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plowking · 09-21-2009, 07:51 PM

Hi everyone. I`m 52 and I like Bandit would like to retire at 55.I have crunched the numbers and it looks good,but looks can be deceiving.I have never heard of this fire cal.I will definitely try it.I have used the CNNmoney and Quicken calculators.I believe the real obstacle will be health care.I can buy my wife and my care through my Company`s cobra plan until medicare or Obama`s new plan kicks in.

I have approx. 1m in savings( all in CD`s @ 4to6%) now paying about 50k a year this will go down as CD rates drop, Pension at 55 now at 27k a year,SS at 62 now at 19k a year. no mortgage payment. I will have two kids in collage at the same time as id like to retire costing a total of 30 to 40 k a year.I don't know if I`ll be able to swing all this but I`m glad I found this forum to get some ideas and support.

Thanks, Plow

Rich_by_the_Bay · 09-21-2009, 08:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plowking

I believe the real obstacle will be health care.I can buy my wife and my care through my Company`s cobra plan until medicare or Obama`s new plan kicks in.

Welcome to the board. You've done a nice job of building a sizable nest egg.

Typically COBRA coverage is available for 18 months after termination, occasionally longer. I'd be surprised if you can take COBRA from age 55 to Medicare, and believe you will need to find yourself alternative health insurance for some time after your COBRA coverage runs out. More than a few people have had to continue working just to maintain coverage, so you may want to start looking early for private health coverage after you FIRE. Policies running $14,000 per year or more are pretty common. Just a suggestion to have something long-term nailed down before you jump.

FIRECalc will be valuable to you. Your portfolio is not typical of what you will hear around here, as you hold no equities. That pension is nice though, especially if it's adjusted for cost of living.

Good luck and keep us posted.

P.S. Let me save our thankless moderators the trouble of suggesting you use a smaller font size (e.g. 3) to make your posts more readable and consistent.

Bestwifeever · 09-21-2009, 09:08 PM

Yes, welcome, Plowking. Your assets sound like you're in pretty good shape to meet your goal in three years--some people suggest you track all your expenses and see if your projected income will cover them. I found FireCalc incredibly useful the two years before DH and I retired, to keep reassuring us that we had enough.

(P.S. So we could focus on what you posted instead of the font, I did edit your post's font to be consistent with the Early Retirement board's standards:

Posting standards:
....The standard font size is 2. The use of bold, large or colored fonts should be used sparingly. Posts containing inappropriate formatting will be removed or modified at our discretion; e.g. all caps or excessive color....)

NeverBored · 09-22-2009, 12:07 PM

welcome from another Newbie, slightly older but also planning. We have two in college right now which is costing us about $45,000 a year. One year down, three to go. When the last tuition payment is made, I'm turning in the paperwork. ;-)

plowking · 09-26-2009, 12:40 PM

Thank You to all.
I don't know how my font got so big,I will be more careful.
I mistakenly referred to Extended medical benefit's as cobra.This will cost me about $550.00 per month for both my wife and me, and $60.00 more if we opt for vision and dental.
I tried fire cal and WOW its very cool, all my projections are looking good.I don't see a place for certificates of deposit or T-bills however.

jdw_fire · 09-28-2009, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plowking

I tried fire cal and WOW its very cool, all my projections are looking good.I don't see a place for certificates of deposit or T-bills however.

click on the "Your Portfolio" tab at the top of the page and you can select treasuries 2 different ways. for example select "mixed portfolio" and zero out all choices except "1 month treasuries"

plowking · 09-15-2012, 06:44 AM

Well here it is, I'm 55 and with the best laid plans I cant quite retire yet.Boy Prices of Food ,gas and medical care sure have gone way up in the last few years.I`m now looking at about $1500.00 a month to keep my extended medical coverage,but now with Obama care it will encompass my two kids.Leaving me with about 1k a month I'm spending more on food,gas,water,electric,gasoline,cable,collage.I will have to delay retirement for perhaps another year,I`m thinking of moving to where housing prices cost less.Sell my city home and move to a more rural(cheaper)place.I could realize a 300k gain,this would improve my situation.Not is all lost just delayed a bit.

BigE · 09-15-2012, 09:42 AM

Thanks for the update. Age 56 still sounds like a good age to retire to me. Good luck.

Live And Learn · 09-15-2012, 10:16 AM

Hi. That jump in healthcare costs is scary ! Its one of the things most talked about here and one of the reasons so many people have to keep working.

I sincerely thank you for the update on your situation. Its nice to hear back from people and see their "real life experience".'

Wishing you all the best and retirement at 56 !

obgyn65 · 09-20-2012, 10:11 PM

Welcome, plow.

plowking · 09-17-2013, 07:15 PM

Wow Four years since first post ,I'm now 56 and the plan is coming together,Bought rural home a year ago(before prices took off)for 300K,just sold city home for 750K (prices have taken off).Extended medical will now cost about 1700 a month but because of Obama it will cover my wife and kids till there 26.Total now about 1.4 M.One kid out of collage other one in community collage.Its working!Lucky I locked in some 10 year Cd`s @ 5.75%.

Cooked · 09-17-2013, 11:10 PM

Just further proof that panning and patience do work.

Jsore13194 · 09-18-2013, 12:41 AM

I'm 56, recently "retired" by my company after 21 years of service, and my biggest worry isn't about going back to work for income, but going back to work to keep me occupied! Of course the money will be nice, but seriously, after 3 weeks, I'm ready to jump back into something to keep me engaged and energized.