Re:You Need at Least $3M in Savings to Live Comfortably in R...
by jacquesm on Tuesday February 21, 2023 @02:40AM
(#34877994)
> If you insist on spending your life and retirement somewhere expensive.
Where I live life is expensive. My kids will live here. I will have the choice to abandon them or to retire 'somewhere expensive'.
> I bought 3 houses in cash for less than $150k total.
Good for you! Here that would get you 1/2 of the most basic house or apartment.
> If you want to live and retire in the center of Paris or New York or whatever, that is your choice and then you need a lot more money.
Those are still a lot more expensive than where I live. But a half decent house here in a place near where there is work and with decent schools and other facilities will be anywhere from 300K to 500K depending on the market and the kind of house.
> Houses can be found for next to nothing in many places.
Not in this country. Even the most rundown area (the North East of Groningen, where I lived for years) still has as the cheapest listing a 90K price with a 1000 euros / months service fee:
> If you are capable of DIY (I am not), you can really pick up stuff for nothing and spend 10 years before your pension doing it up as a side project.
I'm very much capable of DIY, restored a bunch of buildings, made money on some, broke even on others and even lost on some. Markets are fickle.
> And sure, social security, free/accessible healthcare or your pension pot may no longer be available once you reach this age; society might have collapsed and the money you saved might be worth nothing anymore. You cannot plan for those things reasonably; I am going to assume healthcare and social security are good still in my country and next to that, I live of very little (couldn’t care less about ‘things’) with my family at about $1200/mo while making about $300k/year (excluding stocks and other passive income).
If you make $300K / year you are in a group called the lucky few. Which is disproportionally represented on HN, but it's nothing that you can count on if you're just an ordinary individual that works a regular job (or two...).
> No reason for that to change (inflation corrected of course) unless some type of societal collapse.
Or your health takes a turn for the worse. This is one that I've seen a couple of people near me deal with and that can really ruin your plans. And I had a bad scare myself a few years ago (but got away with it).
> Retirement sounds as boring as heaven, so I am doing neither anyway.
Where I live life is expensive. My kids will live here. I will have the choice to abandon them or to retire 'somewhere expensive'.
> I bought 3 houses in cash for less than $150k total.
Good for you! Here that would get you 1/2 of the most basic house or apartment.
> If you want to live and retire in the center of Paris or New York or whatever, that is your choice and then you need a lot more money.
Those are still a lot more expensive than where I live. But a half decent house here in a place near where there is work and with decent schools and other facilities will be anywhere from 300K to 500K depending on the market and the kind of house.
> Houses can be found for next to nothing in many places.
Not in this country. Even the most rundown area (the North East of Groningen, where I lived for years) still has as the cheapest listing a 90K price with a 1000 euros / months service fee:
https://www.funda.nl/koop/haren-gr/appartement-42005398-nesc...
> If you are capable of DIY (I am not), you can really pick up stuff for nothing and spend 10 years before your pension doing it up as a side project.
I'm very much capable of DIY, restored a bunch of buildings, made money on some, broke even on others and even lost on some. Markets are fickle.
> And sure, social security, free/accessible healthcare or your pension pot may no longer be available once you reach this age; society might have collapsed and the money you saved might be worth nothing anymore. You cannot plan for those things reasonably; I am going to assume healthcare and social security are good still in my country and next to that, I live of very little (couldn’t care less about ‘things’) with my family at about $1200/mo while making about $300k/year (excluding stocks and other passive income).
If you make $300K / year you are in a group called the lucky few. Which is disproportionally represented on HN, but it's nothing that you can count on if you're just an ordinary individual that works a regular job (or two...).
> No reason for that to change (inflation corrected of course) unless some type of societal collapse.
Or your health takes a turn for the worse. This is one that I've seen a couple of people near me deal with and that can really ruin your plans. And I had a bad scare myself a few years ago (but got away with it).
> Retirement sounds as boring as heaven, so I am doing neither anyway.
This we can agree on.