25X Your Yearly Expenses to Retire??

[Random Painted Highway]

I'm trying to figure out how to manage retirement, or not having to work so much and this notion or reference of 25X your yearly expenses keeps coming up in web searches.  Did you, as a nomad,  have this "magical" amount before you hit the road?  We have some "passive" income coming in...meaning SS and pension, which is helping a great deal in reaching the 25X number, and after calculating some numbers we are flirting with freedom.  We are pretty frugal, but we don't want to eat a steady diet of ramen...well i would, but my wife wont!

 

[MrNoodly]

Does "25X" assume you're going to live another 25 years? What if you past yearly expenses didn't include a lot of medical bills?

 

[crofter]

You need to have your rig paid for plus emergency fund and initial gas money. In the beginning you will want to drive more than later.

Monthly expenses depends on your lifestyle.

Always better to retire sooner than later. You find free camping and paying gigs if need arises later.
-crofter

 

[Random Painted Highway]

Does "25X" assume you're going to live another 25 years? What if you past yearly expenses didn't include a lot of medical bills?

Yes, the 25X ASSUMES you'll live another 25 years.  With our recent medical issues we have budgeted $5,000 out of pocket yearly for medical our max out of pocket per the insurance as of now , (not including health insurance premiums) the 5K will most likely be constant until end of life.

 

[Random Painted Highway]

You need to have your rig paid for plus emergency fund and initial gas money. In the beginning you will want to drive more than later.

Monthly expenses depends on your lifestyle.

Always better to retire sooner than later. You find free camping and paying gigs if need arises later.
-crofter

Rig will be paid off in a few weeks! I agree about retiring sooner than later...one's time is finite.

 

[crofter]

Do you still have all your stuff? For me letting go of the stuff was the hardest, and I blew a lot of money paying for storage.

I finally limited my storage to 5X5 size but only in the area where I was camp hosting.
-crofter

 

[Random Painted Highway]

We are keeping house...for hospice reasons.  After that who knows.  Hopefully hospice lasts twenty years.

 

[crofter]

I bought a cheap home base in a warm winter area so I don't have to do northern winters anymore. I keep it nice but no personal stuff there so it can be rented out furnished. Having a home base must be the deluxe dweller experience.
-crofter

 

[Random Painted Highway]

I hear you loud and clear on that note!  But...i do love the long summer days/nights up north....but who will shovel the walk and drive in winter?  You might be onto something with the southern home base!

 

[bullfrog]

We started out on a pension of $20,000 a year almost 20 years ago but found constant travel ate it up quickly and soon both had low paying terrible jobs but in beautiful places. It took a few years but finally found great jobs doing things we enjoyed in beautiful places traveling a few months of the year. Now after 16 years we are retiring again with medicare and social security as well as a pension this time and things are looking better as long as our bodies hold up! Lol!!! We hope to go back traveling for a few years when my wife finishes up her job. Using our son's business to AirBnb a home base house we bought should get us some added security with a passive income. If you do plan on moving every two weeks staying in remote locations can get expensive. Trips to town for supplies or doctors visits can easily eat up a $1,000 a month when it is 226 miles each way. We currently have a yearly lease on a cheap boondocking/storage lot in southern Arizona ($1,100 a year)and my wife is still finishing up with the NPS in Utah so basically two home bases at present. We have campground hosted in areas close to small towns (Benson Arizona and Livingston Texas) and saved money but like the remote areas and what they have to offer best. If our health continues to deteriorate then most likely outside of Tucson Arizona is where we will end up as living cheaply/simply close to or in an urban area makes money go much futher

 

[LoupGarou]

Can’t wait to push the retirement button. Don’t want to get into the exact details, at $52 a day, medical insurance would be my single largest monthly expense.

 

[WanderingRose]

You need to have your rig paid for plus emergency fund and initial gas money. In the beginning you will want to drive more than later.

Monthly expenses depends on your lifestyle.

Always better to retire sooner than later. You find free camping and paying gigs if need arises later.
-crofter

I agree with this.

You can live very frugally while traveling, with careful planning and close attention to expenses.

Go as soon as you can, as tomorrow is not guaranteed.

 

[RoamerRV428]

money is so subjective in how do you want to live on retirement?

I am super frugal and could live on damn near nothing LOL while my hubby ain't having any of that, he wants to 'live in retirement' and be able to afford all kinds of fun stuff out there and nice private cgs and so......

I just know that if we have at least 3K per month to 'do our thing which is more about him than me' and some money in backup we will be ok.

at some point I just get so overloaded on thinking way too damn hard on 'do I have enough money' that I just don't give a flying shi* about it anymore, but that is just me LOL

I got bucks point blank. I can squeeze a penny so far it can make other's wallet scream too in a way but in the end, how you want your retirement to be means you have to react and make that amt of money per month happen......then of course after that, all kinds of massive crap comes into play on life in general and medical issues and more so.....for me, at some point I just let it happen.

We all will have massive financial differences and what we want out of our retirement so do for you on how you want your monthly expenses to support your desired retirement and work for just that. Hopefully you will get to live what you plan.

and from what we see on inflation slapping us down right now, a few yrs more added, your X amt of bucks per month for survival, you best plan in spending alot more than you think and add that in as a buffer. Darn crazy to plan it all out ya know to be perfect on what life is gonna slam us with but in the bitter end of it all, more money good thing to support your life and no money is a bad thing truly cause one can't function in this society in any type of ease without it so....

 

[tx2sturgis]

Retiring with home mortgage and/or high vehicle debt is gonna make that 25x number much higher than is practical for most of us in the middle income and any income below that.

If you have a paid-for home (or RV!) and clear title on any other vehicles, whatever they are, your monthly 'expenses' will be a lot lower, making retirement a lot easier with a modest SS income and a reasonable 'nest-egg' in savings or investments.

 

[mpruet]

The 25X is derived from the goal to support a 4% withdrawal per year.  That goal is set so that your nest-egg has a chance of growing over time even while making annual withdrawals to live on.  The reason that you want your nest-egg to grow while making withdrawals is to cover the impact of inflation.  As many folks are experiencing, inflation does exist and the money needed cover the same goods next year will be greater than the expenses this year.  Several folks have already commented that items such as wood has gone up significantly in the past 6 months.  

Assuming that the inflation rate this year is 4%, then your nest egg will need to be at least 4% larger than it was last year.  Otherwise you would need to withdraw a larger percentage than you did last year just to buy the same objects that you did last year. 

It’s not the idea that you’re going to live for 25 years, but rather the idea that your nest-egg needs to grow to counteract inflation.

 

[Random Painted Highway]

Well i think we are all feeling the effects of inflation, that is for certain and that does makes sense regarding the 25X not meaning years, but rather to have the nest egg recover and grow for the next cycle of withdrawal.

I guess in the end we all make it work out, one way or the other, i should probably stop worrying about money and start living! Thankfully we are frugal, mostly because of the forced frugal habits growing up and then having to make it on our own, and i guess it just stuck.

 

[crofter]

Another way to make your money stretch is to stop buying what everyone else is buying. Buy the stuff that is overstocked and being unloaded by the merchant. Also find the local sources for gas & groceries and don't shop right next to the freeway, unless that is the cheapest place. Buy all rigs used, but still good condition or cheap to repair. Think cheap and try not to be dazzled by large piles of stuff.
-crofter

 

[MotorVation]

Anyone young enough to be paying into Social Security and able to do so, should do so. I'm not going to go into my life story here but I worked on and off the books for years and my way less than substantial than Social Security Retirement check sucks eggs. I'm 67 and just had to go back to work.

Tough boogies for me but there are things I want to do and sitting on my butt isn't going to get them done. I thought I retired a couple years ago.  :huh:
Personally, I don't buy into the whole SS thing is going to evaporate before one is old enough to collect it. I've been hearing that most of my life. Besides, the entire economy would collapse if it did. Too many people in the know have too many things they want to keep selling for that to happen. Rent and mortgages being a couple of those things

 

[john*thomas]

Last year my wife being 55 hit 30 years at her job. She was reluctant to retire. The only way I could get her to consider it was agree to go to an "expert". I found a guy that was recommended by people we trust. We gave him all our info and he said "Heck, you both could retire".

I didn't believe we had anywhere close to enough. He put it all in black and white and there is was. I retired last year at 58 and the wife at 55. We don't spend like we did when we both worked BUT we don't work.

I hate "finance". I don't have any interest in doing this or that with what we have. I let him handle it and IMO that's really worth the little it costs for him to do so.

Unless you really like doing this stuff (and I get it. some people do, but I do not), I highly recommend one going to let an expert look at your finances.

 

[MrNoodly]

I think this 25X formula also assumes you want to continue a life identical to the one you're already living. But I didn't want to keep paying a mortgage, property taxes, insurance, utilities, etc., and I didn't want to spend tens of thousands a year for vacations to escape a place where I didn't really want to live. Now I live happier and healthier on a quarter of what I used to need just to keep my head above water.