because I am a helpless woman and can't do hard things.

These are reasons to set up a trust, not reasons to not get married.

(Not saying you SHOULD get married, just saying a trust can fix the problem of his half sibs inheriting your assets.)

[cronewitch]

I might get a trust after I get a different house and put my assets in with a life tenancy for him and allowance.

My ex and I were married more than 10 years so I can collect on his SS. My ISO and I have about the same benefit on SS so no benefit except a 255 death benefit.

My taxes are very low because I deduct my house interest and taxes and if married filing jointing would cost more for my taxes since the standard deduction is higher.

As a single he can't access my credit so he can't qualify for things he wants like a bigger boat so I have control. In a community property state he could run up bills I would need to pay. I explained to him I would be a controlling wife and he wouldn't want to be married to me. Now when he can't spend more he blames the credit union or bank not me.

I have good reasons to keep him an ISO not an SO or spouse.

[Gardening Grandma]

Crone,
You are wise...... :-). :-)

[qofcc]

now those are much better reasons

[Plain Old Petunia]

That makes perfect sense, Crone. I love your whole attitude.

[gsbrq]

Crone, you are one very smart lady. And you're a hoot, too!