Hi! Planning for Early Retirement

[UpandComer]

Hello everyone!

I've just been introduced to the concept of "early retirement" so this is all new to me! I have recently (in the last 3 months actually) decided that early retirement is for me!

My plans are to retire from corporate America by 50 and run my own business. I'm envisioning that at 50 I will own at least 10 rental properties and teach at one of the small local colleges. That way I can have my summers and holidays off but still be able to be productive. (I don't think I'd like to be completely retired at 50 just free to make decisions about when and how hard I work).

Here are my stats:

I'm single, 28 years old (soon to be 29) and have been working steadily for the past 5 years. I only recently started investing and saving for retirement in the last 2 years as I spent the first 3 of my working years being young and dumb (i.e. spending frivolously and running up debt).

I have approximately $19K in my 401K and Roth accounts with the bulk being in my 401K. My emergency fund stands at $2300 (less than I like) because I used a chunk of it for closing costs on my first house in March. Also, I have about $2200 in mutual funds.

Currently I contribute 10% of my pretax $$ into my 401K and receive an additional 5% match from my employer. I put away $300/month in my EF account and $175 is automatically invested into my mutual funds. I am also paying an extra $50/month towards the principal on my mortgage.

My plans are to increase my 401K contributions yearly until I reach 20%, my EF contributions $100/year, my mutual fund investements by $50/year, and increase my extra principal payments by $25-50/year. I''m planning to fund all this by my reducing my expenses to 50% of my take home pay over the next few years and also inceasing my income (still trying to figure out how!!).

A couple other fun facts are that I'm a runner and would like to compete in triathlons one day!

I'm looking forward to learning a lot from y'all in the coming months!

 

[malakito]

Hey there UpandComer! Welcome to the boards!

You might want to take a look at the Gen X retirement planner over at intercst's board. Click on this link and then scroll down the page a while:

http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/software.html

I did an Oly distance tri a few years ago and it was pretty interesting. There's a pretty good forum and lots of good info at http://www.trinewbies.com/.

malakito

 

[mickeyd]

Hey Upandcomer,

Sounds like a plan!

With  $19k saved and less than $3k in emergency dough you are on your way.  But you only have 21 years to go before age 50 so you need to really save big time from here on out.  Remember, if you ever get married, your plan gets cut in half, so if  this is a possibility, please take it into consideration.

If you also plan on owning 10 rental properties by age 50, you may be really pushing it but if you do not have goals in life, where the hell is the fun huh?

Good luck on your ambitious plan. I'll bet you can make it all work out ok for you!

 

[wabmester]

Hey, Brother Smurf! Early Retirement is usually about not working. Owning 10 rentals and running your own business is work. In fact, it's probably more work than most wage slaves do. Not that there's anything wrong with that....

 

[John Galt]

'It's the work that we avoid...............we love to work at
nothin' all day!' (BTO) Great tune!

Okay folks. I've been retired a long time but those old
entreprenuerial juices continue to flow. Today I was
driving by a real nice brick apartment building about 3 miles from our house. It sold recently and now is back on the market. So, I'm thinking "Man I'll bet I could buy that cheap!" Repeat after me "Work is bad!
Avoid it if at all possible!" Constant vigilance is the
price of indolence. You know who said that? I did!

John Galt

 

[babyape]

xxxx

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I think he meant by getting married and both contributing to ER, your plan LENGTH before ERing gets cut in half. Well, it could anyhow.

Better still, ER, then marry someone that wants to keep working.

 

[UpandComer]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I would go absolutely MAD if I didn't do anything with my days. When I'm on vacation I get really, really bored after a few days, so I can't imagine doing nothing with my time. (I'm more of a homebody so traveling for extended amounts of time if out of the question.)

To me, retirement is doing what I want to do, when I want to do it! I love the idea of teaching 1 or 2 classes at a junior college during the school year and managing a few properties with my future hubby. (The guy I'm dating now is a teacher and is into investment properties.) On my plan, we'd have plenty of time to spend together in the summers and even during the school year since they get all the holidays off. And, if I decided I didn't want to "work" I'd just quit teaching and passively earn $$ through my properties.

You're right, I gotta get cracking if I want to have 10 properties by 50. I have 1 down and 9 more to go!!!

UC

 

[Jane]

I can't really give you any advice on RE since I am still working towards that myself, but I just want to say welcome and I am glad to meet another runner on the board!

Maybe you can give me some tips on running? I just started running this spring (being roped into running by a female friend who doesn't want to run alone). My friend and I ran our first 5K race a few months ago and we are now training for our first 25K this fall. So any tips on training, food etc? My biggest problem is getting up realllly early and lace on my sneakers...do you eat before or after running? I eat my meal after running but many people tell me that I should eat before.

Great to hear you are working towards triathlons!! I always think it is a very worthy goal to pursue but I am a terrible swimmer...I am always impressed at people who can do triathlons. If you are bored easily doing nothing during vacations, then you should try one of those adventure type vacations. They are great fun!! Like I said, I am a terrible swimmer but that didn't stop me from going to 2 white-water rafting trips!

Sorry to hijack your thread

Jane

 

[Jane]

Another question (which is probably pretty stupid): do you run outdoors in the winter? If you do, what kind of gear/clothing/shoes do you recommend to run outdoor during winter?

Jane

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Jane -

It would help if you were to describe what exactly you're running from?

 

[John Galt]

Here I go again.............in my case I don't even run outside in the summer, and I try not to
walk fast either, in any season . When I lived in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (I leave the winters to your
imagination), there was a guy who ran regularly past
our office in all weathers. His costume was silk running
shorts. That's it! I have seen it snowing like crazy
with 30 mile an hour winds off Lake Michigan and this
guy is essentially naked. He always ran very fast.
Probably was nuts but he was in great shape so it looked pretty impressive. Ex-Marine? Masochist?
I never found out.

John Galt

 

[Jane]

TH/John:

You cracked me up!

Jane

 

[UpandComer]

LOL!


Jane - congrats to completing your first 5K!!! There are a couple of great books on runnning and proper nutrition. For running I recommend The Runner's Handbook: The Best-Selling Classic Fitness Guide for Beginner and Intermediate Runners by Bob Glover. It's a great primer for all aspects of running including training plans, nutrition, injury prevention, etc. A great book for nutrition is Training Nutrition: The Diet and Nutrition Guide for Peak Performance by Ed Burke.

I usually try to eat something before I run, especially if it's one of my long runs. If I don't my performance suffers pretty bad. The books I recommended will go into detail about what and how much to eat before training and racing!

Yep - I run out side during the winter. But, I don't if I can avoid it. It's virtually impossible to run 10 miles indoors because of the boredom (not to mention the 60 minute time limit on the treadmill). So, I'll usually do my shorter runs indoor and trek outside for the long run with my running group.

The Runners World website has a great page on what to wear in various climates on their site. You should check it out! I usually dress in layers starting with a good pair of thermal moisture wicking running tights, a full moisture wicking sports bra, a long sleeve moisture wicking shirt (starting to get the picture ), a fleecey shirt and long sleeve jacket that will cut down on wind sheer. Gloves and a hat are a MUST. Contrary to popular belief, you will heat up as you run and start to peel off some of those layers. (I live on the West Side of Michigan which catches all the lake effect snow and I managed to stay warm in this get-up.)

Good luck on your 25k! I'm "training" for a 10 miler in a month. I have to get going on my prepartion though cuz so far all I've done is sign up for it!

 

[charlie]

I'm with John_Galt on this one. At age 70, just reading
you folks talk about running makes me break out in a
sweat.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[Sheryl]

Jane - congrats to completing your first 5K!!!  

Congrats from me, too, Jane. I'm also a relatively new runner. I was doing well a couple years ago then messed up my knee... Been back at it on and off this summer. I had hopes of doing a marathon some day, but right now I'm only doing 3 mi. /day, so there's a long way to go!!

I usually try to eat something before I run, especially if it's one of my long runs.  

I can see it would be important, but I always have trouble with cramps or food just "sloshing" around if I eat much of anything... do you eat anything particular, UC?

Oh, back to the topic at hand....welcome to the board, from me too, UC, and good luck with your plan. My S.O. and I have been looking into real estate lately too. The market here is terrible, so we have not found much yet, but we may try building our own project at some point (he's a builder, I'm an architect).

Hope you stick around the boards, there's plenty of good advice and some fun people, as well.

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Heh, running.

I've been moping around here for 4 days with some kind of bug followed by a killer sinus headache. It started to lift today, so I thought to myself, "I should go out and take a walk to start getting back into some kind of shape." Then I remembered: it's MONDAY. Co-ed hockey night! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGH!

At least it's nice and cool in there, although winter and summer, we finish the game sweating.

Time for a shower.

Anne, who wouldn't dream of running, too hard on the 51-year-old joints

 

[wabmester]

I'm sure it's just me, but reading about all of these women working out makes me think about one thing ...

The Women of ER Swimsuit Calendar

 

[Jane]

UC: thanks for the book suggestions I will look them up in the library.

Sheryl: sometimes I start feeling some pain on my knees when I finished running and have to climb stairs to my condo. When this happens, I don't run for a day/two and my knees will feel fine. It's probably just a regular wear and tear.

It will be interesting when winter comes (I live in Ontario, Canada) to see whether or not I will brave the outdoors...

Jane

 

[trumpeting_angel]

The Women of ER Swimsuit Calendar

Not me. But I'll pose in my skates , pads, jersey and helmet if you like.

Anne
not quite skinny enough for that calendar

 

[wabmester]

Not me.  But I'll pose in my skates , pads, jersey and helmet if you like.

 
Hey, Anne. Thanks for stepping up! Pick your favorite month, and I'll whip-up an online calendar.

We only need 11 more volunteers I may need to use pictures of Cut-Throat and his fishy friends for filler if all else fails....

 

[Jane]

Not me.  But I'll pose in my skates , pads, jersey and helmet if you like.  

Being Canadian, the only thing I like better than a cold beer, is watching a good hockey game!! Go Leafs!! Unfortunately I am also a terrible skater (and skier). I seem to do better on ice when both of my feet are strapped on together (like on snowboard...I like snowboard).

Wabmester: maybe you can do an online calendar on ER'd people or something, you know, TH with his pots and pans, John Galt with half (or is that quarter?) of his dryer sheet, etc

Jane

 

[trumpeting_angel]

Jane, I think that's brilliant.

And no matter how E some of us R, somehow I don't think it is E enough for the swimsuit thing.

Anne

 

[MooreBonds]

Hello everyone!

Currently I contribute 10% of my pretax $$ into my 401K and receive an additional 5% match from my employer. I put away $300/month in my EF account and $175 is automatically invested into my mutual funds.  I am also paying an extra $50/month towards the principal on my mortgage.

My plans are to increase my 401K contributions yearly until I reach 20%,

Welcome to the board, from a 27 year old ER wanna be.

One suggestion on your plan - if you know that you want to increase from 15% (currently) to 20% of your income into your 401K AND you have cash that you're dumping into funds and prepaying your mortgage - why aren't you simply taking the mutual fund and mortgage prepayment money and using that to increase your 401K contributions to 20% right now?

Don't forget that your 401K is tax-deferred, while your mutual funds and house are not. $1 in a tax-deferred account is worth more than $1 paid off on your house or $1 into a taxable mutual fund (assuming your long-run average 401K return exceeds your net mortgage interest cost after tax deduction or your net after-tax return on your taxable mutual funds).

 

[UpandComer]

Good questions Paul!  Hopefully my answers will tell you the method of my madness.

I'm currently carrying PMI on a 5 year ARM. My goal is to contribute enough $$ so that in five years time through appreciation and pre-payments I can amass >20% equity in the house.  That way I can drop PMI, which is running me about $150/month - yuck!

Since I'm only 28 (soon to be 29), retirement is still a long ways away for me so I'm not really rushing to get to 20% on my 401K.  Additionally, in order to feel comfortable, I have to keep some investments separate from retirement funds.  So, in case of an emergency I can just cash out some stocks, pay taxes and be done. With 401K/IRAs $$ I have to worry about paying back the loan and/or paying penalties in addition to taxes.  

The increases that I plan to make to 401K contributions each year are intended to match the increases in my pay so that all my raises will go into retirement and I will subtely teach myself to live below my means  .

Oh yeah!  I have a 5K next weekend. Wish me luck!!  I'll also be starting training for my half marathon next week!