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reubenray

Recycles dryer sheets
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Messages
146
Location
Elberta, AL
Due to work related stress I have decided to call it quits and look into early retirement. I will be 62 in a little over 13 months. I have been in construction since 1975 and I have been in the supervisory position for 20 years. My wife is 5 years younger so she will have to work. We have a home (built in 2005-paid for already) about 35 miles NE of New Orleans. When we built this we figured it would be our home to retire to. My job locations and my wife's (she works with me) job has been out of state since 1989. We only got to visit our home once a month for 2 days. This was one of the reasons for retiring early - we want to go and stay home. We have been planning our retirement for years and in doing this everything is paid for except for a fifth wheel camper we bought early this year. This includes my 2011 Toyota Tundra and my wife's 2010 Chevy Equinox.

I have some questions, but do not know if this is the location to ask them or not.
 
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reubenray said:
Due to work related stress I have decided to call it quits and look into early retirement. I will be 62 in a little over 13 months.

I have some questions, but do not know if this is the location to ask them or not.
Click to expand...
Ask away, reubenray. Welcome to the forum.
 
The key question is how much will my SS benefits drop if I do not work any more at all? Right now it shows I should get around $1600/month.

We currently have a little over $500,000 in our IRA's and 401K's. We also have another $36,000 in our checking/money market accounts. I have already figured out that we could live comfortable on $2000/month.
 
Reubenray, is the $1600 the full benefit amount you receive at age 66 or the early pension amount you get at age 62?
 
reubenray said:
The key question is how much will my SS benefits drop if I do not work any more at all? Right now it shows I should get around $1600/month.

We currently have a little over $500,000 in our IRA's and 401K's. We also have another $36,000 in our checking/money market accounts. I have already figured out that we could live comfortable on $2000/month.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the forum rubenray.

If you stop working now vs working until you are 62 or 66, your SS will likely be very slightly lower (almost impreceptable). If you go to ssa.gov there is a calculator that can give you a more precise estimate, but typically it is very little assuming that you have a long work history.

You should check out Firecalc and plug in your information. If you use Quicken, its Lifetime Planner is a fairly simple and intuitive retirement planning tool.
 
pb4uski said:
Welcome to the forum rubenray.

If you stop working now vs working until you are 62 or 66, your SS will likely be very slightly lower (almost impreceptable). If you go to ssa.gov there is a calculator that can give you a more precise estimate, but typically it is very little assuming that you have a long work history.

You should check out Firecalc and plug in your information. If you use Quicken, its Lifetime Planner is a fairly simple and intuitive retirement planning tool.
Click to expand...

My work history is to long. I started working when I was 14.
 
If you need $2,000 a month for living costs, how much do you need after considering DW's takehome pay from working? In other words, what is the gap that needs to be filled from either withdrawals from savings or SS?

A few things for you to consider.

Does your living expenses of $2,000/month include health care costs? Does your DW have access to health insurance through her employer? For me and my DW our health insurance is more than $500 a month for a high deductible health insurance plan.

Does your budget include any provision for replacement of cars, major home repairs/improvements (like a new roof), etc.? It sounds like your vehicles are relatively new but these sort of costs are sneaky.

If you have been the main breadwinner and your DW's spousal SS will exceed her SS based on her own work record, then you should consider taking SS later because her survivor benefit would be permanently reduced if you take SS early.
 
Ray, is this a bare bones budget, or with the trimmings?
 
With some trimmings. $$ is also figured in for property taxes and insurances. My wife will still be working and once she retires at 62 this will put another $800/month into our budget.
 
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reubenray said:
With some trimmings. $$ is also figured in for property taxes and insurances. My wife will still be working and once she retires at 62 this will put another $800/month into our budget.
Click to expand...

$800 being her SS at age 62 being 50% of your benefit?

If so, wouldn't it really be $800 less than her current take home pay since she won't be working anymore?
 
Our initial plans are to get moved back home and chill for a few months to get my blood pressure back down. The wife will look for a permanent job that she will enjoy and of course any $$$ she makes means less $$$ we will pull from our retirement funds. I will look for something more temporary and again what $$$ I make will be less $$$ we pull from our retirement funds. I have to pull a certain amount from one fund that I got from my parents when they passed away.
 
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reubenray said:
Our initial plans are to get moved back home and chill for a few months to get my blood pressure back down. The wife will look for a permanent job that she will enjoy and of course any $$$ she makes means less $$$ we will pull from our retirement funds. I will look for something more temporary and again what $$$ I make will be less $$$ we pull from our retirement funds. I have to pull a certain amount from one fund that I got from my parents when they passed away.
Click to expand...
You've lived elsewhere since 1989 and you still call it home. You must have a strong bond with New Orleans.
 
We have worked in Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, Texas and of course Louisiana.

We decided a long time ago that New Orleans is where we wanted to retire. Our home is about half way between New Orleans and Biloxi, MS.
 
reubenray said:
My job locations and my wife's (she works with me) job has been out of state since 1989.
Click to expand...

I hope you enjoy your move to south Louisiana when you retire. I think you will find it to be a nice place to retire, once you have actually moved here and have had time to adjust to the area. It's nice to know that someone wants to move to our fair state, especially after not having lived here for 23 years or more.
 
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We have owned homes in the Shreveport area (24 years) and our new home in Pearl River (built 2005). We have just been coming home once a month at these locations while working out of state.

The upcoming move next week will be the last time we are moving. We will now have two households of furniture, lawn equipment, kitchen wares, beds, towels, electronics, etc. to do something with.
 
My sympathies on the move. Did it last summer and don't ever want to do it again.
 
brewer12345 said:
My sympathies on the move. Did it last summer and don't ever want to do it again.
Click to expand...

+1 Compressing from two houses to one is not easy, particularly if one of the two of you is a packrat and has difficulty letting things go (DW in my case). It was painful.
 
Since 1989 we have moved every 1 1/2 to 2 years.

I am not a packrat, but I am an electronics nut. We now have 4 PC's (one is a HTPC), two HD projectors with screens (133" & 92") plus 4 other HDTV's (60", 55", 40" & 32"). Two complete 5.1 stereo setup's including speakers and subwoofer's. Three blu-ray players and two DVD players. I will be having a huge electronics sale once we get settled in.
 
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