Hi,
I'm 42 years old, as is my DH, and I'm here to learn more about RE. DH is pretty financially saavy, so I pretty much let him take the lead. I know where our money is (it's all very meticulously tracked on a Quicken program, down to each Visa receipt!) but the bulk of the financial planning and decision making is done by him. I am asked my opinion, but normally I just trust what he is doing with our money. My goal this year is to become more informed about our financial well-being because I know he would like that!
We haven't set a specific date or amount for RE. We have made it a goal this year to attempt to figure that out. Right now, we're probably aiming for 52-55. It would be nice if we could RE at 52, as I would like DH to be able to get out of the rat race. However, it's also difficult to maintain that long term focus when living day to day. We've always been very good savers, and we don't spend much on the little things but tend to buy big ticket items (more on that in a minute). Fortunately, my DH has a well paying job which has enabled us to save good money in the past few years. I work PT, about 20 hours per week. I max out my 401k at my job and also take out extra to pay the tax man so we don't get hit with a penalty at the end of the year. It's always been DH's position to owe the govt just enough to not get hit with a penalty.
We bought our first home at age 28 and lived in it for about ten years. We recently tore it down and built a new home on the same property, to accomodate our larger family of four (went from 1,000 to 2,200 square feet) so we have a substantially larger mortgage. In 2007 we bought a second home, waterfront, which will set us back on the RE road, but we've been enjoying it and hope it will appreciate over the years and be a sound investment as well as a place to have fun and make good family memories.
Here are the vitals:
Net worth: Approximately 1.5 million, if we cashed out and sold our homes in today's market. About 1.1 million of the net worth is liquid assets in 401(k)s, IRAs, money market, a few individual stocks, etc. The other $500,000 is equity in the two houses. Oh, the 1.1 millon also includes approx. 120,000 in 529's for our two children.
Our biggest expenses right now are our mortgage payments. One is 5.375% 30 year fixed of which we owe $410,000 (approx. value in today's market is about $725,000). The other house is at 6%, also 30 year fixed, and we owe around $310,000 (we purchased in spring '07 for $400,000). We pay $650 extra on our primary home mortgage each month, max out our 401k's, save $1,000 monthly in 529's and attempt to save an additional $500. We don't always do that. My DH also receives a bonus every year, and we invest 95-100% of that.
We have no debt, other than the mortgages and, as of December, we own two vehicles. This is the first time in our lives we've had more than one car.
We probably won't buy a boat for some time (probably the only people on the lake that don't have a boat!) because we're still exhaling from the home purchase.
I'll be nosing around and hoping to learn more about RE and setting some goals for it. I've already realized that I have much to learn. I still don't know what SEPP's and 72ts are. Neither of us will have a pension and my DH doesn't think we should count on any SS, so I think we have alot of savings to do to make this happen for us.
That's it for now and thanks in advance for what I expect to learn here.
I'm 42 years old, as is my DH, and I'm here to learn more about RE. DH is pretty financially saavy, so I pretty much let him take the lead. I know where our money is (it's all very meticulously tracked on a Quicken program, down to each Visa receipt!) but the bulk of the financial planning and decision making is done by him. I am asked my opinion, but normally I just trust what he is doing with our money. My goal this year is to become more informed about our financial well-being because I know he would like that!
We haven't set a specific date or amount for RE. We have made it a goal this year to attempt to figure that out. Right now, we're probably aiming for 52-55. It would be nice if we could RE at 52, as I would like DH to be able to get out of the rat race. However, it's also difficult to maintain that long term focus when living day to day. We've always been very good savers, and we don't spend much on the little things but tend to buy big ticket items (more on that in a minute). Fortunately, my DH has a well paying job which has enabled us to save good money in the past few years. I work PT, about 20 hours per week. I max out my 401k at my job and also take out extra to pay the tax man so we don't get hit with a penalty at the end of the year. It's always been DH's position to owe the govt just enough to not get hit with a penalty.
We bought our first home at age 28 and lived in it for about ten years. We recently tore it down and built a new home on the same property, to accomodate our larger family of four (went from 1,000 to 2,200 square feet) so we have a substantially larger mortgage. In 2007 we bought a second home, waterfront, which will set us back on the RE road, but we've been enjoying it and hope it will appreciate over the years and be a sound investment as well as a place to have fun and make good family memories.
Here are the vitals:
Net worth: Approximately 1.5 million, if we cashed out and sold our homes in today's market. About 1.1 million of the net worth is liquid assets in 401(k)s, IRAs, money market, a few individual stocks, etc. The other $500,000 is equity in the two houses. Oh, the 1.1 millon also includes approx. 120,000 in 529's for our two children.
Our biggest expenses right now are our mortgage payments. One is 5.375% 30 year fixed of which we owe $410,000 (approx. value in today's market is about $725,000). The other house is at 6%, also 30 year fixed, and we owe around $310,000 (we purchased in spring '07 for $400,000). We pay $650 extra on our primary home mortgage each month, max out our 401k's, save $1,000 monthly in 529's and attempt to save an additional $500. We don't always do that. My DH also receives a bonus every year, and we invest 95-100% of that.
We have no debt, other than the mortgages and, as of December, we own two vehicles. This is the first time in our lives we've had more than one car.
We probably won't buy a boat for some time (probably the only people on the lake that don't have a boat!) because we're still exhaling from the home purchase.
I'll be nosing around and hoping to learn more about RE and setting some goals for it. I've already realized that I have much to learn. I still don't know what SEPP's and 72ts are. Neither of us will have a pension and my DH doesn't think we should count on any SS, so I think we have alot of savings to do to make this happen for us.
That's it for now and thanks in advance for what I expect to learn here.
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