Hello and can we retire?

[pivo]

Hello, I’m new to forum which has been very informative to me.
Since this forum has many intelligent people which real life experiences,
I have a quick question if my wife and I can retire early?


I have been laid of since March 2010 and the employment future does
not look promising. (My age and past salary seems to scare away prospects)


My age 58, wife age 55, we want to retire in 2 years. We will both get a pension $18,000yr and $19,800yr, pre-tax, both will get SS at 62 which looks like $30,000yr pre-tax and have $1,100,000 saved to draw 4% from. We will unfortunately have a mortgage to pay for and I am unsure what health cost would be for both of us (fairly good health). Since we will retire before we can pull SS, can we do it, I would like others to talk about their experiences.

Thanks

 

[MasterBlaster]

In general you are looking good

You didn't say what your fixed and other expenses are. Expenses will make the decision whether or not you can do it. Housing cost ? medical insurance ?

But as I see it, the portfolio will generate $44k to add to your pensions for a total of $81.8k.

You could set aside maybe $150k (or so) from the portfolio to pre-fund the expected SS payments.

In that case you'd have the pensions ($18k + $19.8k)/year plus the SS payments (and your prefunding) of ~$30k/year plus maybe $37.5k/year from the remaining portfolio. The total income for you that I see is around $105k per year.

Many people live on much less than that.

 

[walkinwood]

If your expenses are below what the previous poster calculated as your pre-tax income, the question becomes one of mental readiness. Are you mentally prepared to retire? What were your plans prior to being laid off? This, often overlooked aspect, is just as important as the finances.

Welcome to the board and I wish you all the very best in figuring this out. You'll find a lot of help here.

Edit: Just thought of this. Are your pensions COLA'd. That will make a big difference since you still have many years ahead of you.

 

[JBmadera]

welcome! and relax, run firecalc, get a handle on your monthly expenses and spend time looking into individual health care plans....life is short, and you've done GREAT so far, so take this time to reflect and enjoy your "freedom".

 

[Bestwifeever]

Run FIREcalc as JBMadera suggests (link is at bottom of this page), but I can't imagine why you wouldn't be able to retire. Is your spouse still working?