Live4Scuba
Confused about dryer sheets
Hello,
For a number of years I've had a dream of retiring early. I didn't always have a specific idea of what "early" actually meant but over the past 5 years I've given it a lot of thought and have decided that I'd like to retire sooner rather than later.
I hit a milestone this year turning 50 years old in June. I am planning on retiring before I turn 51. I expect to leave my company sometime in April or May of next year.
A bit about me:
I'm married and my wife who is older than me (66) has been retired for 10 years. She collects a nice pension as a retired teacher of $48K a year. The pension has a COLA.
We have no mortgages; We own a home in New York and a condo in Florida. We are currently New York State residents. We plan to move to Florida after my retirement making that our residence but maintaining our home in NY and living there in the summer.
I currently make approximately $300K a year in salary with my company. A majority of that gets squirreled away. I'm fortunate in that I work for one of the few companies left that still has a defined benefit plan. If I leave in April, 2016 when I turn 60 I will begin collecting $78K a year in pension. The value of the pension goes up significantly higher if I stay longer but I've decided that I want to enjoy life and no longer enjoy the work.
Since I am an executive with my company, I also have a benefit where I can defer my annual bonus and periodically (typically every three years) I can defer up to 100% of my salary at a fixed rate of return. I've taken advantage of both these programs and so if I leave next year, I'll have a 10 year annuity of $75K which will bridge me to my pension.
Additionally, I have approximately $1.5MM in savings of which $1MM is in my 401K and my wife's 403B. I have most of this (around 80%) in equity investments (various index funds). I am hoping that we can avoid touching the savings as much as possible.
We have deferred my wife's social security since we don't need it and I'd rather get the 8% return. My plan is to begin collecting her social security when she turns 70 in 2019. According to the social security department letters we receive, my wife will collect $2400 a month bringing her total annual income to $76,800.
I'm also planning on working part time here and there but will use the money only to feed my passion for scuba diving and not expect to use the money I would make for real living expenses.
My wife's healthcare insurance (retired teacher benefit) was very inexpensive before she reached medicare age. Now because of our income, we're paying $330 a month in medicare plus the $38 a month for her private insurance.
When I retire, I'll need to find health insurance. I can get on my wife's plan but it's $700 a month. Looking around, I found cheaper insurance. Since our income will go down, I don't expect I'll have to pay as much for my wife's medicare so that will help.
I've been using Mint for the past 3 years and our expenses are roughly $90K a year. We do plan on traveling quite a bit in the first few years of my retirement but I am feeling fairly confident that I've got all our bases covered.
I'd be curious if any of you see some major flaws in my plan.
Thanks and looking forward to learning more from all of you!
For a number of years I've had a dream of retiring early. I didn't always have a specific idea of what "early" actually meant but over the past 5 years I've given it a lot of thought and have decided that I'd like to retire sooner rather than later.
I hit a milestone this year turning 50 years old in June. I am planning on retiring before I turn 51. I expect to leave my company sometime in April or May of next year.
A bit about me:
I'm married and my wife who is older than me (66) has been retired for 10 years. She collects a nice pension as a retired teacher of $48K a year. The pension has a COLA.
We have no mortgages; We own a home in New York and a condo in Florida. We are currently New York State residents. We plan to move to Florida after my retirement making that our residence but maintaining our home in NY and living there in the summer.
I currently make approximately $300K a year in salary with my company. A majority of that gets squirreled away. I'm fortunate in that I work for one of the few companies left that still has a defined benefit plan. If I leave in April, 2016 when I turn 60 I will begin collecting $78K a year in pension. The value of the pension goes up significantly higher if I stay longer but I've decided that I want to enjoy life and no longer enjoy the work.
Since I am an executive with my company, I also have a benefit where I can defer my annual bonus and periodically (typically every three years) I can defer up to 100% of my salary at a fixed rate of return. I've taken advantage of both these programs and so if I leave next year, I'll have a 10 year annuity of $75K which will bridge me to my pension.
Additionally, I have approximately $1.5MM in savings of which $1MM is in my 401K and my wife's 403B. I have most of this (around 80%) in equity investments (various index funds). I am hoping that we can avoid touching the savings as much as possible.
We have deferred my wife's social security since we don't need it and I'd rather get the 8% return. My plan is to begin collecting her social security when she turns 70 in 2019. According to the social security department letters we receive, my wife will collect $2400 a month bringing her total annual income to $76,800.
I'm also planning on working part time here and there but will use the money only to feed my passion for scuba diving and not expect to use the money I would make for real living expenses.
My wife's healthcare insurance (retired teacher benefit) was very inexpensive before she reached medicare age. Now because of our income, we're paying $330 a month in medicare plus the $38 a month for her private insurance.
When I retire, I'll need to find health insurance. I can get on my wife's plan but it's $700 a month. Looking around, I found cheaper insurance. Since our income will go down, I don't expect I'll have to pay as much for my wife's medicare so that will help.
I've been using Mint for the past 3 years and our expenses are roughly $90K a year. We do plan on traveling quite a bit in the first few years of my retirement but I am feeling fairly confident that I've got all our bases covered.
I'd be curious if any of you see some major flaws in my plan.
Thanks and looking forward to learning more from all of you!
