Hi, single but not recyling dryer sheets!

[Dogberry]

Hi, it's been great reading everybody's posts. About myself?

Single female, mid 50s, have invested in equities since 25; very little in mutual funds or bonds. Remember Philip Carret's words at age 99, when asked if he was 99% invested in bonds. "Fiddlesticks, I'm 100% in equities". That describes my style of investing.

Plan to work another10 years.
Debt-70K in home
2 Cars - all paid up
>$1.1MM in individual account, 401K and Roth - combined.
Annual expenses $30K
Don't plan to increase expenses drastically in retirement.

Interested in hearing from you all.

 

[MBAustin]

Welcome Dogberry!

Based on this info, my first question would be "why are you planning to work 10 more years"? Have you run your current numbers through FIREcalc?
You might also take a look at this if you haven't seen it yet to see if it gives you some confidence to retire a bit earlier:
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/some-important-questions-to-answer-before-asking-can-i-retire-69999.html

and

Early Retirement FAQs - Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community

You've probably already noticed that most of us here tend to invest in mutual funds rather than individual equities, but there are certainly some who enjoy stock picking.

 

[GrayHare]

Welcome. IMO it's ok to have a very aggressive investment approach while you have years of work ahead because via wages you can compensate for investment losses should they occur. As you get closer to FIRE you may wish to shift to a less aggressive investment mix. Often that means more bonds, but at the moment, as you may know, bonds are priced very high and thus may be risky themselves. You might begin studying about how to allocate somewhat more conservatively as you near FIRE.

 

[Katiek]

Welcome, look forward to hearing more from you!

 

[38Chevy454]

Welcome to the forum. Nothing wrong with being 100% equities, so long as you can tolerate the market swings. With your stated expenses and investments, it seems you can retire now, why the extra 10 years?

 

[aaronc879]

With your stated expenses and investments, it seems you can retire now, why the extra 10 years?

This was going to be my question. Nothing wrong with working an extra 10 years if you want to but it doesn't look like the need to.

 

[Aerides]

If those expenses include medical and taxes, I were you I'd pay off the house and retire tomorrow. 30k seems on the low side if it does include them, but ymmv.

I'm probably a bit higher in equities now than I should be, mainly because I was too low for too long, and now I've swung the other way to overcompensate for a bit. But my equities are almost all low cost index funds.

 

[Nodak]

Welcome

 

[aida2003]

You're a super good saver/investor. If you know your health insurance situation and how it will affect your annual spending in the future, you are in a position to retire much sooner than 10 years unless you enjoy your work.

 

[Dogberry]

Thanks, everybody! I do enjoy my job. It is the health insurance part that necessitates my working until Medicare kicks in. Do have more investments overseas which will need to be moved over when I retire.

 

[Gotadimple]

Dogberry,
There is nothing wrong with investing aggressively while you are working, you can replace the investment with salary, if needed. I did exactly the same thing until I retired. Then I moved from 80/20 to 55/45. Of course, in 2009, I had encouragement from the Market to re-allocate as equities slipped before the Great Recession.

If you enjoy what you are doing, keep doing it for as long as it is enjoyable.