Now that we’ve signed up for Social Security, the next question is how much more money must we have coming in each month in order to maintain a reasonable standard of living. Nina’s been tracking our spending over the past few months and she’s come to a pretty good estimate of the minimum amount of money needed in addition to Social Security. Today we met again with a financial planner to go over some figures and possible investments he has put together. The net result is that we have several options to choose from, all of which more than meet our needs.

I’ve kind of felt for a long time that we had enough money to be able to retire. I would have liked a couple more years of corporate life to put more money into the 401k but that certainly didn’t happen. It is, however, a serious stress reliever to know that we don’t have to move in with one of the kids any time soon!

The planner gave us four options to look at. All of them produce sufficient income and each of them can be implemented now and start paying out next month. The monthly payouts are within a couple hundred dollars of each other. In all four cases the monthly payout will never be less than the initial monthly payout. So what are the choices?

First is the question of inflation. If the investments perform better than the payout percentage, what happens to that money? In a couple of cases, the payout amount can increase. This is a good thing because inflation inevitably eats away at the buying power of the money paid out each month.

Another consideration is what happens when I die. At that point, the plan ends and whatever the investment value is at that point is paid out to Nina. Consequently capital preservation needs also to be taken into account.

We also need to have some flexibility with the money. For instance, Nina’s car is eight years old with 175,000 miles on it. It’ll have to be replaced. My car is five years old with 60,000 miles, but in reality is more worn out than Nina’s car. We will probably need access to money from the investments to be able to pay for a car at some point in the future.

There are other issues to be considered as well, such as the mortgage and the value of the house, when will we downsize, go on missions (and how many), and more. Finding the right combination to meet all requirements levied by an unknown future is somewhat mindboggling … but significantly more fun than if we had nothing saved for retirement! It looks like we have “enough” with a bit to spare. Hurrah!