Personal Investments • Retirement / Portfolio review/feedback

Retirement budget: FLEX <--- $36k/yr (lower limit) --- $40,000/yr (desired) --- $45k/yr (upper limit) --->

In the US people do live of that but that is a pretty frugal budget especially if you do not have a paid off house and are paying rent. Even when you get on Medicare you will have a Medicare premiums, supplements, deductibles, and uncovered expenses so don't things will be free once you get on Medicare. Things like hearing aids and dental work(Don't ask!) can also be expensive

When you are retired you might also want to do things like travel or hobbies and even when done modestly those can add up too.

Being on such a tight budget also means that you don't have much room for error. While you might hope to spend less I would suggest planning on a higher level of spending then you can be pleasantly surprised if you have extra money.

You can play with the numbers in all sorts of ways but planning on a $50K a year budget would be a more realistic budget but that would still be a very modest lifestyle.

Social security: (age 70) $3,800 (based on total SS earnings through 2023 averaged out 35 years)

I did not follow the way you phrased that but make sure is taking stopping working at 50 since you will have some very low or zero years in the 35 years that are used to calculate your Social Security benefit.

The plan is to liquidate all my stuff and become nomadic overseas for a few years then MAYBE come back to the US permanently and settle in a LCOL area IF the numbers make sense at that time.

Be sure to research how your state income taxes will work. A potential problem is that some states will still try to tax you while you are living overseas if your do not sever the ties with that state just right.

Another thing to look into is that people have posted about US brokerages may close your account if they find out that you are not living in the US. Take this seriously and research this carefully. There are lots of old threads about which you can search for.

If do something like use a relative's mailing address then they will report your earning to that state and that state will expect you to file a tax return.

There are lots of details so research this carefully.

It would also be good to consider doing Roth conversions during those years.

If you come back to the US to visit or for some family event like a wedding or funeral be sure that you have good health insurance that will cover you since you might need that on short notice so have a plan for that.

Statistics: Posted by Watty — Sat Dec 09, 2023 10:20 pm — Replies 4 — Views 510

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