Hi, I have been lurking here for some time, posting little. This forum is great and full of interesting and helpful people. I thought I finally ought to introduce myself.
I am a musician, husband is a software engineer. We are 37 and 38.
Husband has been getting burned out on his job, and we have been working toward a goal of early retirement for him. His income is pretty good, and since we are non-consumers, and without the expense of children, we manage to save more than half of his salary. We have been trying to hold on to this income stream as long as possible despite the burnout, since we believe that the market salary for his job has gone down and he would have to take a pay cut if he were to start over someplace else, if he even could find a position in this job market.
Our plan is that we would arrive at a workable investment sum
(Dr.Evil/One Million Dollars/Dr.Evil)
within the next 2 or 3 years. At that point we figure he could retire and we could live off my much smaller income, maybe taking a little of the investment gains to supplement, but still leaving enough so that the retirement accounts would keep growing. Then when the portfolio has grown a little bigger and we are a little closer to 50, then I could also retire and we would start drawing down.
Well, sometimes things don't go exactly as planned. He finally reached the tipping point and gave his notice today. Of course they are trying to change his mind by shifting around responsibilities to take some of the load off of him, but he has really had it with the whole org and maybe even with doing that for a job, period. He is going to take a year off, or so, work on his own programming that interests him (but has no income potential), and will probably decide that he doesn't want to look for a new job.
So that leaves us about $250000 short of our grand scheming, with not any way to make it up. We definitely cannot save any of my small income to add to the pile. While our house and cars are paid for, making our fixed expenses pretty low, we are worried about adding health insurance to the bills, as that will raise our expenses above my income.
We have been persistently slow at making investment decisions, so often we have too much, too liquid, earning too little. We need to do better there.
Here is our portfolio breakdown:
13.5% Everbank CD earning small interest, but held in foreign currency basket.
23.8% 401k w/ fidelity split btw fidelity fund, and intl equity fund, and something else I can't seem to find right now
19% TRowePrice emerging markets Europe, New Asia, Latin America funds
15% 2 individual stocks (employee stock purchase and one other)
4% s&p500 index
3.4% Roth IRA in CDs
20.8% combination of Savings bonds, CDs, Money market. Way too much to hold at those rates, we need to move it, obviously.
Appreciate suggestions. Thanks.
igsoy
I am a musician, husband is a software engineer. We are 37 and 38.
Husband has been getting burned out on his job, and we have been working toward a goal of early retirement for him. His income is pretty good, and since we are non-consumers, and without the expense of children, we manage to save more than half of his salary. We have been trying to hold on to this income stream as long as possible despite the burnout, since we believe that the market salary for his job has gone down and he would have to take a pay cut if he were to start over someplace else, if he even could find a position in this job market.
Our plan is that we would arrive at a workable investment sum
(Dr.Evil/One Million Dollars/Dr.Evil)
within the next 2 or 3 years. At that point we figure he could retire and we could live off my much smaller income, maybe taking a little of the investment gains to supplement, but still leaving enough so that the retirement accounts would keep growing. Then when the portfolio has grown a little bigger and we are a little closer to 50, then I could also retire and we would start drawing down.
Well, sometimes things don't go exactly as planned. He finally reached the tipping point and gave his notice today. Of course they are trying to change his mind by shifting around responsibilities to take some of the load off of him, but he has really had it with the whole org and maybe even with doing that for a job, period. He is going to take a year off, or so, work on his own programming that interests him (but has no income potential), and will probably decide that he doesn't want to look for a new job.
So that leaves us about $250000 short of our grand scheming, with not any way to make it up. We definitely cannot save any of my small income to add to the pile. While our house and cars are paid for, making our fixed expenses pretty low, we are worried about adding health insurance to the bills, as that will raise our expenses above my income.
We have been persistently slow at making investment decisions, so often we have too much, too liquid, earning too little. We need to do better there.
Here is our portfolio breakdown:
13.5% Everbank CD earning small interest, but held in foreign currency basket.
23.8% 401k w/ fidelity split btw fidelity fund, and intl equity fund, and something else I can't seem to find right now
19% TRowePrice emerging markets Europe, New Asia, Latin America funds
15% 2 individual stocks (employee stock purchase and one other)
4% s&p500 index
3.4% Roth IRA in CDs
20.8% combination of Savings bonds, CDs, Money market. Way too much to hold at those rates, we need to move it, obviously.
Appreciate suggestions. Thanks.
igsoy
. A month off with no pressures might be just the thing - eat tuna and peanut butter if you must.
