{"id":526006,"date":"2026-03-16T01:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T01:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/526006\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T01:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T01:40:14","slug":"one-retirees-budget-with-a-2785-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/526006\/","title":{"rendered":"One Retiree’s Budget With a $2,785 Income"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Retirement <\/p>\n

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A physically demanding job requiring a long, stressful commute prompted Lucas Smith (pseudonym to protect privacy) to retire at age 62. But it was his sound financial habits \u2014 namely, avoiding debt and staying ahead of major expenses \u2014 that laid the groundwork for making early retirement possible.<\/p>\n

Although Smith has retirement<\/a> savings in 401(k) and individual retirement accounts, that money is earmarked for future expenses. For now, he\u2019s living solely on his $1,765 monthly Social Security benefit plus $1,020 in rental income from an investment property. Here\u2019s how he spends his $2,785 monthly income.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Also see the minimum savings you need to retire in every state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Housing<\/p>\n

Smith has a small mortgage on his primary home. His payment is just $500 per month. In addition, he contributes $200 per month toward the mortgage on a home he co-owns with his siblings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Utilities<\/p>\n

Electric bills are a relatively small expense at $70 to $100 per month. Smith pays an additional $250 per month total for cellphone, internet and TV services.<\/p>\n

Transportation<\/p>\n

Retirement is saving Smith nearly $40 per week in gas, reducing that expense to a negligible amount. However, he does have a $500-per-month payment on a car loan he\u2019s working on paying off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Groceries<\/p>\n

Smith was accustomed to bringing lunch to work, so his grocery bill<\/a> is the same now as it was before retirement \u2014 about $400 per month.<\/p>\n

Investment Property Expenses<\/p>\n

Annual property tax<\/a> and homeowners association fees amount to about $400 per month, prorated. Smith keeps a separate savings account for those payments. He built that savings through his own \u201csavings plan\u201d of sorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I\u2019ve owned the place, every time I got rental money I used to put that money back into the condo,\u201d Smith said. With no mortgage to worry about, Smith uses the account for other expenses.<\/p>\n

Travel and Entertainment<\/p>\n

Smith didn\u2019t have much time for entertainment during his working years, so he\u2019s not in the habit of going out just to go out. He\u2019d rather enjoy leisure time at home or spend time with family.<\/p>\n

Travel was another thing Smith didn\u2019t have time for when he was working, other than to vacation at his investment property. He\u2019s taking a wait-and-see approach to budgeting future travel. <\/p>\n

Healthcare<\/p>\n

One risk of a fairly spontaneous early retirement is that some expenses might catch you by surprise. In Smith\u2019s case, that expense is insurance. He had paid coverage through his employer but is currently uninsured and exploring his options.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking for a part-time job that offers benefits, something that will take me through the next three years until I get Medicare,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tips for Retiring On Less Than $3K per Month<\/p>\n

Smith credits his mother \u2014 a single mom who raised three children on a teacher\u2019s salary \u2014 with teaching him the good financial habits that let him retire early on a modest budget, without tapping into his retirement savings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The key factors that made it happen are things you can do to retire early on less than $3,000 per month:<\/p>\n

Eliminate credit card debt.
\nAnticipate major expenses like home repairs, and do the work or set aside the cash while still working.
\nBe willing to adjust expectations about what retirement looks like; it doesn\u2019t have to be all-or-nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a9Shutterstock.com Commitment to Our Readers GOBankingRates’ editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,17299,147,530,14811,1666],"class_list":["post-526006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-gobankingrates","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-planning","tag-retirement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}