What are your monthly living expenses?

[shay20]

hmmmmm do we add in what we spend on our chickens and farm animals?

 

[shay20]

Quote:
My investments are my chickens, lol

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Or pensions and Social Security. My parents never saved a dime, but my father has a fair pension from over 40 years at the same company, plus social security.

My mother has worked 30 out of the past 40 years. I don't believe she has a pension plan and has little in a 401k. She enjoys her work though and will probably work until the day she dies regardless of any retirement funds.

I am 40 and the wife is 50. We saved some over the past twenty years, around $100K, but we both receive military pensions for the rest of our lives that gives us a combined income well over the country's median household income. We both have life insurance policies to cover the other in case something happens. Given that our pensions are more than enough to live on, we pretty much cleaned out the retirement accounts to pay the down payment on this farm where we earn another $25,000 a year producing eggs. We aren't working otherwise right now, but are keeping eyes out for the right jobs so we can pay off the farm quickly and live debt free. What's left in the retirement accounts will probably have to plus up the kids' college funds that have lost quite a bit the past few years.

 

[halo]

Quote:
My investments are my chickens, lol

I think you need to sign up for that Investing Basics class.

 

[shay20]

Quote:
My investments are my chickens, lol

I think you need to sign up for that Investing Basics class.

I know right, lol

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Quote:
Mac is correct, I should have added pensions, etc. in that list. I guess in my head I lumped that into #3, but it would function better as its own item.

Again, to be clear, I'm referring to what people are thinking that are over 50 and have little retirement because they overspent / undersaved... not those that lost money because of investments, etc.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

I think the "work until I die" option is understated and not necessarily a poor choice. My father is 65 and retired from his job in bakery maintenance a couple of years ago with a good pension. After the first winter of sitting around without much to do he found a part time job, and then added another part time job, and then another... The jobs fill up his days. Some people would rather have an ice pick to the frontal lobe than to have nothing to do. I think he thought he would spend all of new-found time fishing, but fishing only goes so far.

Obviously it would be nice to have the option to choose between working or not though.

I have two uncles, and their wives, who all recently retired from the work force. It will be interesting to see if they just spend their time golfing in the summer and sitting around in the winter. I'm not sure how they'll keep themselves busy.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Ya, I totally agree! I'll be "working" until I die, but of course "work" has lots of different interpretations. I'd like my work to be on stuff I choose, not chosen for me/ forced into.

Example: The elderly Wal-Mart greeters: If I was bored and wanted to do it, then it would be a perfect option. The context changes if instead I don't have the money to pay bills and can't get a job anywhere else, so I take that job. Same job... totally different context.

Example2: I don't mind working 14 hour days... but it feels much better if it is work I choose to do vs. work I'm forced to do and I'm not vested in the outcome.

What I do know: There will be a TON of baby-boomers that are heading into retirement with very little savings and very few options. I wonder what % are due to lack of proper financial / retirement training vs. the % that spent more and saved less than they should have.

I'm personally VERY frugal and maybe even considered risk adverse. I never want to be in a situation where I don't have lots of options and would rather sacrifice something in the present in exchange for more options in the future.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Kids learn more about saving an investing from video games than schools teach.
Its one thing WOW is good for.

 

[harryg6167]

Our income is very low and our expenses are even lower. I would die if
I got an electric bill like some have posted they get. It gets hot and humid
here in South Louisiana and we run 1 big A/c during the day and later in the afternoon
we turn the A/Cs on in the bedrooms for a total of 4 A/Cs running set at 65-70. Our highest electric
bill this past summer was around 180.00. In the winter our electric is usually
anywheres from 75-100.00/month.
I pay no property taxes thanks to our homestead exemption.
House and vehicles are paid for. Insurance on the 2 vehicles is 100.00 for the 2. Gas for the
two vehicles runs 75.00 a month or so.
There are 5 of us here all the time and my DD's Bf shows up at least 4
nights a week to eat my cooking. Groceries are not even a part of our monthly
budget though. We have pretty much all we need to eat at all times. We do buy milk and
bread weekly but meat and veggies are already grown and taken care of.
Chicken feed cost anywhere from 50.00-75.00/month.
I just realized that we have it made here.