The problem with retiring at a very young age and setting yourself on a path of having a fixed income is that you are very prone to getting screwed by inflation. Most people who are retired for more than 20 years get impacted, those who are retired longer have more risk. Retiring in your low 30’s is nearly impossible without some good inflation hedges like having more than one paid off rental properties.
Those numbers flu mentioned above will not look like that in 30 years and a few hundred grand isn’t going to keep pace if you are living off the capital gains or interest, every day you will get further behind. So being able to just barely make it today doesn’t translate into comfort 50 years from now.
When I mentioned 75-100k, I did mean before taxes. I’ve designed my retirement to exceed 10k a month before taxes in today’s dollars. I’m not there yet investment wise but I will be there in ten years and those additional ten years of investing and working also serve as ten less years of being exposed to inflation. I know that if live 40+ years into retirement it’s not going to go as planned and I certainly wouldn’t retire before I got my kids through college because their too many variables when you have dependants. Things might go very wrong or very right. A dependant could become very ill or very injured. A dependant could also do very well and get into medical school. Fixing one’s income while there are other’s to care for and so many variables is a recepie for disaster.
Fixing one’s income when you have 20-30 years left on the planet and nobody to take care of or pay for can and does work all the time.
