Hi, Scared to Retire Now

[Maximillion]

mb, you left out the millions of Ukrainians, Jews, Gypsies etc who died from their horrific treatment plus the Allied Soldiers who died primarily from the treatment they received from the Japanese as POW's.

Not meaning to digress, but the US is still maintaining big armies when their enemies are wingnuts with brief cases full of germs on a mission from God.

Life is what happens, my Dad told me while running for the Beaches at Dunkirk he slipped and fell, just as a Nazi Machine Gunner opened up on him.

He is now 87, never made much money, never drove a Benz, spends 6 months a year in a small trailer in Florida with his girl Friend, a lady whose husband dropped dead in his first year of Retirement.

He promotes ER to any one who will listen.

[Martha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdw_fire Actually you can touch the 401K (without penalty) by rolling it into an IRA and using substantially equal withdraws, however you don't have to touch it if you are willing to take all of your withdraw from your other assets. Which way you choose will affect the amount of income tax owed.

Here is a link the the Retire Early Homepage which gives a good explanation on how to take money out of an IRA using substantially equal withdrawls: http://www.retireearlyhomepage.com/wdraw59.html

[Caroline]

On the one-upsmanship of counting the dead --* John Donne weighs in.* (Italics are mine.)


No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

[Maximillion]

John Donne died at 24 years of age, my favourite poem.

[Sheryl]

I love that a single thread can simultaneously (pro?)gress into 72t withdrawals, John Donne and a debate on WWII deaths in one single day.

This is a one of a kind board.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sheryl I love that a single thread can simultaneously (pro?)gress into 72t withdrawals, John Donne and a debate on WWII deaths in one single day.

Although it does appear we are allowing our standards to slip as there has yet to be any mention of whether or not to pay off your mortgage early and no one has posted any photos of animals wearing pancakes.

Slackers!!

[dusk_to_dawn]

Sir, you have enough assets to kiss the work world goodbye. The biggest concern I would have if I were you, is the lifestyle factor. If you feel the need to drive a 60K Benz and enjoy the most expensive that life has to offer, you may need to work more. If you adapt to a more frugal lifestyle, you can retire now and have more than enough. Not saying one way is better than the other, but it is a choice you will have to make. Have you read Your Money or Your Life? If you haven't, it might be a good read for you.

[CyclingInvestor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo! no one has posted any photos of animals wearing pancakes. Slackers!!

how about videos ?

http://www.kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=2540

[HFWR]

Bravo... 8)

Was that St. Alphonso's Pancake Breakfast?

[astromeria]

Where I stole the mar-ger-ine?

[HFWR]

And wheedled on the bingo cards, and blew up the latrine... 8)

[HobbyDave]

Not to break the thread, but I thought I'd actually contribute something on topic

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayp465 Assets include a fully paid off home worth at least 500K.

Are you willing to move somewhere else that might have lower home prices? I'm not sure how large your house is, but I'm making a guess it's in a pretty expensive market? (California perhaps?). Would you be willing to move to a nice 3 bedroom for $250k? You can get a pretty nice house in a nice area for $250k, and free up $250k for investing (or more).

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayp465 a little over 200K in cash giving me CD rates of about 4%

Why so much in cash? It seems you would be missing out on some market returns. If you're in reasonable health you might be living off this money for 40 years or more.. putting some of this cash into an index fund might be a good idea. I've heard of 6 months of cash as an "emergency stash", but this is pretty extreme. I'd say you could leave maybe 40k for 6 months emergency money, and then put the rest into bonds / stocks?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayp465 My 401k and IRA are split about 60% stock mutual fund and 40% cash and bond equivalents.

Yeikes, so you have $265k in muni bonds, another $200k in cash, and then around $144k in your IRA / 401k in cash / bonds as well? In my opinion, it's a bit of an excessive ratio of fixed income investments. As I mentioned before, you might be spending a long time with this money, you really should be looking at the long term.

I'd say that you should have somewhere around 65/45 stocks/bonds (plus or minus). With your options and all included, you seem to have around 56/44, generally considered a bit low.

I don't know how much you're into investing, but if you read enough early retirement boards, you'll see a lot of recommendations to use index funds. They have low expenses, and generally out-perform individual stock picks. If you're not in the business of choosing stocks, or you don't have a ton of free time, I'd suggest gradually moving your stocks over to index funds. There are plenty of nice mixes listed here & there that you could use (50% whole market, 20% bond fund, 10% reit, 20% international or something like that)

I'd also suggest (as I just mentioned) that you get some international stocks into your portfolio. I certainly wouldn't recommend individual stocks, but a nice glob of the vanguard international index would be a good idea. Low expense ratio, and it helps a little bit against potential USA financial problems.

As you've said, you will be patient. You can also contact management and express an interest in receiving a severence. I've heard multiple reports of people surprising their managers with wanting to leave, and the managers being happy to offer some type of bonus to get out. This is generally better than dealing with a low performer, and sometimes they're already looking for one headcount to lose anyway.

[mb]

Jayp465,

I agree with Ceberon.

MB

[jayp465]

I live in one of the NYC outer boros.* No way could I get anything decent for 250K.* The house is fine and I am not looking to move. After being burned in 2000 I really dislike the stock market. If I had been in munis all along I would propbably have had about 200K more now.

[Traveler]

JayP:
You're set if my math is correct.* My "ER" figure is $1,150,000 in investable assets plus a house and a piece of land or rental property (paid for) to add a bit more diversity to my portfolio. And that the rental property is a place I could happily live in in case I need to sell the big house.* Sounds like you probably have more than that.

Like other wise posters have advised: read these boards for a couple of months and if you decide to stick it out at a job you're unhappy in, then you're not ready to retire.

And if you do retire, what's the worst that can happen? Really. What's the worst?