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Re: Got ER pension offer
Old 05-30-2004, 08:47 PM   #2
Recycles dryer sheets
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 159
Downsizing on the house, if you want to, can free up a big chunk of $$'s that you could invest and use for living expenses.

There's a rule of thumb thrown about here -- look at www.retireearlyhomepage.com and at the firecalc link (look at the banner ads here to get to it) for more info -- but it basically says that you can generally take 4% of your initial portfolio balance and adjust that initial amount for inflation and never run out of money.

Using that rule, your $400k in your 401k could support $16k. Add to that your $25k pension would give you $41k annually. How much do you spend annually? If it's $41k or less, you've got a decent chance, I'd say.

Two things to think about:

1. Is the $25k inflation adjusted? If not, it will get ravaged by inflation over the next 30-40 years, and so you'd have to account for that. I think the firecalc can help you with that calculation.

2. How long are you "guaranteed" the employee rate for health care, and how much do you believe the guarantee?

malakito
malakito is offline   Reply With Quote