How Much Money Do You Need in Retirement?

     A survey done in April by the Employee Benefits Research Institute, a Washington D.C.-based nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization, concluded that people are feeling better about retirement than they were just a few years ago -- although they're still not as confident as we were back in our day, the halcyon days of the 1990s.

     Today, almost 60 percent of American workers feel relatively comfortable that they will be able to finance their retirement, compared to fewer than half during the Great Recession -- but less than the 70 percent in the mid-1990s who figured they had enough resources to support a comfortable lifestyle after they left work.

     What's interesting is that people who are already retired have greater confidence in their financial future than people who are still working. Over 80 percent of current retirees say they have enough money to pay for their basic expenses. And 78 percent of retirees feel confident they can afford their medical expenses, compared to only 56 percent of people still working who think they will be able to afford medical care after they retire.

     Perhaps this reflects a difference in views toward Medicare. We expect that Medicare will be there for us. But apparently our children are not so sure. Only 43 percent of today's workers think that Medicare "will continue to provide benefits of at least equal value to benefits received today."

     One thing that strikes me about the report is that 59 percent of retirees believe they have enough money to pay for long-term care, such as a nursing home or at-home care, should they need it. I don't know how this can be true, considering assisted living can cost up to $10,000 a month, and a nursing home even more than that.

     Last year (at B's encouragement) I purchased a long-term-care insurance policy, and I'm still not particularly confident I can afford to survive in an assisted living facility for very long. I guess if you go broke, they put you on Medicaid and (as happened with the father of a friend of mine) send you down to the end of the hall where the rooms are smaller and the services not quite as good.

     So how much money do most people think they need to have saved up by the time they retire, so they can live comfortably? About a quarter of those surveyed say you only need something less than $250,000. On the other end of the scale, 20 percent figure you should be sitting on at least $1 million to live a comfortable lifestyle after you leave work.

     Of course, a lot of that depends on whether or not you have the benefit of a pension plan. Obviously, if you're receiving 80 percent or more of your salary from a defined-benefit plan, you don't need to have much in the bank. But if you have no pension at all, you'd better have something substantial to supplement that Social Security check.

     Finally, what percent of your pre-retirement income will you need to live comfortably in retirement? Most people say it's somewhere between 50 and 70 percent. But a significant number of people think you'll be perfectly okay with less than half of what you were making while you were working.

     I know in my case, my expenses went way down when my kids finished college, moved out and began careers of their own. No more diapers to buy; no more sports equipment; no more college tuition. I'm also saving money on medical insurance, now that I'm on Medicare, and at some point in the not-too-distant future Bridge and I will be moving to a smaller house with lower taxes, lower heating bills, and (hopefully!) no lawn maintenance.

     So just suppose, someone in their 50s comes up to you and asks, "How much money do I need to retire?" What would you tell them?

Crazy Character from Doylestown

     We spent the weekend in Doylestown, Pa., county seat of Bucks County, a prosperous and culturally rich area located along the Delaware River north of Philadelphia.

Vest-pocket park next to the Historical Society

      We stayed in a bed & breakfast next to the Doylestown Historical Society, and we spent two days tootling around town looking at historic buildings, sampling a few of its myriad restaurants, and meandering through a couple of its pretty parks.

     Doylestown is the hometown of writer James Michener, who graduated from Doylestown High School in 1925, before going on to Swarthmore College and then fame and fortune as author of Tales of the South Pacific -- made into the movie South Pacific -- along with Centennial, The Source, Hawaii, Chesapeake, and a couple dozen other mammoth historical novels.

     (How many Michener books have you read? I've done Chesapeake, Poland, The Convenant. I started a couple of others but never got through them. Now that I'm retired, maybe I'll try another one!)

Moravian Pottery and Tile Works

     Doylestown was also home to anthropologist Margaret Mead, who grew up there, and writer Pearl S. Buck, author of the 1936 bestseller The Good Earth, who lived there when she wasn't traveling or residing in China.

     Other luminaries who have lived in Doylestown include authors Dorothy Parker and S. J. Perelman, and musicians George S. Kaufman, Oscar Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim . . . as well as the contemporary singer Pink, born as Alecia Moore in Doylestown in 1979.

     But the most amazing character we found from Doylestown -- the most idiosyncratic anyway -- was a man named Henry Chapman Mercer (1856 - 1930).

Interior of the Tile Works

     Mercer was the son of a wealthy Pennsylvania family. He studied law, but never practiced, as he found he was more interested in history and archeology than the details of legal precedents. He was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s and came to believe that American society was being destroyed by modern industrialism.

     Mercer traveled through Europe studying historical sites; he took a job as a museum curator in Philadelphia; he researched ancient tool-making and apprenticed himself to an old Pennsylvania potter. He was also a co-founder of the Doylestown Historical Society.

     Then 1898 he founded the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, where he produced handmade clay tiles that soon became very popular. They were used to decorate buildings from the Rockefeller estate in New York to the Pennsylvania Capitol Building in Harrisburg to a theater in Hollywood.

A Moravian tile

     Mercer constructed a factory made entirely of concrete, to house his work spaces and kilns, and the factory is now an historic building on the Mercer estate in Doylestown. Nearby, on the same grounds, he built  a mansion called Fonthill, also made entirely of concrete, and then about a mile away, in downtown Doylestown, he put up the Mercer Museum to house his collection of handmade tiles, ancient tools and other artifacts.

     The three buildings are now all open as historic monuments in Doylestown. They are not the most attractive structures, but they certainly are sturdy -- and the subject of a lot of curious conversation among residents and visitors alike.

The Mercer Museum in downtown Doylestown

     So why are the buildings, up to and including the roofs, made entirely of concrete? Mercer settled on the material, so the story goes, because the Great Boston Fire of 1872 destroyed his aunt's prized collection of medieval armor. He couldn't abide the thought of his own collections suffering the same fate, so he landed on concrete as the perfect fireproof material.

     At first, the people of Doylestown made fun of his buildings. But to prove his point, Mercer lit a bonfire on the roof of his mansion to demonstrate that the place was indeed impervious to fire. After that, people began to appreciate the artistry -- and the employment opportunities -- brought to this small Pennsylvania town by the idiosyncratic offspring of a wealthy American family.

     You could almost write a novel, or a musical, about it. Don't you think?

Playing Hooky

     I was sitting at my computer for a while, trying to write a blog post, but instead of getting down to business I wandered over to youtube and started playing some music:  Pink Floyd, The Band, Ben Folds, David Gray, Neil Young. I was in that kind of mood.

     And this one, "Long Road" sung by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder . . .

     I started following Pearl Jam when my son sang one of their songs, Jeremy, in his high-school a cappella group. If the voice sounds familiar, even if you don't know Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder, it may be because the song was featured in the 2007 movie Into the Wild. The film was based on Jon Krakaur's book about a young Emory University graduate who hitchhiked to Alaska and met his fate in 1992.

Home on the Range

     According to a survey by the financial firm Merrill Lynch called Home in Retirement: More Freedom, New Choices most retirees report that they do not have to worry about home-related financial issues. For example, 70 percent of those surveyed have paid off their mortgages, and 65 percent say they "are now living in the best home of their lives."

     Compared to other Americans, retirees are "more likely to say their homes are comfortable, in a safe community, and a great place to connect with family." They are also more likely to agree that they are now living in a part of the country with pleasant climate and weather.

A kitchen built for a Queen ...

     From my perspective, the weather outside today is just wonderful. However, I am also still scarred from the long, cold, lonely winter here in the Northeast, and so I'm already planning my trip south for next year. This past winter I spent two full weeks in Florida, plus a little more than a week in South Carolina. For this coming 2015-26 winter, I've decided . . . that's simply not enough!

     Anyway, while many of us get away from the cold in the winter (or the heat in the summer), many others are content to stay right where they are -- especially if their home is on the range.

... with a spectacular view!

     For example, we have Laura Lee at Midlife Crisis Queen reporting on the latest developments in building her solar home in southern Colorado. In her post Back to Our Very Special Construction Project, she reports on the progress of her house in the foothills of the Spanish Peaks.

     Meanwhile, Kathy Gottberg at SmartLiving 365 offers up 7 Pitfalls to Avoid When Rightsizing Your Home. She refers to a friend of hers who is currently in the midst of selling her long-time family home and moving to a smaller place. The friend "gets" many of the benefits of rightsizing, but several issues keep popping up that give her pause.

     That's completely normal, writes Gottberg, because in many ways rightsizing is contrary to what most of us have been taught, which is that bigger is always better. The good news is that once you know what to keep in mind, rightsizing not only becomes the easiest choice, also the one that leads to the greatest benefits. She offers seven "don'ts" we should follow when considering a move in retirement, including two that hit home for me: "Don't buy a house just to store your stuff" and "Don't buy where you've always lived just because you're afraid to try somewhere new."

     Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, Rita Robison on The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide, writes that Scientists Recommend Throwing Away Nonstick Cookware, as well as other products with waterproofing chemicals, such as raincoats, stain resistant carpets, and pizza boxes. The statement by the scientists cites evidence that perfluorinated compounds are linked to cancer, reproductive harm, and other health problems and that they don’t break down in the environment.

     But as fond as we are of our homes, not all of us are content to beat around the kitchen and the yard. Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting has been spending a lot of time traveling recently -- once again on the road and journeying cross country. In Travel Yesteryear and Today she ponders the troubles of today's travelers compared to the hardships of the pioneers venturing west over 150 years ago. The surprise, she says in her lighthearted post, is that not all that much has changed. Bad weather remains a problem. Indian raids have been replaced by TSA checkpoints. Wagon train traffic jams out of Missouri have been replaced by . . . well, you get the point. Take a short sidetrip to her essay to appreciate her wide-angled view.

     Finally, as you may remember, I sometimes write a column for U. S. News "On Retirement," and so you can see my perspective on the housing issue in 7 Baby Boomer Housing Trends to Watch as well as Where Retirees Want to Live Now.

     Anyway, no matter where you may be this Memorial Day weekend, please remember those who gave their lives while defending our country . . . and then go ahead and enjoy the traditional advent of the summer season.

A Sign of Aging

     It started about two weeks ago. B and I were out walking the dog at dusk. We were taking our usual route down our street, but for some reason a fly, or some other kind of bug, would not leave me alone. It was darting in and out of my eyesight, around my head. I waved my arms around; but that didn't make the bug go away. Finally I just walked ahead and ducked into the house.

     The same thing happened the next evening. I couldn't understand my sudden attraction to whatever insect was singling me out for attack in front of my own house.

     A couple of days later I was reading in my office chair, and I happened to look up at the ceiling. I saw a couple of black dots. But they didn't seem to be on the ceiling. They seemed to be in my eye. Did I have something in my eye?

     I rubbed my eye, and when that didn't do anything, I took a shower and tried to wash out my eyes. I went back downstairs and looked up at the ceiling. The black spots were still there, mostly in my right eye.

     Finally, I mentioned the spots to B. By the way, I call B Bridge, short for Bridget. Might as well give her name after all this time. Anyway, I told her about the bug that was bothering me when we walked the dog -- she recalled the incidents with some amusement -- and then I described the black spots when I looked at the ceiling. And now, I said, I could see them moving around with my eye. They were in my right eye.

     "Oh, yeah," she acknowledged. "They're floaters."

     "What the hell are floaters?" I asked. This was the first I'd heard of them.

     "It happens when you get older. I've had them a couple of times. They're not serious, and they usually just go away."

     "So how do you know about them? You're younger than I am."

     "Well, my eyes weren't so great to begin with."

     "So you start getting older, and suddenly you get black things rolling around in your eyes?"

     "It has something to do with the fluid behind your eyeball. It dries up, and you see spots."

     So, being the semi-hypochondriac that I am, I googled floaters. WebMD told me that eye floaters are small pieces of protein that appear as spots in your field of vision. As you age the back of your eye shrinks and small bits of protein shred off from the retina. They are particularly noticeable when you look at something bright . . . such as a white ceiling.

     Most of the time floaters are harmless, and according to WebMD, as well as Bridge, most of the  time they do not interfere with your field of vision. However, in some cases, they can signal a retinal tear or retinal detachment which are serious eye disorders. Apparently, you don't have to worry unless the floaters become very dense, or you experience some loss of vision, or you get sudden flashes of light on the edges of your eye.

     So the next night we went out to walk the dog. I got to the end of the driveway, when I saw a flash of light out of the corner of my right eye. And then another one a few minutes later. That was enough for me. The next morning I made an appointment with an opthamologist at our medical group.

     A few days later I was in his office, with drops in my eyes, lying back in a chair as he shined a  spotlight bright enough to land an airplane into my eyes. Look up; look down. To the right, to the left. Back to the right.

     The doctor seemed unimpressed with my eyes, even slightly annoyed that I had troubled him with my so-called problem. Which is a good thing, in my book.

     I have floaters. No sign of retinal detachment. I should go back to him if the floaters get significantly worse, or I begin to lose vision. But otherwise, I'm fine. The doctor says they should go away once my fluid dries up and the bits of protein get absorbed into my body. But he told me to make an appointment in one month. He wants to check me again, just to make sure.

     And so I've got these black lacy-type things floating around in my right eye. A few flashes of light when I go out in the dark at night. But, they tell me, everything is normal. Just something that comes with getting older. Isn't aging fun?!?