GTFan
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Hi, I've been lurking here for a little over a year now, posted a few times but nothing substantial. Been humming along in life saving as much as we can, was planning on leaving Megacorp next year at age 52 but they recently announced a buyout with half a years severance pay (around $50k gross for me).
We currently have almost $1.4 mil saved up, roughly split 55% tax-deferred and 45% taxable. Our asset allocation was right at 2/3 stock 1/3 fixed income at the beginning of the year, with most of the fixed income invested in a 401k Stable Value fund (insurance contract fund). Almost all of the stock/bond investments are in low-cost broad market index mutual funds at Vanguard and Fidelity. I will also be getting a very small pension of around $200 a month starting in 2016 (was only vested 5.75 years before they shipped us off to a subsidiary with no pension). My wife also has some minimal part-time work which nets us around $10k a year.
Our current expenses are around $36k a year, not factoring in the health insurance I know we will have to buy on the exchange starting in 2015. From what I can see we can get a Bronze plan for around $700 a month without subsidies, which with the buyout is probably what will happen for 2015 because the severance payment will likely get pushed to then.
Going forward after 2015 I anticipate much lower reported income, think we can easily stay below 200% of the federal poverty level which will greatly reduce our out of pocket healthcare costs (I'm projecting $400 a month or less). And we will be getting a much better Silver plan to boot.
I think I'm ready to go and can easily manage to live within a safe 3% withdrawal rate ($42k a year) with our portfolio. We do want to travel some and I am a fiend at getting deals and stuff for everything (serious LBYM) plus we will be getting lifetime travel benefits from Megacorp.
I guess my only concern at this point is giving up that generous salary and stepping off into the new world of doing whatever I want to do. I do plan on volunteering some at our local food and clothing pantry plus I have tons of stuff to do around the house but know that won't last forever. But Megacorp makes it easy for us to stay, they treat us well and I work in a great group with not a lot of stress. I'm a software engineer and know that once I leave IT it's probably for good, there's no going back.
Thanks for letting me introduce myself, this is a great forum.
We currently have almost $1.4 mil saved up, roughly split 55% tax-deferred and 45% taxable. Our asset allocation was right at 2/3 stock 1/3 fixed income at the beginning of the year, with most of the fixed income invested in a 401k Stable Value fund (insurance contract fund). Almost all of the stock/bond investments are in low-cost broad market index mutual funds at Vanguard and Fidelity. I will also be getting a very small pension of around $200 a month starting in 2016 (was only vested 5.75 years before they shipped us off to a subsidiary with no pension). My wife also has some minimal part-time work which nets us around $10k a year.
Our current expenses are around $36k a year, not factoring in the health insurance I know we will have to buy on the exchange starting in 2015. From what I can see we can get a Bronze plan for around $700 a month without subsidies, which with the buyout is probably what will happen for 2015 because the severance payment will likely get pushed to then.
Going forward after 2015 I anticipate much lower reported income, think we can easily stay below 200% of the federal poverty level which will greatly reduce our out of pocket healthcare costs (I'm projecting $400 a month or less). And we will be getting a much better Silver plan to boot.
I think I'm ready to go and can easily manage to live within a safe 3% withdrawal rate ($42k a year) with our portfolio. We do want to travel some and I am a fiend at getting deals and stuff for everything (serious LBYM) plus we will be getting lifetime travel benefits from Megacorp.
I guess my only concern at this point is giving up that generous salary and stepping off into the new world of doing whatever I want to do. I do plan on volunteering some at our local food and clothing pantry plus I have tons of stuff to do around the house but know that won't last forever. But Megacorp makes it easy for us to stay, they treat us well and I work in a great group with not a lot of stress. I'm a software engineer and know that once I leave IT it's probably for good, there's no going back.
Thanks for letting me introduce myself, this is a great forum.
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