TexasGal
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2007
- Messages
- 229
Greetings to all! I have been reading for a little while and finally signed up and decided to post. SO many of you are so much more advanced than I am regarding understanding what is required to ER or even, for that matter, to retire period!
I am a 60 yr old female, live in Texas (no state income tax), divorced almost half my life, one daughter and 4 grandkids, and have just ER’d from a 24-year position with one of the world’s Big 4 accounting/consulting firms. I am not an accountant or consultant . . . . was more into corporate HR and operations, i.e. administrative rather than generating revenue for the company.
I never dreamed that I would retire before my full retirement age of 66, and did not even begin to save towards retirement until I was 40. Due to a very nice salary for the last 5 years I have been able to build a nice little nest egg which could have been double if I had known all along I was going to retire at 60. Oh well, it is what it is.
Increasingly over the last 3-4 years I became more and more unhappy with my position and role in the business world. Business just does not make sense to me any longer and most of it is just total chaos guided by people with little common sense. My father became quite ill with Alzheimer’s and I came to stay with him in early 2007 until he passed away 3/30. I am an only child and now my 90 yr-old mother is seriously ill, and I decided to stay with her until the end whenever that will be. I have since decided to ER so this all very new.
My decision to retire now at age 60 evolved over a 2-month period, and I had never even given it serious thought before. I just simply reached total burnout and could not stand the thought of returning to all of the work b/s. I left the company on good terms and can return either full or part-time at any time in the next year or two (or at least that is what they told me) if I want to “un-retire”.
After checking into possible benefits I found that I could retire at 60 with a decent pension (albeit half of what it would have been in just 6 more years) and will get reduced but ok social security in 2 years. So 2 yrs from now the pension + s/s will be about $42K (I will be living very frugally for the next 2 yrs on pension only until age 62) and the nest egg is $400K and not likely to get much more in the way of after-tax contributions from me. My pension is NOT cola’d which is a bummer.
Official retirement date is Aug 3, and I will get COBRA for 18 mos @ $300/mo. After COBRA for 3-1/2 yrs until Medicare I will get a policy equivalent to what I had at work through company retiree benefits although it will cost me $500/mo. My $500/mo policy covers 100% of most things and there is no deductible and no lifetime maximum up to age 65. Overall it is pretty good although the $500/mo blew me away momentarily.
I will live in a mortage-free small 3/2 home built in 1995, very low utilities because it is so energy efficient, have zero debt of any kind, credit card or otherwise. I will need to buy a car in 2 years, but that is the only big purchase I foresee. Of course “foresee” is the operative word here. I live very simply and do not require “things” to keep me entertained. Once I get more comfortable with my financial situation, I'll work on quality of retirement life and what in the heck I am going to do for the rest of my life (after mom has passed away).
I need about $36K after tax dollars to live comfortably, and FIRECalc indicates I can receive $40K for 30 years with 100% success by leaving nothing to my heirs which is ok with me. I know it is inflation-adjusted, but what about the tax treatment? Does FIRECalc take into consideration the tax burden?
I think I am ok financially, but what do you think given my comments above? I welcome any comments you would care to make on my financial situation. Since retirement happened rather suddenly, I did not even come close to the level of income and nest egg I had originally planned to have. I keep wondering if I am in la-la land on being okay to retire now and am feeling fairly insecure at the moment. I hope that I can find some perspective, suggestions, and thoughts here to help me become a bit more comfortable so thanks in advance! I love this forum and consider myself lucky to have come across it!
Look forward to your comments.
Regards,
Tex
I am a 60 yr old female, live in Texas (no state income tax), divorced almost half my life, one daughter and 4 grandkids, and have just ER’d from a 24-year position with one of the world’s Big 4 accounting/consulting firms. I am not an accountant or consultant . . . . was more into corporate HR and operations, i.e. administrative rather than generating revenue for the company.
I never dreamed that I would retire before my full retirement age of 66, and did not even begin to save towards retirement until I was 40. Due to a very nice salary for the last 5 years I have been able to build a nice little nest egg which could have been double if I had known all along I was going to retire at 60. Oh well, it is what it is.
Increasingly over the last 3-4 years I became more and more unhappy with my position and role in the business world. Business just does not make sense to me any longer and most of it is just total chaos guided by people with little common sense. My father became quite ill with Alzheimer’s and I came to stay with him in early 2007 until he passed away 3/30. I am an only child and now my 90 yr-old mother is seriously ill, and I decided to stay with her until the end whenever that will be. I have since decided to ER so this all very new.
My decision to retire now at age 60 evolved over a 2-month period, and I had never even given it serious thought before. I just simply reached total burnout and could not stand the thought of returning to all of the work b/s. I left the company on good terms and can return either full or part-time at any time in the next year or two (or at least that is what they told me) if I want to “un-retire”.
After checking into possible benefits I found that I could retire at 60 with a decent pension (albeit half of what it would have been in just 6 more years) and will get reduced but ok social security in 2 years. So 2 yrs from now the pension + s/s will be about $42K (I will be living very frugally for the next 2 yrs on pension only until age 62) and the nest egg is $400K and not likely to get much more in the way of after-tax contributions from me. My pension is NOT cola’d which is a bummer.
Official retirement date is Aug 3, and I will get COBRA for 18 mos @ $300/mo. After COBRA for 3-1/2 yrs until Medicare I will get a policy equivalent to what I had at work through company retiree benefits although it will cost me $500/mo. My $500/mo policy covers 100% of most things and there is no deductible and no lifetime maximum up to age 65. Overall it is pretty good although the $500/mo blew me away momentarily.
I will live in a mortage-free small 3/2 home built in 1995, very low utilities because it is so energy efficient, have zero debt of any kind, credit card or otherwise. I will need to buy a car in 2 years, but that is the only big purchase I foresee. Of course “foresee” is the operative word here. I live very simply and do not require “things” to keep me entertained. Once I get more comfortable with my financial situation, I'll work on quality of retirement life and what in the heck I am going to do for the rest of my life (after mom has passed away).
I need about $36K after tax dollars to live comfortably, and FIRECalc indicates I can receive $40K for 30 years with 100% success by leaving nothing to my heirs which is ok with me. I know it is inflation-adjusted, but what about the tax treatment? Does FIRECalc take into consideration the tax burden?
I think I am ok financially, but what do you think given my comments above? I welcome any comments you would care to make on my financial situation. Since retirement happened rather suddenly, I did not even come close to the level of income and nest egg I had originally planned to have. I keep wondering if I am in la-la land on being okay to retire now and am feeling fairly insecure at the moment. I hope that I can find some perspective, suggestions, and thoughts here to help me become a bit more comfortable so thanks in advance! I love this forum and consider myself lucky to have come across it!
Look forward to your comments.
Regards,
Tex
