Market - Budget

Hi all,
 
A few months ago (May 17 to be exact) I mentioned about expenses.  After some thoughts, I realized that
more numbers are needed to get a good budget estimate.  Such budget estimate assumes retirement (no paycheck,
no employer-sponsored health plans). 
 
I used to think about figuring out expenses by looking at the minimum needed to get by.  But when it comes to
budgeting, there has to be some safety margin.  Like the saying in the stock market, "Past performance does not
guarantee future results."     
 
To get some budget numbers, I tried the following numbers using my scenario (married couple w/o child, living
in an apartment, 1 car):

 
Dwelling is rent/mortgage.  Other RE includes property tax, home insurance, association fee & other property-related costs.
Utilities include electricity, water, gas, waste disposal, phone, internet, and cable/satellite TV.  Auto Reg includes car registration
and inspection fees.  Memberships include things like AAA & Costco.  Subscriptions would be like
magazines, newspapers, or NetFlix.
 
The first 7 items gives ~ $11K/yr.  I don't think there is much room to go lower.  I expect the numbers to be higher the moment I
move to a house (due to property taxes, home insurance, higher utility costs) even if the house is paid in cash .
 
The last 4 items take some guesswork.  The $1000/mo food/dining includes snacks and costs for dining out.  Travel/Ent number
assumes traveling out of continental US once per year.  I am clueless on health/beauty, so I use $6K.  The dollar number for Misc looks
 high but repair/replacing things at home or in a car could cost a bundle.  Little things like haircuts, books, gifts, clothing,
add up.  
 
Adding all the numbers gives us $36K/year.  Assuming the last 4 expenses are cut to minimum, I still think it would
cost around $20K/year total.  My guess would be additional $2K/year for living in a house (zero mortgage) and $1K/year
for having an additional car.
 
The budget is always after tax numbers.  The pre-tax income for $36K and $20K would be about $41K and $22K, assuming no
state tax and social security tax deducted.
 
What sort of asset base is needed to generate an income of $40K/year? It takes less than $1M of bonds to generate such income, but we all know
that the cost of living is going up.  To have a portfolio that can generate increasing income over time while paying out $40K this year easily requires
an asset base of over $1M.  Having a good money manager can lower that number, but that is another matter.