I moved this from the young dreamers forum to here since this seemed like a more appropriate place.
Hi everyone. I just found this board today and have read a lot of messages over the last hour or so. Really interesting reading and I plan on starting to post more frequently as time permits.
First, a little bit about my situation. My wife and I are both in our early to mid 30's and are teachers in public schools. We have both been teaching for about 10 years now. She currently works half time and I work full time. We have 2 wonderful children (4 and 3 years old) who are taken care of by our parents while we are at work.
We've been contributing to 403-B and Roth accounts since we started working in our early twenties, and have gradually increased our monthly contributions in those areas so that we are now close to maxing out both (our plan is for $8000 combined in our Roths, $24,000 combined in our 403-B accounts, and $4,000 combined towards Coverdell IRA's for our children's college during the 2005 year),
That $ combined with $ my wife (an only child) received (and invested) when her father passed away around 9 years ago (parents were divorced) has allowed us to build up a really nice sized nest egg. Currently, we have around:
$150,000 in home equity
$100,000 in non-retirement mutual fund accounts
$125,000 in retirement mutual fund accounts
$25,000 in cash accounts (money market and CD's)
$15,000 in checking account to pay the bills with
$10,000 saved towards our kids college
We have no credit card debt. Both of our cars are paid for in full and are relatively reliable. Our only outstanding debt is the $200,000 we owe on the mortgage of the new house we bought around 2 years ago. We have a 30 year fixed rate of 5.375%, but plan on paying the mortgage off in full in around 16 more years by adding an extra $300 towards the principal each month.
After looking into my state's pension plan for teachers, I've found out that I'll be able to retire at age 48 and receive 45% of my teaching salary at that time per year for the rest of my life (I'm pretty sure they adjust for inflation every year too). Medical benefits will remain similar to what they currently are as well. At that time, our house and children's education will be almost completely paid for if our current mortgage and Coverdell savings remain intact.
I guess my question is a fairly simple one. How much $ does one need to be able to retire before age 50 and not have to worry about running out of $? Is a million $ enough?
Hi everyone. I just found this board today and have read a lot of messages over the last hour or so. Really interesting reading and I plan on starting to post more frequently as time permits.
First, a little bit about my situation. My wife and I are both in our early to mid 30's and are teachers in public schools. We have both been teaching for about 10 years now. She currently works half time and I work full time. We have 2 wonderful children (4 and 3 years old) who are taken care of by our parents while we are at work.
We've been contributing to 403-B and Roth accounts since we started working in our early twenties, and have gradually increased our monthly contributions in those areas so that we are now close to maxing out both (our plan is for $8000 combined in our Roths, $24,000 combined in our 403-B accounts, and $4,000 combined towards Coverdell IRA's for our children's college during the 2005 year),
That $ combined with $ my wife (an only child) received (and invested) when her father passed away around 9 years ago (parents were divorced) has allowed us to build up a really nice sized nest egg. Currently, we have around:
$150,000 in home equity
$100,000 in non-retirement mutual fund accounts
$125,000 in retirement mutual fund accounts
$25,000 in cash accounts (money market and CD's)
$15,000 in checking account to pay the bills with
$10,000 saved towards our kids college
We have no credit card debt. Both of our cars are paid for in full and are relatively reliable. Our only outstanding debt is the $200,000 we owe on the mortgage of the new house we bought around 2 years ago. We have a 30 year fixed rate of 5.375%, but plan on paying the mortgage off in full in around 16 more years by adding an extra $300 towards the principal each month.
After looking into my state's pension plan for teachers, I've found out that I'll be able to retire at age 48 and receive 45% of my teaching salary at that time per year for the rest of my life (I'm pretty sure they adjust for inflation every year too). Medical benefits will remain similar to what they currently are as well. At that time, our house and children's education will be almost completely paid for if our current mortgage and Coverdell savings remain intact.
I guess my question is a fairly simple one. How much $ does one need to be able to retire before age 50 and not have to worry about running out of $? Is a million $ enough?
