Hi All -
New to the forum, and mostly plan to read / absorb info for a while. I don't really have any specific questions at the moment. I think my biggest unknown is what my annual income number should be for the desired lifestyle (simply because I haven't bothered to estimate that yet).
In summary, it's just my wife and I - we don't have kids, and don't plan to have kids (although we have two dogs that we spoil like they are our kids). We're not extravagant by my estimation, certainly not relative to our income, but we do appreciate not having to worry much about how much we spend on the little stuff - we generally just buy what we want, when we want it (and I fully acknowledge and appreciate what a luxury that is - I grew up in a lower middle class household where every dollar mattered).
We currently live in SoCal and are very high income earners. W/ base, bonus, stock etc. we are @ about a combined $950k/yr. If you add projected earnings from a few real estate investments I have, it definitely tops $1M/yr. This has really ramped up dramatically in the past 5 years as we both really hit prime earning territory in our careers; the numbers below would presumably be higher if we had been earning like that for a longer period.
Current Asset snapshot is approximately:
$1M - primary house
$400k - land where we plan to build a second home.
$500k - various real estate investments
$150k - Cash / Brokerage (non-retirement)
$1.5M - Retirement Accounts (IRAs, SD-IRAs, 401k, etc.)
Total - $3.55M
Current Liability snapshot is approximately:
$400k - primary home mortgage
$130k - primary home HELOC balance
$230k - land mortgage
Total - $760k
Net = ~$2.8M
There are a few smaller items I left out for simplicity (cars, etc.) but the above is a fair ballpark.
With no real basis, my thought right now is that $200k/yr (after all debt being paid) would let us continue to live a pretty care-free lifestyle. That's us in a nutshell - looking forward to participating in the forum.
Edit: one question I thought of immediately is what others do to leverage assets held in retirement accounts, given early withdrawal penalties etc. A large percentage of our net worth is tied up there, so I'll definitely have to figure out the optimal path. I saw references to Roth-IRA conversions - I'll go snooping in that direction, but any other tips are welcome.
New to the forum, and mostly plan to read / absorb info for a while. I don't really have any specific questions at the moment. I think my biggest unknown is what my annual income number should be for the desired lifestyle (simply because I haven't bothered to estimate that yet).
In summary, it's just my wife and I - we don't have kids, and don't plan to have kids (although we have two dogs that we spoil like they are our kids). We're not extravagant by my estimation, certainly not relative to our income, but we do appreciate not having to worry much about how much we spend on the little stuff - we generally just buy what we want, when we want it (and I fully acknowledge and appreciate what a luxury that is - I grew up in a lower middle class household where every dollar mattered).
We currently live in SoCal and are very high income earners. W/ base, bonus, stock etc. we are @ about a combined $950k/yr. If you add projected earnings from a few real estate investments I have, it definitely tops $1M/yr. This has really ramped up dramatically in the past 5 years as we both really hit prime earning territory in our careers; the numbers below would presumably be higher if we had been earning like that for a longer period.
Current Asset snapshot is approximately:
$1M - primary house
$400k - land where we plan to build a second home.
$500k - various real estate investments
$150k - Cash / Brokerage (non-retirement)
$1.5M - Retirement Accounts (IRAs, SD-IRAs, 401k, etc.)
Total - $3.55M
Current Liability snapshot is approximately:
$400k - primary home mortgage
$130k - primary home HELOC balance
$230k - land mortgage
Total - $760k
Net = ~$2.8M
There are a few smaller items I left out for simplicity (cars, etc.) but the above is a fair ballpark.
With no real basis, my thought right now is that $200k/yr (after all debt being paid) would let us continue to live a pretty care-free lifestyle. That's us in a nutshell - looking forward to participating in the forum.
Edit: one question I thought of immediately is what others do to leverage assets held in retirement accounts, given early withdrawal penalties etc. A large percentage of our net worth is tied up there, so I'll definitely have to figure out the optimal path. I saw references to Roth-IRA conversions - I'll go snooping in that direction, but any other tips are welcome.
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