almost_there
Dryer sheet aficionado
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2007
- Messages
- 41
Hi All - Have been reading some good stuff on this forum and I am learning a lot. My situation is that I am 59 and have a good news/bad news situation. I live in what most people would consider a good size house on about 10 acres. If I were to sell out and down size I could probably retire tomorrow. The thing is that I really like where I live. My health is good and I like being outside working around my house and property (yes even in the summer in SW FL). My wife no longer works and I am fortunate enough that I get to work out of my home as a tele-commuter. As a result I have older cars with no payments. My only debt is my mortgage which is $300k. The house is worth about $850k. My stash between pre-tax retirement savings and others is $700k (about 600k is pre-tax). The kids are grown and on their own. My annual expenses with the mortgage payment would normally be about $60k. It has actually been about $84k because I have been throwing lots of extra money at the mortgage (after contributing the max towards the 401k). I am fortunate enough that I get a $30k (gross) per year pension that I have been collecting for the last 12 years. Without the mortgage we could easily live (even in this house) on about $30k net. Some day SS would make this even more tenable.
My plan is to pay off the mortgage. My combination salary and pension makes it possible to aggressively pay extra principal each month so it will take me about 3.5 more years to pay it off. My main concern is that I will be involuntarily retired. While I have a good job it is tied to the healthcare industry which as we all know is in quite a tizzy these days. If something happens to my job my ability to rapidly pay of my mortgage disappears and the house basically then becomes a big drag on my ability to retire.
Any thoughts or comments are most welcome.
My plan is to pay off the mortgage. My combination salary and pension makes it possible to aggressively pay extra principal each month so it will take me about 3.5 more years to pay it off. My main concern is that I will be involuntarily retired. While I have a good job it is tied to the healthcare industry which as we all know is in quite a tizzy these days. If something happens to my job my ability to rapidly pay of my mortgage disappears and the house basically then becomes a big drag on my ability to retire.
Any thoughts or comments are most welcome.