i have a wife (stay at home mom) and 4 kids ranging from 6-13 years old. I have 18 years in as an officer-currently an O-5 without a strong desire to wok even harder for the chance to get O-6. If I worked harder made O-6 and put in 30 years I could retire at 53 and never work again but my kids would be starting their own lives. I am planning on doing 5 more years and getting out. At that rate I would end up with an annual pension of around 40-50k a year and a nest egg of about $350k which I wouldn't plan on touching until my 60s giving it about 15-20 years to grow.
I have no debt but I also have no home. I do have a house and land worth about 300k. The house is occupied by a relative and most likely not be available by the time I retire and not sure if I want to live there anyway. Possible rental property in the future.
Currently the wife and I each have IRAS with about 75K and we make max contributions each year. Potential problems with them are that they are managed by FirstCommand. They are in actively managed funds and I am concerned that any advantages offered by active management are being lost on management fees though I am not sure exactly what the cost is. Any in site?
Additionally we have about 75k in the TSP fund. Probably about half in traditional and half in the Roth TSP. We contribute about 10K a year now to the Roth TSP. With the Roth TSP allowing up to I believe 17.5k a year max contribution I wonder if I should max this out prior to funding the Roth IRAs given the unbeatably low expense ratio?
With the kids I am planning to pay for half for each for a 4 year degree. I am giving them each one year of my GI bill and have 529s for each hoping to cover the second year. My kids are in 7th grade, 5th grade, and twins in kindergarten. The 529s are probably woefully underfunded each with about 1.5K and annual contributions of about 600. My 7th grader is an honors student and I am hoping she will get scholarships but it is way too early to tell and I don't think it can be a planning factor. As it relates to this the 529s don't make much and I wonder if the money would be better invested in an index fund. Also, should I beef up he older 2 kids funds since they would be starting school in 5-7 years where as the twins have 12 years to go?
We also have 40k in a to be determined fund-possibly for a house but maybe shift to the 529s?
My wife also has property and a family home in Honduras. Low cost of living but one of the highest crime and murder rates in the world. Plus my size and complexion make me stick out like a sore thumb making me an obvious target.
We also have about 30K in our emergency fund.
If I get out of the Army I could find a job that would gross around 80-90k a year full time and I could bank the entire 50K/yr pension but I am trying to escape the rat race. I could work part time and still be able to maintain close to our current standard of living and current retirement savings of about 20k per year but that would really push back the retirement date. Currently hoping for a full retirement no later than 55-about 15 more years.
From a practical standpoint we could scrape by on my 50K a year (retiring with 23yrs of service) as a family of six but it would kill the quality of life. Each additional year of service would add about 2.5k to the annual pension pushing it up to about the mid 60s by which time it would just be the wife and I living off it at around age 52.
It is good to have options but also confusing. Having never really thought about this before it is a lot to process. Also never really thought of things in terms of "freedom to" instead of the traditional "freedom from{work}"
I have no debt but I also have no home. I do have a house and land worth about 300k. The house is occupied by a relative and most likely not be available by the time I retire and not sure if I want to live there anyway. Possible rental property in the future.
Currently the wife and I each have IRAS with about 75K and we make max contributions each year. Potential problems with them are that they are managed by FirstCommand. They are in actively managed funds and I am concerned that any advantages offered by active management are being lost on management fees though I am not sure exactly what the cost is. Any in site?
Additionally we have about 75k in the TSP fund. Probably about half in traditional and half in the Roth TSP. We contribute about 10K a year now to the Roth TSP. With the Roth TSP allowing up to I believe 17.5k a year max contribution I wonder if I should max this out prior to funding the Roth IRAs given the unbeatably low expense ratio?
With the kids I am planning to pay for half for each for a 4 year degree. I am giving them each one year of my GI bill and have 529s for each hoping to cover the second year. My kids are in 7th grade, 5th grade, and twins in kindergarten. The 529s are probably woefully underfunded each with about 1.5K and annual contributions of about 600. My 7th grader is an honors student and I am hoping she will get scholarships but it is way too early to tell and I don't think it can be a planning factor. As it relates to this the 529s don't make much and I wonder if the money would be better invested in an index fund. Also, should I beef up he older 2 kids funds since they would be starting school in 5-7 years where as the twins have 12 years to go?
We also have 40k in a to be determined fund-possibly for a house but maybe shift to the 529s?
My wife also has property and a family home in Honduras. Low cost of living but one of the highest crime and murder rates in the world. Plus my size and complexion make me stick out like a sore thumb making me an obvious target.
We also have about 30K in our emergency fund.
If I get out of the Army I could find a job that would gross around 80-90k a year full time and I could bank the entire 50K/yr pension but I am trying to escape the rat race. I could work part time and still be able to maintain close to our current standard of living and current retirement savings of about 20k per year but that would really push back the retirement date. Currently hoping for a full retirement no later than 55-about 15 more years.
From a practical standpoint we could scrape by on my 50K a year (retiring with 23yrs of service) as a family of six but it would kill the quality of life. Each additional year of service would add about 2.5k to the annual pension pushing it up to about the mid 60s by which time it would just be the wife and I living off it at around age 52.
It is good to have options but also confusing. Having never really thought about this before it is a lot to process. Also never really thought of things in terms of "freedom to" instead of the traditional "freedom from{work}"