How would your post-retirement budget look like?

[Mimi]

I've been trying to figure out how much we would need in retirement.

The biggest expenses I think would be travel and gifts for the kids.  I'm thinking $20k per year (in today's dollar) for travel.  Not sure if this is enough.  We don't spend this much now but I think we may be traveling more then, including visiting the kids.

I also want us to be able to gift $10k per year to each kid ($20k total).  I really hope we'll be able to do this. 

Anyone created a post-retirement budget or thought about how much you'd be spending in certain categories?  It seems common to everyone that travel will be a priority.  How much do you think you want to spend for travel in retirement?  Any other large expense you think you'll have?

[Deleted]

I have no desire to give gifts of that magnitude to adult children. I see some things being much cheaper (no mortgage, no saving for retirement!). We'll want some money for travel, but I doubt we'll be globe trotting constantly - more like a couple trips a year.

Really, we're fairly modest people with fairly modest ambitions. The good news is that means we're on track to retire at about 60 and we're not saving at any extreme levels (pensions with a bit on top).

[illgetthere]

I'd like travel to be a lot more important than it is now, but that will only mean 1 or 2 large trips and several weekend type trips. Maybe 10-15k/year.
Gift will be more than now, but our current gift budget is 1k/yr. I'd like to do almost that for each kid/spouse combined at Christmas plus nice gifts for future grandkids. Maybe 3-5k/yr gifts.
Healthcare is budgeted at 900/month. I figure as that goes up, travel will go down.
I'd like to eat out more often than not, but I'd be happy sticking to lunch times for cheaper options. Plus, older people I know have very small appetites; that might lower our grocery budget some

[Pom]

Travel- I am guessing $12k-$18k
Here is the one that makes me anxious:
Boat slip, boat fuel, repairs and storage bills...I anticipate this being huge OR taxes on a waterfront property where we can dock being the other big category.

[busterpup]

Wow, 10k per kid per year is very generous! I hope to get my kids through college and then I'll kick them out of the financial nest (other than holiday gifts and such).

We hope to not have a mortgage, so that will be nice. But we will want to travel (maybe one or two big trips a year and then smaller ones) and eat out as much and wherever we want.

But no, we haven't created a budget or anything yet.

[crashgizmo]

We've roughly estimated that our current rent/mortgage payment would be replaced by travel. Since we currently spend $10-15K/year on travel, this will make our travel budget really huge. We also budget ~1K/month for medical, which may be conservative.

[Mimi]

illgetthere and crashgizmo How did you come up with $900/mo and $1k/mo for healthcare?

[winnied]

I definitely don't have a budget but H and I have been discussing what we want retirement to look like. We actually want to lead very quiet lives in retirement. We hope to have two, very small/modest homes that are already paid off and travel to see our kids. Maybe one or two international trips a year.

We're not saving to do big, adventurous trips in retirement because too many of our friends/family did that and then were physically or mentally unable to travel just a year or two after retiring. Not that we should live in fear, of course, but it's something we're aware of. Just because you live until you're 90 doesn't mean you're able to live like a 40 year old, you know? Similarly, MIL suddenly died months after retiring. FIL told us that they were always happy they traveled when they could.

We definitely will not be giving large gifts to our (hypothetical) kids, but that's very generous of you!

[illgetthere]

Oct 30, 2014 9:52:08 GMT -5 Mimi said:

illgetthere and crashgizmo How did you come up with $900/mo and $1k/mo for healthcare?

I don't remember the exact figures, but around 100/month medicare premium, 200/medicare supplement per person plus co-pays and extras.
Medicare part b premiums can easily be > 250/month/person if you a make close to 200k/yr. Not sure what is under adjusted gross income on a retiree's tax return

[crashgizmo]

I wasn't as technical as illgetthere, I just asked my MIL, grandparents, and DH's uncle what they paid. LOL

[illgetthere]

Oct 30, 2014 10:26:42 GMT -5 crashgizmo said:

I wasn't as technical as illgetthere, I just asked my MIL, grandparents, and DH's uncle what they paid. LOL

That's the way to do it. I just don't know if I trust my family to actually be paying what they should and not leaving medical debt to be paid by the estate. I know that's what my grandparents did.

[gt7301b]

We currently take a big trip a year + smaller trips monthly, I imagine we would take an additional large trip in retirement. So maybe 20K total for travel and then I really can't see us living that much differently than we do now. My hypothetical children will get a few nice meals and trips, but we aren't planning on gifting them anything:)

Truthfully, my goal is to save as much as we can without sacrificing too much now and work a couple extra years if we need to. If I continue working for the gov I will be able to retire at 58 and my husband will be able to retire at 59, unless he buys back years and then he could retire as early as 53. I am sure things will change with our pensions by then, so my realistic assumption is we will retire around 60.

[sillygoosegirl]

We figure the same as now, minus mortgage (P&I only, $1500), plus health insurance/care (maybe $1000-$2000, less early when we're still young, ramping up until we qualify for Medicare, then falling again), plus maybe $500-$1000 additional/month for travel.

If we decide to travel more than that, which is definitely a possibility, we'll probably sell or rent out the family home; upkeep and opportunity cost on this place will always be expensive, probably over $2000/month even after the mortgage is paid off, so it isn't going to make sense to hold onto it if it will be sitting empty most of the time.

[Marmee]

I have no idea. Lol. I'm not that into travel anymore. I'd like to take the kids to a few places abroad but that's before retiring. I'm sure we'll probably get our fill visiting kids, siblings & our vacation home. Without kids at home & a paid off mortgage, our expenses will be much less. I have no gifting cash to kids ambition...they'll have 15yrs of private school & likely college paid for--that enough of a leg up in life. We're nearing 40 but honestly we have a 1yr old, retiring isn't on the radar. We do plan to have enough passive income to survive within a few years but we'll continue to have 1 or both of us work indefinitely.

[WinterWine]

I don't have an actual retirement budget but should probably start making one. All I have right now is ideas as far as how I'd like to spend retirement.

-House will be paid off and we'll either continue living there, or more likely rent that out and purchase a home in the mountains, which would have a mortgage (but hopefully rental income would cover that)
-Fairly extensive travel, though this doesn't necessarily mean super expensive - I'd like to do several 3+ month backpacking trips the first few years of our retirement
-I'd like to start a fairly significant college investment account for each grandchild when they are born, adding to it each year. H's grandparents did this for him and he had around $200k for college and other costs by the time he was 18 - amazing gift!
-I'd also like to take annual trips abroad with our kids and their SOs when they are in college. My Dad did this for all of us during college and it was an amazing experience.

I guess I should probably figure out how much all my ideas will cost. Right now I'm just shooting for saving as much as is feasible, and not increasing our lifestyle as incomes grow.

[thebulldog]

I cannot even imagine what our budget will look like in 10 years....let alone retirement.

i be typing from me phone. typos and grammer dont count.

[h]

I really have no idea, but if I tried to throw out a rough estimate, I would go with something like:

$25k travel
$15k healthcare
$20k property taxes, homeowners insurance, utilities
$15k food, dining out, entertainment
$15k home repairs and improvements
$5k car insurance and repairs
$5k personal spending
$5k gifts

With the understanding that we would reduce travel, dining out, and other fluff as needed.