36 targeting ER at 50

[CabinLifeAt50]

Hey all, long time lurker here but figured I would be brave and say hi! Quite enjoy reading the posts here and all the success stories. DW and I are 35/36 respectively and are targeting 49/50, or earlier, as our party age for ER. DW is in mechanical engineering/design and I'm in the IT field. We currently have one little one of about 6 months as well.

Current general plan is to save save save, pay off our current mortgage, ~$290k left with 13 yrs to go, and use the funds to buy a lake cabin in the pacific northwest outright. We have no other debts, yay!

We currently have ~$215k in a mix of non-deductible traditional iras / 401k's / 403bs and ~$40k in a taxable account. Unfortunately roth and/or deductible IRAs are out of our bracket.

We've spent the last few years paying off student loans and some other personal debt to get to mortgage only and shifted last year to focus on creating an ER portfolio in the taxable account of high quality dividend paying growth stocks- investing is a fun hobby of mine so spending time researching companies fits well with my free time activities. One of our IRAs is also in a similar setup with high quality dividend growth stocks and both have been doing great for their targeted purposes. The remainder of our retirement accounts are all in low cost index funds. We also have a fully funded HSA and are building up a 529 plan for our infant.

Just got our full estate plan wrapped up and term life insurance covered as well. We are putting ~$40k/year into the tax advantaged retirement accounts (excluding employer match) and ~40k/year into the taxable account. Excluding mortgage payment and investment dollars, we are running at about $2-2.5k expenses a month for everything else and live in sunny and expensive southern ca.


Looking forward to posting a bit more in other areas of the forums soon and welcome any thoughts or feedback. Thanks for being a great community!

 

[Katiek]

Welcome! Sounds like you've done a lot of planning and are far along in implementing your plan. Good luck!

 

[MBAustin]

Congratulations for being well on your way to FI and RE!

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Wow- sounds like you are doing great! I love dividend paying stocks too, and they are a part of my retirement plan as well. Welcome and good luck~

 

[CabinLifeAt50]

Thanks for the warm welcome! At this point the hardest part is just being patient and letting the plan work. Looking to build up the dividends to offset income for pre and post retirement. At least fun to watch those roll in now rather than later.

 

[papadad111]

Welcome. Your incomes are strong and expenses are in control. Get as much tucked away as soon as you can and watch the power of compounding work for you.

I don't recommend investing in individual stocks - too risky - better to consider one of the high quality dividend ETF or MF's which will add more diversification to your portfolio.

Note that expenses do creep up as kids come along and grow up- make your earnings grow along side those expenses. Take some early career risks to boost your personal income returns over the long haul. Take that tough assignment etc.

The one thing I would do over if I had the chance to tell myself at your age based on what I now know - I would be to stop trying to beat the market and instead just match the market consistently and stay fully invested always. In other words, buy and hold high quality low cost index funds. I would also liked to have been 100% stocks in my 20's and 30's to take advantage of the long term stock market returns. I FIRED at 45. ... Could have maybe been earlier if I followed the above advice.