61 and on a Five Year Count Down

[BigJ]

I stumbled upon this forum recently and have enjoyed reading the conversations taking place. I think the ideas here are just what I need to plan out our glide path to a good retirement. I have always been a saver/investor. Though, raising a family has greatly increased the quality of life it has also increased my cost of living
I always assumed I would retire someday. This has helped me focus on making it a reality.

Me: 61, Technology consultant on long term series of contracts with a Megacorp
DW: 50, Program manager with a large federal government agency
Three kids: One launched (28) & two at home ages 13 and 10
$2M in various retirement plans, primarily in equities
$500K home with $47K mortgage remaining @ 3%
$300K lake cabin under construction 85% complete
We plan to retire around 2024, maybe sooner.
To do’s before then:

• Finish paying off mortgage
• Finish building cabin
• Maximize remaining retirement contributions (49K) utilizing the catch up provisions. With a 5% assumed return, I expect that $3MM total should be doable.
• Increase after tax savings
• Better calculate future living expense needs.
• Determine kids’ college funding needs /sources (additional 529s or fund out of retirement cash flows?)
• Analyze my optimal SS start date with minor dependents’ SS benefits included.
• Pay more attention to my physical fitness so I can enjoy retirement.
• Accurately calculate FERS pension with early retirement.
• Determine appropriate AA strategy for retirement.

 

[Walt34]

Welcome to the forum! It looks like you're on track for a successful retirement. A huge issue of course is ongoing expenses so we have a series of questions you'll want to have solid answers for before pulling the plug:

http://www.early-retirement.org/for...re-asking-can-i-retire-69999.html#post1399715

 

[cnocmmz]

I stumbled upon this forum recently and have enjoyed reading the conversations taking place. I think the ideas here are just what I need to plan out our glide path to a good retirement. I have always been a saver/investor. Though, raising a family has greatly increased the quality of life it has also increased my cost of living
I always assumed I would retire someday. This has helped me focus on making it a reality.

Me: 61, Technology consultant on long term series of contracts with a Megacorp
DW: 50, Program manager with a large federal government agency
Three kids: One launched (28) & two at home ages 13 and 10
$2M in various retirement plans, primarily in equities
$500K home with $47K mortgage remaining @ 3%
$300K lake cabin under construction 85% complete
We plan to retire around 2024, maybe sooner.
To do’s before then:

• Finish paying off mortgage
• Finish building cabin
• Maximize remaining retirement contributions (49K) utilizing the catch up provisions. With a 5% assumed return, I expect that $3MM total should be doable.
• Increase after tax savings
• Better calculate future living expense needs.
• Determine kids’ college funding needs /sources (additional 529s or fund out of retirement cash flows?)
• Analyze my optimal SS start date with minor dependents’ SS benefits included.
• Pay more attention to my physical fitness so I can enjoy retirement.
• Accurately calculate FERS pension with early retirement.
• Determine appropriate AA strategy for retirement.

Looks like you have been hard at saving. .Congrats. WRT to FERS early retirement (Which I plan on doing), normally one should get at their MRA + 10 years in, this lets her keep medical aspect to the job. Retirement factor is based on 1% of her high 3 X's total years. Many options, Bottom line though is that you can take it as early as 5 years (must wait until 62 to collect) or as stated prior, Minimum Retirement Age (normally 57) to get decent pension. Example: An Average pension for that 100K salary for only 10 years of service would be about 833.00 a month prior to tax and or insurance? It is cola'd, and obviously the more years the higher the salary.
I am retired Military and work for the gov, as a GS12, I will only do 10 years come 2020 Feb and my pension will be very similar.

 

[BigJ]

WRT? That's a new acronym for me. What does WRT mean?
Thanks

 

[pb4uski]

I think it is "with respect to".

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/13809/what-does-wrt-mean

 

[cnocmmz]

Wrt ( with regards to)