Decisions decisions - $can I leave work$ ??

[mippy56]

What would you do if you were me? I'm 52 and my wife is 54. I have a terribly stressful job. She'll retire with a NYS pension of $65K on her 55th birthday in June 09. We need $75K net to maintain our quality of life. House is paid. Health insurance will be $200/month. I'll have 200K cash when she retires and another 150K Roth IRA, 100K Traditional IRA, and 500K in tax defered retirement annuities (403b), all available to me in 7 years. At 62 I'll get $1300/month SS and she'll get $1200/month if we stop working next year. We did the SSA calculator and received those statements in the mail. Both of us had a sibling die suddenly in their 40's and we realize that life is too short and we want to enjoy life together, without working. We got married this past April after 18 years together. I think we can afford to stop working next year. Hoping someone else can crunch the numbers to either set me straight or reassure.

 

[bbbamI]

Have you used FireCalc yet?

 

[REWahoo]

Have you used FireCalc yet?

I second that question. You can find the calculator here.

 

[jIMOh]

What would you do if you were me? I'm 52 and my wife is 54. I have a terribly stressful job. She'll retire with a NYS pension of $65K on her 55th birthday in June 09. We need $75K net to maintain our quality of life. House is paid. Health insurance will be $200/month. I'll have 200K cash when she retires and another 150K Roth IRA, 100K Traditional IRA, and 500K in tax defered retirement annuities (403b), all available to me in 7 years. At 62 I'll get $1300/month SS and she'll get $1200/month if we stop working next year. We did the SSA calculator and received those statements in the mail. Both of us had a sibling die suddenly in their 40's and we realize that life is too short and we want to enjoy life together, without working. We got married this past April after 18 years together. I think we can afford to stop working next year. Hoping someone else can crunch the numbers to either set me straight or reassure.

I think a significant amount of this SS will be taxed (85% will be taxed?). If your income plus half your SS is around 44k, then 85% of the SS is subject to tax. Have you factored that in?

You have stated your goal- retire soon
Have you analyzed the goal based on market performance, your finances and a 40 year withdraw strategy? Firecalc will help with this analysis.

 

[CuppaJoe]

You say you two can afford to retire next year; but you ask what I would do? I would figure out how soon I can leave that stressful j*b. Is there any advantage in waiting until the end of the year, like a bonus that won't kick in if you walk out today? I found it very difficult to give notice.

The first data item you give us is "terribly stressful j*b"! Really to me that says it all. But sometimes I'm an extremist. You will get a lot of advice on this thread, I'm glad to see you here, Welcome.

The SS thing jumps out at me, inflation will have 8-10 years to do its thing on those amounts before you collect.

Yes, you gotta look at the brevity of life thing--my brother went at the age about a year before my retirement age, it was a significant anniversary and I lost a best friend at 17 and two others at 33.

Enjoy the forum, read other threads, a lot of us came here wondering if our numbers would work and trying to balance that with a j*b that no longer enchants.

 

[CuppaJoe]

P.S. I'm moving your thread to the "Hi, I am" section.

 

[bd68]

disclaimer...only you can make the call...do not rely on my opinion...but I don't even need to to use a calculator to make my guess at the the answer...those numbers look good. Is her pension COLA'd? You have almost $1 million outside of SS and pension. Use your $200k post tax to make up the difference between her pension and your annual budget needs. When you reach 62 SS plus being able to tap your pretax investments should keep you in FAT city...congratulations. You could also tap your IRA at 59.5 I think.
bd

 

[plex]

Agreed, both of you are done once the pension kicks in (though it may be a bit tight if the pension isn’t COLA’d and there are no survivorship benefits).

 

[travelover]

You may also find that you don't really "need" $75K to live on - somehow the majority of people in the US manage on much less.

And once you find out how nice it is not going to that stressful job, you may find $10K of fat in the budget.

 

[martyb]

I'd be outta there so fast I'd probably give myself whiplash!