Another social security question!?

I am 56. I would like to work to age 70. The social security calculator and my ING retirement calculator say I will have a combined annual income of $50,000 per year, at age 70. Sounds like a LOT now, but years later, will $50,000 be worth enough? Only bills I will have will be food, property taxes, etc. No mortgage, etc. Normal daily life stuff. No expensive hobbies. What do you all think?

Public Comments

1. If you want to retire badly enough, you can get by on whatever amount of money that you have. You have a long way to go, yet and no, $50,000 won't be luxurious living, but if you manage carefully, you should be very comfortable. Save where you can for your retirement none of us knows exactly what is ahead.
2. If the value of the dollar continues to drop, I would say $50,000 per year will not be enough to live. If you figure, by then, a loaf of bread may cost upwards of $6.00 and the value of our dollar will be so low, the cost of everything will be at least triple what it is now. That's what happens when we just keep printing more and more money, it loses it's value.
3. Hi there, I was forced to retire due to a work related injury and now I live on $386.00 a month so I think you will do well on the amount you listed. My Mobile Home and lot are debt free so I had only the utilities and insurance and taxes. You would be surprised on how good you get at stretching a dollar. I hope you get to retire sooner and enjoy some relaxation for a change.
4. I think you've got it made! If you work another fourteen years you can save a lot of money. Make sure you go into retirement debt free. There are many people today who are living on less than $10,000 a year. I'm one of them and I do fine. Your going to have a wonderful retirement.
5. A lot of people live on a whole lot less!
6. Lets assume for a moment that you live to be 120 years old. See the Social Security Life Expectancy Table link below. The table goes up to age 120. And in case you are wondering whether you can make it to 120, remember that many people live to over a hundred. And there's a woman named Jeanne Louise Calment who lived to 122. She died in 1997. So it can be done. See a short biography of her at the link below. Well, assuming you retire at age 70 and live to 120, you would have a 50-year retirement. Wish you all the luck. My current plan is to make it to at least 100. We'll see how it goes as the years slip by. But the question is whether you could make it financially for another 50 years if you started out your retiement at age 70 with a $50,000 income. I believe the answer is yes. And if you have doubts about that, consider this. According to the Social Security Administration's COLA History Table (see link below), the average annual cost of living adjustment people have been receiving over the past 34 years is a pinch under 4.5%. If that percentage is accurate, and I trust them more than anyone else, then what would it cost for stuff 50 years from now? To give you an idea, let me tell you that a loaf of bread that you could buy for $1.00 today, would cost you $9.03 in another 50 years. That's based on an average increase of 4.5% per year over 50 years. The thought of that will make many people shake in their boots. But, in my humble opinion, it's really nothing to worry about. And incidentally, to figure out that $9.03 number with a scientific calculator, you simply key in 1.00(1.045)^50 and push the execute key to get the answer. With a regular (non-scientific one) you key in 1.00 and multiply it by 1.045 fifty times. Now, why do I think that having to pay nine bucks for a loaf of bread 50 years from now is nothing to worry about? Well it's because your income will increase by and average of 4.5% per year too. It's the same old stuff; life will go on then just as in goes on today, but with bigger numbers. The cost of your bread will be nine time more, but your income will be nine times more too. Your $50,000 will then be $451,631.81 and the way to calculate that is 50,000(1.045)^50 on a scientific calculator. On a regular calculator, it's 50,000 x 1.045 repeating the times 1.045 fifty times. But this doesn't mean there won't be some scary times. We could experience periods of only 1% increase in income, but 4% increases in cost of living, but over time, it will all averages out. If it hadn't over years past, people wouldn't have been able to survive.
7. I think it's all relevant to the cost of living, and the state of inflation. We were encouraged by SS people to take early retirement, due to the inflation eating up the extra by the time we reached 65. We also didn't have any guarantees, that either of us would still be alive by the time we reached 65. Although we both made it, our health is fast declining. We would not have been able to work through our 62nd year much less working through our 65th. At least, we have been able to relax and enjoy what little free things there are in life. We have been able to pursue hobbies of interest, that neither of us had time for when working. And we were able to enjoy taking care of one of our grandsons when he'd come home after school for several years and be more a part of his life. There are as many pluses as drawbacks to retiring early. But if one has physical impairments or health issues they don't think twice, about retiring and enjoying what years they have left. No amount of money is worth waiting for, if you don't live that long to receive it. We could have really used extra money instead of the meager amount we've had on SS. But living life without the rush and stress is also worth alot in life. So we're glad we made the decision we did.
8. i concur with Dora.
9. My husband retired and went on social security at the age of 62. He had planned on retiring at age 70 also. But then we did a little math: For example, if you would get $50,000 per year at age 70, figure out what you would get if you retired at age 62. Let's just say it would be $30,000 per year. So, you would get $30,000 per year for 8 years, prior to turning 70. That means you would be getting $240,000 during those 8 years. If you could live on $20,000 per year for those 8 years, then you could save $10,000 per year or $80,000 over the next 8 years. It is a decision you will have to make. Even consider what you believe your life expectancy to be. We used to joke that if only we knew the day we were going to die, this would be a lot easier to figure out.
10. Money be danged, retire at an age that your health is good enough to enjoy yourself. If you retire at 70 and live to be ???????? are you going to be around long enough to enjoy your finances or healthy enough to hobble around ?