Rich_by_the_Bay
Moderator Emeritus
So we just decided to pay off our remaining mortgage. Did all the usual calculations and handwringing, decided it would save us about $1300 a month. Nice.
Suddenly it occured to me as I switched from my SAVING FOR RETIREMENT mindset to my EXPENSES ELIMINATED mindset: there is $412,500 in assets I no longer need, using the 4% rule. Heck, it only reduced my net worth by $170,000 to do this. A $242,500 return on my 170K investment!
It's not like I didn't know this intellectually, but until it got "real" over this latest transaction, it just never occurred to me how much room to play you can get, in real world bucks, by cutting your basic expenses in retirement. Yeah, yeah I have that much smaller of a nest egg to compound, etc. etc. Still, this was sobering.
Sorry to be stating the obvious here, but ... geez... duh... time to sell the dog.
Suddenly it occured to me as I switched from my SAVING FOR RETIREMENT mindset to my EXPENSES ELIMINATED mindset: there is $412,500 in assets I no longer need, using the 4% rule. Heck, it only reduced my net worth by $170,000 to do this. A $242,500 return on my 170K investment!
It's not like I didn't know this intellectually, but until it got "real" over this latest transaction, it just never occurred to me how much room to play you can get, in real world bucks, by cutting your basic expenses in retirement. Yeah, yeah I have that much smaller of a nest egg to compound, etc. etc. Still, this was sobering.
Sorry to be stating the obvious here, but ... geez... duh... time to sell the dog.