'Retirement' Income % of Working Income

Now that is what I was tryin' explain'g to skatoo ... @skater Treechange@50 da man.....

 

Und....what did he say? Anything made sense..or was he off the spectrum?

 

The thing is, @sash, I'm aware that Super is a better vehicle for tax minimisation, but I am living NOW. Most people have their Super funded by their employer, they don't have to do it themselves. I'm not willing to give away today's income in the hope that they (the Gov) don't mess with what's there in the future. I've got a strong cashflow now, which unless I do something stupid (no guarantees there) will only get better as loans reduce, and rents increase. I'm on a learning curve at present to move some assets over into shares, but as I don't have any Super at all, to start it off from scratch would both take a long time to build to anything meaningful. I can't do SMSF as I need a decent sum for that, & so far my experience of Super is that everything that I've ever had in there has been totally decimated by the fund. At least if I do shares off my own back, if I screw it up, I've only got myself to blame.

 

Hokay...each to their own......I am with the ole men rulz club of @SatayKing @Nodrog @truong @HomePage .... even @The Falcon and @oracle but they are young....

 

% of working income is a poor guide I feel. Just work out your expected expenses then that’s the minimum net income you need.

We just kept saving until we got to the point where we felt comfortable about retiring both financially and emotionally.

 

Well I don’t rule in our household. Order of authority is wife, chooks then me.

 

Yeah, 10% would have been quite comfortable for us.
Doesn’t mean we could have retired a lot earlier because we only started making the big bucks in recent years.

 

Similar here. The big bucks were in the later years closer to when we both retired. It’s very hard to know the future. So I think the best strategy is to just save and invest as best as you can until you get to the point when you feel now the time is right? It will vary for each individual.

 

We cant all be as amazing as you, @kierank

 

Thanks Nodrog. I'm not quite on the same page. Planning future expenditure based on past expenditure, less items no longer required e.g car parking, suits etc seems a reasonable starting point? Or are you suggesting that building bottom up and budgeting accordingly will yield a more efficient figure with less potential 'waste'? This i understand. I guess i'm wanting to sense check a budget in the context of current (not retired, young kids) lifestyle.

 

I see what you mean.

 

Or work as hard as me

 

I think the percentage of income is somewhat misleading.

Our expenses had little to do with our income over the years. Just more to do with what we thought was worthwhile including in our spending and our lives.

We decided to cut out a lot of crap because it was delaying financial independence. Much happier now with a simpler lifestyle because of the freedom.

I think quite often we fill our lives full of expenses to make working more palatable or immediately rewarding.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, we live on around 35% of what our income was.

 

I meant expected expenses at the intended retirement date. Will house be paid off? Not working so no travelling to / from work and no other work related expenses. Only a single car needed if have two now? The expenses will relate to the lifestyle you want in retirement not how you might be living now.

 

Checkout @Snowball blog for some ideas. He’s retired very young. Damn bludger I reckon. Any wonder the world’s falling apart, young people don’t want to work.

Strong Money Australia - BUILDING FINANCIAL STRENGTH AND A LIFE OF FREEDOM

 

Sounds reasonable females rule

 

Now that's the pecking order.

 

Yep, severely henpecked to say the least. And I’m serious when I say the chooks also boss me around.

 

Hey you’re partly to blame. If I didn’t build knowledge about LICs and the wonders of dividends, I’d still be bloody working!

 

Hey, I'm not even 50 yet!

In any case, retirement income for me had nothing to do with what I was earning while working. It's all about what you expect to spend in retirement, then set your income stream up to feed it.