Good point made about kitchen-expense cutbacks. THIS IS A DOABLE DEAL but will require 4-6 hrs per month of attention paid to weekly specials, coupons and careful meal planning/lists. I used to do this while on lunch break at work, but now with only a 1.5 member household, I don’t need to anymore as it wouldn’t help me much, if at all. Also, you must have a running car as you may need to frequent several (usually nearby) places in order to score your monthly allotment of $500 worth of groceries for <$200. This can still be done as I know several people still doing it.
Also, the Mello-Roos bonds (attached to the property tax) in Temecula (and the vast majority of newer tracts in the central valley that TG brought up) have not been addressed here. In the OP, Ice9 believes his property tax basis will be low in CA. Not so with Mello Roos. His property taxes will likely be 2-3% of assessed value.
You can often wear sweaters/sweatshirts in your home (when you are not sleeping) during the two cold months per year (Dec/Jan) to avoid paying the =>$75 extra to run the furnace. I am ONLY familiar with living 0-5 miles from SD Bay, however. I don’t know if this is actually feasible further inland.
Ice9, if you can work out of your home (and just appear in your employer’s face occasionally) doing what you presumably like to do, why do you want to “retire?” You have a long life ahead of you yet.
Edit: I forgot to mention that you can get a high-deductible policy (catastrophic health coverage) on the cheap, IF you are all healthy. For your age, a male is about $140, a female about $170-$200, and your child about $90-110 per month. You will likely get preventative care 100% paid and will likely have a $5K deductible and $8K co-insurance. Routine dr visits and prescriptions are discounted.
