Starting the countdown.....

[SomedaySoon]

Well the DW and I are 52. The kids are grown and gone. The $400K+ house is paid for, the cars are new, and I have no debts. I've been using Quicken for over 15 years now to track all spending, so I know over the last few years that my expenses are a little under 40K a year.

We have $1M in retirement accounts, another $350K in after tax accounts. We'll get small pensions when we hit 65 (total $1K per month). According to the gov SS site, the wife will get 1K a month at 62, I'll get around $2.2K at 67. Plugging those numbers into Firecalc makes things look easy, but there's always that little nagging fear....

The DW says she's going to keep working at least part time, making at least enough to cover health insurance, but I've set a target date for FIREing of April 2011 for myself. I've been lurking here for a while and will continue to do so, so keep all the great info coming.

[bbbamI]

Thanks for sayin' 'hi' SomedaySoon...and congrats on your countdown..

[Alan]

Welcome to the forum. It looks like you are in pretty good shape to take the plunge, particularly with DW covering the healthcare.

[bizlady]

Are taxes part of that 40k in annual expenses? Looks good otherwise.

[SomedaySoon]

Well it does cover (significant) property taxes but not income taxes. I was plugging 50K into Firecalc to handle that, and it still was 100%

[chinaco]

Welcome and congrats!

There will always be some level of uncertainty and anxiety.

I am not going to let that hold me back.

There are a number of us in countdown mode... I have been counting for about 5 years now. I intend to FIRE according to plan.

[obgyn65]

Sounds like like you are ready to FIRE. Go fo it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SomedaySoon my expenses are a little under 40K a year (...) We have $1M in retirement accounts, another $350K in after tax accounts. We'll get small pensions when we hit 65 (total $1K per month). According to the gov SS site, the wife will get 1K a month at 62, I'll get around $2.2K at 67.

[Emeritus]

Thanks for jogging the memory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRTYr5M9Sqs

[grasshopper]

I like what you are doing. My wife and I on our 5th year of retirement. We got out at ages 54, and 52. We plugged 50K into Quicken for expenses including private health care. Real spending has been 10K less than that. The low yield bonds of the last two years, was a plus when we paid no income tax. Our taxable part of our portfolio which we live on has grown due to capital gains on our bond holding. I did take a whole bunch of gains out before the 0-5% long term rates phase out. Let us know how things progress.

[Richard8655]

Your situation (and Grasshopper's) looks pretty good. But I wonder how you both can afford private health insurance at your age? I don't recall either of you mentioning retiree health insurance subsidy from your former employer. The only other option I can think of is an inexpensive high deductible catastrophic policy, but then many wouldn't consider that real health care coverage.

[SomedaySoon]

Health care is an issue I am concerned with. Here in NY we have the option for "Healthy NY" coverage from BS/BC of around $700 a month for a pretty decent HMO plan. The max income elligibility limit is about 3K per month, which my wife's income plus gains on our after tax portfolio won't exceed. I'm still hoping that the ObamaCare plan will favor Low Income/High Net Worth consumers as it currently appears to.

[grasshopper]

My medical expenses are 21% of my spending. I have BCBS with a $5K deductible. I also my dental insurance, which has proved to be a break even expense to me.