Hi, my name is Ron. I am 57 1/2 and plan to retire in 2011 - a bit contingent on no further big losses in asset values, particularly in housing in the Portland, Oregon area. I work for an entity that is covered by the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System.
My employer has an early retirement program - it is in our union contract, that would provide a $400 stipend in addition to my defined benefit pension - until I turn 62, and provide an amount for health insurance equal to the current employee + 1 benefit amount until I am 65.
We are in the many small pots of money and we won't starve plan
. In addition to my defined benefit pension, which will start at ~ $1000 a month, my spouse is vested in two defined benefit pensions, one of which she can start taking at the time we retire ($400 a month).
We also currently have a defined contribution component to our public pension plan. Our employers put an amount equal to 6% of our gross pay into "Individual Account Plans" that are managed by the Oregon Investment Council. We can keep the money in there when we retire, take it in pay-outs of various lengths, or roll it over into our IRA's. We each have small IRA's (less than 50k each after last year) from previous employer plans that we rolled over and we participate in the Oregon Savings Growth Plan, a 457 plan similar to the federal Thrift Savings Plan.
We'll use some of those assets, and proceeds from the sale of our house, to supplement the initial pensions until 2 1/2 years later I start taking Social Security, at which point our expenses will be easily covered.
That is the plan anyway. I grew up in Latin America and we have been traveling to Mexico for 6 years. We have the starts of community there. I speak the language well enough to be comfortable and my spouse is studying it. We intend to start in Merida, a city of near one million in the Yucatan Peninsula. We have met people living there who say they are doing very well on $2,500 a month (and some on less).
My employer has an early retirement program - it is in our union contract, that would provide a $400 stipend in addition to my defined benefit pension - until I turn 62, and provide an amount for health insurance equal to the current employee + 1 benefit amount until I am 65.
We are in the many small pots of money and we won't starve plan
. In addition to my defined benefit pension, which will start at ~ $1000 a month, my spouse is vested in two defined benefit pensions, one of which she can start taking at the time we retire ($400 a month). We also currently have a defined contribution component to our public pension plan. Our employers put an amount equal to 6% of our gross pay into "Individual Account Plans" that are managed by the Oregon Investment Council. We can keep the money in there when we retire, take it in pay-outs of various lengths, or roll it over into our IRA's. We each have small IRA's (less than 50k each after last year) from previous employer plans that we rolled over and we participate in the Oregon Savings Growth Plan, a 457 plan similar to the federal Thrift Savings Plan.
We'll use some of those assets, and proceeds from the sale of our house, to supplement the initial pensions until 2 1/2 years later I start taking Social Security, at which point our expenses will be easily covered.
That is the plan anyway. I grew up in Latin America and we have been traveling to Mexico for 6 years. We have the starts of community there. I speak the language well enough to be comfortable and my spouse is studying it. We intend to start in Merida, a city of near one million in the Yucatan Peninsula. We have met people living there who say they are doing very well on $2,500 a month (and some on less).
