But the title is "How much do YOU think YOU will need to retire…and at what age will you (and spouse) retire?
Interesting article here http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/rich-retirees-are-hoarding-cash-out-of-fear/ar-BBBbSCm?ocid=ob-fb-enus-618 about trying to get retirees to spend MORE. I don’t think I like the “need to retrain them” philosophy. It seems like we could learn a little from them instead!
I don’t think this article touches most of those on this thread - it is talking about a smallish segment IMHO 1/5th of the wealthiest retirees…I do think people who have worked hard and invested wisely are going to spend the level of money they are comfortable with. Most are self insured for LTC, and want high quality of care and hope to stay in own home or nice planned community.
Personally we prioritize what is important, and some fun stuff doesn’t cost a lot of money. We also want to leave for the next generation. Already being rewarded by the gratefulness of easing some of the early year struggles with offspring.
@Nrdsb4 - dragonmon’s post says it all: in addition to her savings, dragonmom needs $1-1.5M for a house (and its maintenance) to retire here in my neck of the woods…
I would not be surprised if many if not most of us on this thread are in the top 20% of wealthiest retirees. It takes only a net worth of $700,000 to be in the top quintile, and that number doesn’t include the NPV of pensions, medicare, or social security, but does include house equity (which for us is already a substantial portion of that $700k).
https://dqydj.com/the-net-worth-of-american-retirees-america-2013/
Here’s a calculator if you want to figure out your percentile:
https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-calculator-for-the-united-states/
I’m pretty sure that DW will make sure we aren’t hoarding money in retirement. B-)
Several sources have said be careful the first few years in retirement on spending, and once you find the balance with comfortable living and having one’s money last.
Affordable housing in various places. Sometimes one has to watch and take advantage of market downturn (like 2008/2009 time frame). It may also be renting something close to where you want to live and keep watching for property to come up. Sometimes one can purchase from homeowner w/o going through a realtor. Sometimes one can see the value and do whatever fix up needs to be done.
I like Zillow for watching what is going on with buying/selling of homes in a particular area.
I don’t want to do anything property wise until we do sell our residence to downsize. That means probably going into some kind of rent situation until we can make the next move.
I like Redfin much better than Zillow. The latter is not always accurate, especially when it comes to past sales data. It can list deeded transfers (e.g., to an LLC) as “sales.” Uhm. No.
We are thinking about timing our purchase of a property in California. Bull markets do last for quite a while after the real economics whatever they are run out. Even then, RE prices probably won’t go down in good markets that much in a bear market unless there is a bit of a financial crisis that takes liquidity out of the market.
We don’t have to time the sale of our East Coast house because we will replace it with another house (maybe smaller but probably not less expensive).
I found the retirees hoarding cash article interesting because we are right there, at the start of retirement after a lifetime of saving. Old habits die hard. I posted earlier that we plan to die with a dollar, but that doesn’t mean we will be profligate in these early years as we adjust to no paychecks. We’ve built a two-phase retirement where these first four years are funded by cash we’ve saved to enable us to leave our jobs earlier than our ideal retirement scenario (you know, the one where the simulator says that, barring the apocalypse, you won’t ever run out of money). The second phase begins when we start withdrawing on our investments and taking SS. I look at these first four years as retirement “trainer” years, but we will be relying on our ingrained frugality to ensure the cash gets us to that second phase. At that point, I hope we’re able to loosen up and spend in a way we’re not used to. But I doubt it will happen overnight.
^^^^I get that you don’t mean that literally, but you’d have to have a crystal ball to know when you’re going to die in order to know exactly how much you will need.
well, if Congress eliminates the mortgage interest deduction, THAT will take the hot air out of housing prices in the most expensive parts of the country.
"Prices may fall 10 percent on average nationwide, taking into account the lack of deduction for state and local property taxes, according to a preliminary estimate prepared by a consultant for the National Association of Realtors. Zandi of Moody’s said the proposed deduction changes would reduce prices by about 4 percent nationally, including the property-tax impact, with bigger decreases in pricier parts of the country.
If the government’s tax policy no longer favors homeownership, some renters may decide buying isn’t worth the hassle or expense. While buying a house for $517,000 is now cheaper than renting in all 100 markets measured by Trulia, that calculation would change under the Trump plan in 12 areas, including New York City; Portland, Oregon; and Madison, Wisconsin."
“well, if Congress eliminates the mortgage interest deduction, THAT will take the hot air out of housing prices in the most expensive parts of the country.”
Most of those buying here are paying cash or do not qualify for mortgage deduction anyway, as the itemized deduction becomes limited anyway at a certain income level (it takes an income of $200k to qualify for $600k mortgage). What would chill the market is a tariff on foreign cash, like it happened in Vancouver. I am skeptical that it would happen any time soon here. Too much aggressive lobbying for Chinese $$$. But it would make the RE more affordable for our kiddos… 
I don’t think either Congress or the White House is going to do anything that will slow our economy. Having lower general taxes will eliminate a bit of deductions, but I don’t believe they will take away the mortgage interest deduction. Home ownership expands the middle class.
What a shock, people in the business of selling houses are acting like Chicken Little and crying that the sky is falling.
Only 30% of taxpayers itemize today, and under the POTUS plan that would drop to 5%. If you are better off by not itemizing, that means taking the standard deduction puts more money in your pocket. How is that going to reduce housing demand or put downward pressure on prices? And if you are borrowing at a level that will still let you itemize the deduction, a few thousand one way or the other in taxes will not play a major role in your decision process IMO.
AFAIK, when mortgage lenders apply debt/income ratios when deciding to give you a mortgage, they do not look at the second order effects like the impact on your tax bill.
The NAR is notorious for whining like a baby whenever anyone talks about changing anything around home ownership.
It is alarming to me that 79% of US retirees have net worth under $695,000. That’s not that much to get through decades of old age, even with SS and any other streams of income.
"How is that going to reduce housing demand or put downward pressure on prices? "
“Taxpayers, however, would lose an incentive to take on mortgage debt, and buyers in expensive markets who are stretching to afford fast-rising home prices may start to re-evaluate how much they’re willing to spend.”
that’s how it would put downward pressure on prices…
fewer buyers>less demand> falling prices.
its basic economics. when supply is abundant and there are fewer buyers >prices drop, i.e
AKA a “buyers market” in real estate lingo.
take it from someone who lives in one of the most overheated real estate markets in the country…
Our real estate market here is Calif, like hot areas of Fla and NY, already has restrictions in the form of having to show where the “cash” for all cash real estate transactions actually comes from. Those requirements have reduced the # of Chinese buyers, but has not slowed down the increase in housing prices one bit.
In HI, haven’t heard any moves to show where cash is coming from–our state wants all the money it can get, even tho its pricing many of our people (young and old) out of homes in our state. The luxury condos coming up are in the 7+ figure range. 
^^Let me guess… Because tech employees (the majority of buyers in SV) can easily show where their cash came from - cashing out of their stock options. Same is happening here - Amazon, Google, Microsoft… If the stock market tanks, that would chill the buying. Not the loss of some deduction the majority of those buyers are not even entitled to.
Well, I disagree with several of your statements.
“Taxpayers, however, would lose an incentive to take on mortgage debt”
People are smarter than this, they would figure out that they (most people anyway) are better off with a high standard deduction. If your mortgage interest is high enough, the deduction would still be there.
“buyers in expensive markets who are stretching to afford fast-rising home prices may start to re-evaluate how much they’re willing to spend”
This is a total guess by people with a vested interest in keeping things exactly like they are. If prices are “fast-rising” buyers won’t stay on the sidelines because of taxes, or they risk getting priced out. There may be a few people who are stretching so close to the absolute edge of affordability that they need the tax deduction to make it work, but these people would probably run afoul of the income/debt ratios anyway.
“when supply is abundant and there are fewer buyers >prices drop, i.e. AKA a “buyers market” in real estate lingo.
take it from someone who lives in one of the most overheated real estate markets in the country”
Overheated markets are by definition seller’s markets, and these markets have an incredible shortage of inventory, which is what is driving the price up. If anything, even a hint of falling prices will keep people from selling as they wait for prices to recover, lowering inventory even further and putting upward pressure on prices. We saw this in the Boston area after 2008, when prices dropped and inventory dropped to record lows as people refused to sell if they didn’t have to. It really limited the downside of the price drop. And now the market is just nuts, it’s not uncommon for sellers to receive multiple bids way over asking. DW has a buyer who just got a house by starting at $25K over asking because they were tired of getting shut out in multiple bid situations.
I really don’t think tweaking mortgage interest deductability will flip a market from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market.
IMO, of course.