Is my retirement plan o.k.?

[Pradhu]

Hello!!

Its amazing to join this forum. I am coming across with interesting posts of so many like-minded people. I am seriously considering to semi-retire in around 2 years time, but am really confused on whether it will work or not.

Ok, so I'll first lay out my current details:

1. Currently 31 years old, Spouse 26.

2. We are from a developing Asian country, but working in a well developed middle eastern country.

2. Current Net Worth: Around USD 200,000: mostly in liquid assets.

3. Current Annual Savings is USD 75,000 (which have significantly increased since the past 2 years after promotions and loans payoffs). Spouse is not working.

4. Current lifestyle: Only revolves around my Job. Lots of work pressure: around 50-55 hours a week job, and hate it, though am good at it. Just found out have hyperthyroid, and health is deteriorating fast.

5. Desparately want to get out of this rat race and routine lifestely: to not be constantly worried about deadlines, targets and office politics, and am so inclined to live our precious lives to the fullest.

My Plan:

1. Save for another two years, to make our net worth approx. USD 350,000.

2. Just try to manage my health so that it doesn't deteriorate any further in the meantime. Although its difficult with the current job requirements.

3. After 2 years leave my job and the present country, relocate to our home country, or any other inexpensive, beautiful, and immigrant-friendly country.

4. I love teaching, and have a Master's degree. So would like to teach, but not for more than 3-4 hours a day, and for not more than 8 months every year.

5. Focus on health, family, learning, and travelling.

Additional Info:

1. In my home country, currently the fixed deposit rates are 9.5% per annum (even for a long term deposit). On the other hand, inflation is also pretty high.

2. With the current purchasing power of money, we have estimated around USD 12,000 per year to be sufficient as living expenses for our lifestyle in our home country. (Costs back home are pretty less).

3. We would like to keep at least USD 15,000 per year on travelling and hobbies. We love to travel and experience the world.

I know it may sound wishful thinking and day dreaming. Some would say that its too soon to retire (though its semi-retiring, but I really don't have a plan on how the teaching thing will work). Others may think that the oppportunity costs are too huge (I AM getting paid pretty well).

I would love to have different perspectives, and suggestions on our plan. I have tried to change jobs, but with the current job market, It's not been working.

Many Thanks!!

[Coach]

Hi Pradu, and welcome to the forum!

I'm afraid your plan sounds a bit on the optimistic side. You could probably cover your $12,000 annual living expenses from your investments, but an additional $15,000 a year would be difficult to manage. However, if you could cover that by teaching, your chances of success seem reasonable.

Best wishes, and best luck with your health issues.

Coach

[robbridg]

Welcome Pradhu. Try out the firecalc website and run your numbers. Possibly you could live off your savings and plan your vaca's around any part time $ you earn.

[KingB]

Quote:

2. Just try to manage my health so that it doesn't deteriorate any further in the meantime. Although its difficult with the current job requirements.

Welcome to the forum.
I see that you are already addressing your health issues. Your health should come first before anything else. Without your health, all your planning will go to waste.

[Pradhu]

Thanks for your comments. I've just come across a very interesting article which puts the whole money-health-retirement trade off into a new perspective. I would like to share this from Who wants to live forever? Scientist sees aging cured | Reuters :

Quote:

If Aubrey de Grey's predictions are right, the first person who will live to see their 150th birthday has already been born. And the first person to live for 1,000 years could be less than 20 years younger. A biomedical gerontologist and chief scientist of a foundation dedicated to longevity research, de Grey reckons that within his own lifetime doctors could have all the tools they need to "cure" aging -- banishing diseases that come with it and extending life indefinitely. "I'd say we have a 50/50 chance of bringing aging under what I'd call a decisive level of medical control within the next 25 years or so," de Grey said in an interview before delivering a lecture at Britain's Royal Institution academy of science. "And what I mean by decisive is the same sort of medical control that we have over most infectious diseases today."

[tuckeverlasting]

Hi Pradhu,

For more info on healthy-lifespan extension, go to: calorierestriction.org

One of the forum posters there is Dr. De Grey's assistant. The emphasis is on extension and enhancement of a healthy lifespan, not mere prolonging in a diseased state.