How do people who get 75% of their income or more from Social Security get by?

Workers today are often told one thing in the context of retirement — save, save, and save some more. Yet many people don’t heed that advice and wind up regretting it down the line when they’re forced to retire mostly or solely on Social Security.

In this Reddit post, we have someone asking what it’s like for people to live on mostly Social Security in retirement. And the answer is, it probably isn’t easy. However, if you play your cards right, you can avoid a situation like that once your career comes to an end.

What’s it like to retire on mostly Social Security?

The average monthly Social Security benefit today for retired workers is about $2,000. If that’s 75% of your income, it gives you a total retirement income of about $2,667 per month. But that’s not apt to get you very far, even with modest spending.

It may be that your home is paid off by the time you retire and your remaining expenses aren’t very high. But even so, you still have to pay for things like food, utilities, healthcare, and some type of transportation. You’ll also face costs related to your home even if it’s mortgage-free, like property taxes, insurance, and maintenance.

Plus, while you may have modest taste in terms of entertainment, it’s not unreasonable to want to do things sometimes. You deserve to have room in your budget to meet friends for lunch on occasion as a retiree, or to take in a show.

If you put yourself in a position where you get most of your retirement income from Social Security, you may not be able to do that. This especially holds true given that the program may be looking at broad benefit cuts in the future.

Avoiding financial stress in retirement

You don’t necessarily need a million-dollar nest egg or more to retire comfortably. Some people really do manage to live very frugally once they don’t have children at home or a job to get to daily. If you’re willing to keep your spending down in retirement, you may find that a $400,000 or $500,000 nest egg provides the income you need to cover your living costs without constant worry.

But it’s not a good idea to bank mostly on Social Security and save very little. If you want to avoid financial stress down the line, pledge to save a small amount for retirement each month, even if it’s only a few hundred dollars. If you do that for 30 or 40 years, you can potentially accumulate enough of a nest egg to supplement your Social Security nicely.

It may also help you to meet with a financial advisor to see how much retirement savings you should aim for based on your current lifestyle and needs, and based on your projected future lifestyle and needs.

An advisor can help you create a budget that builds in room for long-term savings. An advisor can also help educate you on Social Security so you know what to expect from those benefits down the line, and so you’re able to maximize them once you’re eligible to sign up.