Green Retirement Blog

Retire in San Francisco with less than $400,000 in savings!

The experiment to discover how much savings is required to retire in one of the Top Ten Neighborhoods in the nation, in the second most expensive city in the U.S., is over and the results are illuminating. Retiring in North Beach / Telegraph Hill San Francisco, depending on your situation which I will discuss later, can be accomplished with less than $400,000 in savings.

About the Experiment

I wanted to prove that, using the Green Retirement Planning method, a person could retire in one of the most expensive locations in the United States with less than a million dollars. Using the Green Retirement Software, I created a retirement budget of one million dollars, and then tracked my actual expenses. I wanted to find out precisely how much savings would be required to retire in San Francisco.

The experiment would be a real-life test of the Green Retirement concept, the Green Retirement Software, and the theory that anyone could retire in San Francisco with less than a million dollar in savings. And, if I could show that it was possible to retire in one of the nicest neighborhoods, in such an expensive city, with less than a million dollars - then imagine the possibilities.

The Results

Using the Green Retirement Planning method, I knew that I could spend no more than $3,333 per month, the equivalent of one million dollars in savings. After tracking my expenses for the month of January, my actual expenses came out to $2,622.84, or the equivalent of $786,852 in retirement savings. If I wanted to retire in San Francisco right now, at the age of 43, that is the amount of savings required. If I was collecting Social Security and Medicare, it would increase my monthly income by $1,300, and thus reduce the amount of retirement savings required to only $396,852. If I were in my sixties, I could retire in San Francisco, with less than $400,000 in retirement savings.

How I Did It

If you look at my list of expenses, the first thing you may notice is how very basic it is, and the items that are missing. No car, I live in a city with mass transportation, saving me this huge monthly expense. No cable t.v., gym memberships, or other extraneous expenses. However, you will also notice that I have budgeted, dining out, entertainment, vacations, gifts, and beauty. You don’t have to live a monk’s lifestyle, to retire with less than a million dollars, you can still very much enjoy life.

What I Learned

Well, first of all, that if I maintained my current lifestyle, it was indeed possible to retire in San Francisco with less than a million dollars. Second, that proper planning, and minimizing my expenses, was critical to success. And third, Green Retirement Planning does work, and is useful to anyone no matter where they live.

Learn more about Green Retirement Planning - And find out how you can save your retirement and the planet!