davemartin88
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2008
- Messages
- 812
Hi, I'll be leaving my job at the end of September, I'm 53, my wife is 49. I had been planning to retire at 55 but I've been given a 1 year severance package to leave so figure it's really only a year early. Recently found this forum and looks to have a lot of interesting people and a lot of interesting opinions.
We live in northern Virginia but are not tied to the area and the cost of living is high (example, property tax is nearly $7,000 per year and don't think it's going to be decreasing)- our thought is to move to southern Missouri or Oklahoma, somewhere we can buy at least 20 acres and have a bit of room to keep busy. We also have a rental house in the Dallas area and figure we'll clear about $300K selling the two houses which will go a long way in covering our housing costs in the new location. We have family spread out so those locations are a nice compromise of proximity and cost of living.
The good news is that because of the severance package and some other one time payments we'll receive from my company over the next 3 years, we won't be forced to move until we're ready and we'll have enough to live comfortably without touching our retirement assets for about 4-5 years. My wife is working so we have health coverage through her job as long as we stay in the area and she continues to work (work that she actually enjoys so that's good news).
We have just over $2M in other assets including about $600K in a 401K that will need to roll to an IRA and another $1.4M in various stocks, funds, and accounts. We want to focus on growing these retirement assets over the next few years to be in a best position to use them when the short term funds dry up. We figure on needing about $5K-6K per month for living expenses and think we're in pretty good shape but have the obvious concerns about the economy, cost of health care, etc. I figure a reduced SS benefit at 62 is even an inflation hedge- according to the SS calculator, my estimated benefit at 62 would be $1500/month if I stop working today. This Firecalc thing also looks pretty interesting so should have time to dig in there soon and see where it leads me, really want to investigate our asset allocation- we've used the same broker for years with good results but other opinions are helpful!
As for actually retiring and not having to work, I can't wait for the next month to go by. I have plenty of hobbies, woodworking, astronomy, radio control flying, etc. so not worried about keeping busy. Will probably volunteer a couple of mornings per week to help me know what day it is. I'll spend a lot of time getting the house ready to sell as well, always a few projects but 90% I'll be able to do myself now that I have the time.
Just wanted to introduce myself before getting involved in the other discussions, thanks for reading if you made it this far and thanks to all who post and participate.
We live in northern Virginia but are not tied to the area and the cost of living is high (example, property tax is nearly $7,000 per year and don't think it's going to be decreasing)- our thought is to move to southern Missouri or Oklahoma, somewhere we can buy at least 20 acres and have a bit of room to keep busy. We also have a rental house in the Dallas area and figure we'll clear about $300K selling the two houses which will go a long way in covering our housing costs in the new location. We have family spread out so those locations are a nice compromise of proximity and cost of living.
The good news is that because of the severance package and some other one time payments we'll receive from my company over the next 3 years, we won't be forced to move until we're ready and we'll have enough to live comfortably without touching our retirement assets for about 4-5 years. My wife is working so we have health coverage through her job as long as we stay in the area and she continues to work (work that she actually enjoys so that's good news).
We have just over $2M in other assets including about $600K in a 401K that will need to roll to an IRA and another $1.4M in various stocks, funds, and accounts. We want to focus on growing these retirement assets over the next few years to be in a best position to use them when the short term funds dry up. We figure on needing about $5K-6K per month for living expenses and think we're in pretty good shape but have the obvious concerns about the economy, cost of health care, etc. I figure a reduced SS benefit at 62 is even an inflation hedge- according to the SS calculator, my estimated benefit at 62 would be $1500/month if I stop working today. This Firecalc thing also looks pretty interesting so should have time to dig in there soon and see where it leads me, really want to investigate our asset allocation- we've used the same broker for years with good results but other opinions are helpful!
As for actually retiring and not having to work, I can't wait for the next month to go by. I have plenty of hobbies, woodworking, astronomy, radio control flying, etc. so not worried about keeping busy. Will probably volunteer a couple of mornings per week to help me know what day it is. I'll spend a lot of time getting the house ready to sell as well, always a few projects but 90% I'll be able to do myself now that I have the time.
Just wanted to introduce myself before getting involved in the other discussions, thanks for reading if you made it this far and thanks to all who post and participate.
I doubt Gustav will impact New Orleans too severely, but we may still evacuate just for peace of mind. My car is packed, I have gas, and Frank is boarding over his temporary plexiglass-and-duct-tape fix to a window that Katrina broke. Hard to believe that today is the third anniversary of Katrina, already. Once he is ready and has packed his Murano, we will see how Gustav is doing and maybe leave in the morning.
