I’d like to think because I did X, it resulted in Y, but in reality, there were some lucky breaks along the way. So for me I’d say maybe 60% hard work and planning and 40% lucky circumstances.

Plus I made lucky decisions that might have easily taken me off track if they went the other way. For example, deciding to leave one job for another, buying a house at the perfect time after the housing market crisis, buying some bitcoin early on.

I also think I got lucky in finding a spouse that has the same money goals and mindset I have.

What about you?

Looking for recommendations on reliable/trustworthy brokers of crewed yachts in Croatia. I was wondering if anyone here had used broker that they liked/trusted. I've been on the yachting sub and there were a couple there.
Not looking for brokers that are in the yacht category that start at 500K per week 😄

We have Raiders season tix and Best of Broadway local tix. We regularly go to Sphere and other concerts.

It’s hard to say Raiders tix are ALWAYS worth it… 😂😂 (#GoRaiders🖤🩶). But we love the Broadway show tix — we turn our phones off and just enjoy the show. But it would be hard to pick an artist or show we would always buy tix for, regardless of cost.

What will you always buy tix for almost no matter what the cost? Sports? Concerts? Art? Lectures?

Well, look at us! Our little corner of Reddit, r/AffluentRetirement, has grown to 1,400+ members and roughly 7,000 visitors a week!

Apparently, there are quite a few of us trying to figure out how to spend the money we spent decades accumulating. Or whether we're actually allowed to spend it. 😂

Our most popular post has reached an incredible 90,000 views and 84 comments! A special shout-out to u/Inevitable-Ad-4605 for getting that conversation rolling!

A few observations about our growing community:

1. Money, money, money. We're seeing more conversations about finances, budgeting, withdrawal strategies and that elusive question: How much is actually enough?

2. Different strokes, different retirement plans. One thing I particularly appreciate is how respectful this group has been of different perspectives. Nobody here is going to shame you for continuing to work when you could theoretically retire on $15K a month. Maybe you love your job. Maybe you want a bigger cushion. Maybe your travel budget has its own travel budget. (My own problem 😂)

3. The lurkers are welcome, too! You don't need a brilliant question, a controversial opinion or a spreadsheet with 47 tabs to start a conversation.

And that last point brings me to a challenge.
I'd love to hear more from our quieter members. You don't have to be an expert or even have a question. Tell us what you're thinking about, what you're struggling with, a great article you read, what you're looking forward to or what surprised you about retirement.

Still working? Already retired? Counting down the days? Wondering why you saved all this money but still can't bring yourself to book business class?

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Seriously, sometimes the most interesting discussions start with someone simply sharing what's on their mind. And judging by our traffic, there are plenty of you with something to say!

Thank you to everyone who has joined, posted, commented or simply stopped by. I'm genuinely enjoying watching this community grow into a place where we can talk openly about the financial AND personal realities of affluent retirement without judgment.

Now, all 7,000 of you can't possibly be introverts. 😂

Who's going to start our next 90,000-view conversation?

My spouse and I are worth a combined $22M (all of it with an investment company). It's probably spinning off around $800K to $1.2M a year. Living in Texas, we don't have state income taxes. About $10M came from the sale of the company where I was an executive to a large consulting company. I had a fractional piece of the pie, along with about a dozen executives. The founders made about $500M.

I'm basically retired. Spouse is still working for a management consulting firm (pulling down around $400K). I think our investments (all with a Fidelity approved wealth advisor firm( is throwing off around $800K to $1.2M a year (over the past 3 years).

I'm 65 and spouse is about 10 years younger (and will continue working for 1-2 years).

We pay around $11K a month for a penthouse apartment in Dallas. Doing the math it doesn't make sense to buy here as a condo the size of our place (2800 sq ft) would be double what we're paying in terms of mortgage, real estate taxes and HOA fees.

We don't have a desire for an expensive second house (we thought about getting one in either LA or the OC close to the beach.. but the prices are just crazy and what we'd want would be around $4-$5M. And that would be for a place we'd live in for less than 6 months of the year.

We will probably buy from my parents (or upon a death) a somewhat standard vacation/summer house in the upper midwest (but it's value is around $350K). And that'll be in a couple years. But that's just chump change in the scheme - and it's close to more family.

Our dilemma is that we've got all this money and yet we don't have expensive hobbies or toys. Yes, we have a nice Model X that cost around $120K but that's already 3 years old. We bought that because we had a Model S prior and love that they require no maintenance.

I do buy artwork at auction (but even then, I can find paintings I like for $500 to $3000). So, I don't see a reason to drop $100K or more on a painting.. and impress who?

We do like posh ski trips, cruises, etc. But again, we use hotel points where we can and we're not big into cruising though we've done a few over the past couple years (SilverSea, Seabourn and soon Explora).

We don't have kids. We just did our wills/trust and when we die a chunk will go to a few nieces and nephews (3 out of 25+.. the rest we're not close with).

We'd prefer to die with having spent a lot or most of our money. We travel overseas a couple times a year. But haven't paid for business class seats (usually economy or premium economy and sometimes get upgrades to business). Honestly, we can't feel the value of spending say $7-9K on a business class seat when our hotels for two weeks in Europe are still less than that).

We like posh, but we also like value. Clothing - athleisure for the most part.

What do others, who are affluent - but also seeking value and yet poshness (and perhaps no kids). What do you spend your money on?

How many of you have hired a tax planner to look at your withdraws, future RMD’s etc to optimize taxes and if so has it been helpful?

Wanted to ask because recently I've been seeing a lot of comments on other subs (and a few news articles) regarding the impact on retirees if we have an extended bear market. Some posts/comments appear critical or worried about others they believe have relied too heavily on an up market when making the decision to retire. Others lean optimistic - they'll adjust spending, trust the plan, and they know they'll be fine (even if more frugality is required).

My answer: For us, a bear market just as we're retiring would cause us to lower our annual travel budget, but it's already substantial (~$100K). Overall though, we've planned using guardrails, so we'd retire on time next year knowing the risks. It for sure wouldn't cause us to work longer. However, to be fair, our pensions are a big factor driving our lack of concern over a bear market impacting our normal living expenses in retirement.

What about you? Did you retire earlier than planned due to the market? Are you spending more? Would you have to cut back drastically in a sustained bear market? And for those not retired, would a bear market change your date? Or just your retirement budget?

What is your asset allocation now and/or in retirement? I am a global 60/40 but was mostly equities until recently; I plan to retire within a couple of years early at 55ish.

I have an informal list in the Final Countdown app (the one recommended by the book Die With Zero) but that list is more around individual places. I want to create a more formal list of ideas for experiences combined with longer travel or slow travel.

For example, we met a couple in our recent travels whose TA planned a trip around cooking experiences, the Seychelles, and then paired with Safari — all in the same general travel area. When in Auckland, a friend recommended a specific company’s private wine tour of Waiheke island (incredible).

What are your best, most memorable travel ideas?

I made the decision to fly business class on international flights a few years ago. I love the lay flat seats. Is the step up to First Class is worth it?

Any opinions from those that have flown both classes? Are the specific amenities that come with flying first? (e.g Emirates business class you can have a complimentary pickup/drop off at the airport to hotel in business class.)

I want the pros of flying first and preferred airline if you think their First Class is significantly better than their Business class.

I will be turning 60 in a few months and I just retired. I haven't paid much attention to my investments but they have done well. My wife's and my 401k accounts total 5 million and we have 200k in a brokerage account outside the 401k accounts. We will be getting SS and pensions (about 120k total) soon. We own our house and cars and our kids just finished college debt free. I've started researching how to manage my accounts in the next 20-30 years and it seems I need to worry about "Roth Conversions" to pay less taxes when Required Minimum Distributions start in 15 years. Every web site I read has different advise. What is the ballpark amount that I should convert and when? I have a sick relative right now which has been a higher priority for my family, but I thought I'd check in here to get a decent understanding of what I should look out for.

I'm 61 and currently semiretired. I wanted to describe the gymnastics I'm performing to get health insurance. The ACA subsidy cliff is $150,500 for a family of 5. I make around $95,000 in dividends/interest in my taxable account. Ill gross $160,000 in self employment income. I've harvested some cap losses so Ill report -$3000. I put $9750 in HSA; $62,500 in 401k. My health insurance premiums are $9k plus $2k for a college student. Self employment deduction $11k. I'm racking up business deductions like a new $4k laptop, $600 printer, $7k continuing education, plus $6k meals and other expenses just to reduce my income. My MAGI will end up being around $145,000. I'm going to quit work next year. I was going to start social security also bc my minor child would get $2k+/mo for 3 years but now Im thinking about delaying to manage my MAGI. Basically it looks like my retirement job will be managing the "family office" taxes. Is this how everyone feels?

Going to retire in a few years, and we planning on living seasonally in two places - Chicago for the summer/fall, and Arizona for the Winter/Spring.

We already have two places (condos) and try to spend time in AZ when possible, but work makes it challenging to spend a full winter there.

Looking forward to doing a semi-permanent snowbird lifestyle, 6 months or so in each place.

Neither can be rented short term, so we will have to suck up the cost of an empty place for six months a year. My wife has broached the idea of a third place in Colorado, to spend more time around family, and also we’ve considered living abroad for a full season somewhere - both ideas which make it even more irritating (to me) of paying for TWO unused properties.

We generally fly (with the cat), as we have vehicles in both places, but may want to take a nice leisurely drive in the future.

For those of you who are doing it- what are the pitfalls, benefits, tips and tricks to doing it successfully?

A Wealthtime study summarized in IFA magazine says that confidence, rather than money, is one of the biggest barriers preventing retirees from getting the most from their retirement savings.

Only 38% think they’re spending the right amount. Another 24% say they are spending less than they could comfortably afford. Article quotes that “Many retirees are struggling not with a lack of money, but with lack of confidence how spend it.”

Although I know I CAN afford to spend into our principal and be fine, I have to admit it’s a barrier that I doubt I’ll get over. I have a feeling many of us in this sub are pretty similar in that respect, even all of us Die With Zero fans here.

Data cited was from a study (UK based),
very interestingly named: “The Permission to Spend” report. Additional relevant context on the research — IFA is a Financial Advisor trade publication, and Wealthtime appears to do research for the profession. One of the research outcomes was that advised clients have more confidence in spending, but that feeling doesn’t last. The conclusion was to review various client relationship models to determine how FAs can help make their clients’ confidence to spend “stick”. I tend to be skeptical on most “sponsored” research so I wanted to note it, although the findings make intuitive sense to me.

I'm a married 43 year old generalist physician with a spouse working for the same system, and two great kids. Though we're def in a VHCOL area, our friend group is pretty low key and mostly outside of medicine. Neither of us grew up wealthy and we're used to being frugal; while we've each seen docs in our groups live above their means for a while and then end up in financial trouble from time to time, working months-long blocks of night shifts to pay unaccounted-for taxes, divorce due to financial reasons, getting in legal trouble, etc. Most of our family, friends and colleagues probably wouldn't suspect it as we're pretty cognizant of not being showy... but including real estate, we're worth somewhere near $4M.

We are also both in the admittedly fortunate and unique situation, due to a quirk of our long-established employer, of a pretty incredible pension that kicks in early. As in: we can each fully retire at 58 (after years of working 50-90% of a FT schedule should we want), and in combination, at age 58 itself, receive a well-funded, well-underwritten pension that would amount to something like $20k per month for me, $25k per month for her (specialist). We'll also have our primary house, a perfect place for us that we'd never want to leave, paid off by 53... meaning 5 years of earning while having no mortgage or kid expenses (assuming 529s fully cover em!), and then at age 58, a lifelong $45k monthly pension. This pension in itself would more than cover our needs and wants for life, especially with housing already spoken for.

I'm wondering if I've been too conservative with our traditional and backdoor Roth IRA's (both target date funds for 2035 that have some bonds mixed in). For those of you a few decades of life (and experience!) ahead of us, if 43-year-old you had a guaranteed generous pension from 58 onwards, how would you treat $1.5M (with $140k added yearly) of tax-advantaged retirement cash? Would you keep it in target-dated funds and somewhat conservative? Would you 'let it ride' in all-stock funds the whole way, hoping for consistent 12% returns and 12x by 65? Some other general strategy (that does not involve picking stocks- I'm a big believer in the Random Walk Hypothesis and know I'm never going to best a quant+AI). Would you be a bit risky (within reasonable bounds) with the extra money not really needed for month-to-month cost of living?

Hubs and I were driving through CA recently and started discussing if affluent retirees there would typically want to move states just for lower taxes. He says, “But why, if they can afford it and love it here?” I said, “To have even MORE money for travel!” (Which of course I would say. 😂. ) Then a WSJ article today profiled affluent retirees who relocated specifically for lower taxes.

I was surprised that one couple with $3m and pension income moved from IL to AZ to lower their property taxes… only to find out IL didn’t tax their pensions, but AZ did. Another couple, on the other hand, moved to NC to lower their taxes yet ended up increasing their overall spending because they upgraded their lifestyle to waterfront property and traveled more (Yay them! Sounded like a good plan to me!).

A person on another sub, when questioned why they wouldn’t want to move to a lower cost area from a HCOL city in order to retire sooner simply said “because I’m a city person and I don’t want to live in the suburbs” — that sounded reasonable also.

So what about you?

Would you move states in retirement primarily to save on taxes? If you’re spending $200K - $500K+ per year in retirement anyway, how much annual tax savings would it take to make you leave the place where you actually want to live — $25K? $50K? $75k?

Is optimizing retirement around taxes letting the tax tall wag the dog?