Why a 20th Century Lifestyle Might Be the Only Way to Retire
In this article:
- The "lifestyle tax" that's making it harder to retire
- Why seemingly small costs are adding up to more than you think
- How your childhood may have trained you for a lower cost lifestyle
- How turning back the clock can save you money – now and into the future
How much it takes to retire
My husband just retired after teaching 6th graders for 42 years. Congratulations, Jon! We're retiring on his pension and an IRA I contributed to for almost 15 years. Plus about $350 per month I'm getting from Social Security, which is what happens when you
- teach for two years
- homeschool your kids
- conduct church choirs
- become a freelance classical singer
- work as a bookkeeper for a non-profit organization
- tutor adult English language-learners at a community college
Today, we're being told we need between $1 and $2 million to retire comfortably. And maybe that's true if we keep living like middle-class people do now.
But here's what I keep coming back to: In the 1990s, most of us weren't living luxurious lives. At least not what would be considered luxurious by today's way of thinking. We were just paying our bills.
Full disclosure: In the 1990s, I had a problem with constantly buying new stuff for my house, but that's not because we had no furniture or décor. I was influenced by every new style and trend that came along. It wasn't something I needed. And today, 30 years later, that kind of constant change and desire for an upgrade doesn't matter very much to me.
Early training
Really, as a young Baby Boomer (born 1960), I'm trained for a lower cost lifestyle. If you're a Gen Xer, you probably are too.
And that might be our biggest advantage in retirement.
So the question becomes, what would it look like to bring back a 90s lifestyle on purpose? This isn't necessarily about going backward. It's about recognizing what worked then and what could still work now.
It's not really inflation that's making it harder to retire. It's what we might call the lifestyle tax. It's all of the extra amenities and so-called "necessities" that we've added to life that make adjusting to a retirement income so much harder. If we don't start questioning those things, we may never be able to be comfortable in retirement.
Related article: Why a 60s Lifestyle is the Way to a Better Future
5 areas to simplify
1. Entertainment
In the late 20th century, entertainment wasn't unlimited like it is today. Entertainment wasn't a stack of subscriptions. Entertainment was a stack of CDs. It was board games. It was free network television (with ads), or possibly basic cable. Maybe it was a trip to Blockbuster on the weekend to rent a DVD or two.
Now, it's "necessary" to have Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Spotify, Amazon Prime, YouTube, an Xbox Game Pass, cloud storage, apps, and more. None of them on their own feel too expensive, but when you add them all up, many people are paying over $200 every month. That's enough to cover Medicare costs for one person, friends.
Why not choose just one subscription, or rotate between two or three, changing every few months? You don't need all of them all the time. And free streaming platforms, like Roku and Pluto, are playing most of the things you would have watched in the 90s anyway.
2. Transportation
Now, I'm not going to tell you to go buy a car from the 90s. No, you want something more modern and reliable than that. Although, in the 80s when Jon and I were married, our car was a 1960s model. And the car we were driving in the early 90s was about 10 years old.
We've got to stop worrying about having the latest tech, or about impressing people with what we drive. With the average new car payment coming in at well over $700, and financing on a used car costing over $500 every month, we need to think very differently. My paid-off, three-year-old Kia with less than 40,000 miles on it is a major asset.
When you pay off a car, you can think of it like getting a raise, or you can start putting that money in a high-yield savings account, because at some point you'll have to buy again. But going into retirement with a reliable, paid-off vehicle? That's not a downgrade. That's gold.
3. Convenience
This is sneaky, and it's expensive. DoorDash, grocery delivery, overnight shipping, meal kit subscriptions – we've built a new lifestyle based on speed, ease, and even laziness. And it doesn't come cheap. It's typical for these services to add $10-$15 or more to the cost of any item you order.
The only thing we had delivered in the 90s was pizza, and even that wasn't a default behavior. If Friday night family dinner was pizza, you were more likely to go out and pick it up. Or – shocking, I know – make it at home! You could make your own dough, but I perfected English muffin pizzas with salad and ice cream sundaes, and my family loved it. Yay for Friday night pizza!
This doesn't mean you can never pay for convenience. I buy those precut, pre-washed bags of salad because we waste less food that way. I buy pre-cooked canned beans instead of soaking and simmering dried beans. (Lentils are the exception – they cook very quickly.) I buy pre-sliced cheese because we eat less with those super-thin slices, and we don't waste any. I use tea bags and frozen vegetables. I visit Starbucks.
It's important to assess how much convenience is costing you every week, because if you become adjusted to it now, it's going to be much harder to afford after you retire. Convenience saves time, but it raises your cost of living.
4. Travel
A lot of people plan to travel during retirement, and that's a great goal if you're still energetic enough to enjoy it. I'm just going to remind you of:
- crowded airports with endless lines and waiting
- crowds of people at your destination, all trying to have the same experience you're hoping for
- the huge expense for a relatively short period of time
- the environmental cost
I didn't fly anywhere until after my junior year of college, when I flew to England and stayed for almost two months. In the mid-80s, we flew with Jon's parents and two of his (then unmarried) brothers to Hawaii for a 7-day stay. I didn't fly again until the early 2000s, when our family visited dear friends who had moved to the Chicago area from California.
What did we do in the 90s? Road trips! Cooler in the backseat for lunch and snacks (with reusable picnic plates and cups), a road atlas, books on tape, coloring books and Mad Libs* for the kids, and a destination within 400-500 miles (because this uses approximately one tank of gas). It is amazing how many places there are to visit and explore within that radius. Check out your options using the Within Hours website (it's valid all over the world).
You don't have to fly or go on a cruise to have an enjoyable trip. And you're certainly not limited to the crowded, overly touristy places either.
* Thank you for supporting this blog. If you buy through my links, I may earn a small commission, at no extra charge to you.
5. Exercise/health
In the 90s, you didn't need a gym membership, yoga class subscription, or a pricy smart watch to keep track of your steps or how you slept. Maybe you bought an exercise video. My kids had rollerblades they used all the time, and they rode (human-powered) bicycles, not the electric scooters I see most kids riding now. If you were smart, you bought a real bike useful for getting places, not a stationary bike you turned into a clothes rack.
In the 90s, we simply moved more. Yes, we were younger, but we didn't spend nearly as much time in front of screens as we do now. We didn't "cocoon" like we do today. We went outside more. We'd park downtown and walk to do errands. We had face-to-face social lives.
If we retire like it's the 90s, we'll walk more. We'll push a vacuum cleaner or use a broom instead of a Roomba. We'll find a third place. We'll visit the farmer's market. We'll go to bed at a reasonable time instead of staying up late to binge-watch Netflix or scroll TikTok.
Improving or maintaining health doesn't have to involve expensive tech, personal trainers, or tons of pills.
The nostalgic choice
So how does this become a retirement strategy? It's not just about saving money, although that's one goal. It's about shaping a lifestyle that is sustainable for the long term. We just need to start doing more of what worked in the past:
- visiting the library
- enjoying local parks
- hosting game night
- entertaining with potlucks
- cooking at home
Instead of paying for convenience, we can use something we didn't have so much of before we retired – time. I do my own housework, my own laundry, my own mending. I go to the grocery store at 8:00 on Monday morning, not at 5:30 on Friday when everyone else is there.
You might even decide to sell your 2500-square-foot house and move into a two-bedroom place, with lower utility bills, lower insurance, and lower maintenance costs.
We weren't deprived in the 90s, and we already know how to live a simpler, more analog life. We're not giving up anything except worry about how to make ends meet. The choice to live like it's the 20th century is even somewhat nostalgic. Bring out your photo albums. Play Scattergories or Taboo. Sing along with your favorite CD.
Just retire like it's 1999.
The person who's going to gain the most from downsizing is you. You get all the joy of a clutter-free, fresh start. You also get all the scientifically proven benefits of living without a load of useless baggage:
- less stress
- less indecision
- less laundry
- less cleaning and dusting (and fewer allergens)
- more ease in finding what you need
- more focus and concentration
- more clarity about your priorities
- more self-confidence
- more control over your life
- more energy and creativity
- more gratitude for all you have
- a sense of accomplishment
- more time, more room, and more money for what matters most to you
Downsizing can be hard, or it can be easier. My book, Downsize Now, will give you the tools and inspiration to get the job done so you can start enjoying all the benefits.
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