Glad I found you! 39 y/o would like to retire ASAP!

[JJtheNav]

Hi, I stumbled on this site a few days ago after googling "where to invest today" and I'm glad I did! After reading through some of the forum topics I look forward to interacting and I hope to get some advice on how to retire early! I'm a 39 year old USAF officer, married, with two children ages 6 and 13. I plan to retire from the military in 2012 with a pension of approximately $40k/yr. My wife is a teacher and makes $45k/yr. As for assets, we own 3 rental houses with a monthly cash flow of $350/mo. We have approx $100k in IRAs (corporate bonds, Vanguard target 2035 funds), $50k in my TSP (80% G fund/20% target 2035) and $50k in cash. I plan to start another career after leaving the military, but only for as long as needed. I want to make sure we can retire comfortably (#1) and get my kids through college (#2). I hope to retire as early as possible and I'm glad I found others with the same goal in mind. I have a ton of questions, so I'm anxious to get started!

 

[Darryl]

JJ welcome aboard!

 

[REWahoo]

Oh boy, another professional gas passer...

Just kidding, welcome to the forum JJ.

 

[samclem]

Welcome to the board, there are several of us present and ex USAF types here. Your portfolio looks very conservative for a guy in your situation. But, you're saving a lot of costs with the Vanguard and TSP route you've chosen--good job.

 

[JJtheNav]

I kept my intro short, but honestly my portfolio is conservative because I pulled out of the market last Feb and went to cash. It was a big mistake, but at the time it seemed right. Because of that, I'm still a bit shell-shocked and I'm not sure the best way to get back into the fight... Any advice would be much appreciated! Thanks for the welcome, glad to be with fellow wingmen!

 

[samclem]

. . . I pulled out of the market last Feb and went to cash. It was a big mistake, but at the time it seemed right.

Ouch. Well, most of us have learned this same lesson at one time or another. So, if I may ask, what did you decide about things in retrospect?
- "My asset allocation was wrong, I shouldn't have had that much in stocks to begin with. I'll go with a more conservative allocation from now on and settle for likely lower returns."
- "My asset allocation was okay. I think I'll be able to wait out further dips and I want to keep a majority of my assets in stocks"
- "I'm gonna watch things closer and get out before the dip next time. I'm going to buy back into the market and watch for the signals to help me sell at the right time"

We've got devotees of each philosophy here, though probably fewer of #3 than of the others.

So, did you go through UNT at Mather AFB or had the school moved already when you went? If a nav can use a sextant and has used OMEGA I guess he qualifies as a dinosaur these days.

 

[JJtheNav]

In retrospect, I would go with #2 - "My asset allocation was okay. I think I'll be able to wait out further dips and I want to keep a majority of my assets in stocks"
I let too many people talk me into the doomsday story, I should have known better!

I did UNT at Pensacola NAS & Randolph AFB. (I later went back to instruct at RAFB.) What about you?

 

[samclem]

In retrospect, I would go with #2 - "My asset allocation was okay. I think I'll be able to wait out further dips and I want to keep a majority of my assets in stocks"
I let too many people talk me into the doomsday story, I should have known better!

Great. If you can stick with that even when things look just the same next time, then that's what you should probably do.

I did UNT at Pensacola NAS & Randolph AFB. (I later went back to instruct at RAFB.) What about you?

Nope, I only knew a lot of guys who enjoyed Mather and the surrounding area.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

Very similar situation as me. I hit 20 in 2017, and currently we have about 500K or so in IRA/TSP/stocks/mutuals/etc. 3 kids who will eventually be off to college, and a rental property that has about 250k of equity and has cash flow of about $500 a month after taxes.

When did you go through P'cola?

 

[JJtheNav]

Welcome to the site Hawkeye! I went through P'cola in '97, what about you?

Looks like you've done great with your investments, congrats!

 

[Westernskies]

Welcome to the forum!

Lots of 39 year olds here..... I've had (12) 39th birthdays myself...

 

[av8er]

Welcome to the board, JJ! I think we all questioned our investment strategy when the bottom was falling out...I know that I did, anyway. It sounds like you're doing well so far, despite maybe missing some of the run-up on stocks last year. You have a good emergency fund and you seem to be making good use of the target funds offered by Vanguard and the TSP. I'm curious, though, why so much in the G fund rather than the lifecycle fund?

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

I started OCS in 97, then finished flight school at Pensacola in 98, so I missed you by a year