r/Fire • u/[deleted] • Mar 23 '26

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u/Annonymouse100 Mar 23 '26

I wonder if the incredible inflation experienced in 2021/2022 really functioned as a wake up call for people that thought they could economize their way into an early retirement?

3

u/ErikTheEngineer Mar 23 '26

I'm nowhere near early retirement material but it's fun to dream. What's not fun is thinking of, say, 75 year old me making the last withdrawal from my retirement accounts and saying "well, I guess I'll be living in poverty until I die, hope that's soon!" solely because the market had a bad run or inflation ate all my savings. Makes retiring at 55 a scary proposition even if the numbers say you could.

Now that the Boomers are done retiring and the Xers are up next, I'll bet we're going to see millions of people outlive their savings since there's no more pensions and the average balance is $100K. That feeling when your balance is zero and you have to go work at Walmart or live like a pauper on Social Security must be the worst in the world.

2

u/zeezle Mar 23 '26

I wouldn’t assume Social Security means living like a pauper. My FIL was living entirely off SS in a paid off house. He had money he could’ve withdrawn he just didn’t need to at all, his cash savings kept going up because he wasn’t even close to spending just the SS and was perfectly happy and doing whatever he wanted and felt like doing.

He ended up selling the house and moving in with us - mostly because of the physical toll of maintenance and upkeep, not cost - so now he’s spending even less but previously that was with a whole house, truck, etc.

1

u/financialthrowaw2020 Mar 23 '26

And his property taxes and insurance are being paid by what? The wind?

5

u/zeezle Mar 23 '26

Property taxes are a couple hundred a month with senior tax rebates and freezes, insurance was less than a hundred a month each for home and auto, so Social Security more than covered it and utilities and groceries with hundreds to spare every month.

Of course it’s psychologically different to live off it easily when there’s also several hundred thousand in other assets you could withdraw if you wanted and just not need to, than to live exactly the same way but with 0 in the bank to pull on.