What is your desired Retirement Income compared to Current Wage?

Discussion in 'Investment Strategy' started by Terry_w, 27th Mar, 2016.

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In Retirement do you want more or less income than you are currently earning?

  1. More

    39 vote(s)
    23.9%
  2. Less

    80 vote(s)
    49.1%
  3. Same

    44 vote(s)
    27.0%
  1. Blacky

    Blacky Well-Known Member

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    Will pull the pin from a job when I have fully paid off ppor, cars (2) and 'passive' income of 1/5th of my current salary.
    This will be sufficient to cover basic living expenses. However will free up my time to generate additional wealth.

    I've always found it interesting how many people aim for $100k after tax, yet very few people earn that much in their working life. I would rather target less and leave work earlier than chase the rainbow for an extended period. Just to discover that when you get there it's really too late to properly enjoy it.

    Blacky
     
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  2. mrdobalina

    mrdobalina Well-Known Member

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    there's more to life than working
    Best comment on PChat.
     
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  3. Jennifer Duke

    Jennifer Duke Well-Known Member

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    Not a high income earning household by any stretch of the imagination. We do hope to have more when we get to that time - particularly given our retirement plan needs us to have a lot of money to sustain it (animal sanctuaries are not cheap and we have no intention of relying on charity).

    In saying that, if we took the animal sanctuary out of the equation (we see that as a business in and of itself), we personally would need far less than what we currently earn. We don't buy or travel much, though would like to do some of that before retirement, and manage to save quite a bit. I enjoy being frugal.

    It's tricky as neither of us are "money motivated" but we appreciate what money can do for us, so we try to view it in that way to keep us striving to save/make good financial decisions.
     
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  4. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    Aspirations - they don't know what it's like to have $100k (& it's a nice round number).
     
  5. HUGH72

    HUGH72 Well-Known Member

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    Sounds great, that's what I think everyone wishes for in retirement.
     
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  6. MTR

    MTR Well-Known Member

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    that's exactly what @HomePage did:)
     
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  7. Cactus

    Cactus Well-Known Member

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    I am aiming for $200k pre tax. At the moment I earn close to that but without a PPoR and with young children I anticipate I will need this much to retire on with my travel plans and to fund school fees. If I retire post all three through school I could do it on less. But that's not my aim. Again I suppose I expect to have a PPoR with no debt by retirement and then I could probably reduce the figure, but I anticipate in 10-15 years $200k won't be what it is today.
     
  8. ellejay

    ellejay Well-Known Member

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    I 'retired' on half my income but returned to part time work to buy more property. I bought 2 in the last couple of months and awaiting finance decisions on whether I can buy 2 more. Then I'm spent up for a while and plan to leave work again in a couple of months to return to renos and semi frugal living. Lets see what happens after that.
     
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  9. bashworth

    bashworth Well-Known Member

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    I started to de-stress my life shortly after hitting 55 which resulted in a drop in combined income from around $160k to around $100k of which a fair proportion was salary sacrificed.
    Now,7 years later, I am down to working around 15 hours a week and looking at a fully retired income of around $75,000
     
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  10. Observer

    Observer Well-Known Member

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    Sounds great. Exactly what I'd want to do one day :). Slowly getting there...
     
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  11. Observer

    Observer Well-Known Member

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    That is awesome and more or less what I'd do as well :).
     
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  12. Taku Ekanayake

    Taku Ekanayake Well-Known Member

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    @Ace in the Hole how are you managing to increase your passive income by $100K per yr?
    You'll have a milli passive by 50yo.
    F$&@&??! Awesome!!
     
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  13. Ace in the Hole

    Ace in the Hole Well-Known Member

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    Acquired a decent sized asset base, got nothing on someone like Handy Andy though.
    Should be thereabouts, if no drastic changes.
    10 years is a very long time....
     
  14. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    I spend a lot less than half my salary. Why would I want to aim for an income stream that is more than twice what I need to live on in retirement? Why not aim for a bit more than I need and retire a lot sooner?
     
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  15. Dan Donoghue

    Dan Donoghue Well-Known Member

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    I voted "less" simply for the reason that I won't be paying 4K per month on a mortgage so if I can retire on a passive income of what I earn now minus 4K per month, i will be happy :).
     
  16. Ace in the Hole

    Ace in the Hole Well-Known Member

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    But the question had nothing to do about when you can or are able to retire, it's about how much money you would want relative to your current income.
    Surely with more money you can help family fulfill their dreams, help fund charities and those in need, etc.
    More money is always going to be more helpful than less.
    Also, the question was about want, not need.
    We've been living on less than 10% of our income for about 10 years now, doesn't mean we want to keep delaying the gratification forever, need to enjoy retirement and it can be extremely expensive depending on what you want to do.
     
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  17. EN710

    EN710 Well-Known Member

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    True - if it's "wants" I want it as much as I can have

    I took the question as more of what I can retire on though...in which income of 1 person would be sufficient for us. Prefer to retire quicker with slightly less than retire years later with slightly more
     
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  18. Ace in the Hole

    Ace in the Hole Well-Known Member

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    That's understandable and generally expected.
    Isn't there a claimed figure where happiness doesn't really increase much once you surpass it?
     
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  19. Barny

    Barny Well-Known Member

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    80k working wage they say.
    Or Valium on Centrelink
     
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  20. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    But in the real world you have to trade off time to retire with desired income. The reality for me is that a desired income of $100k and a desired income of $200k have different retirement ages. After I meet my wants, I will have to decide how much longer I want to keep working when I don't need to.

    How many extra years should I work to help family fulfill their dreams, help fund charities and those in need, etc? 10 years? 15 years? 20 years? At what point after I have met my own "wants" do I decide enough is enough? When I retire I can volunteer to do charity work rather than donating money. That is a valid option too.

    Ok, then I "want" about half my current income and "need" even less than that :p

    Remember there is no "right" answer to this question. You asked how much I want and then suggest that somehow my answer is incorrect. :confused: It's not. It's an honest answer.

    My relatively modest income will fund my modest lifestyle in retirement. My parents are a great role model for me. They are doing everything they want to do in retirement without spending a lot of money. It can be done. It just depends on how extravagant your "wants" are.
     
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