How much do you need to live every year?

How much do I need to live every year?

  • Under $15k

    Votes: 2 1.2%
  • $15k - $30K

    Votes: 25 14.8%
  • $30k - $50k

    Votes: 35 20.7%
  • $50k - $80k

    Votes: 55 32.5%
  • $80k - 100k

    Votes: 17 10.1%
  • $100k - $120k

    Votes: 17 10.1%
  • $120k - $150k

    Votes: 7 4.1%
  • Over $150k

    Votes: 11 6.5%

  • Total voters
    169
Out of interest Ridin-High, do you intend to retire off that passive income, or supplement your current income?

I just find that crazy low. :p
 
Hiya

I think the answer depends on where you want to live/retire?

My husband and i used to follow his work and lived many years in Asia; i had a maid, driver, guard at one time and i figure i could live on $25000 per year (and have change to spare!) : and i am seriously not kidding!

So i would really like to challenge you guys out there to open your mind and consider spending half of your retirement in an Asian country (lots of options: volunteer work, English teaching, travelling etc); well, at least that's what my hubby and I will be doing (at the same time renting out my PPOR and granny flat :p)

True. I had two maids, two drivers and live in a gated community.

Life is not all bad in 3rd world asian countries.

traffic is terrible though.
 
Out of interest Ridin-High, do you intend to retire off that passive income, or supplement your current income?

I just find that crazy low. :p

60k is like 1150k P/W mostly tax free, which is about the same as what i earn from work at the moment. I personally consider it a pretty good income, 60k in 15 yrs @ 3.5% inflation P.A will be like 100k.

Travel around and relax ;D
 
Each to their own eh. All have different lifestyle requirements.

I'm still aiming around 150-180k p.a + fully paid off PPOR before I retire.
 
Each to their own eh. All have different lifestyle requirements.

I'm still aiming around 150-180k p.a + fully paid off PPOR before I retire.

If I coud have had $1150/wk passive income at 38, I think it would have been a) a decent acheivement for someon in Australia, just assuming not that many people do it and b) at age 38 offers lots of choice of what to do next, including the possiblity of buidling it to $150k+ pa...

One could do worse than acheive that goal
 
.

Hiya

I think the answer depends on where you want to live/retire?

My husband and i used to follow his work and lived many years in Asia; i had a maid, driver, guard at one time and i figure i could live on $25000 per year (and have change to spare!) : and i am seriously not kidding!

May I ask which Asian country you spent most of your time in?

Bobby
 
Thats quite a large income and would probably sit you in the top 1% of the retired population financially. I wish you good luck.

I don't know if you're talking equity, passive (taxed) income or a mix of both, but if it was taxed income you'd need ALOT of assets, with not alot of debt attached to them. Which takes a mere mortal working human being many, many years to achieve. Not so hard to pull off if you enjoy and are willing to work until standard retirement age of (67)

I personally am taking mini retirements with the option of full retirement, but I don't know if I could do that because it would get quite boring.. Plus by continuing to work I receive tax benefits and af-course income to keep getting wealthier in the mean time.

It's a fine line, there are many of us who could probably stop working today, but why would we if we could have more than we have now? Catch-22

As it stands today, I couldn't go out and buy my dream beachside home and retire, I 'could' however live the same as I am today, in a nice, but modest home, earning the same wage I usually receive by working. But I'd like to be a better provider for my Family and I want them to be morte comfortable than we are today.

Taking a long break would be cool if I was single but once you have a Family, things change.



Each to their own eh. All have different lifestyle requirements.

I'm still aiming around 150-180k p.a + fully paid off PPOR before I retire.
 
Where to retire?

May I ask which Asian country you spent most of your time in?

Bobby

We spent many years in Sri Lanka and SIngapore....Sri Lanka is a beautiful country with beautiful weather, people and history....give it another 10 years and let the new government work itself out; it has so much potential! (plus stockmarket has doubled since last year!)

Singapore on the other hand, give it another 10 years will be unliveable IMHO!

My favourite country to spend half of my retirement now would be Malaysia...just as we speak, 2 of my friends are heading that way to check out the retirement package the government has set up...
 
.

We spent many years in Sri Lanka and SIngapore....Sri Lanka is a beautiful country with beautiful weather, people and history....give it another 10 years and let the new government work itself out; it has so much potential! (plus stockmarket has doubled since last year!)

Singapore on the other hand, give it another 10 years will be unliveable IMHO!

My favourite country to spend half of my retirement now would be Malaysia...just as we speak, 2 of my friends are heading that way to check out the retirement package the government has set up...

Hi Virgo,

I am in Malaysia. If you want some info on MM2H send me a PM. Singapore will be way too expensive for retirement in 10 years, already that way for many. Check out the certificate of entitlement for cars!! I was posted there for a couple of years with Navy years ago and got the train from KL down to Singapore a month or so ago. Way too expensive for a comfortable retirement


Bobby
 
Retiring in Asia

Hi Bobby

Thanks for the kind offer!!! I have heard of people retiring in Asia (Malaysia) but yet to have met anyone actually doing it !

Would you share how and when you did it? i am curious to know how much you really need to retire in Malaysia...and what do you do to occupy your time? Which state did you choose? Did your family go with you? So many questions....as much info would be much appreciated...

However if you do not want to share in a public forum please PM me.

Thanks
 
I can't ever see myself *completely* retiring, unless by way of injury or unexpected health issues, but I have a phat income insurance policy to cover that should something happen. My mind is too active and I love my work. I would always be looking to start up the next business or try something new. If I had millions in the bank, I couldn't just go fishing 24/7, although I would indeed do a fair bit.

My spending 3 years back was pretty solid, probably somewhere not far off 100k I reckon, including car, expensive holidays, eating out, lots of healthy and expensive pre-made food (I was very time poor). Lived a pretty active/happening lifestyle, but didn't really put anything much away for the future apart from knocking down the PPoR mortgage a bit, lucky it was a strong grower so I still did well from that property. I was the typical "too busy earning money to make any money" high salary earner.

Now I am literally living off the smell of an oily rag while building up my business. I am living like a poor person and just working *enough* consulting hours to be able to survive while pouring all funds, time and energy into the business. So I know I can survive off bugger all say probably 20k/year, but that is while house-sitting, in reality I would still need probably 30-40k at a minimum I guess and it wouldn't be an overly comfortable life, but adequate.

Having a strong buffer for unexpected medical expenses, random flights for emergency situations and just general "such is life" events is extremely important. Right now I have that only via LOC, which is fine, but the plan is all hands on deck to get this business up and thriving as the new cash flow generator from here into the future. This is the biggest asset I am working on currently, except you'r'e creating it, rather than buying it like a property.

The one thing I am very ANTI with certain types of property investment is the people who starve themselves so hardcore just to build up assets over 20-30 years that their life basically sucks and they can never enjoy a nice meal out at a restaurant etc. Life is to be lived with a balance and yes you need to build up assets at the same time, but not at the cost of being a complete total tight-ar5e just scraping by with old broken unrealiable crap e.g. old cars and the like. Modern cars are so much safer for your family, so much more economical and so much less all round stressful. I am a big fan of utilising modern day technology and devices to improve the day to day quality of your life!

I came from a tight **** family and I started out as a tight **** when I was just starting out 12 years ago and the extra stress you can put yourself through by trying to save a 10cents here and there just isn't worth the effort. Much easier to go and earn an extra $100 than stressing over saving $10.

That said, I've also eaten at one of the most expensive restaurants in the world in the top floor of the Park Hyatt in Tokyo for about $800-900 for the 3 of us "New York Grille". A wonderful night and a wonderful view, but certainly in my mind never worth such an outlay and that is just ridiculous money for an awesome steak, lobster and truffles over a few courses with a $20 beer. I'm not a fancy toff who needs stupid nights out like that, I would prefer a top value $30 meal that probably tastes just as good any day. But it certainly was an experience dining up there where James Belluci made whatever that Tokyo movie was called. These are some of the things which are cool to do on VERY special occasions every now and then in life, but no they don't make life any better overall for the long term. I wouldn't spend that kind of money again on a dinner, but also glad that I did and thoroughly enjoyed it just the once.
 
If you don't have a family, I reckon around $40k is enough. However you would probably need more like $200k to live a comfortable life.

If you have a family (say a partner and 2 kids and partner doesn't work), you'd probably need around $150k to get by and more around $400-500k to be comfortable.
 
I can't ever see myself *completely* retiring, unless by way of injury or unexpected health issues, but I have a phat income insurance policy to cover that should something happen. My mind is too active and I love my work. I would always be looking to start up the next business or try something new. If I had millions in the bank, I couldn't just go fishing 24/7, although I would indeed do a fair bit.

you sound like you are very productive.

Now I am literally living off the smell of an oily rag while building up my business.

what type of business are you starting up, if I may ask? sorry, don't mean to be nosy, but just quite interested in what opportunities people are pursuing. Is the business I.T related, or something totally different.
 
single with no fmaily here

40k sounds too low
200k sounds higher than I need (but i coudl get used to it in no time at all)

(all this sounds good to me stuff is meaningless though unless I work out a way to actually acheive it)
 
If you don't have a family, I reckon around $40k is enough. However you would probably need more like $200k to live a comfortable life.

If you have a family (say a partner and 2 kids and partner doesn't work), you'd probably need around $150k to get by and more around $400-500k to be comfortable.

Zoiks those are some big biccies. I could certainly relax and get comfortably used to living off those numbers, but in my situation, business would have too end up thriving to make that possible now, which I surely do aim for. I remember when earning even 200k salary I felt like I had loads of cash all the time, even after paying the mortgage. I did have a partner earning 150k also which didn't go astray. Oh damn, need a new $2500 fridge, ok just got paid $8500 between us, just go buy it then, what to do with the rest for the fortnight? Might as well chuck another $5000 off the mortgage, let's go out for a fancy dinner and oh what about a 3 night package in a nice Sydney hotel this weekend - bam just got paid $8000 again, wow that fortnight came and went quickly. That's how it was. That was plenty to live off, but like I said, very time poor and I am living the opposite of this now, very cash poor and trying to create something out of nothing. In the end I decided I didn't like my job enough anywhere near enough to hang around for that kind of money. In hindsight I probably should have geared up 2 or 3 extra IPs and leveraged the income to hold a few of them through some of the stronger growth years. But like I said, once you earn that kind of money, many people are too often time poor and too busy earning to "make any money", plus you're highly stressed and life is just hectic/chaotic. So half of the money gets blown on lifestyle fixes. So once again, bah no regrets.
 
Last edited:
you sound like you are very productive.



what type of business are you starting up, if I may ask? sorry, don't mean to be nosy, but just quite interested in what opportunities people are pursuing. Is the business I.T related, or something totally different.

Yeah IT related. There is plenty enough money around in IT these days just in ordinary jobs, so no complaints there, I can live a nice enough life just working in IT 9-5, but I did that for ages and always ran into the same frustrations. Always had a deeper passion and more of a spark that I was unable to let loose in the corporate world frustratingly. Loved the money, but left because the passion and satisfaction in what I do every day ended up being more important. Plus you can work with some absolute retarded morons in the corporate world unfortunately, its a big chest beating circus where morals sadly don't count and bullies thrive.. I still earn a strong hourly rate consulting on the side and that is enough to live off and fund the web business.

But the thing about creating a successful web business though is that you are potentially looking at 12-24 months with zero income/profit from the business. They can be huge to build and a huge time and effort investment before that one magic day down the track when you can justify charging your first paying customer. So it is a long game of steps and just have to stay focused on the end result. I am getting it reasonably close to that point now, already been working on this for over a year now.

I know that if I go straight back to same jobs just for the money I will never be happy. My focus really shifted away from "whoring myself doing whatever just for the highest pay packet" to "I absolutely must be loving what I'm doing every day, and hopefully the money will come later". Note: this took me years to get the confidence and experience to make that decision though, I am a pretty risk averse kind of person normally. Once my property did well and now looks after itself nicely CF+, that helped my mind justify taking a risk on this venture. If I didn't have a good property behind me, I reckon I would still be working in the same old jobs though, because I would be petrified of falling further behind by taking the risk. Its a game of steps and property has certainly given me a good base to be able to leverage from and take a different direction with my career.
 
Zoiks those are some big biccies. I could certainly relax and get comfortably used to living off those numbers, but in my situation, business would have too end up thriving to make that possible now, which I surely do aim for. I remember when earning even 200k salary I felt like I had loads of cash all the time, even after paying the mortgage. I did have a partner earning 150k also which didn't go astray. Oh damn, need a new $2500 fridge, ok just got paid $8500 between us, just go buy it then, what to do with the rest for the fortnight? Might as well chuck another $5000 off the mortgage, let's go out for a fancy dinner and oh what about a 3 night package in a nice Sydney hotel this weekend - bam just got paid $8000 again, wow that fortnight came and went quickly. That's how it was. That was plenty to live off, but like I said, very time poor and I am living the opposite of this now, very cash poor and trying to create something out of nothing. In the end I decided I didn't like my job enough anywhere near enough to hang around for that kind of money. In hindsight I probably should have geared up 2 or 3 extra IPs and leveraged the income to hold a few of them through some of the stronger growth years. But like I said, once you earn that kind of money, many people are too often time poor and too busy earning to "make any money", plus you're highly stressed and life is just hectic/chaotic. So half of the money gets blown on lifestyle fixes. So once again, bah no regrets.

Yea I know what you mean.

Regarding earning $200k in a job, I think once you do that, it's an issue of maintaining a degree of frugality while earing the money. Then people could really set themselves up much more easily. I guess it also depends on what stage of your life you're in.

Eg if you're 25 or 26 and earning that or more, then there's more scope to trim down on spending and invest the money/pay down some mortgages. If you're 50, priorities change and your super nest egg is coming out in a decade or so anyway.

The other thing to also consider is whether there's more upside in your job. Eg if you've hit a senior exec position to earn $200k+, then there's probably not much more upside left in the job which means the opportunity cost of leaving it is lower. If you're at entry level but earning $200k+, then probably the upside might make you stay even if you hate it. But nonetheless, the decision to move out to become self-employed is always admirable.
 
I know that if I go straight back to same jobs just for the money I will never be happy. My focus really shifted away from "whoring myself doing whatever just for the highest pay packet" to "I absolutely must be loving what I'm doing every day, and hopefully the money will come later". Note: this took me years to get the confidence and experience to make that decision though, I am a pretty risk averse kind of person normally. Once my property did well and now looks after itself nicely CF+, that helped my mind justify taking a risk on this venture. If I didn't have a good property behind me, I reckon I would still be working in the same old jobs though, because I would be petrified of falling further behind by taking the risk. Its a game of steps and property has certainly given me a good base to be able to leverage from and take a different direction with my career.

Absolutely. Some people take the plunge early on like Nathan Tinkler. But then that's probably a bit aggressive for me. For me I reckon if you build a good passive cashflow - ideally @ the level where you'd be comfortable alone hence the $200k pa figure - then it becomes easier to give this sort of stuff a go too.
 
If you don't have a family, I reckon around $40k is enough. However you would probably need more like $200k to live a comfortable life.

If you have a family (say a partner and 2 kids and partner doesn't work), you'd probably need around $150k to get by and more around $400-500k to be comfortable.

For Sydney maybe you are close.

If you are a home owner of course the number is quite a lot lower. Saving you 30k per annum in rent in a joint like Sydney for a family home this is more like 50k before tax.

All that said even myself on less than 150k while I can live comfortably here in Perth I am not looking forward to having to move back to Sydney.

Perth is far more affordable to live in then Sydney for a family. Indeed I would recommend it to anyone. OK, there are some exceptions like eating out and coffee but these are optional anyway. Also importantly before people come here remember don't expect massive wages in Perth they are for the NW and regions only. Perth is actually a very liveable city, indeed I would want about 15k per annum more if I had to move back to Sydney.
 
Back
Top