Hi! Planning for Early Retirement

[wabmester]

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Not me. *But I'll pose in my skates , pads, jersey and helmet if you like.

*
Hey, Anne. Thanks for stepping up! Pick your favorite month, and I'll whip-up an online calendar.

We only need 11 more volunteers I may need to use pictures of Cut-Throat and his fishy friends for filler if all else fails....

[Jane]

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Not me. *But I'll pose in my skates , pads, jersey and helmet if you like. *

Being Canadian, the only thing I like better than a cold beer, is watching a good hockey game!! Go Leafs!! Unfortunately I am also a terrible skater (and skier). I seem to do better on ice when both of my feet are strapped on together (like on snowboard...I like snowboard).

Wabmester: maybe you can do an online calendar on ER'd people or something, you know, TH with his pots and pans, John Galt with half (or is that quarter?) of his dryer sheet, etc

Jane

[trumpeting_angel]

Jane, I think that's brilliant.

And no matter how E some of us R, somehow I don't think it is E enough for the swimsuit thing.

Anne

[MooreBonds]

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Hello everyone! Currently I contribute 10% of my pretax $$ into my 401K and receive an additional 5% match from my employer. I put away $300/month in my EF account and $175 is automatically invested into my mutual funds. *I am also paying an extra $50/month towards the principal on my mortgage. My plans are to increase my 401K contributions yearly until I reach 20%,

Welcome to the board, from a 27 year old ER wanna be.

One suggestion on your plan - if you know that you want to increase from 15% (currently) to 20% of your income into your 401K AND you have cash that you're dumping into funds and prepaying your mortgage - why aren't you simply taking the mutual fund and mortgage prepayment money and using that to increase your 401K contributions to 20% right now?

Don't forget that your 401K is tax-deferred, while your mutual funds and house are not. $1 in a tax-deferred account is worth more than $1 paid off on your house or $1 into a taxable mutual fund (assuming your long-run average 401K return exceeds your net mortgage interest cost after tax deduction or your net after-tax return on your taxable mutual funds).

[UpandComer]

Good questions Paul! *Hopefully my answers will tell you the method of my madness.

I'm currently carrying PMI on a 5 year ARM. My goal is to contribute enough $$ so that in five years time through appreciation and pre-payments I can amass >20% equity in the house. *That way I can drop PMI, which is running me about $150/month - yuck!

Since I'm only 28 (soon to be 29), retirement is still a long ways away for me so I'm not really rushing to get to 20% on my 401K. *Additionally, in order to feel comfortable, I have to keep some investments separate from retirement funds. *So, in case of an emergency I can just cash out some stocks, pay taxes and be done. With 401K/IRAs $$ I have to worry about paying back the loan and/or paying penalties in addition to taxes. *

The increases that I plan to make to 401K contributions each year are intended to match the increases in my pay so that all my raises will go into retirement and I will subtely teach myself to live below my means *.

Oh yeah! *I have a 5K next weekend. Wish me luck!! *I'll also be starting training for my half marathon next week!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

PMI cracks me up.

"We're not concerned enough about you as a credit risk to not give you a mortgage, but we're a little concerned about it, so we're going to charge you a lot of extra money so that in the event you *are* cutting it a little close, we'll increase the chances of your not being able to make the mortgage payment..."

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[UpandComer]

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PMI cracks me up. "We're not concerned enough about you as a credit risk to not give you a mortgage, but we're a little concerned about it, so we're going to charge you a lot of extra money so that in the event you *are* cutting it a little close, we'll increase the chances of your not being able to make the mortgage payment..." :

Exactly! I could pay off the loan a lot quicker if I could put that money towards the principal!