Semi-retire at 50

H

hopeisnotaplan

Recycles dryer sheets
Joined
Jun 18, 2015
Messages
51
New here and wanted say hello and lay out my situation/plan...

46, married, no kids; want to semi-retire at 50. which to me means doing something productive, just not 50+ hours a week in the office.

Current stats:
No debt
about $3.9M net worth, of that:
$900K in two houses (TN and FL) - live in TN fulltime
$1M in 401K/IRAs
$400K in other RE investments - not our houses
$1.5M in market, mutual funds/ETFs, individual stocks, etc.
The rest in cash/misc. assets

I've always had 50 as a goal. If the NW rises a little in these next 3/4 years, I think we'll be fine. If not, I can certainly hang around a little longer until the math works better. Healthcare is probably the big concern if I leave at 50.

That's about it for now...I welcome any comments or thoughts.
 
Welcome hope; You've done well. Have you been tracking your spending so that you can estimate your expenses in semi-retirement? What type of work do you plan to pursue to keep yourself in productive mode.

You'll find lots of good advice and encouragement on this forum.
 
NW is only half the equation... and not really that.

The other major missing info is expenses. Without that, really can't comment.

If you are not planning on selling your 2 houses or renting them out, it's fine to note them as net worth.. but since they are not producing income, you may want to leave them out of the equation.

Have you run your numbers through Firecalc or other planning software?
 
I believe we would be very comfortable living on about $7000/mo in our 50's. I don't really know how my spedning would trend after that. I would like to keep both houses, but selling one is very much an option if needed. I've run Firecalc and have positive results.

As far as after 50...I have interest in getting more active in a few RE investments and continue to make some money there.
 
Looks like plenty to retire on if you choose and are comfortable with that expense level. Expense level seems to be (by gut feel only) a bit low for living out of two houses of that value in two states.
 
Yes, the expense estimate might be a little low, but we live on about that much now. We save a lot of our income working to get to the 50 goal. To be safe, I could probably bump the expense number up a little for my planning.
 
Your situation is fairly similar to mine, although I am single and my NW is a bit lower than yours. Also I only have one house, and less of my investments are in tax-sheltered accounts. Based on my own research and planning with tools like Firecalc, I would say your outlook for semi-retirement in 4 years (or even right now) is pretty solid. If I were you, though, I'd prepare a detailed ER budget that factors in things like healthcare costs, appliance replacement, home repairs/upgrades, car repairs/replacement, etc. I did this several years ago when I semi-retired, and it gave me a lot of peace of mind that I could pretty easily pull this off and even have a nice safety margin. You may want to read Work Less, Live More by Bob Clyatt for detailed guidance on preparing an ER budget.
 
Welcome, sounds like you're in great shape, especially if you already have some experience in managing your real estate investments and are willing to do a bit more. I guess you have a management company or help with them while you are in FL or on vacation elsewhere? I agree with Sojourner that making sure your budget is accurate and accounts for irregular costs. It can be misleading to look at a couple years of expenses only to have your budget blown away when you go to replace a car and a furnace, and then the next year replace the other car and a roof.
 
Unless you need to work until 50 to get a pension, I see no reason to continue full-time. If you plan to continue to work part time to stay busy then I see no reason not to start now. You should be fine financially with what you have now. Good luck.
 
Always find it funny when a millionaire asks if they can retire.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
offroad said:
Always find it funny when a millionaire asks if they can retire.
Click to expand...
Sounded like he was introducing himself and sharing his plan, and asking for comments, not permission. And if he was only a millionaire, he couldn't retire. Neither could I have, not without making cutbacks I wasn't willing to do. If you can, good for you.
 
Thanks for the recommendations on threads and the Work Less, Live More read! I'll give both a look.

And yes, I need to take a closer look at how unexpected expenses will affect me...new roof, car, etc.

I look forward to checking in often and learning from everyone.
 
OP

It sounds like we are pretty dang similar. I am 47, married, no kids, live in TN full time with a house in FL. I hope to partially retire around 50. My current NW is about 1m less than yours but I will be receiving an inflation adjusted commercial real estate lease payment of $5000 per month for the next 10 to 15 years and a piece of commercial real estate to sell at the end of lease. This will allow me to make an income part time and live off of the lease and part time work while I continue to grow my portfolio. It's all about a lifestyle change which I am more than ready for. It also sounds like our expected expenses will be similar.

I look forward to following your progress. Hard work does sometimes payoff.
 
I'm 35 married with 3 kids and would retire now easily with that kind of savings.
 
Hopeisnotaplan - may be interesting to explore a "what if" scenario just to test where you really are and what confidence you have in your numbers. "What if" for some unknown reason you lost your current job next week and you were unable to find another job acceptable to you. What would you do financially to respond to that situation and could your finances hold you in an lifestyle acceptable to you. Running firecalc and I-ORP are great ways to explore something like that.
 
Earlyout01 said:
OP

It sounds like we are pretty dang similar. I am 47, married, no kids, live in TN full time with a house in FL. I hope to partially retire around 50. My current NW is about 1m less than yours but I will be receiving an inflation adjusted commercial real estate lease payment of $5000 per month for the next 10 to 15 years and a piece of commercial real estate to sell at the end of lease. This will allow me to make an income part time and live off of the lease and part time work while I continue to grow my portfolio. It's all about a lifestyle change which I am more than ready for. It also sounds like our expected expenses will be similar.

I look forward to following your progress. Hard work does sometimes payoff.
Click to expand...
EO1...very similar indeed. Curious, did you choose the gulf coast of FL? We found we liked the southwest/gulf side a little better than the east or panhandle. We hope to transition to about 50/50 on time there when finally leave full time emp.
 
Whisper66 said:
Hopeisnotaplan - may be interesting to explore a "what if" scenario just to test where you really are and what confidence you have in your numbers. "What if" for some unknown reason you lost your current job next week and you were unable to find another job acceptable to you. What would you do financially to respond to that situation and could your finances hold you in an lifestyle acceptable to you. Running firecalc and I-ORP are great ways to explore something like that.
Click to expand...
W66,
I've actually thought about the what if a lot. If the job goes tomorrow, I don't think I'll send out the resumes for the next megacorp job. I would think seriously about trying to manage on my stated plan just a couple years early. More involved in RE investments and go semi-retired then.
 
Hi. My goal was 50 also but I did two more years waiting to hit my financial goal of a 3% WR. With $3mm in investible assets at 3% i would be comfortable spending $90k per year ($7500/month). My budget is close to that and includes $1k / month for nonrecurring expenses and $2k/ month for healthcare.
 
hopeisnotaplan said:
EO1...very similar indeed. Curious, did you choose the gulf coast of FL? We found we liked the southwest/gulf side a little better than the east or panhandle. We hope to transition to about 50/50 on time there when finally leave full time emp.
Click to expand...

We chose the SE Coast of Florida due to some family ties and non spring break area. We bought a highly rentable house 1/2 block off of the ocean which we currently rent for a pretty good income stream. Our tentative plan is to sell out in TN (around $700k) and live part time in FL and rent part time abroad (Central America, MX etc) for a change of pace. I would be able to work when in FL and would be able to rent our FL house when not there. Plans do change though. We love TN but are just looking for a change.

You only go around once.
 
With that much in investments, you should be good to go, starting with a 3% withdrawal rate. I'm at a little over half with similar monthly goal and am semi-retiring (DW will still work but the goal is to pull the plug for her also in a few years). 56, though, but 3% should carry you until SS, or at least that's my plan. I'm willing to go 5-5.5% in a few years before I qualify for SS, when DW decides to pull the plug.
 
Similar. I am 46 and pulled the plug earlier this year. Have two teenage kids however. NW is similar:

3.0 M in taxable stock account,

0.75 M in IRAs and other tax deferred accounts

0.4M in real estate including home and small rental property

We also have about 0.25M in separate taxable stock accounts to cover kids college tuition.

We decided not to wait to enjoy life.

50 was just a number and both Time / health are the two commodities that we realized we could not purchase ...no matter how much more we saved....
 
Biker4life,
I'm glad to hear you went for it. I'd love to hear how it goes over the next few months and how the money flow is working for you. Would you care to tell me what your monthly expenses are for reference?

I'm a little hesitant to just punch out b/c my work pays well, stock options, etc. I know life is short but I feel like I'm piling on to the nest egg with not a ton of downside...a little stress, but not crazy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
42yo, coastFIRE at 46
Replies
12
Views
991
Eastfolk
E
R
Offered a Package at 57
2
Replies
48
Views
7K
Healthy Lifestyle
H
E
60 year old, in quest of a balanced discussion
Replies
24
Views
2K
Efun2024
E
J
49 and 6 years to go in TX
Replies
5
Views
304
bloom2708
B
D
Retired in 2017@42
Replies
10
Views
911
Koolau
Koolau

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom