If you had the money to retire at 30, your savings would be invested and on an average year your earnings would cover your expenses. You would have health insurance, so no worries there. The only catch is that you would have to keep your expenses at 65% of what you spend right now. Would you take it, or would you rather work a few more years for a better lifestyle and financial security?
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65% of what I spend right now. So basically 35% below paycheck to paycheck? Seems like a bad idea to me.
I’d find a comfy job that’s easy to do even if it doesn’t pay the best.
Given the rate of inflation, and shrinkflation, I don’t think it’s economically feasible for many people to survive on 65% of their income. At least, I couldn’t. Especially not with two young boys who need clothing, a metric ton of food (and growing!), plus sports, etc. nope. I’m stuck n indentured servitude for the rest of my life.
Yeah this is why I don’t have kids lol
It’s a trade off. It’s not easy either. Even when I was married and had a partner that could tag in and help me out. It’s much harder now that I’m single and I no longer have backup. It’s not like there’s an instruction manual either; each kid/situation is distinct and different.
But you know what, there are moments (more often than not) when they do or say something amazing, and it feels like the world is not such a bad place after all; because of them.
It’s not perfect. We sometimes get mad at each other. But that’s any relationship; it’s love. And I wouldn’t trade it for any amount of money in the world.
Yeah this is why I don’t have kids lol
But you should have kids for this reason. At least 5 or 6. Then hope that they care for you (or at least some of them) when you are old.
heck. health insurance is a third of my expenses as is. would take that in a heartbeat. not to mention whatever youthened me. thats just a bonus.
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This is a highly pessimistic take. 2 million dollars would conservatively yield $80,000 per year. This would place you at the 70th percentile in the USA for individual income.
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Which 70 year old does either for that matter
It depends on what you mean by current spending. I’m putting almost a third of my pre-tax income into savings already. If you mean I can live off of 65% of my default post-tax salary, sure. That probably wouldn’t change too much from my current expenses, and I would love the free time. If you mean 65% of what’s left over after my normal contributions, then that would be pretty tough. I consider my current lifestyle to be relatively frugal, so that would be very hard.
A 4% withdrawal rate is intended for a 30yr retirement when accounting for inflation, so you’d need to keep your expenses well below that, probably closer to 2%. But more importantly in my opinion this relies on the assumption of a mostly stable market, which over the course of a ~70yr retirement is riskier a bet to take compared to a ~30yr retirement.
Also what would you do on such a tight budget for ~70yr that you wouldn’t get bored of?
I would definitely pursue my dream of sitting in pointless TEAMS meetings all day.
Absolutely but after a while you’d likely run out of cheap hobbies and need more money than your 2% to fund it. The better way to do it is taking a year or two off in the middle of your career imo.
Become younger and get money? Sure.
Depends on if I could afford to own a scrapyard/pick and pull first. As a welder and machinist, thats basically a playground for me. If I ain’t working, ill still be making. Otherwise, yes. I don’t spend much now as it is, but growing my own weed would probably drop me below 65% by itself.
We couldn’t. More than 65% of what we make goes just to cover the bills, so it wouldn’t be a possibility. Even if we didn’t eat or have a car.
Would be underwater and back at work within a couple of months.
If you mean some version of 65% of our current lifestyle like magically the house shrinks and costs 65% of what it currently does, then maybe? We don’t eat out much, don’t vacation much, don’t go out much already though.
If you mean health costs all covered, and no more retirement contributions and 65% of GROSS earnings, that would actually give me almost the exact same net pay, and wouldn’t be a different lifestyle. Those things cost 32% of my earnings and taxes 15%.
So I’m not sure exactly how to think about this but in short - I am more willing to work to have a reasonably good life, than to not work and not have a good life, but have a lot of free time. I do know how to have fun for cheap, have been poor before, but I like life now better than then.
65% of what I spend rn would ne unlivable
You never know what the future holds. Much better to work now while you are in a good position to do so, than to be forced to work later on, when you have been out of the workforce for years.
If I had the money to retire at 30, I’d be so much richer than I am now that even 65% of that would still be more than I’m getting now. But if I was the kind of person who earns that much, would I be content with that? We’ll never know.
65 percent of jack shit is not enough to live on my guy.
Good point, but also my question is pointless if you are already living frugally, because that would basically be “would you like more time and money?”
Yes I would like more time and money thank you
Can I get like 3 time and 1 money and… uhhh… a chocolate shake.
I think this question varies greatly depending on your current salary, if you have dependents, and what your cost of living looks like.
