During our retirement years, Linda and i pretty much lived off of Social Security and the assets that we had accumulated over the years, which included essentially three items: (1) my IRA account; (2) a second home that we own in Culver, Indiana; and (3) the home we lived in here in Littleton, NC. In total, our net worth came to about $450,000.
During our retirement we needed to draw about $20,000 out a year to supplement our Social Security. We did not live an extravagant life, but we lived comfortably well.
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Now here is the interesting part about the above. As you can imagine, as a financial Wharton MBA-type that i built a spreadsheet that would track our financial situation. I went back to look where we stood at the end of the year since 2014. I have a spreadsheet that tracks expenses by year. I have a spreadsheet for every year since 2014. And here is what i found out.
(1) The two houses remain in our hands; and the following table shows where my IRA funds are--without adding any additional funds and withdrawing funds to cover expenses that social security cannot cover.
| Calendar Year | IRA Balance at EOY |
| 2014 | $111,636 |
| 2015 | $113,418 |
| 2016 | $132.889 |
| 2017 | $154,877 |
| 2018 | $140,882 |
| 2019 | $143,367 |
| 2020 | $168,172 |
| 2021 | $179,643 |
| 2022 | $131,942 |
| 2023 | $152,713 |
If you understand the above table, you will come to the conclusion that Linda and i lived a very comfortable life these past ten-years without reducing our "net worth". I will admit that our "net worth" is relatively modest, but it does show that if you mind your business, you can retire with a lot less than funds than you might otherwise expect.
Of course, it is nice not having to pay "mortgage payments" and such. My IRA investment strategy related to the above has always been pretty much all in on stocks, putting half of my IRA funds in a mutual fund that tracks well with the U.S. S&P 500 and the other half in a mutual fund that tracks well with the NASDAQ.
The plan has always been to live off the IRA account until it runs out, then sell our second house, and live of those funds until they run out, then finally sell the home we are living in to meet our needs. Yet, as you can see from the above, my IRA account has had a durability that is hanging in there quite well.
I just wanted this out there, as an example of how one pair of retirees, has been able to "bumble along" fairly comfortably without "great resources".
Of course, it also helps to live in the "boonies".
That's actually a pretty interesting post. But yes, it definitely helps to live where there is a low cost of living. And unfortunately, inflation is reducing what many can afford.
There have been a lot of ups and downs in the period i show, including the effects of the pandemic and inflation. Last year, we went from about a 179K IRA to a 131K IRA because of those things. But that was somewhat expected. Although i was hoping last year it wouldn't drop below 140K. But so far this year, even after already withdrawing about 5-6K, my IRA is up from the $131K start to now where it is at $152K.
The world's economy is pretty good and the U.S. economy is what drives the world's economy.
The thing about the "boonies" is that you are not tempted as much to spend your savings. You have to find non-costly ways to enjoy life--such as, going for walks, swimming, gardening the yard with only plants on sale, etc. But one can live pretty well out here in the boonies on a fair budget. It simply comes down to how, when, and if you want to retire.