Managing my own retirement asset/Carlos Pueblo

Managing my own retirement asset/Carlos Pueblo

A good question of how much you need to satisfy your own retirement is really

a way of managing your own retirement funds. I, myself, have repeated the

numbers all the time that involving all factors in my retirement life, i.e. house to

live, food to eat, clothes to wear, transportation to move from point A to point B,

and 20% extra for the other needs.

We paid off our mortgage in 1992, sold the old house in 2012 with a profit, and

bought the current house cash with some profit left. Our house payment is only

the annual real estate tax of approximately $5,200.

We don’t go out to restaurants for eating that often. We cook at home and there

is no complain within our family. I have been forced to go to restaurants on cruise

trips and that is including on my transportation and extra. Our cost of grocery

shopping is about $15,600 a year according to my estimate from Amy’s wisely

selection of 4 super markets every week. $1,300 a month and divided by three

for the number of one, $450 or less.

I wear my old clothes, i.e. routine casual to meet my pet friends and their owners.

I rarely encounter a dress up occasion during my retirement life or unemployment

time. After moving to the current location, I did only once dry cleaning for my old

working suits and preserve them under summer baking of the sun. Therefore, the

cost of clothing is very minimum and approaching to zero.

Vehicle expanses can be estimated as well. Every 5 years, we buy a new car in order

to retire an old and difficult to manage car. I have developed a little complicate system

in the family that I rotate the usage of vehicles among our family members. Now, Amy

and Michelle join force with me to pay the cost of new vehicle and my burden reduces

substantially.

The total of the above basic cost of my retirement life plus 20% extra for all expenditure

not mentioning on the above will be satisfied by my social security payment, requirement

minimum distribution of pension funds, and I don’t even to touch the Roth IRA or after tax

saving. The amazing part of the investment saving is that sometimes the appreciation of

retirement funds takes care of the expanse and the capital is still growing. I don’t have the

anxiety of the end of stock market or anything else which is not my problem.