Good point. I had been wishing I could somehow retire on $60,000 (i.e., today), but of course I can, by moving somewhere extremely cheap or becoming homeless, or some other options I don’t want to try.

What I really want to know is the minimum I can retire on and continue living just the way I am now, or maybe slightly more like a student, for no matter how long I live, and that answer is more like $200,000 plus paying off my house.

Right off the bat, it’s never a good sign when someone types a complete sentence into a search engine.

Another glaring assumption attached to that question is that the questioner assumes the answerer knows what the questioner means by “retire”.

ERE’s answer reminds me of the stealth Rolls Royce advertising meme: “If you have to ask [how much it costs], you can’t afford it.”

Thus, “If you have to ask [if you have enough], you can’t retire early.” ;-\

In a way, I have retired three times in my life with three different careers, taking time off between each one and going back to the university to get a new MA degree. I love learning and teaching and working with college students.

Having recently returned from teaching in the Middle East for four years, we are back once again in the USA and we now live and travel in a 27 foot Lazy Daze 1998 Motorhome. It’s about 200 sq.ft. and my wife and I love it because the design layout (MidBath) with dinette and kitchen in front, and living/sleeping room in the back surrounded by three huge windows. Previously we had a dream house of nearly 3000 sq ft and an office above the garage with an extra 800 sq.ft. I look back at this and realize that the house owned us. Krazy way to live.

We paid cash ($30,000) for the Lazy Daze motorhome, and have no debt. Our monthly expenses average about $2500 for everything during this first year although we expect it to drop to $2000 by January. It could be less but we travel with a canoe and kayak on top, recumbent bicycles on back, and do lots of hiking and biking. In other words, we love to have lots of outdoor fun and we are willing to pay extra to accomplish this.

We had saved $200-300,000 to be financially free and now we are on social security ($2000/month) and rarely touch our investments. We meet people all the time on the road who only live on $1500, although I read where the average cost is $3000 a month for most RVers. Forget the Wall Street types who say you need a million dollars. But…I recommend working long enough to qualify for social security (40 quarters) or sufficient investments to keep you going no matter what the global economy might be. There are lots of work kamper jobs around the country as you travel. We only expected to do this for two years but we are now thinking of going longer. We’re just getting into the routine of life on the road.

The key, as has been said constantly on this site, is to save, get out of debt, and have a plan. Good luck and good planning to all! David Michael

@H.G. – Could you tell us what you did or give some hints for other people to follow your model for early retirement?

I have a hard time convincing people that I could retire on a quarter million dollars. These are the same people who tell me I have no life and should enjoy my life by spending more.

While I do think social security will be around for me, it’s so far off in the future that it has little effect on our planning. For really early retirees (think 20-30+ years before social security age), the net present value of the social income may not enough to make a difference in terms of portfolio planning.

This article should be linked to the following …
http://tinyhouseblog.com/dome/that-roundhouse/#more-14389
Maybe you could move somewhere and build one of these. It’s a little extreme but works for them.

10 million is enough for me.

so you automatically assume that someone typing a question like this into a search engine means they arent frugal and cant control spending ……howbout the extreme opposite how bout someone very frugal and being very cautious and looking at every angel before making a big decision

Actually $2,000,000 was about right for me. About 1/3 of that was from my own 401/IRA savings and balance from stock options that paid off big for me (thanks Apple!).

It helps that the house was paid off and the kids college has been paid for too.

I’m not sure retiring at 49 is extreme (at least as far as this web site is concerned), but when I quit my job earlier this year it was one for the best days of my life.

Google Anwser, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.”