wantingToGetOut
Dryer sheet aficionado
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2010
- Messages
- 37
Hi all,
Wonderful site you have here. Seems to be a lot of helpful people. Hopefully I can get some advice on my particular situation.
Ages: I am 42 and wife is 43. Our only child is 10
Wife retired a 18 months ago and I went to a part time status (32 hours) about a year ago.
I have been in engineering since I was 18 as a co-op student and I want out but I don't have the knowledge yet to know if it is safe to jump.
I want to go into a semi retirement mode with a non stressful, non technical job (grunt work would be fine). I currently make $95k on my part time status, but obviously if I am changing careers to a grunter and I am probably looking at maybe $15 to 20k a year, tops.
Here is some financial information:
1) We own our house outright. Valued at ~500k these days. We definitly intend to downsize but probably not for another 10 years or so. The downsizing will have a dual affect. It should lower our yearly expenses and add some cash to the coffers. We do not intend to move to a different part of the country though so the changes will be not huge.
2) Have $120k saved in a 529 plan for daughters college fund
3) Have ~$1.5M saved for retirement, spread out over IRA's, 401K and brokerage accounts. All of the money is in mutual funds, spread pretty evenly between growth and value, and between large, medium and small caps.
4) Last year we spent $42,500 to live on. This included every penny spent over the year, although their were no big purchases like a car. The only big non regular purchase was a $4.5k expenditure on a rock wall we needed fixing. It seems every year has something in this range so I think leaving it in is fine and assuming it is $42,500 for our living expenses. If I drop the job though, and get a new one with no benefits, we will need to have health care (unless the new health bill will some how help my situation). So I think I will need ~12k a year extra for a while until daughter is on her own.
Note: I believe I will need to withdraw more than 42.5+12 due to taxes but I am unsure how to calculate the correct amount.
5) We will receive a small lump sum pension in 2033 of $150k
6) We expect an inheritance of ~$200k in the future. Obviously this is the least certain fact and should probably be ignored for any planning but I wanted to mention it to be complete.
So my question is two fold.
1) Am I nuts to think I can move into semi retirement now, or should I just stay with my current job (which I hate more and more every day)? I am pretty conservative, so I know I would choose to stay at the current job unless the numbers indicate that I can switch to semi-retirement mode with relative safety
2) If by gods chance I could risk moving into semi retirement mode, how do I go about choosing a new career? I have not looked for a non engineering job since I was in high school. I know I don't want to deal with the general public if possible but work like auditing, data entry, inventory etc seems like a good fit. I do not want to be challenged, just want to put in a days work and head home with no worries.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you require extra information, please let me know.
Wonderful site you have here. Seems to be a lot of helpful people. Hopefully I can get some advice on my particular situation.
Ages: I am 42 and wife is 43. Our only child is 10
Wife retired a 18 months ago and I went to a part time status (32 hours) about a year ago.
I have been in engineering since I was 18 as a co-op student and I want out but I don't have the knowledge yet to know if it is safe to jump.
I want to go into a semi retirement mode with a non stressful, non technical job (grunt work would be fine). I currently make $95k on my part time status, but obviously if I am changing careers to a grunter and I am probably looking at maybe $15 to 20k a year, tops.
Here is some financial information:
1) We own our house outright. Valued at ~500k these days. We definitly intend to downsize but probably not for another 10 years or so. The downsizing will have a dual affect. It should lower our yearly expenses and add some cash to the coffers. We do not intend to move to a different part of the country though so the changes will be not huge.
2) Have $120k saved in a 529 plan for daughters college fund
3) Have ~$1.5M saved for retirement, spread out over IRA's, 401K and brokerage accounts. All of the money is in mutual funds, spread pretty evenly between growth and value, and between large, medium and small caps.
4) Last year we spent $42,500 to live on. This included every penny spent over the year, although their were no big purchases like a car. The only big non regular purchase was a $4.5k expenditure on a rock wall we needed fixing. It seems every year has something in this range so I think leaving it in is fine and assuming it is $42,500 for our living expenses. If I drop the job though, and get a new one with no benefits, we will need to have health care (unless the new health bill will some how help my situation). So I think I will need ~12k a year extra for a while until daughter is on her own.
Note: I believe I will need to withdraw more than 42.5+12 due to taxes but I am unsure how to calculate the correct amount.
5) We will receive a small lump sum pension in 2033 of $150k
6) We expect an inheritance of ~$200k in the future. Obviously this is the least certain fact and should probably be ignored for any planning but I wanted to mention it to be complete.
So my question is two fold.
1) Am I nuts to think I can move into semi retirement now, or should I just stay with my current job (which I hate more and more every day)? I am pretty conservative, so I know I would choose to stay at the current job unless the numbers indicate that I can switch to semi-retirement mode with relative safety
2) If by gods chance I could risk moving into semi retirement mode, how do I go about choosing a new career? I have not looked for a non engineering job since I was in high school. I know I don't want to deal with the general public if possible but work like auditing, data entry, inventory etc seems like a good fit. I do not want to be challenged, just want to put in a days work and head home with no worries.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you require extra information, please let me know.