ChicagoGal
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2014
- Messages
- 159
Hello to all the ER-enthusiasts out there. I just found this place a few weeks ago and have been avidly reading as much as I can ingest. Thought I might as well bite the bullet and introduce myself.
I’m a single 51-year-old woman (no kids), living in the Chicago area. I’ve been with my current Megacorp for almost 21 years, and I’ll admit it – close to burnout, and no interest in finding another place to w*rk. I’d rather be done with it all. I’m trying to pick an ER target and with that to focus on, the next few years can be spent getting things in order.
I’ve been the ultimate lazy investor… outside of my current 401k, I have accounts all over the place that I’ve let sit because I didn’t really know what to do with them. Ok, beyond lazy… admittedly more than a tad irresponsible. Now that I’m trying to get my financial house in order, I need to figure out how to consolidate and more intentionally deal with them. I have a current 401k at work, an old 401k with Fidelity, a current stock purchase plan acct with Computershare, an etrade account for an old stock purchase plan, a tIRA, an online savings acct, regular savings acct. Fortunately, that’s still gotten me to about $650k in total assets (not counting the house with another $200-300k in equity). Add the defined benefit pension I’ll have and I’m not in an awful place. Dumb luck, I say!
As much as I'd love to retire today, or even within 5 years as a goal, I've also been slapped in the face recently with the fact that there are things I have to do before I even realistically work through that analysis.
My immediate concerns/priorities are:
1) Get my accounts in order. Consolidate where I can. I’m thinking about opening a taxable account with Vanguard to put some of the savings acct dollars in, and get the tIRA, old 401k and etrade account stuff moved. To start.
2) Figure out how to figure out the tax implications of all of this. I have been trying to go through literally years of neglected stacks of statements, etc., to try to identify cost basis for various things. More sorting to do there. I also tried putting IRA and 401k accts in Quicken so I can see the whole picture, but have quickly lost my patience with that. I’m a smart cookie, I just need to find a better way to approach it. (And the good news is that I have been tracking detailed expenses for years, so have a pretty good handle on what/where I spend now and what I might need in retirement.)
3) Probably do something with company stock. I have $30k in my 401k (no new investments) and almost $100k in my ESPP (15% discount, but have never sold any of it). Absolute solid company that I am not concerned about, but still should think about moving, once I figure out #2 above.
4) Look into the whole backdoor Roth conversion. Again, dependent on #2.
Anyway, I already thank you all for being so candid on these forums. I’ve picked up many things to chew on and look forward to many more.
I’m a single 51-year-old woman (no kids), living in the Chicago area. I’ve been with my current Megacorp for almost 21 years, and I’ll admit it – close to burnout, and no interest in finding another place to w*rk. I’d rather be done with it all. I’m trying to pick an ER target and with that to focus on, the next few years can be spent getting things in order.
I’ve been the ultimate lazy investor… outside of my current 401k, I have accounts all over the place that I’ve let sit because I didn’t really know what to do with them. Ok, beyond lazy… admittedly more than a tad irresponsible. Now that I’m trying to get my financial house in order, I need to figure out how to consolidate and more intentionally deal with them. I have a current 401k at work, an old 401k with Fidelity, a current stock purchase plan acct with Computershare, an etrade account for an old stock purchase plan, a tIRA, an online savings acct, regular savings acct. Fortunately, that’s still gotten me to about $650k in total assets (not counting the house with another $200-300k in equity). Add the defined benefit pension I’ll have and I’m not in an awful place. Dumb luck, I say!
As much as I'd love to retire today, or even within 5 years as a goal, I've also been slapped in the face recently with the fact that there are things I have to do before I even realistically work through that analysis.
My immediate concerns/priorities are:
1) Get my accounts in order. Consolidate where I can. I’m thinking about opening a taxable account with Vanguard to put some of the savings acct dollars in, and get the tIRA, old 401k and etrade account stuff moved. To start.
2) Figure out how to figure out the tax implications of all of this. I have been trying to go through literally years of neglected stacks of statements, etc., to try to identify cost basis for various things. More sorting to do there. I also tried putting IRA and 401k accts in Quicken so I can see the whole picture, but have quickly lost my patience with that. I’m a smart cookie, I just need to find a better way to approach it. (And the good news is that I have been tracking detailed expenses for years, so have a pretty good handle on what/where I spend now and what I might need in retirement.)
3) Probably do something with company stock. I have $30k in my 401k (no new investments) and almost $100k in my ESPP (15% discount, but have never sold any of it). Absolute solid company that I am not concerned about, but still should think about moving, once I figure out #2 above.
4) Look into the whole backdoor Roth conversion. Again, dependent on #2.
Anyway, I already thank you all for being so candid on these forums. I’ve picked up many things to chew on and look forward to many more.
And will have a second (brokerage) account open by then, assuming we can get answers about a few of these other accounts. 
