Due Diligence

Read a great line online this morning regarding scammers/cons/grifters etc.

“You have to invite a vampire into your house before it can suck your blood.”

To put it another way:  No one can take advantage of you without your consent.

Be aware and beware.

I think that says it all.

Penny Pincher

How much money do you REALLY need for retirement?

Yesterday I read an eye-opening article in Marketwatch:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/stop-pushing-poor-people-to-save-more-for-retirement-2019-09-12?mod=mw_theo_homepage

The telling paragraph in the article is this:

"But first we need to get something straight: retirement saving isn’t about making yourself rich in retirement. In reality, retirement saving is about being able to maintain your pre-retirement standard of living once you stop working. And most Americans, including low earning workers, seem able to do that."

Here's what you REALLY need for retirement:

Enough money to cover "your pre-retirement standard of living once you stop working."

Got that?  No pie-in-the-sky million or more dollars.  (Unless you lead a much more extravagant life than I, in which case you're probably not reading a blog about Cheap and Cheerful Living.)

Using your present income/expenses as a base, you need to figure out how you're going to match your present income.  Social security?  401K? Investments? Savings?  IRA? (Unless it's a Roth IRA, you'll be paying taxes on your mandatory IRA withdrawals.)  On the expense side, you'll need to factor in health insurance (Med-B is automatically deducted from your monthly social security payment).  In my budget the top 3 expense categories are: housing (condo fees, cable, power, water), cash (groceries, gas, incidentals), medical insurance (Med-B, AARP supplemental insurance & drug coverage, air ambulance).  These 3 areas account for the lion's share of my annual spending.  What's ironic is that I spend roughly the same total dollars annually in each of the 3 areas.  

To make your plan work you need financial software.  Get it, use it, make it your best friend.  Without it you're just whistling in the dark.

Penny Pincher

It's All Relative

Last week when I was pissing and moaning about my current electric bill -- about $100, no a/c, fans only running 24/7, about double what I pay in winter when the fans are off -- I ran across an article on Marketwatch about expats living in Belize.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/to-hell-with-it-she-ditched-canada-at-56-for-belize-where-couples-get-everything-you-could-imagine-for-under-50000-a-year-2019-09-05?mod=MW_home_top_stories

A highlight of the article was this list of expenses for living in Belize:

International Living magazine estimates that, if you’re frugal, you can get by on $2,000 a month. Sample monthly expenses might include:
• Rent: $850
• Electricity: $250
• Water: $35
• Cellphone: $50
• Internet and land line: $35
• Cable TV: $24
• Transportation: $50
• Gym membership: $100
• Food: $600
• TOTAL: $1,994
Source: International Living

Using the above categories, I tallied my average monthly expenses (no gym membership for me, I walk every morning).  Surprise!  My expenses came to about 1/2 of the frugal living in Belize total.  Seems I had nothing to bitch about after all.

Penny Pincher