On the road the early retirement-

[JohnnTexas]

Hi All, I am new to the board and my first time posting.

I am 49 years old, married with 4 children. Two are in college, one in HS and an 8th grader. So, a few more years of college to pay for.

I currently have a net worth of $1.4M consisting of 401K, Pension Lump Sum and profit sharing accounts (Fidelity and JP Morgan). I am not counting the equity in my home which is $500K. I am not counting SS or an anticipated pension from my current employer.
No debt other than a mortgage that will be paid off in about 7 yrs. i plan to work at least 9 more years until my youngest gets through college.
If all goes as planned, I expect a yearly income in retirement of about $125,000 between the 2 pensions + SS and my nest egg to grow to about $2.5M - $3M by retirement.

A couple of questions:
1) for those of you that retire early, what are you doing for health insurance?
2) how much are your health care costs per year?
3) I feel I am on e right track to a successful early retirement. Any thoughts from the group here on what you see in my post?

THANKS, JOHNNTEXAS

 

[Teacher Terry]

I have health insurance from my former employer but it costs about 3x's as much to be a retiree as it is to be an employee. We are paying 10,000/year for the 2 of us.

 

[MichaelB]

Hi JohnnTexas, welcome aboard. Here are a few questions you might find helpful http://www.early-retirement.org/for...-answer-before-asking-can-i-retire-69999.html

You can find a good estimate of healthcare insurance costs on your state or federal health exchange. You can also use healthsherpa (here) or Valuepenguin (here)
Add out of pocket cost sharing and inflation and you can project future budget needs.

 

[MBAustin]

Welcome JohnnTexas!

If you are planning to work until 58, you have a lot of time to continue to build your assets. Since you'll turn 50 next year, you can take advantage of the 401K "catch-up" to put more $$$ away pre-tax.

Also, if you have things lined up for whatever you plan to pay for college, don't feel like you have to keep working until they graduate. I realized during our youngest's freshman year that we had sufficient cash/529/etc. to pay the rest of the bills and that's when I decided to pull the ER trigger. So glad I didn't wait, but YMMV.

Lots of good info and helpful folks here, so jump in!

 

[serie1926]

Hi JohnnTexas, welcome!

Looking forward to hearing thoughts as well. My wife and I are 3 years, God willing, from retiring at 55. Our biggest question is health care costs and potential of long term care if needed.