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Ask HN: When Can You Retire?

5 points by jujugatsby ↗ HN
What assumptions do you make about social security, cost of living?

More generally, how do you also calculate this age?

6 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 24.8 ms ] thread
uberman
When your reliable passive income exceeds your cost of living you can probably retire.

Aside from that, the issue is too complicated and important to not seek professional guidance.

linsomniac
A dramatic part of the answer may involve answering the question "WHERE can you retire". If you are willing or interested in retiring in another country, there seem to be several lovely choices where you can have a good life at a fraction of the cost of retiring in the USA.
Gibbon1
Difficulty lot of people want to retire where their friends and family are.
greenyoda
The other big variable is what kind of lifestyle you'll want to have. For example, if you want to work on open source software in retirement, you'll need much less money than if you want to travel around the world in first-class.
chewz
Just be wise. In perspective of 10-20 years the cost of living in cheap countries might skyrocket and the currency might appreciate diminishing value of savings in dollars.

Just read ThaiVisaForum (thaivisa.com) - endless stories of expats who over last 10-15 years went from comfortable living on pension in Thailand to destitute.

decibe1
When you can live off of 4% of your investment assets.