> Is your house set to be paid off when you retire? The mortgage was included in your expenses based on how I read your post.

Yes it should be. We're 2 years into a 15 year mortgage that we're paying about $200/mo extra on. We're 11 years out from me being eligible for SS. My estimated payment if I opt for starting at 62 is a little over $2200/mo. My wife would kick in an extra $500.

I think all of those things are viable options. I was mainly concerned that I won't be able to save enough for retirement. I'm thinking right now, my wife and I need to figure out how much "enough" is.

Thanks! I figured posting this on r/personalfinance would bring out the "eat your veggies" crowd. But I want to hear that perspective, among others.

I currently take home a little over half of my salary. My take home pay after taxes, retirement, health care, etc comes out to about $76k per year. I'm paying a lot in taxes because I have no deductions other than my mortgage and I live in a somewhat high tax state. My spouse and I are considering relocating to a state with no income tax. We eat out a lot and have a bunch of streaming services we picked up during COVID. We are also helping out our child in college.

I agree I should spend more time running the numbers.

No, we don't spend everything. We have a lot of running around money that we could be more careful with. We're currently considering downsizing further. Our original plan was to keep the house so we have enough space to host any family or friends who want to visit. We've lived here for nearly 18 months and so far, no one has come. The house feels too big with just the two of us.

I'm currently maxing out my 401k savings ($26k this year with the catch-up contribution) and my spouse's and my Roth IRAs ($7k each) and $5k in a mega backdoor Roth, plus $1k per month in non- retirement accounts. I'm not looking to withdraw anything. I'm just considering not saving as much (ie $20k in the 401k only).

It's a very good point and I don't know why I mentioned it. I've been running under the assumption that I won't get an inheritance at all.

So saving $20k per year for the next 14-15 years wouldn't be enough? That sounds depressing, but I appreciate it.

> What do you expect to be your spend during retirement? If your spend is lower, that target would also be lower, yes?

I think that in large part will depend on what kinds of medical conditions we'll have as well as whether Medicaid is still available in something resembling its current form. Right now, our living expenses are $60k per year, but we could cut that down to $40k and still live comfortably before factoring in inflation.

> Also, the average American family is probably not average 50 years of age, so that may be misleading.

That is a very good point. So far I haven't seen any statistics on how many folks in my age cohort actually have $1 million saved for retirement. Do you know if that's available anywhere?

> That you're down ~40% YTD suggests you're invested very aggressively, probably too aggressively for someone wanting to retire in the next few years.

I did, but I'm not looking to retire in the next few years. I'm 100% remote and I plan to bring my laptop with me.

The question I have is whether I should keep saving so aggressively or if I can slow down and maybe save $20k per year instead of $45k.

I'm not looking to exit the workforce. I'm already 100% remote and have been for the last 15 years. Much of the time, I'd bring my laptop with me and work from the unit.

It's funny you mention St. Kitts. My wife went there last week with the relatives who are part of the club. I wasn't able to go with them due to logistics, but it sounds like they had a great time. My BiL told me he was able to get a special rate of $180 per week through the vacation club.

That's a really good point, and one of the reasons why I'm on the fence. Normally it's $10k to start plus a $400 annual maintenance fee in the years when you use it. One of our relatives has offered to sell us his membership for what he still owes on it. We don't know how much that is yet.

With the quarter ending on Monday, I'm thinking that any potential layoffs would most likely happen in the next couple of weeks once they get the preliminary numbers. I'm not worried about finding another job right away, and I should be able to get some severance. Plus, we have 6 months of expenses in a savings account we can tap if we need it.