fern
Dryer sheet aficionado
Greetings.
I was a member many years ago and today decided to reconnect.
I'm 57, single, no kids, and eager to retire at age 60 (or sooner, but not sure that's doable), but a recent layoff in July has kind of messed up my plans. I am not as well off as many here seem to be, but I would be curious to receive your input as to my ability to retire in 3 years regardless of whether I find f/t employment or not, which I'm a little worried about given my age.
I bought my own home in 1995 and paid off the mortgage in 2012. My property taxes run about $6,000 annually. The car is also paid off and I have no other debt.
One significant expense now is paying $513 monthly under COBRA for my health insurance. I'll be investigating my state's healthcare exchange next month during open enrollment.
Until I was laid off I was making $83K. I'm a writer. That's the most I ever made. While employed, I was socking away 29% of salary into a Roth 401k.
At present, my assets look like this:
Cash: $42K
Fixed CDs (IRA): $44K
Traditional IRAs: $524K
Roth IRAs: $146K
Taxable investments: $99k
Est home value: $297K
Total: $1,152,017
I live fairly modestly though I would very much like to do some travel in retirement. I know from years of tracking my expenses that I can live on $43 to $45K annually, although that doesn't include funds for any big trips.
I hope to defer collecting SS until full retirement age at 66, so I would depend on my personal savings to live on between ages 60 and 66. I also would hope to work p/t for a few years starting at age 60, but with my current unemployment I am sort of doing that now on a limited scale.
The healthcare expenses concern me. I'm unsure whether I would remain in this home or possibly sell it and buy a somewhat smaller condo in the same area, same town.
A cursory input into FERC Calc resulted in 92% success rate based on retiring now and taking SS at age 67 and a 60/40% equity/income split in investable assets.
I was a member many years ago and today decided to reconnect.
I'm 57, single, no kids, and eager to retire at age 60 (or sooner, but not sure that's doable), but a recent layoff in July has kind of messed up my plans. I am not as well off as many here seem to be, but I would be curious to receive your input as to my ability to retire in 3 years regardless of whether I find f/t employment or not, which I'm a little worried about given my age.
I bought my own home in 1995 and paid off the mortgage in 2012. My property taxes run about $6,000 annually. The car is also paid off and I have no other debt.
One significant expense now is paying $513 monthly under COBRA for my health insurance. I'll be investigating my state's healthcare exchange next month during open enrollment.
Until I was laid off I was making $83K. I'm a writer. That's the most I ever made. While employed, I was socking away 29% of salary into a Roth 401k.
At present, my assets look like this:
Cash: $42K
Fixed CDs (IRA): $44K
Traditional IRAs: $524K
Roth IRAs: $146K
Taxable investments: $99k
Est home value: $297K
Total: $1,152,017
I live fairly modestly though I would very much like to do some travel in retirement. I know from years of tracking my expenses that I can live on $43 to $45K annually, although that doesn't include funds for any big trips.
I hope to defer collecting SS until full retirement age at 66, so I would depend on my personal savings to live on between ages 60 and 66. I also would hope to work p/t for a few years starting at age 60, but with my current unemployment I am sort of doing that now on a limited scale.
The healthcare expenses concern me. I'm unsure whether I would remain in this home or possibly sell it and buy a somewhat smaller condo in the same area, same town.
A cursory input into FERC Calc resulted in 92% success rate based on retiring now and taking SS at age 67 and a 60/40% equity/income split in investable assets.
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