Can I retire on $3.1MM? Anybody here done it?

bulbar said:
We've been using Quicken since 1998, so we have every expense catagorized. That's how I know our average is near $135k. Never bought a new car and always pay cash and usually buy them out of state and ship them down and save maybe $4k-$5k. Never wear a suit. No dry cleaning bill. Maybe I'll post my expenses here but that will probably just open me up to ridicule.
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Probably. Save yourself some grief. Surely you know better than anybody else where you get value for your money and where you don't.
 
We spent about $150k in 2013. $10k of that was a used car, so make it $140k. If we can cut certain categories back to where they were in 2009, that would lower the $140k to $110k. Vacations, hobbies, money to the church, Xmas and gifts, groceries, house insurance (why did my home insurance go from $2k in 2012 to $4k in 2013?)
 
If you were retired, you would have the time to chase down the answer to that question and shop your insurance around. One of the first things that I did when we retired is that I went through our regular expenses and made sure it was worth keeping and explored alternatives.
 
Personally I would take the big severance package and just see how it goes in retirement. As you mention you would have to work another 5 years to make the same amount. 53 is relatively young and you still have time for a second act with big oil if you start to run short financially or just get bored. It is god awful out there in the oil patch right now but I don't feel the current low price scenario can last longer than a year. Depletion wins every time. Then everyone will be looking for consultants and you would be making more money than you do now but on your own terms.


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I would only have to work 1.5 years, not 5 years, to get back to the $3.1MM I'd be at if I took severance but I get your point.

A big question is health insurance. I'd lose my employee plan which is $1200 a year and go on their Retiree Medical plan which is $10,000 a year. I need to research ACA to see if that's cheaper.
 
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bulbar said:
house insurance (why did my home insurance go from $2k in 2012 to $4k in 2013?)
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Were you hit with "windstorm" insurance? If not, you are being shafted on home insurance. Get away from the coast and you can insure a $500K for $2k. If you have more than a $500k house in the greater Houston area, you have a good downsizing opportunity after the twins leave.
 
bulbar said:
I would only have to work 1.5 years, not 5 years, to get back to the $3.1MM I'd be at if I took severance but I get your point.

A big question is health insurance. I'd lose my employee plan which is $1200 a year and go on their Retiree Medical plan which is $10,000 a year. I need to research ACA to see if that's cheaper.
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I doubt the ACA will be cheaper than that since you won't get any subsidy with such a high income.
 
2B said:
You don't need to do that to be ridiculed. The "can I retire with $3.1 MM" did it first. :LOL:
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Why would it? Not everyone who has proved to be good at accumulating assets has necessarily yet become knowledgeable and comfortable in the practice of drawing down those assets.

In the absence of any other sources of income, Firecalc shows that a 3.1M portfolio (with the default AA) can support a yearly withdrawal in the region of $100K for a 100% success rate. If bulbar's income requirements were 100K or below, a 3.1M portfolio should be able to support that. If his income requirement is higher than that (as it currently is), then he might well need to look at increasing his portfolio, or reducing his spending, as other posters have said.

I just don't understand why any of us would want to make fun of anyone for asking a simple "Can I retire" type question. Making fun of people (unless it really is light-hearted and carries no suggestion of a put-down) is not exactly the kind of thing that will encourage others to post and participate. We're supposed to be here to help each other aren't we?
 
Yeah, but my income wont be high anymore right? I'll be retired.
 
2B said:
I told my kids they had to go to TAMU, UT, another public Texas university or have a good story. The two oldest went to TAMU in the College of Engineering. They youngest went to Texas State.

The desired degree is probably the best way to decide. All schools don't necessarily have equivalent "quality" degree programs in all majors.
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Agreed... my son is looking at engineering and TAMU.... but is also talking architecture.... I have told him to find the best schools for the major he wants which he has not yet done... he is a junior in HS, so has a bit of time...
 
bulbar said:
Yeah, but my income wont be high anymore right? I'll be retired.
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Any withdrawals from an IRA/401K will be considered income. Any after tax investments will give off dividends and any you sell for a profit will give off capital gains which are income. If you need to spend $150K then you need $150K income. Unless it's all in cash then your interest income could be low enough to get you a subsidy but that wouldn't be good overall for FIRE.
 
I know people keep talking about downsizing... and this is from memory so I could be way off...

OP said he had $150K in home equity and a $75K mortgage... that is about $225K.... a nice house in Houston, but not a big house by any means...

The other problem you have is that if you bought a cheaper house, you usually end up in a neighborhood that you would not want to be in....
 
Yeah, we bought our house for $155k. Worth maybe $225k now. Owe $75k. Makes no sense to sell it at least until the kids get out of college
 
bulbar said:
Yeah, but my income wont be high anymore right? I'll be retired.
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As I think was mentioned in an earlier post, try running the Fidelity Retirement Income Planner and look at the cash flow detail on the analysis page. It includes estimates for taxes and RMDs for taxes.

I also never realized how low our taxes would be until we started running the RIP and doing some modeling with Turbotax.
 
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Bulbar - if you post your expenses you have to be willing to hear people tell you how to spend (or not spend) your money better. I've never liked those kind of posts unless the OP specifically asks for suggestions. Its none of my business how you choose to spend your money. If you do want suggestions on spending then please be clear to indicate that if / when you post your expenses.
 
You can look at the MMM forum where they have those review my expenses kind of posts daily and read all the helpful and also mean comments, though people here are nicer, personally I still would not subject myself to those kinds of comments. But you can look at the review my expense posts other people made and see a lot of silly but also some good advice, like how to lower your cell phone costs.
 
bulbar said:
Yeah, but my income wont be high anymore right? I'll be retired.
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... which means your ACA will be subsidized, and much of your kid's college cost can be supplemented by other sources. Once you add up all the numbers correctly, I think you will find $3.1M is more than enough to retire, especially in where you live now. $150k/year expense with very small mortgage seem to have a lot of room for possible reduction.
 
I'd take the severance. It's a unique opportunity. Carve out enough to pay off the house and get the kids through school. Then open up Quicken, Excel, put on a pot of coffee, and get to work. As others have said, expenses go down significantly when you quit working and kids leave for school. We were spending $130-140K/yr (x-tax) in the years leading up to retirement, with kids still in the house or in college. First year of ER, we're at $85-90K with no change in lifestyle whatsoever. I expect that will go down further as we age, downsize the house, and stop traveling so much. Mortgage is paid off and our youngest is now off the payroll. The rest came from simply "paying attention" to what we were spending money on... something we had little time for while both working and 2 kids in high school. Your $4K home insurance is a classic example. Even $2K was too high for a $225K house.
 
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