This is an age-old question posed by a couple of folks trying to plan their (early) retirement and wondering where they "stand" in relationship to others addicted to the RV lifestyle. (Wondering if we are crazy, ok, or ready-to-go!)

Question:
What is your retirement income? Or, if not retired, what is your planned retirement income?

This is a yearly figure.

Choices:
25,000 to 50,000
50,000 to 75,000
75,000 to 100,000
100,000 to 125,000
125,000 and up

 

This will be interesting to watch...

I bet you'll get some comments like "where's the <$25,000 choice?"

Cheers/Jerry

Yes, where is that <25K choice. I have NO retirement income since I am not retired or at retirement age.

To answer the question accurately, it is really "How much do you live on as a fulltime RVer?" The "income" is irrelevant - it is the cost that is relevant. JMO.

Jack,

Perhaps you missed the "OR, if not retired, your Planned retirement income" caveat.

And the actual income range does interest me as a number because I've found people generally spend the income they have. Lifestyles expand and contract with the amount of money available.

So it is a broader question than how much does it cost to fulltime. (Which the answer may be "as much as you have!). Lol.

:-)

Ahhhh... but Chuck ... you left out the largest segment of America's retired population...

Those of us who are retired and living comfortable on "Less than $25,000.00 a year"...

There are more retired Americans living with less that $25,000.00 yearly income than there are those retired with over that amount of yearly income..

Most retirees in this income bracket, like myself, are living comfortably,

While a smaller percentage, regrettably, live in poverty because of the area of the country where they live....
even though they are getting the same amount of money each month as myself and others who live is small town America..

The northeast US and specifically large cities have most of the ones living in poverty.. because of the higher cost of living there...

So place me into the "Less than $25,000.00" section who are retired and living quite well on our Social Security and Military pensions.. ....

John

Well, John, you are right. I went in thinking "couples" and 2 incomes for this poll (like DH and I), and blindly didn't take that category into consideration.

So, for those that fall into less than 25k category (single or couple), I apologize.

quote:

I've found people generally spend the income they have. Lifestyles expand and contract with the amount of money available.

That may be the way I and others lived way back in the early 60's. Living from pay check to pay check.

But I don't think the average retired person has a whole lot of expand & contract with money available.

Right now with fuel prices up & CD interest rates down there sure are not any expand going on for me.

For 2007 I spent some amount less then $25,000 by my Quicken and the amount I spent was only 35% of my income for the year. I did & had everything I wanted for the year.

Now this year or next year I may spend more. I have been thinking about getting a new car. It may be that new Smart Car. If I buy it, it will be with cash paid in full.

Did I say I have no monthly payments other then insurance, cell phone, Internet service and DirecTV.

Might be interesting to know where most of peoples funds come from.

I'm 62% pension, 15% SS, 23% investments.

I agree with Jack and some of others that the amount of income is not overly relevant. It is the expense that matters. I tend to get totally bent out of shape by all those "do you have enough for retirement" calculators that when you click on it then start with something like "you should have X% of your pre-retirement income when you retire". For me anyway, it is about my annual spending amount. I am expecting my spend this year to be about 30% of my gross income. But simplification of my life is also part of the plan. Less is more and all that. To paraphrase Thoreau, a man is rich by what he can afford to be without. Now, to find me a little pond....

To tell if I had the savings to retire I tracked my expenditures in detail for a year. Then I extrapolated an RV budget from my fixed address actual expenditures.

Extrapolate. That means guessed. I have been full time now 2.5 years. My guess was wrong partly due to wishful thinking. For example, we actually choose to stay in campsites all the time. We like hookups. I allow 750 a month for all campsite and utility cost. I generally spend only two thirds that unless I am traveling, staying for overnight, going to resort areas...It is an area we have found works well for us to save money by monthly rental. After a month, we are usually ready to move. Anyway, we don't "suppliment the budget" by weekly WalMart overnights as I thought I might.

The monthly stay saves on the fuel budget. I generally only tow a couple days a month. My persaonl fuel budget is 450 a month.

So my answer is mostly can you afford to retire early? Don't expect major change in your behavior, and allow for repairs and eventual unit replacement. IMHO you can expect to spend somewhat less that stick and brix living.

Come out and play as soon as you can. It's great out here.

I agree, it's not how much you have as income, it is how much you spend or maybe how much you would like to spend.
When I looked at how much I would need to retire, I used 80 percent of what I was spending not how much I was making.

It's going to come to do I want the same level of living I have now or do I want to curtail it, not what others are doing.

The calculators are only giving an example of keeping the same level of living, not a scaled back version.

IF you are used to eating out each weekend, movies, or other entertainment, it might not be for you if can't do that anymore and have to start buying dent sale food.

It's a matter of deciding on lifestyle after retiring, saving and budgeting for that and then add 20% on top of that of what you think you will need.

Poor/Good planing will dictate what kind of life you have after retire.

The problem with your survey is the number of responses above 50K - 4 of them and only 1 below 50K. You are clearly not judging the respondents on this board correctly. I think most would figure that you would only need one, maybe 2 at most, for above 50K and several more below.

Barb

quote:

Originally posted by Barbaraok:
The problem with your survey is the number of responses above 50K - 4 of them and only 1 below 50K. You are clearly not judging the respondents on this board correctly.

And it completely excludes those of us under 25k...yes, we are here, too. <g>

quote:

number of responses above 50K - 4 of them and only 1 below 50K.

I count 7 above 50K and 21 below