A letter writer on his travel and dining out: “I justify it because we’re saving $50,000-plus a year toward retirement and have zero bad debt.” GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload.
Now that you have an idea of what this write-up is about, check this out: A couple seeks answers for a retirement plan by writing to Quentin Fottrell, a MarketWatch's Managing Editor-Personal Finance and The Moneyist columnist.
‘We live a rather lavish lifestyle: My wife and I are 33, live in New York City, and earn $270,000. Can we retire at 55? We travel a lot, eat at nice restaurants and essentially buy what we want’
Dear Quentin,
My wife
and I, both 33, are lucky enough to have high-paying jobs in New York
City.
Collectively, we make $270,000 a year. We own a home in Seattle, worth $500,000, that is rented out and covers the mortgage and cash flow. We have zero debt outside of our mortgage. We have an emergency fund of $45,000. We rent our house in Brooklyn. Collectively, we max out our 401(k)s, and I receive a pension of $8,500 a year, so we’re saving approximately $53,000 a year toward retirement.
We have about $75,000 in our retirement accounts from our work in Seattle. We have no kids and likely don’t plan on having any. We’d like to retire at 50 to 55. My question is: Are we saving enough? We live a rather lavish lifestyle. We travel a lot, eat at nice restaurants and essentially buy what we want. I justify it because we’re saving $50,000-plus a year toward retirement and have zero bad debt.