Sorry, hit a nerve. I apologize, would delete my comment but can’t
I dont hear much judgement here at all.
I realize that many CC families are so way above middle or upper middle class (ie our family).
Guess I’m just surprised that $5 million is a realistic goal for many.
I’d be happy to be able to obtain that size best egg, isnt going to happen and I’m not jealous.
Just surprised.
I’m proud that we also worked hard over 40+ years, made wise decisions in housing, vacations and saving. Luckily our needs will be covered with 1/5 size egg, retire health insurance and no debt.
In suburban NYC, no less.
Let’s celebrate everyone.
Said it much better than me @musicmom
We consider ourselves very fortunate that our older S and his family (wife and toddler) still want to travel with us. This year we will be skiing with them (which translates into we’ll be rotating babysitting and slope time, but that’s fine as I want grandbaby time). Younger s’s wife doesn’t like to ski, so the last trip we all took (briefly) together to the slopes earlier this year will be the last. That makes me sad, but I understand. Not sure the family holiday together is really part of our retirement budget planning, but for now, we cherish every minute they share with us.
I’ve read in a few places that people anticipate they’ll need more money at retirement for travel and such, but in reality, especially as they age, they travel less, not more.
Regarding family travel- my Inlaws have over the years funded many wonderful travel experiences for the whole family. Sometimes it’s all of their children, spouses and grandchildren and other times it’s just one family at a time. Those trips where it is all the cousins are really special. The cousins love getting extended time together. We hope to be able to do the same for our kids. @jym626 my inlaws did a ski trip every January for many years. I’m not a skier and eventually opted to stay home and enjoy my alone time. My H, kids and other family all enjoyed those trips. Sadly they stopped once the grandparents stopped skiing. My H still plans a trip once a year with our youngest D.
Some of us live in high cost of living states and if we want to stay in those states we will need more money put aside for retirement. Of course we could sell our house and move to a less expensive state but we don’t want to do that. H and I were both born in our state and have never lived elsewhere. Our kids are also all here. I didn’t grow up knowing any of my aunts, uncles or cousins as they lived across the country and my Mom didn’t have the funds for us to travel. As long as I can afford it I will try to live near my kids, and hopefully any future grandchildren.
You are fortunate to live near your kids/ future grandkids. We don’t so will include travel in our retirement planning. I had fantasies of having a place in Napa or Sonoma that we could rent out in high season and occupy in what used to be rainy season, but there hasn’t been much rain… and instead a lot of wind and fire 
@deb922 Sorry I hit a nerve, I didn’t mean to. And I was responding to the question of the thread because we’ve talked a lot about our finances this year when our kiddo got accepted to Cal. In the last few months I even contemplated renting an apartment in Berkeley so I can be near my girl, work remotely and if my work doesn’t agree with that I would quit. I miss her so much I came up with all sort of crazy ideas in my head (none panned out bc it doesn’t make sense and logistically impossible). So traveling and being with the kids are topics that are raw in my mind. I also realized that, as some had pointed out as well, it isn’t healthy and I needed to have my own life. Sharing here helped me processing my thought/ponder/worry, looking for validation or a smack in the head. Apologies if I sounded bragging.
@mom60 Ive seen a lot of families around us have done what your in-laws did, and I admired them from distance. What a wonderful thing to be able to do for your family. I can only hope that I am able to do the same for mine, and more importantly as @jym626 alluded it to, I hope that our adult children would still want to spend time with us.
As an immigrant, travel is in my blood. And Idk what the future holds, but right now I am a mess missing my daughter. She is 3000 miles away and I haven’t seen her since August. Can you blame me for thinking about travel budget a bit much?
For a different perspective not $5 million but $180,000 Check out this article from USA TODAY:
Can $180,000 really last 65-year-old, soon-to-be retiree until 100? It depends.
^ I find that article overly rosy. What about property taxes, utilities, home repairs… all kinds of things? What if the woman can no longer work for health reasons? Obviously, a lot of people like her make due because they have no choice but it sounds less than comfortable. I’d worry about becoming a burden on family members.
A lot of the asset need is whether one has a traditional pension. Government pensions can still be rather lucrative, and a married couple, both with pensions, might be comfortable on those alone.
Those without pensions need to live on SS and whatever is left in ‘the bank’; always spending down assets. One also needs a reserve for medical care and in particular, long term care.
Other folks might want to be able to donate to their favorite charity, help out the kids, grandkids, or leave a tranche to their favorite college to boost its FA budget.
Both of my kids are in extremely high cost cities (SF + NYC), so going to visit them ain’t cheap. While I hope I don’t spend $20k for travel, I could see travel expenses run up pretty quick: couple of visits to see the kids, weddings for nieces/nephews, go visit mom & dad while they are still alive…
Regarding high cost state, I live in NJ and we have the highest property tax in the country (I think). Even though we paid off our mortgage, our property tax is the same as my sister’s mortgage in her new home outside of Atlanta. I hope the woman in the article doesn’t live in our state.
We have extended families and good friends all over the world, literally in 5 continents. the kids have been traveling since they were infants. For us if we had to cut down expenses, there are other things we could cut before we cut down on travel, but anything is possible. This is the current situation that is.
Several times in this thread, it’s been suggested that current spending vs all income and projected future spending vs all income is helpful to figure out what is “enough.”
As long as income + assets exceed expenses, one can be comfortable, barring huge unexpected expenses (hopefully emergency fund savings would cover).
It can be tough getting and keeping a part time job as one ages. Age discrimination has been mentioned many times on CC plus health challenges and other obligations (caring for aging loved ones, grandkids, etc).
Plus, as one ages, there is often the need to hire out tasks one used to perform on one’s own.
I know several women in their 70’s who are working. Sadly, most because they have to , not because they want to.
It’s interesting that the thread has wound its way back to a hard number for retirement.
I have no idea whether our ds will ever travel with us. He certainly isn’t now! He travels far more extensively and exotically than we do! Of course, he generally stays in more modest accommodations and participates in more adventurous activities. As a single young man, I can’t imagine his traveling with us at this point in his life. Perhaps when he marries and has a family?? We have good friends who have done significant trips with their adult children each year. The husband has recently retired, and I do wonder if their extravagant trips will continue.
We mainly travel around mainland US. Our kids sometimes meet up with us when they can. In the next few weeks, we plan to see both of them in different cities. So far we haven’t traveled much with them but perhaps will do a trip overseas this 2020 with H&I hosting.
I agree that folks can’t know at what point they’ll need to spend on having help to have their needs met, including transportation, food, even bathing/showering, medical treatments & appts. Hiring help and for how many hours and years is a huge unknown and can get expensive quickly.
The person in question has $600/month pension and $1,860 Social Security (total $31,920 per year), against $2,600 in monthly expenses ($31,200 per year). So it is not just the $180,000 that s/he has for retirement money.
Even with the pension and SS she has plus her savings, everything all told is more modest than I suspect many on this thread are hoping to have in retirement. Their expenses are likely higher than her modest expenses.
When our kids were growing up, DH and I took a solo vacation every other year, usually to a tropical island; a few times we went on a cruise.
Trust me, we had plenty “to talk about.” 
We certainly were able to survive and have fun without the kids for seven days out of every 730. Just our experience.
The kids loved staying with Grandma and Grandpa. When they were older, their young soccer coach and his wife would come stay with them. They LOVED that and probably would have preferred that we go on vacation more often.
DH and I love traveling alone, as much as we enjoy traveling with the kids. Apples and Oranges.
I’m not going to worry to much about traveling when DH retires, and how much money it will take. Too many things could happen, so my emphasis is traveling NOW, while he is employed and we have our health. I have a healthy retirement and he more than I. Who knows, that money may be needed for other things besides traveling at that point.