Can I Retire?

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2mwasmytarget
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Can I Retire?

Post by 2mwasmytarget »

I saw a few other posts like this so I'm hoping this is acceptable. I really appreciate other's input as I've never used a Financial Advisor.

50M and 49F with one college age child (Junior)

Assets:
$1.4M in 401k/403B
$100K in ROTH
$250K in after tax
Rough AA is 65/35 across all accounts (mainly S&P 500 and other low cost funds)
$1.1M in 2 homes that are both paid for (Primary and vacation house that we will move to when we retire)
$750K in primary home equity that would move to after tax account for a total of about $1M in after tax funds for retirement
Pension that will generate $2100 per month at age 65 (They froze the pension a few years ago so this number won't change unless I work to 55 and take an early pension of about $1200 per month)
529 plan funded adequately to cover college costs for our child
Zero debt (new cars paid for, no mortgages and no consumer debt)

Expenses:
I won't go through an exhaustive list of expenses since there really aren't that many. When we move to the more rural home, we expect our monthly expenses to be in the range of about $3000 fixed not including health care. This does not include all the "extras" like home maintenance, a new car when needed, etc. but does cover the taxes, basics and includes a decent food budget.

Strategy/Thought Process:
My strategy is to pull about $40,000 per year from pretax accounts either via 72T or potentially do 5 years of ROTH conversions and live off post tax money for the first 5 years. I would also utilize about $36,000 per year from taxable accounts to build a roughly $6000 per month income stream. This would qualify us for significant ACA subsidies and give us plenty of money to live off of each month. When we hit 65 (Medicare) I would adjust the withdrawals to pull more from pretax and we'd also start taking SS. I always estimate just one SS (around $2k per month) in my calculations to compensate for a spouse death (likely me first). I'm thinking if we wait to take the pension and SS until 65 that essentially helps give us longevity insurance and will drastically reduce what we'd need from our investments after 65.

Total NW is $2.9M with about $2.5M that would be in investments once we retire and sell primary home in HCOL area. I think I'm probably okay to retire (and FireCalc gives me a very high percentage chance at success) but I'm having trouble visualizing the decumulation phase, and am nervous to pull the trigger. Any advice for this nervous Nelly?
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Watty
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by Watty »

Something to add to your post is how much Social Security you each expect to get and when you are planning on starting it. I am assuming that you will both get Social Security in addition to your pension.

When getting your expected benefit Social Security off of the Social Security web site be sure to change the assumptions be that you will stop working now. It defaults to assume that you will keep working longer which would give you a larger benefit amount.

Your Social Security benefit amount at your full retirement age(FRA) is called your primary insurance amount (PIA).

You can edit your post using the icon with the pencil on it.
2mwasmytarget wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 3:14 pm I always estimate just one SS (around $2k per month) in my calculations to compensate for a spouse death (likely me first). I'm thinking if we wait to take the pension and SS until 65 that essentially helps give us longevity insurance and will drastically reduce what we'd need from our investments after 65.
You can use this website to get a suggestion about the best ages to start Social Security.

https://opensocialsecurity.com/

Most likely it will suggest that one of you start SS early and the other delays it until they are near 70.
2mwasmytarget wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 3:14 pm Total NW is $2.9M with about $2.5M that would be in investments once we retire and sell primary home in HCOL area.
A "back of the envelope" calculation. If you just set your investments to not reinvest dividends and interest and you can get 2% on those then that will generate $50,000 a year which would cover your basic expenses. You might need to dip into the principal a bit each year until your pension or Social Security starts but if you keep your spending in that ballpark then it looks fine to me even though I did not crunch the numbers.
2mwasmytarget wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 3:14 pm I think I'm probably okay to retire (and FireCalc gives me a very high percentage chance at success) but I'm having trouble visualizing the decumulation phase, and am nervous to pull the trigger. Any advice for this nervous Nelly?
Your $3,000 a month($36K a year) spending is artificially low since you excluded a lot of things from that figure. I would suggest doubling that to a somewhat vague and arbitrary $72K a year spending target. That would include things like property taxes, income taxes, healthcare, dental bills, home maintenance, cars, travel, etc. You could then rerun Firecalc being sure to also include the pension and Social Security based on that OpenSocialSecurity web site I mentioned.

One problem with retirement calculators like FireCalc is that they usually look at the results in terms of "success" and "failure". The problem is that "failure" sounds dire like you would end up broke and homeless. In reality for most people what failure looks like is that you might need to do something like reduce your spending by 10% when you are 75 if their portfolio is being drawn down quicker than expected. If that meant that you needed to reduce your spending from $72K a year to $65k a year that would not be that hard for most people to do.

If you needed to you could also tap your home equity if you end up in a "Failure" situation and FireCalc does not take that into account.

When I was deciding if I could retire I also did a crude sensitivity analysis using Firecalc by increasing the spending amount and making a simple graph showing the "success" percentage with different spending. For example $70K, 75,80,85..... With Social Security and the pension included in the model you might be surprised at how much you would need to spend to get down to just a 90% success rate.

This graph showed me two things;
1) How much trouble I would be in if my spending estimate is off.
2) If there is a sharp drop at some point which could be a red flag.
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jjunk
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by jjunk »

I believe the 40k/yr in 72T and the Roth conversions both count against MAGI when it comes to the ACA subsidy. So you might not have as large a subsidy as you're counting on. The full list is here: https://www.healthcare.gov/income-and-h ... come/#magi

Also you'll likely have dividends and interest from your cash, shouldnt be much but every dollar you make costs more $$$ in the ACA calculations.
Topic Author
2mwasmytarget
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by 2mwasmytarget »

jjunk wrote: Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:03 pm I believe the 40k/yr in 72T and the Roth conversions both count against MAGI when it comes to the ACA subsidy. So you might not have as large a subsidy as you're counting on. The full list is here: https://www.healthcare.gov/income-and-h ... come/#magi

Also you'll likely have dividends and interest from your cash, shouldnt be much but every dollar you make costs more $$$ in the ACA calculations.
Yes, thanks for the comment. I have been making the mental assumption that any gains in my taxable account would lower the amount I'd take from the pretax accounts which would likely create an issue for me if I'm too aggressive with the 72T withdrawal. I think I'd probably just live on pretax the first year to get a good sense of how much I can expect from the taxable return each year.
Topic Author
2mwasmytarget
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by 2mwasmytarget »

Your $3,000 a month($36K a year) spending is artificially low since you excluded a lot of things from that figure. I would suggest doubling that to a somewhat vague and arbitrary $72K a year spending target. That would include things like property taxes, income taxes, healthcare, dental bills, home maintenance, cars, travel, etc. You could then rerun Firecalc being sure to also include the pension and Social Security based on that OpenSocialSecurity web site I mentioned.
Thanks for your input! The $3000 a month includes things like property taxes and I live in a state that doesn't have income taxes but I agree that it's definitely not a very thorough estimate. Right now while we're both still working we are averaging around $5000 a month in spending. That is a very luxurious existence though and includes things like travel to see our daughter at school a number of times a year as well as all the taxes and expenses to keep our primary home in good shape which will go away once we sell it. My itemized expenses for the vacation home, food, taxes and utilities etc is about $2100 a month so I actually padded that to $3000 a month for the things I might be missing. All that being said, I agree with you that I'm planning for around $6000 a month as a budget to cover the healthcare and travel etc. I'm thinking if I can keep our MAGI below $40,000 per year, we'd get a decent ACA subsidy which I'm assuming will easily fit within the $6000 budget.
DJZ
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by DJZ »

Honestly those numbers would give me pause, there is not that much wiggle room and the future is uncertain.

I would wait until your daughter has completed any schooling for which you might be on the hook. And I'd run some numbers about what might be the rental value of your primary home if you do move to the vacation home. I think the latter might greatly reduce future uncertainly, especially regarding inflation. If we continue to have inflation as we have been recently, that primary home and its potential for rental income could be considered a partially inflation-protected asset.
Topic Author
2mwasmytarget
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by 2mwasmytarget »

DJZ wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 9:20 am Honestly those numbers would give me pause, there is not that much wiggle room and the future is uncertain.

I would wait until your daughter has completed any schooling for which you might be on the hook. And I'd run some numbers about what might be the rental value of your primary home if you do move to the vacation home. I think the latter might greatly reduce future uncertainly, especially regarding inflation. If we continue to have inflation as we have been recently, that primary home and its potential for rental income could be considered a partially inflation-protected asset.
Thanks for the comment. I've thought about being a landlord over the years so it is an option. I like the fact that it would be an inflation hedge.
bloom2708
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by bloom2708 »

You can do it. It will be a "Lean FIRE".

If you like staying home, have cheap hobbies and like the game of spending as little as possible, I think you can try it.

My wife and I are 52/51, we have a bit more in pre-tax, more in Roth and about the same in taxable. I've dabbled with taking some breaks. I timed the last 4 month break with the January 2022 market swoons, rising inflation and $5 gas.

When I started in Dec 2021, my plan was to see how it went. The portfolio dropped a lot, costs went up everywhere and well, I guess that is sequence of returns risk in a nutshell.

I went back to work in a lower stress/lower pay job. Basically enough to cover our monthly expenses.

At the minimum, you have some options for flexibility. It might be a tad early to do 72T. I'd try to get to 55 and stuff some more away. My goal is to see what it looks like at 55, 4 years. Good luck with your decision.
Topic Author
2mwasmytarget
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by 2mwasmytarget »

bloom2708 wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 11:03 am You can do it. It will be a "Lean FIRE".

If you like staying home, have cheap hobbies and like the game of spending as little as possible, I think you can try it.

My wife and I are 52/51, we have a bit more in pre-tax, more in Roth and about the same in taxable. I've dabbled with taking some breaks. I timed the last 4 month break with the January 2022 market swoons, rising inflation and $5 gas.

When I started in Dec 2021, my plan was to see how it went. The portfolio dropped a lot, costs went up everywhere and well, I guess that is sequence of returns risk in a nutshell.

I went back to work in a lower stress/lower pay job. Basically enough to cover our monthly expenses.

At the minimum, you have some options for flexibility. It might be a tad early to do 72T. I'd try to get to 55 and stuff some more away. My goal is to see what it looks like at 55, 4 years. Good luck with your decision.
Thanks for the input. Yes, it would be a bit of an adjustment to our current budget so there would be some sacrifice. What's keeping me at my job at this point is the good pay/benefits and having the ability to splurge on things we didn't during the accumulation phase. We're still contributing to pretax accounts but not at the level we were previously. Instead I've been adding to our after tax investments and also started contributing to the ROTH 401k at work. (They introduced it a couple years ago). I think if I do anything, I'll likely leave the corporate world and do a part time job for benefits and some extra pay.
Nathan Drake
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by Nathan Drake »

2.5M @ 3 % SWR = 75k

Pension and SS coming at retirement age

Over double the 30k expenses…in what galaxy is this “tight” or “lean”?

For the OP they have more than enough to comfortably retire
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ThankYouJack
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by ThankYouJack »

Nathan Drake wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:39 pm 2.5M @ 3 % SWR = 75k

Pension and SS coming at retirement age

Over double the 30k expenses…in what galaxy is this “tight” or “lean”?

For the OP they have more than enough to comfortably retire
I agree. They'll probably even be fine @ $100k / year especially if they have some flexibility.

OP, take a look at the Rich, Dead, Broke app - https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/
marcopolo
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by marcopolo »

bloom2708 wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 11:03 am You can do it. It will be a "Lean FIRE".

If you like staying home, have cheap hobbies and like the game of spending as little as possible, I think you can try it.

My wife and I are 52/51, we have a bit more in pre-tax, more in Roth and about the same in taxable. I've dabbled with taking some breaks. I timed the last 4 month break with the January 2022 market swoons, rising inflation and $5 gas.

When I started in Dec 2021, my plan was to see how it went. The portfolio dropped a lot, costs went up everywhere and well, I guess that is sequence of returns risk in a nutshell.

I went back to work in a lower stress/lower pay job. Basically enough to cover our monthly expenses.

At the minimum, you have some options for flexibility. It might be a tad early to do 72T. I'd try to get to 55 and stuff some more away. My goal is to see what it looks like at 55, 4 years. Good luck with your decision.
$2.5 portfolio
Pension starting at 65
Most likely some Soc Sec
Paid off home

Maybe not a life of endless luxury, but "Lean"? Really?
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
bloom2708
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by bloom2708 »

marcopolo wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:30 pm
$2.5 portfolio
Pension starting at 65
Most likely some Soc Sec
Paid off home

Maybe not a life of endless luxury, but "Lean"? Really?
$30k expenses with $1 million in homes to maintain.

It will be lean-ish because it is a long way from 50 to 65. What is $100k x 15. $1.5 million. That leaves the $100k Roth and taxable and whatever growth or non-growth they get from the portfolio. I would not want to head to pension/SS with <$500k, but others may call that Fat FIRE. Meh.

I may be completely wrong. Call it a Fat FIRE if you want.

Most people want to travel more, do more when retired. Not less. But some are completely happy doing nothing.

If you add dental and vision on to the ACA plans, they aren't all that cheap.

I have no problem if their retirement is a slam dunk. I've been wrong before and will be again.
bloom2708
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by bloom2708 »

Nathan Drake wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:39 pm 2.5M @ 3 % SWR = 75k

Pension and SS coming at retirement age

Over double the 30k expenses…in what galaxy is this “tight” or “lean”?

For the OP they have more than enough to comfortably retire
Property taxes, insurance and maintenance will probably be $30k on $1.1 million in home.

15 years from 50 to 65 pension. Good deal if it is a slam dunk. We have more saved, less house by 1/2 and it doesn't feel like a slam dunk.

Onward and upward.
BarbK
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by BarbK »

bloom2708 wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:11 pm
Nathan Drake wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:39 pm 2.5M @ 3 % SWR = 75k

Pension and SS coming at retirement age

Over double the 30k expenses…in what galaxy is this “tight” or “lean”?

For the OP they have more than enough to comfortably retire
Property taxes, insurance and maintenance will probably be $30k on $1.1 million in home.

15 years from 50 to 65 pension. Good deal if it is a slam dunk. We have more saved, less house by 1/2 and it doesn't feel like a slam dunk.

Onward and upward.
But he is selling his primary paid off home valued at $750K that he plans to add to taxable.
flyingaway
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by flyingaway »

The OP has $2.5M in investment, which could potentially generate up to $100,000 per year for retirement spending. I don't understand why that is a leanFIRE, giving the OP has some pensions and social security in the future. The OPs' essential spending is about $40,000 per year, which is an SWR of 1.6%.

To the OP: If you like your job, keep working to make more money. More money is always a better thing. If you don't like your job, retire and enjoy your life. You have the freedom to make a choice.
Engaging in sloth
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by Engaging in sloth »

You are in fine financial shape. Engaging in sloth gives you the go ahead to retire. :D
BernardShakey
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by BernardShakey »

I think you are in good shape to retire ---- if your expenses are well understood and you have some margin in your calculations. If it were me, I'd spend the next year or two living on the planned retirement budget and see how it goes. If you like what you see, pull the trigger after the child graduates from college and is fully employed and 100% on their own. Seems like that is a little less than two years from now (mid-2024) ? Maybe a bit conservative but you'd still be retiring very early. Well done so far. :beer
An important key to investing is having a well-calibrated sense of your future regret.
Topic Author
2mwasmytarget
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by 2mwasmytarget »

BernardShakey wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:29 pm I think you are in good shape to retire ---- if your expenses are well understood and you have some margin in your calculations. If it were me, I'd spend the next year or two living on the planned retirement budget and see how it goes. If you like what you see, pull the trigger after the child graduates from college and is fully employed and 100% on their own. Seems like that is a little less than two years from now (mid-2024) ? Maybe a bit conservative but you'd still be retiring very early. Well done so far. :beer
Thanks for the feedback. We've been talking about waiting until our daughter graduates from college in two years just so we have plenty of excess money for all the surprises along the way. She will have a car at college this year so she can drive to hospitals for her clinical rounds which introduces plenty of risks (breakdowns, accidents, maintenance etc). If at some point I can't take the corporate BS any longer, I may leave my job and find a part time job. My wife likes her job and is good with continuing to work until our daughter is done with college.

For all the other people commenting, thank you for your input. I appreciate having the extra brains looking over our numbers.
marcopolo
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by marcopolo »

bloom2708 wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:11 pm
Nathan Drake wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:39 pm 2.5M @ 3 % SWR = 75k

Pension and SS coming at retirement age

Over double the 30k expenses…in what galaxy is this “tight” or “lean”?

For the OP they have more than enough to comfortably retire
Property taxes, insurance and maintenance will probably be $30k on $1.1 million in home.

15 years from 50 to 65 pension. Good deal if it is a slam dunk. We have more saved, less house by 1/2 and it doesn't feel like a slam dunk.

Onward and upward.
Perhaps you did not read the OP correctly

They currently have 2 homes worth a total of $1.1M
They plan to sell their primary home and live in their current vacation property. This will add $750k to their investments.

Even without any growth (is that what you use for your planning?), they can spend $100k/yr, and get to Social Security age with over a $1M portfolio. Plus another ~$25/yr in pensions. So, probably easily maintain their $100k/yr in spending (which is way more than they spend now).

If that is "Lean", a lot of people are in real dire straits.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
marcopolo
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by marcopolo »

flyingaway wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:38 pm The OP has $2.5M in investment, which could potentially generate up to $100,000 per year for retirement spending. I don't understand why that is a leanFIRE, giving the OP has some pensions and social security in the future. The OPs' essential spending is about $40,000 per year, which is an SWR of 1.6%.

To the OP: If you like your job, keep working to make more money. More money is always a better thing. If you don't like your job, retire and enjoy your life. You have the freedom to make a choice.
"Like your job" seems a pretty low bar for working for years to make money you don't really need. I would tend to set the bar at "love your job more than anything else you would do as an alternative".

I had a career I enjoyed quite a bit. But, at a certain point, we had plenty of money and lots of things we wanted to do with our time that we enjoyed more. If the bar had been "if you like your job", I would probably still be working.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Marseille07
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by Marseille07 »

flyingaway wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:38 pm The OP has $2.5M in investment, which could potentially generate up to $100,000 per year for retirement spending. I don't understand why that is a leanFIRE, giving the OP has some pensions and social security in the future. The OPs' essential spending is about $40,000 per year, which is an SWR of 1.6%.

To the OP: If you like your job, keep working to make more money. More money is always a better thing. If you don't like your job, retire and enjoy your life. You have the freedom to make a choice.
It's not leanFIRE, but the problem is 1.4M out of 2.5M is tied up in pre-tax and they have to use some tricks to extract the money penalty-free.
marcopolo
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by marcopolo »

Marseille07 wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 6:58 pm
flyingaway wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:38 pm The OP has $2.5M in investment, which could potentially generate up to $100,000 per year for retirement spending. I don't understand why that is a leanFIRE, giving the OP has some pensions and social security in the future. The OPs' essential spending is about $40,000 per year, which is an SWR of 1.6%.

To the OP: If you like your job, keep working to make more money. More money is always a better thing. If you don't like your job, retire and enjoy your life. You have the freedom to make a choice.
It's not leanFIRE, but the problem is 1.4M out of 2.5M is tied up in pre-tax and they have to use some tricks to extract the money penalty-free.
Why is that a problem?
They can access it at 59.5 which is less than a decade away. Even if they need it earlier, they can use a Roth Conversion ladder.
Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.
Marseille07
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by Marseille07 »

marcopolo wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 7:21 pm Why is that a problem?
They can access it at 59.5 which is less than a decade away. Even if they need it earlier, they can use a Roth Conversion ladder.
I know 72(t) or a Roth Conversion ladder is available but I don't know much about them. It might not be a problem.
radiowave
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by radiowave »

Expenses: I won't go through an exhaustive list of expenses since there really aren't that many. When we move to the more rural home, we expect our monthly expenses to be in the range of about $3000 fixed not including health care. This does not include all the "extras" like home maintenance, a new car when needed, etc. but does cover the taxes, basics and includes a decent food budget.
OP my gut tells me you're underestimating your expenses with two houses. Also, take time to estimate your healthcare expenses for you and your wife. Currently I'm on Medicare and wife is on a private health care insurance at $700/mo. if we both needed to be on private health insurance it would be almost $20k/yr not including deductibles, meds, etc.

Another consideration is Social Security uses your top 35 year income to calculate your benefit if you FIRE in your early 50s, that will affect your long term SS amount.

My personal recommendation is to wait until at least late 50s to get a better financial foundation for your retirement. I considered FIRE in my mid 50s when I encountered a difficult job situation with top leadership that was a real mess. I decided to push forward and the situation was resolved over a couple of years and retired on time mid 60s. Glad I waited as it gave my spouse and I a much better financial foundation and better SS benefit.
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BernardShakey
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by BernardShakey »

2mwasmytarget wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:58 pm
BernardShakey wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:29 pm I think you are in good shape to retire ---- if your expenses are well understood and you have some margin in your calculations. If it were me, I'd spend the next year or two living on the planned retirement budget and see how it goes. If you like what you see, pull the trigger after the child graduates from college and is fully employed and 100% on their own. Seems like that is a little less than two years from now (mid-2024) ? Maybe a bit conservative but you'd still be retiring very early. Well done so far. :beer
Thanks for the feedback. We've been talking about waiting until our daughter graduates from college in two years just so we have plenty of excess money for all the surprises along the way. She will have a car at college this year so she can drive to hospitals for her clinical rounds which introduces plenty of risks (breakdowns, accidents, maintenance etc). If at some point I can't take the corporate BS any longer, I may leave my job and find a part time job. My wife likes her job and is good with continuing to work until our daughter is done with college.

For all the other people commenting, thank you for your input. I appreciate having the extra brains looking over our numbers.
Curious, is your child anticipating going on to medical school ? The reference to "clinical rounds" suggests maybe this is in the cards. If so, are you planning to help defray those costs ?
An important key to investing is having a well-calibrated sense of your future regret.
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Watty
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Re: Can I Retire?

Post by Watty »

marcopolo wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:30 pm
bloom2708 wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 11:03 am You can do it. It will be a "Lean FIRE".

If you like staying home, have cheap hobbies and like the game of spending as little as possible, I think you can try it.

My wife and I are 52/51, we have a bit more in pre-tax, more in Roth and about the same in taxable. I've dabbled with taking some breaks. I timed the last 4 month break with the January 2022 market swoons, rising inflation and $5 gas.

When I started in Dec 2021, my plan was to see how it went. The portfolio dropped a lot, costs went up everywhere and well, I guess that is sequence of returns risk in a nutshell.

I went back to work in a lower stress/lower pay job. Basically enough to cover our monthly expenses.

At the minimum, you have some options for flexibility. It might be a tad early to do 72T. I'd try to get to 55 and stuff some more away. My goal is to see what it looks like at 55, 4 years. Good luck with your decision.
$2.5 portfolio
Pension starting at 65
Most likely some Soc Sec
Paid off home

Maybe not a life of endless luxury, but "Lean"? Really?
+1

With $2.5 million they could put it under their mattress and spend $50K a year for 50 years.

Lots of details but also lots of options.
Topic Author
2mwasmytarget
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Aug 11, 2022 12:18 pm

Re: Can I Retire?

Post by 2mwasmytarget »

BernardShakey wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 7:49 pm
2mwasmytarget wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:58 pm
BernardShakey wrote: Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:29 pm I think you are in good shape to retire ---- if your expenses are well understood and you have some margin in your calculations. If it were me, I'd spend the next year or two living on the planned retirement budget and see how it goes. If you like what you see, pull the trigger after the child graduates from college and is fully employed and 100% on their own. Seems like that is a little less than two years from now (mid-2024) ? Maybe a bit conservative but you'd still be retiring very early. Well done so far. :beer
Thanks for the feedback. We've been talking about waiting until our daughter graduates from college in two years just so we have plenty of excess money for all the surprises along the way. She will have a car at college this year so she can drive to hospitals for her clinical rounds which introduces plenty of risks (breakdowns, accidents, maintenance etc). If at some point I can't take the corporate BS any longer, I may leave my job and find a part time job. My wife likes her job and is good with continuing to work until our daughter is done with college.

For all the other people commenting, thank you for your input. I appreciate having the extra brains looking over our numbers.
Curious, is your child anticipating going on to medical school ? The reference to "clinical rounds" suggests maybe this is in the cards. If so, are you planning to help defray those costs ?
She’s a nursing student (BSN) and they have what they call clinicals as part of the nursing curriculum where they learn from a nurse in a clinical setting. We’ve told her if she pursues additional education after the BSN she can use any remaining funds in her 529 plan but then she has to cover the rest. Our commitment is to pay for her bachelors degree.
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