Newbie - looking for FIRE feedback

[FLYING NOW]

Hi All,
New to the forum but been browsing for a few months. Thanks for the great Stories and info from everyone.
I am 57 DW is 61.Kids grown and flown. Looking to FIRE sometime in next few years or sooner and downsize to condo lifestyle. Also Megacorp is wearing me down.
DW is ok working a few more years if needed
Key Stats
Salary 160k / DW 30K
1.4m in 401K (50% Equity/50% Cash)
350K in brokerage (50% Equity/50% Cash)
450K House Paid
500K Condo with 170K mortgage.Currently Rented at 2700/m
Company Pension 2200/month at 57. 1730 SS at 62 (2500 at 65)
DW Pension 900/month and 1171 SS at 62

Est Expenses approx 60k/years

Welcome any input on our FIRE ability

 

[exnavynuke]

Looks to me like you could retire today. Ran your base numbers through firecalc and found no failures (1.75M assets, 2200 pension starting now, non-COLA since you didn't specify, and taking SS at 65). I didn't even add in DW's pensions/SS either, FYI.

With just your brokerage and 401k, a 3% SWR gives you over $50k/year. Add in your pension alone and that's is bumped up another $26.4k to over $76k/year. Add in DW's pension and you shouldn't have any concerns about whether you can afford your stated expenses.

However, I'd recommend you double check you estimated expenses, make sure you include realistic health care and insurance costs, possible big ticket items (roof replacement, HVAC going out, replacing car, etc) just to be on the safe side, but if you plan on downsizing to just the condo, then maybe some of those are less likely. Either way, I wouldn't be going to work anymore if I were in your shoes.

 

[Pilot2013]

Salary 160k / DW 30K
1.4m in 401K (50% Equity/50% Cash)
350K in brokerage (50% Equity/50% Cash)
450K House Paid
500K Condo with 170K mortgage.Currently Rented at 2700/m
Company Pension 2200/month at 57. 1730 SS at 62 (2500 at 65)
DW Pension 900/month and 1171 SS at 62

Est Expenses approx 60k/years

With that, I'd be and outta there!

But that's just me. I am sure you will have a lot of messages to the contrary.

 

[DrRoy]

I pretty much agree with exnavynuke. It seems that if your current income is $190K, your forward expenses would generally be higher than $60K. Just make very sure you have captured everything, including taxes. Also plan for your required distributions from retirement accounts.

 

[Senator]

Calculate how much you have been saving the past few years. 401K, IRAs, After tax savings, extra mortgage payments, etc.

If you truly have been making ~$200K a year, and only spending $60K, you should be savings nearly $100K a year. If not, determine where the money has been going.

It's easy to say you only spend $60K, but you should also be able to back into that figure from your net pay, less savings. When I did that, I realized I was saving over double my take home pay at work.

You do look good to go, just triple check, or make sure you feel lucky.

 

[2017ish]

...

You do look good to go, just triple check, or make sure you feel lucky.

 

[aida2003]

Like others I agree that you're in a good shape and I don't think I'd stay 'another few years' unless you LOVE it there.

Are you pensions COLA'd?
Also, have you looked into health insurance? You might need to adjust your estimated expenses. But still you're in good shape.

 

[MBAustin]

Welcome FLYING NOW! If you haven't seen them yet, there are two excellent resources here that might help you with your "when to hang it up" decision:

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f47/some-important-questions-to-answer-before-asking-can-i-retire-69999.html

and

Early Retirement FAQs - Early Retirement & Financial Independence Community

I'll echo others and say it looks like you are good to go, but I would double check expenses and run FIREcalc scenarios yourself.

Hope to see you join the Class of 2017!

 

[EastWest Gal]

Calculate how much you have been saving the past few years. 401K, IRAs, After tax savings, extra mortgage payments, etc.

If you truly have been making ~$200K a year, and only spending $60K, you should be savings nearly $100K a year. If not, determine where the money has been going.

It's easy to say you only spend $60K, but you should also be able to back into that figure from your net pay, less savings. When I did that, I realized I was saving over double my take home pay at work.

You do look good to go, just triple check, or make sure you feel lucky.

I'm quite sure that before the kids were on their own they were expensive, especially during college. That makes it hard to save. Not to mention down payments on house and rental property. That will lower the savings rate.

 

[eta2020]

You do look good to go, just triple check, or make sure you feel lucky.

Yea but given his pension of 2200 starting now.... it does not look all that bad either.

What surprises me is 700k of cash in 401k and another 175k cash pile in brokerage account.

 

[FLYING NOW]

Thanks for feedback

Thanks Everyone. Responses to questions; Savings are quite high - mainly deferred income. Pensions are not COLA. Apart from paying the mortgage and annual vacation our expenses are not that high. Estimated 12K for health insurance but could go on DW health plan in the short term. Also current expenses are 70K due to paying mortgage on condo. Thanks Again.

 

[Live And Learn]

12k for health insurance ? check the ACA website for a better estimate and don't forget that you need to budget for out of pocket expenses on top of the monthly premium. 12k seems awfully short to me, but I'm overly conservative and budget to hit the full out of pocket costs for both of us. If I don't then I can use that money the following year for travel

 

[2017ish]

12k for health insurance ? check the ACA website for a better estimate and don't forget that you need to budget for out of pocket expenses on top of the monthly premium. 12k seems awfully short to me, but I'm overly conservative and budget to hit the full out of pocket costs for both of us. If I don't then I can use that money the following year for travel

+1. If buying on the open market, that would not be enough in many locations, at least based on what I've seen here and at bogleheads. Once we started looking at E.R. seriously, I've "conservatively" soft-budgeted 2K a month for healthcare. As of the way things look in our locale right now, I should be bumping that to 2500 a month all considered.

 

[Live And Learn]

+1. If buying on the open market, that would not be enough in many locations, at least based on what I've seen here and at bogleheads. Once we started looking at E.R. seriously, I've "conservatively" soft-budgeted 2K a month for healthcare. As of the way things look in our locale right now, I should be bumping that to 2500 a month all considered.

Yep, I originally budgeted $2500 for the two of us per month. My revised budget is $3300 per month, but like I said, I budget full OOP maximums. If I went with a PPO instead of an HMO I'd have to budget $4k / month.