Earl E Retyre
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2010
- Messages
- 541
Hi all,
My hopeful goal for a long time has been to retire early. I want to travel all around the world with my wife seeing new places and meeting interesting people. I want to be financially independent and have no worries at all financially. I want to do this sooner than later since I want to enjoy life traveling while I am relatively young and healthy. So, the question has always been, how much money do I need? I have been very much burnt before in the stock market and therefore would feel most comfortable in an extremely low risk portfolio. I would rather work a few more years and not have to worry about market swings.
So, here are my current thoughts about my plan. I appreciate any advice you have as to whether it makes sense or suggestions. I am 46 years old. My net worth including my house is 1.5 million. I feel that once I hit 2.3 million that I can retire. My plan would be to first set aside 400k for my two daughters leaving me with 1.9 million. I want to sell my house and invest the majority (perhaps all) in 4.8% nontaxable, AAA insured, long term municipal bonds. I know there is fear that inflation will get me. But my backup plan for inflation is, assuming I retire at around 50 years of age then in 15 years I would get $39k between my social security/my wife’s SS/ and my pension. By investing 1.9 M at 4.8% after tax that would give me $91k per year to live. I researched and found I can live just about anywhere from the Caribbean to Europe to New Zealand to the US quite nicely for $3k per month rent. So, I would like to travel all over the world and live in each place for 1 month. I assume eventually we will get sick of living like nomads and will want to settle down. So, one goal would be to find the ideal place for us to settle down. At that point, my expenses should decrease (which is also a protection against inflation). So, my monthly expense breakdown while being a nomad is:
lodging inc utilities
3,000
food
1,000
local transport avg
750
mos transportation avg
750
entertainment
400
international cell
75
health ins/med costs
1,000 ?
misc
400
monthly
7,375
annual
88,500
So, the $91k per year should cover me where I do not need to dip into principal at all. Again, within 15 years, I plan to settle down somewhere. At that point expenses should drop and I should gain an additional $39k per year in retirement benefits to cover increases due to inflation. This assumes social security is still around.
I know there are a lot of things you all can comment on including (1) my crazy idea to invest in all munis (2) my budget for traveling like a nomad - my biggest unknown is health costs?? (3) whether $1.9M is enough
So , I would appreciate comments on all three, not only the muni thing which I suspect will get lots of attention. Thanks so much in advance for your comments. And thanks for supporting such a great website.
Earl E Retyre (wannabee)
My hopeful goal for a long time has been to retire early. I want to travel all around the world with my wife seeing new places and meeting interesting people. I want to be financially independent and have no worries at all financially. I want to do this sooner than later since I want to enjoy life traveling while I am relatively young and healthy. So, the question has always been, how much money do I need? I have been very much burnt before in the stock market and therefore would feel most comfortable in an extremely low risk portfolio. I would rather work a few more years and not have to worry about market swings.
So, here are my current thoughts about my plan. I appreciate any advice you have as to whether it makes sense or suggestions. I am 46 years old. My net worth including my house is 1.5 million. I feel that once I hit 2.3 million that I can retire. My plan would be to first set aside 400k for my two daughters leaving me with 1.9 million. I want to sell my house and invest the majority (perhaps all) in 4.8% nontaxable, AAA insured, long term municipal bonds. I know there is fear that inflation will get me. But my backup plan for inflation is, assuming I retire at around 50 years of age then in 15 years I would get $39k between my social security/my wife’s SS/ and my pension. By investing 1.9 M at 4.8% after tax that would give me $91k per year to live. I researched and found I can live just about anywhere from the Caribbean to Europe to New Zealand to the US quite nicely for $3k per month rent. So, I would like to travel all over the world and live in each place for 1 month. I assume eventually we will get sick of living like nomads and will want to settle down. So, one goal would be to find the ideal place for us to settle down. At that point, my expenses should decrease (which is also a protection against inflation). So, my monthly expense breakdown while being a nomad is:
lodging inc utilities
3,000
food
1,000
local transport avg
750
mos transportation avg
750
entertainment
400
international cell
75
health ins/med costs
1,000 ?
misc
400
monthly
7,375
annual
88,500
So, the $91k per year should cover me where I do not need to dip into principal at all. Again, within 15 years, I plan to settle down somewhere. At that point expenses should drop and I should gain an additional $39k per year in retirement benefits to cover increases due to inflation. This assumes social security is still around.
I know there are a lot of things you all can comment on including (1) my crazy idea to invest in all munis (2) my budget for traveling like a nomad - my biggest unknown is health costs?? (3) whether $1.9M is enough
So , I would appreciate comments on all three, not only the muni thing which I suspect will get lots of attention. Thanks so much in advance for your comments. And thanks for supporting such a great website.
Earl E Retyre (wannabee)