YNAB. I started it a year ago and it’s life-changing. I know, down to the penny, how much I spend each month and what I spent it on. My goal is to retire in 15 years at 57. By then there’ll be no question what we need to live each month. Not only is it allowing me to save more, I know it’ll allow me to retire, with confidence, earlier.
Withdrawal calculator
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SAJ-99
Well-known member
I think the spending part is the hardest to estimate. You end up with more free time. Some will spend more and others less.
YNAB and Monarch seem to be two that are most highly recommended. Your outcome is exactly what I’m looking for- thanks @NoWiser
406dn
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- Dec 12, 2019
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You will likely spend a bit less in retirement to maintain the same standard of living as working.
Expenses that go down in retirement
No more FICA withholding
No more Medicare withholding
No more saving for retirement
No more cost of commuting
Clothing expenses, this did not apply to me since I wore company provided Nomex clothes.
If you save a bit on the above, and withdraw accordingly, your tax bill will be some smaller.
Expenses that go down in retirement
No more FICA withholding
No more Medicare withholding
No more saving for retirement
No more cost of commuting
Clothing expenses, this did not apply to me since I wore company provided Nomex clothes.
If you save a bit on the above, and withdraw accordingly, your tax bill will be some smaller.
Nick87
Well-known member
I must be an idiot. We tried that app and didn't work out for me. As and I just didn't like the way it worked. We just do it old school.My wife keep tracks of it and once a week, we go over everything weekly. I kept asking her where the money is going all the time turns out after research I'm the problem lol.
It took me 2-3 months to get into the swing of things with it. Now it’s just second nature. A couple minutes a day and it’s all there. The toughest is Amazon and Target purchases, as they get charged weird on your card. Unfortunately, my wife likes Amazon and Target.
Nick87
Well-known member
Maybe I just didn't understand how to use it. It's like it wanted me to preload everything for the month, so many things are variables, I have no idea what they're going to cost like gas, electric etc.
Nick87
Well-known member
My wife refuses to link anything to cards. She's had her identity stolen twice now. It has been a real mess and still is.
I can see her point, I’m a bit spooked by that part too.
Nick87
Well-known member
We bought the insurance protection after the 1st time and they still got it the 2nd time.
rookieforever33
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- Apr 12, 2026
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Obviously there are a lot of variables so everyones plan needs to be a little different. But one piece I heard that I plan to follow is, once you plan your basic yearly draw, draw 3-5 years worth when the market is good. Place it in a safe space and let the rest ride. Average markets keep following your yearly plan, a couple bad years means draw little to none. A couple good market years get a little more for the safe space. Why put your entire retirement in a fund that pays low interest. Why just chip away at your money in a low return fund while the rest of the market rises. Just keep enough in a safe space to hold you over when the market downturns.
CC’s? She should be covered for loss.
Nick87
Well-known member
We were. But the whole thing is still a pain to say the very least.
My wife had her cc hacked twice. She’s been fine for a while. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Cc companies warned her and took care of the issue. Zero costs.
Debit cards would have been a different issue.
Nick87
Well-known member
Yah debit card would not be fun, first time was some asshole buying solar panels in Texas that one was a phone call and done. 2nd one they hacked her amazon account and used the card she had filed only they were to dumb to change the delivery adress. So all the stuff came here. Sherrif had to come out and everything. We had $8k worth of hair extensions, wigs, knee high boots and headsets sitting here for like 2 months. Fun.
Bonasababy
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70% in equities for a retiree? Do they have almost no expenses or have more money stashed elsewhere? Run that with a 5% withdrawal with a big correction right when they retire or shortly after....A lot of questions get asked about retirement so I thought this thread is a good place for this. I like to run retirement projections starting from Jan 1 2000, as that was about the peak of the dotcom bubble. Certainly the worst time to retire in a few generations. Probably the worst would be 1929, but that data is harder to find. The graph below starts with $1m (just a nice round number) in a 70%(US Equity Market)/30% (TBills for cashflows) portfolio, includes 5% annual withdraws from the portfolio, and annual rebalancing. The graph below shows on an inflation adjusted basis, that $1M is worth about the same today. The actual value of the portfolio went from $1m to $2.1m, even with withdraws (We have lived in some pretty good times).
Link to calculator below if you want to play around with it. Between the Dotcom bubble bursting and 2008-2009, it was a hard decade to keep that portfolio intact without panicking.
View attachment 415588
Backtest Portfolio Asset Class Allocation
Analyze and view portfolio returns, sharpe ratio, standard deviation and rolling returns based on historical asset class returns and the given asset allocationwww.portfoliovisualizer.com
SAJ-99
Well-known member
that’s up to the individual. The 5% withdrawal rate is to account for both interest and dividends and selling some stock. You can make that number whatever you want. You can make it a fixed amount or fixed percentage. At fixed % the amount would be smaller each year. I recognize the flaws. The reason I choose 2000 as the starting point is you get two recessions and severe market corrections. The math is good. But I can say that a participant’s risk tolerance may be questioned should it become reality.
That’s the beauty of it. After a few months you’ll know very close what they will be. And, you aren’t limited to what your budget is in those categories. Maybe your vehicle fuel bill is high one month because you drove out west to hunt. You can move money from another category to cover it. The point is that you shouldn’t be spending more than you make in a month, on average.
I’m sure it’s not for everyone, but for us, it was a game-changer. Financial stress has all but disappeared. We are contributing to retirement like never before. Paying CC on the day we get the statement, not the due date. And, we spend more, guilt free, on family vacations and fun stuff because we can look at the category and see that we have money dedicated to it.
I've been playing with that ficalc.app mentioned earlier and it is really insightful. You can enter your social security and pension income if you want. And that is a very important consideration.
BTW, according to the ficalc, bad 30-year spans including inflation are:
1973-2002
1969-1998
1966-1995
1965-1994
The timespan depends on other things like the amount of social security and when it kicks in, etc.
BTW, according to the ficalc, bad 30-year spans including inflation are:
1973-2002
1969-1998
1966-1995
1965-1994
The timespan depends on other things like the amount of social security and when it kicks in, etc.
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