New to the Boards

[SJ1_]

Hi I am 59yrs old who has been lurking for awhile. Great site!
I am married and plan to retire with the class of 2012. Invested mainly
In Real Estate and as we sold most of our properties we dumped the maximum money into 401k and 457 for a number of years. I work as a computer programmer and my wife is a manager. We have always lived way below our means. We pretty much have been living on one salary since 1994. We had no idea how well we were doing until read a number of books on retirement in the Past 6 months.
It is still hard to get my head around to that. I spent so many years getting to this point that it is still hard to imagine I can retire soon. Plan to start with winters in Florida Feb. 2013 and we are not sure where we will spend the rest of the time. We been to a number of potential places over the years and we liked so far we like the Knoxville area the best in the north and the St. Petersburg are in the south.
We are very active and love to travel. We usually take 2 – 3 vacations a year and spend most summer weekends at our lake house in the Georgia Mountains.

 

[Trawler]

Welcome to the board!! MY DW and I hope to be in the class of 2012 0r 2013. Still trying to get my head around the retirement as well.

 

[MichaelB]

Hi SJ1. Welcome to the forum. You live below your means, like to vacation, and plan to early retire soon. Looks like you'll fit right in. Hope you enjoy your time here.

 

[JPatrick]

Welcome to the forum!

We have looked at Knoxville on and off for many years.
A short vacation to the Gatlinburg area ( and Knoxville) in May got us reinvigorated once again.
Hope you will share your findings about this area..

 

[Midpack]

Welcome to the forum, as MichaelB said you will fit right in. Have to confess we naturally LBOM and saved & invested all we could thinking we'd never reach our "number" only to find one day that we had way more than enough. Like many here you will find. Sweet...

 

[SJ1_]

Knoxville

Welcome to the forum!

We have looked at Knoxville on and off for many years.
A short vacation to the Gatlinburg area ( and Knoxville) in May got us reinvigorated once again.
Hope you will share your findings about this area..

Will do. We visited a number of places over the years after reading about them and Knoxville is still our favorite place in "the north" and St Petersburg, FL area
in the south. We plan to live in one area and go somewhere else in the off season.
We visited about 1 yr. ago and like the size of the city. We liked Telico village and some of the in town neighborhoods.
After we sell the Lake House we will get spend more time there

 

[67walkon]

Good plan and congrats.
We visited Knoxville this summer. I had been through there, but never spent any time there. I was surprised at how much water front there is there!

A really nice part of Florida is the Melbourne area. My son lives there. It is much, much cheaper than "south" Florida and the people are really, really nice. We live in the Jupiter, Florida, area and like it just fine. There are some good buys in housing right now. Our "up north" place is in the mountains west of Asheville and we really, really love that area. Next year, we hope to spend most of the summer up there if I can really pull the trigger and go to part time work.

I think a lot of us have trouble actually taking that big step and quitting work. Most of the ones here that have done so are very encouraging, so close your eyes and jump if you're financially ready. Thats what I gonna have to do!

 

[sailor]

Welcome to the board SJ1_
Which lake in Georgia Mountains?

 

[SJ1_]

Good plan and congrats.
We visited Knoxville this summer. I had been through there, but never spent any time there. I was surprised at how much water front there is there!

A really nice part of Florida is the Melbourne area. My son lives there. It is much, much cheaper than "south" Florida and the people are really, really nice. We live in the Jupiter, Florida, area and like it just fine. There are some good buys in housing right now. Our "up north" place is in the mountains west of Asheville and we really, really love that area. Next year, we hope to spend most of the summer up there if I can really pull the trigger and go to part time work.

I think a lot of us have trouble actually taking that big step and quitting work. Most of the ones here that have done so are very encouraging, so close your eyes and jump if you're financially ready. Thats what I gonna have to do!

Knoxville seems to have a lot going for it. We have not been south of Cocoa Beach area but have head that the best part of the east coast is
Melbourne and below. Hope to check it out.

 

[SJ1_]

Welcome to the board SJ1_
Which lake in Georgia Mountains?

Lake Chatuge.

 

[GregLee]

Georgia has mountains? Who knew?

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Welcome to the forum SJ1. I'm sure you'll enjoy your experiences here. These people have a wealth of personal knowledge regardles the topic. Whatever the subject, someone on this forum will have knowledge on it.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

Georgia has mountains? Who knew?

Is that North Georgia? We'll be heading there in about a month. Going to N. Caroline first for our regular five year birthday bash. DW announced today that she would like to return via Atlanta to visit her uncle who we haven't seen for 16 years. That's fine with me. I love to travel. She says, "why don't we take a little side trip on the way home and go through north Georgia, then to Atlanta and then home". Sounds like a plan to me. About time we did something.

 

[obgyn65]

Welcome. I am also with the class of 2012.

 

[GregLee]

Is that North Georgia?

Yes. Here's the reference:
Lake Chatuge

 

[Huston55]

SJ1, at al:

Great thread. I'm a little behind you; class of 2015+. But, I can shed some light on the places you're discussing. DW and I just moved to Knoxville and , after planning to live in a planned comm like Tellico Village, we visited downtown Knoxville, loved it, rented a flat, and have been having a blast for the past 3 mos. It's clean, safe, convenient, and hopping! Full of restaurants, shops, new grocery, 2x wkly farmers market, live music, and clubs (if you're into that). The powers that be have done a great job. I'd argue it's almost as nice as downtown Chattanooga, where my parents live, and which has received rave reviews for urban redevelopment for about a decade. Knoxville is definitely worth checking out.

I have also lived in Cocoa Beach, and plan to return there for retirement one day. My kind of place: phenomenal beaches, inexpensive by FL standards, laid back, "cooler" east coast climate, and military facilities. I'd concur with the post saying that area is cheaper (but very nice, and way less crowded) than south Fl. And, with cancellation of the shuttle program and no replacement for several years, this is likely a good time to buy. If you're retired military, the CB/Melbourne area is also great because Patrick AFB is there-golf course, marina, commissary, BX, etc.

Knoxville & CB-Both great places IMHO.

 

[SJ1_]

SJ1, at al:

Great thread. I'm a little behind you; class of 2015+. But, I can shed some light on the places you're discussing. DW and I just moved to Knoxville and , after planning to live in a planned comm like Tellico Village, we visited downtown Knoxville, loved it, rented a flat, and have been having a blast for the past 3 mos. It's clean, safe, convenient, and hopping! Full of restaurants, shops, new grocery, 2x wkly farmers market, live music, and clubs (if you're into that). The powers that be have done a great job. I'd argue it's almost as nice as downtown Chattanooga, where my parents live, and which has received rave reviews for urban redevelopment for about a decade. Knoxville is definitely worth checking out.

I have also lived in Cocoa Beach, and plan to return there for retirement one day. My kind of place: phenomenal beaches, inexpensive by FL standards, laid back, "cooler" east coast climate, and military facilities. I'd concur with the post saying that area is cheaper (but very nice, and way less crowded) than south Fl. And, with cancellation of the shuttle program and no replacement for several years, this is likely a good time to buy. If you're retired military, the CB/Melbourne area is also great because Patrick AFB is there-golf course, marina, commissary, BX, etc.

Knoxville & CB-Both great places IMHO.

Thanks for the info.

 

[arebelspy]

Invested mainly In Real Estate and as we sold most of our properties we dumped the maximum money into 401k and 457 for a number of years.

Can you elaborate on this? I haven't seen many real estate exit strategies other than "probate" or "1031...probate"

Did you just decide to sell and take the capital gains hit? Or what?

 

[Ronnieboy]

Georgia has mountains? Who knew?

That is a hill, here is a mountain:

 

[check6]

Welcome SJ1. You have started something with your interest in Knoxville. We were suppose to be there today to look over the area (including Crossville) but I backed out at the last minute. I too appreciate everyone's comments on the area.

 

[SJ1_]

sold RE

Can you elaborate on this? I haven't seen many real estate exit strategies other than "probate" or "1031...probate"

Did you just decide to sell and take the capital gains hit? Or what?

Yes we paid Capital Gains.

We took the money we made from the sale and put it in a Money Market.
This enabled us to put the max. in the 401k and 457 as we would move that
amount each month from the MM to our checking.

 

[arebelspy]

Yes we paid Capital Gains.

We took the money we made from the sale and put it in a Money Market.
This enabled us to put the max. in the 401k and 457 as we would move that
amount each month from the MM to our checking.

What made you decide to sell?

 

[SJ1_]

why sell

What made you decide to sell?

My initial goal was to live off of the rentals and retire. The houses kept going up in value but the rents stayed the same. Everyone was buying so there were less people looking to rent. Expenses kept going up. So we just started selling them when the tenants left. We also started investing in the 2nd home market which at the time was a lot more lucrative. We had a number of lake lots that we were buying and selling. Plus when tenants left we pretty much did all of the work which seemed to keep happing in the summer when we would rather be at the lake. The third reason is I always felt if I could make 100k on a house I would sell it.
Now the opposite is happing. No one is buying which is pushing up rents while the price of homes is way down. So the house that peaked at $160,000 that I now retailing for $90,000 which means you can probably find it for less than that, and you can get more rent for it at 90k than you could at 160k!