Your target retirement capital and income

Hello guys

I am just wondering what everyone's FIRE goals are. I'm split between retiring in Australia or oversees.

We are a couple, for Australia we would aim to FIRE on 60k py which is very achievable in 10 yrs. This would mean having a portfolio of LICs with 4% yield. We wouldn't own property but rent. I imagine this would be a modest lifestyle.

The other option would be to FIRE in Europe, in a country where costs of living are 50% cheap with property ownership. This would man retiring in 10 yrs with the equivalent of 120k AUD.

 

I moved to Australia from South East Europe 9 years ago. So residency is not a problem.

Moving to Australia was the best decision I've ever made

 

Those in sydney and melbourne can just move to cheaper cities....

 

I agree. I think time to retirement can significantly be reduce by moving to cheaper countries.

 

Dont want to be a wet blanket

However, If family and friends are important..... Moving to cheaper cities Wont work

Could down size

 

I would suggest for freedom sake that you own the property you wish to live in for retirement.

Landlord selling/jacking up rent/kicking you out, all sound like bad outcomes if you wish to lower stress levels etc.

This is all assuming you want to stay in one place.

 

What do you guys consider a comfortable retirement income for a couple in Australia?

 

Everyone's answer to this will be different. When I was working this out for my scenario I took into account that we'd each earned about $6k net pm (not including super or other allowances) during our careers and we generally saved about $9-10k pm. We had an amazing, unforgettable lifestyle living remote, nothing really to spend money on, incredible experiences were all around us and cost nothing....but I know many people wouldn't want that lifestyle at all, it wouldn't meet their needs. So for us, we felt like we were on top of the world but often lived on about $3k net or less pm very comfortably (except when we went on overseas holidays).

You have to work out the number for yourself but for us, I think we'd be very comfortable netting $8k pm and would have to make a real effort to spend more than that (and wouldn't even necessarily enjoy spending it-would be forcing ourselves to do stuff we didn't feel the need to do in order to spend money). We can invest the surplus we have of course, but we're on a one way trip to a wooden box so being pragmatic $8-12k net pm allows us all the comforts.
Your mindset dictates all of these answers, i.e. how calm and happy your mind feels regardless of whether your net passive CF is $3k pm, $8k pm or $29k pm.

 

To keep the wife in a lifestyle that she finds comfortable, $130,000 pa after tax.

That is quite easy to achieve if each person has $1.6M in Super . In fact, it is mandatory and rises as you age .

 

That’s more like it. That would be the minimum I would want for retirement income.
I’m aiming for a little more though. A round figure of $1,000,000 pa should do it.
Not that I would spend all $1mill pa. And that’s not because I couldn’t. Im well versed in spending money. But a good chunk of it will go back into more investments.
So when the income gets to $2mill p.a then I can spend the $1mill p.a. That’s much more responsible.

 

Oh you guys are really scary, I'm never gonna retire then lol

 

I think you need to budget and see what you can retire on realistically @Realist35

 

Realist35, how much income do you make now? Thats a good rule of thumb on how much income you want in retirement.

 

You've got to run your own race mate.

 

Our minimum as well.

Our budget is $80,000 for living expenses and $50,000 for travel.

In 18 months, it goes up to $160,000 mandatory. We will have travel at the next level or increase the calibre of our shiraz to consume that level of income (after-tax).

What is all this crap about acquiring more assets ?

Accumulation phase is over. FULL STOP.

 

It has to be what it is comfortable for you, do your sums and see if it will suffice.
We have been through this topic already in previous threads but personally to me retirement is not so much about just the finances but rather my family, being close to them.
So could you move within AUS and buy cheaper.... downsize to achieve your end result?

 

Well done at @kierank . That’s a great retirement income.

Nonsense. Accumulation is never over. I want to accumulate until my last breath. Then the plan is my son will take over the job and continue accumulating.

Not that we need anymore money, we have more than I could ever have imagined for . But we are still fairly young. 20 years till retirement age. So why not keep accumulating. Could retire now and more than live of passive income. But even that income is more than enough to live comfortably. Sure we could spend it all and would love to. But would spending more make us any happier. We already spend plenty so why not continue re investing the rest and only increase spending as a percentage of increased income.

That’s my take on it anyway. It keeps me focused by having targets and goals to work towards.

I have a much higher quality of life than my parents ever did and my parents were comfortable. I want my kids to have a higher quality of life than I have had even though I have a great quality of life. Is this necessary? Not really. But if it’s reasonably achievable than why not try? So trying I am.