Hi from California!!

[vndreamer]

Hi Everyone,
First I wanted to thank you for such a website where I ask any retirement related questions. I am 53 year old and I am thinking of an early retirement at 55. It's only 2 more years away. Here's my financial situation. I have est. 500K in both 401K and MRP (Master Retirement Plan) at work. I have 200K in stocks, CD and money market account. My company is giving a year of salary for servant pay since I've been with them for 15 years. so at least I wont need to worry about $ when I turning 56. From 57 to 59 1/2 this is where I need to come up with some type of income because I can't touch my 401K until 59 1/2. Also I only can withdraw my MRP at age of 62. The same for social security early retirement at age 62. Worst case scenario I can borrow the money from 401K and MRP accounts but I dont want too. Where I want to retire the cost of living is very affordable than USA. Maybe I can find something to do part time while waiting for some $ from 401K, MRP and SSI. Any tips or advice will be greatly appreciated.

vndreamer

[FIREd]

Hi vndreamer,

Welcome. Do you plan on retiring in Vietnam?

For your information, if you turn 55 or older during the year when you retire, you can start taking money out of your 401K right away without paying penalties.

If your money is in an IRA, you can use 72(t) distributions to access the money penalty-free before the age of 59.5.

401khelpcenter.com - Early 401k Distribution Options Including 72(t)

[stevenst]

Hi vndreamer: Welcome to the forum!
One thing that helped me when I started thinking about this was Firecalc FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator You can enter in your expected living expenses, income needs, and investment growth and it calculates possible outcomes. It forced me to think about retirement spending, and how to bridge between 'quitting time' at age 57, and my pension, investments and social security.

For many people, health care and how to pay for it is a big unknown. Moving to a foreign country may, or may not, help there. Good luck.
Steve

[HsiaoChu]

From your description, it really depends on the kind of lifestyle that you want to have. You don't want to be drawing down the principle on your nest egg. Unless you are moving to a third world country where your income is great you may want to wait.

Since you don't want your current retirement funds the be at risk you are pretty much limited to safe investments with not much income from them.

It just looks to me like you have to wait a little bit longer.

While health care is a biggy, life style is also a biggy. If you've lived in the USA all your life, you might find living in some other third world country without a circle of friends, without things to do that you find convenient, and without without might be pretty oppressive after awhile. I am almost 61, and am retiring next year at 62, and am moving 600 miles away from where I live now. I have already made lots of friends in the new place, and I visit there once a year. I have reached out to organizations, and groups that I will need to participate in to make living there enjoyable.

While you are rightly thinking of your financials, I think that you may not be paying attention to your life as a whole. There is way more to living than just eating and having a roof over your head. How much of what you do now for recreation and fellowship with others will you be able to duplicate in the third world country? In my opinion, ultimately this is more important than just where you can survive financially.

Z

[vndreamer]

Hi Everyone,

Yes, I'd like to retire in Vietnam where I have many friends and so many unforgetable memories. Thank you to all your comments/feedback. I had gained two very important things in this thread. 1. You can withdraw your 401K at 55 w/o the penalty ...yeahhh. This will give me some level of confort on having some $ after I retired. 2. Circle of friends and how you want to live is more important than the $$ that's so true (thanks Zarathu) I've thought about this for a long time and I think I'll be ok since I should able to blend in quickly with the locals. What a great site with many people sharing their ideas and helping out others... God bless America!

vndreamer

[HsiaoChu]

Glad to hear that Vietnam will work for you for the friends and activities part. Good luck to you.

Z