Still trying to figure out the dieing part of the equation. Hell, I figure I should have been retired by now. But I keep getting up..
fish
Retire? How much do you need per month?
Anyway - why not bump the thread - always interesting "How long is a piece of string?" query. But, I'll change it a bit.
Your Situation? How much do you spend per month?
Situation: American Husband, Thai Wife, retirees, own home in Nonthaburi - transferring USD $2,500/mo. to Thailand. Spending about $2k/month. Exempt from calc (annual expenditure of USD $5k for a USD $1M expat medical insurance policy covering the both of us).
Moo Baan Fee $50 Electricity $100 Water $10 TV & Internet $100 House Insurance $50 Car insurance $60 Transport & Auto $50 Food $750 Miscellaneous $750 Legal $60 TOTAL/MONTH $1,980
How 'bout yourself?
Last edited by bowie; 29-08-2019 at 12:17 PM. Reason: dress
Bowie, where is your health and perhaps life insurance. These are my two biggest costs.
So it looks like nearly 900kUSD would cover a decent retirement? That's a fairly large amount of cash to save over a lifetime. Can't see it happening tbh, I should be more worried about it than I am
The problem is medical, unexpected costs and how long you live.
Just very hard to cost that out, imho...
I seriously need to start putting money into a pension scheme after this latest bout of studying. Would love to retire at 55, but that ain't gonna be happening.
Life insurance, whole life, universal life and term life plans (both of us) $1.5k/annum for @ 125k in coverage for both.
Health insurance, Cigna Expat Silver $5k/annum, has $5k deductible, USD $1M maximum per illness, covers both of us.
Both health and life I pay from the accounts in the USA and did not include in my Thai budget. But $6.5k/12 = adds about $550/mo so, my actual spending is on the order of $2,500/mo or about USD $30k/annum
Complexity of taxation = USA married couple deduction is $24.4k this year so, withdrawals from my IRA are $36k - $24k = my taxable income'll be on the order of $12k at 10% My (our) tax bill will be about $1,200 this year.
Could tap into my Roths, but, not yet. When I start with my Soc Sec distributions I'll set up my IRA distributions Regular and roth to provide a zero tax bill.
Everything depends on ROI. I have my "nest egg" in a managed investment portfolio with a major brokerage firm. They're charging 1.25% to manage my investments. Roth and traditional IRA's in @ 15 varied mutual funds. They are "historically" returning @ 10% per annum.
The 10% return is then diluted by their 1.25% fee and whatever the tax burden is. All in all I'm getting more than a positive 5% which more than covers what we are spending.
Long range - we are in very good shape and can handle what life throws at us. Big decision is when will the cost or our health insurance justify switching to "self-funded"? It'll happen eventually. Within a decade for certain.
Last edited by bowie; 29-08-2019 at 09:20 PM.
To amplify @ 5% ROI spending use $30k = $600k
Now that's a Gross Generalization. For myself and wife. In a few years we'll be tapping our USA social security retirement benefits - at that point in time we may well not have to take any distributions from or accumulated "nest egg". We will see.
Crystal Ball - for myself and my wife. I would like to think we will both just forget to wakeup one day.
If either gets a cancer - when does, or is, chemo justifed - had a friend with a bladder cancer - had a most horrible time with chemo over the course of a year, said he would refuse it is cancer reappeared. Wife says "no way", just let me die. Myself - well, my bucket list is empty, I'd like to think I would take the same attitude, but, unless you are in those shoes, you cannot answer the question.
I have no responsibilities - so, I am allowed to die without "grossly" impacting others. No one will be worse off when I kick the bucket. But, those deep philosophical questions - I can't answer.
You can't and shouldn't. People get all wrapped around the axle on med costs and insurance, especially Americans. They have been brow beat with a constant fear about it. The people then tend to be gripped by it. Now I think its prudent to have some reserves set aside but to have it be a deal breaker for places you want to live or just retire is a sad state. I know quite a few that will not retire because they do not want to be without a company med insurance.
@ Bowie. Your numbers are about the same as ours except our food bill is about $300 and Misc is probably $1000. That's primarily for garden and property upgrades and my motorcycle hobby.
...I was able to retire because tax-free sand dollars were deposited into a tax-free (before withdrawals) retirement account: now, I edit PhD dissertations, master's theses and sundry other documents to pass the time...as well as contribute scintillating restaurant reviews to a local forum...
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