5 ms·

Are there parts of the US where $3600 is enough?

JustSomeNobody 11y ago
Yeah, most anywhere except California, Washington (both), and New York.
pmorici 11y ago
$3,600 a month is more than enough in most places in the US. Especially if you plan right and have a paid off house in an area with favorable property tax laws when you retire.
douche 11y ago
If the $3600 is what goes into your pocket (I'm not really up on how SS is taxed, since I'm too young to ever have a chance of seeing a dime of it), then yeah, that is a pretty comfortable amount of income in many areas of the US. Assuming you have your mortgage paid off, there are a lot of places in the U.S. where a retired person with that kind of income would have more disposable income than anyone else in the community.
VLM 11y ago
Median income of the subset of employed americans is only $2400/month before tax, so you'll be living better than most Americans at $3600/mo.
- jqm 11y ago
  "Median income of the subset of employed americans is only $2400/month" That's also a good point as to why people aren't saving money....
- cookiecaper 11y ago
  Where are you seeing that $28k/yr is the median income? Bear in mind this is per month, not per pay period.
  - dangrossman 11y ago
    Just a guess, but if he threw "median personal income US" into Google, it would've quoted from Wikipedia: > The overall median income for all 155 million persons over the age of 15 who worked with earnings in 2005 was $28,567 Which, divided by 12, is $2380. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...
    - cookiecaper 11y ago
      I checked before posting by typing in "median us income": https://archive.is/M05IS https://archive.is/M05IS . It's $51,939. The difference is that this is median household income, not median personal income. This is the answer I usually see when median income is discussed, and it's really debatable which is the most appropriate to use when discussing what a person can "live off of", though I accept that personal median income is the most direct analog to personal Social Security payments. The real question is whether the OP has a wife that will also be collecting SS.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
cookiecaper 11y ago
Define "enough". $3600/mo is $43.2k/yr, which is a few k/yr less than the nationwide median income. Keep in mind that in many areas, two wage-earners (that is, $100k+/yr) are required to maintain a middle class standard of living. It could be pretty adequate if the potential retiree has planned well and has already paid off their home (a typical house payment in an area of the country with a sane cost of living would probably be between $1k-$1.5k). It'd really help to have some decently-sized retirement accounts. Basically, $3600/mo is adequate maintenance money, but add one or two major expenses to that (like a house, car, or major medical bill), and it gets dicier. If you want to travel during your retirement, or do anything besides buy groceries, you'll need significant savings to draw from.
- woofyman 11y ago
  Plus health insurance costs.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    Medicare + subsidized supplemental insurance from the ACA (due to less income in retirement years).
hyperpape 11y ago
I live in an area where $3600/month is more than the median income. Hell, five years ago, I was supporting myself, my wife and a kid on about something like that.[1] It was rough, but just barely manageable. [1] "Something like that" because I was making significantly less, but had some familial advantages (I was driving a car in decent condition that I got from parents when I was younger, parents bought the kids lots of clothes, and of course I had a safety net, which is huge--not having that would've moved me from constant stress to full blown panic). Edit: Ohhhh, I forgot the EITC, which makes a big difference. That nudged us a lot closer to that line back then. Still, where I live, $3600 a month would be fine for a single person who didn't have enormous health care costs (and I know that's a real "aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln?" comment. Retirees are pretty likely to have big medical bills).
gaoshan 11y ago
I live in Ohio and have paid off my home so for my wife and myself that would be enough. This assumes no expensive medical emergencies, no new cars needed, no significant international travel, etc. Wouldn't be a very luxurious life but we wouldn't starve to death. About all I'm hoping for any longer.
trentmb 11y ago
That's 43,200/yr- plenty to live a comfortable life in much of the US.
LyndsySimon 11y ago
Yes. I grew up in north-central Arkansas. The median household income there is substantially less than that.

Yeah, most anywhere except California, Washington (both), and New York.

$3,600 a month is more than enough in most places in the US. Especially if you plan right and have a paid off house in an area with favorable property tax laws when you retire.

douche 11y ago

If the $3600 is what goes into your pocket (I'm not really up on how SS is taxed, since I'm too young to ever have a chance of seeing a dime of it), then yeah, that is a pretty comfortable amount of income in many areas of the US. Assuming you have your mortgage paid off, there are a lot of places in the U.S. where a retired person with that kind of income would have more disposable income than anyone else in the community.

VLM 11y ago

Median income of the subset of employed americans is only $2400/month before tax, so you'll be living better than most Americans at $3600/mo.

jqm 11y ago
"Median income of the subset of employed americans is only $2400/month" That's also a good point as to why people aren't saving money....
cookiecaper 11y ago
Where are you seeing that $28k/yr is the median income? Bear in mind this is per month, not per pay period.
- dangrossman 11y ago
  Just a guess, but if he threw "median personal income US" into Google, it would've quoted from Wikipedia: > The overall median income for all 155 million persons over the age of 15 who worked with earnings in 2005 was $28,567 Which, divided by 12, is $2380. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...
  - cookiecaper 11y ago
    I checked before posting by typing in "median us income": https://archive.is/M05IS https://archive.is/M05IS . It's $51,939. The difference is that this is median household income, not median personal income. This is the answer I usually see when median income is discussed, and it's really debatable which is the most appropriate to use when discussing what a person can "live off of", though I accept that personal median income is the most direct analog to personal Social Security payments. The real question is whether the OP has a wife that will also be collecting SS.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

cookiecaper 11y ago

Define "enough". $3600/mo is $43.2k/yr, which is a few k/yr less than the nationwide median income. Keep in mind that in many areas, two wage-earners (that is, $100k+/yr) are required to maintain a middle class standard of living. It could be pretty adequate if the potential retiree has planned well and has already paid off their home (a typical house payment in an area of the country with a sane cost of living would probably be between $1k-$1.5k). It'd really help to have some decently-sized retirement accounts. Basically, $3600/mo is adequate maintenance money, but add one or two major expenses to that (like a house, car, or major medical bill), and it gets dicier. If you want to travel during your retirement, or do anything besides buy groceries, you'll need significant savings to draw from.

woofyman 11y ago
Plus health insurance costs.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  Medicare + subsidized supplemental insurance from the ACA (due to less income in retirement years).

hyperpape 11y ago

I live in an area where $3600/month is more than the median income. Hell, five years ago, I was supporting myself, my wife and a kid on about something like that.[1] It was rough, but just barely manageable. [1] "Something like that" because I was making significantly less, but had some familial advantages (I was driving a car in decent condition that I got from parents when I was younger, parents bought the kids lots of clothes, and of course I had a safety net, which is huge--not having that would've moved me from constant stress to full blown panic). Edit: Ohhhh, I forgot the EITC, which makes a big difference. That nudged us a lot closer to that line back then. Still, where I live, $3600 a month would be fine for a single person who didn't have enormous health care costs (and I know that's a real "aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln?" comment. Retirees are pretty likely to have big medical bills).

gaoshan 11y ago

I live in Ohio and have paid off my home so for my wife and myself that would be enough. This assumes no expensive medical emergencies, no new cars needed, no significant international travel, etc. Wouldn't be a very luxurious life but we wouldn't starve to death. About all I'm hoping for any longer.

trentmb 11y ago

That's 43,200/yr- plenty to live a comfortable life in much of the US.

LyndsySimon 11y ago

Yes. I grew up in north-central Arkansas. The median household income there is substantially less than that.