Trying To Get Up To Speed

[Intuit]

Hello All,
I have enjoyed reading the various posts and absorbing some of the ideas, goals and suggestions that members have. Our situation may be a little different than that of many here. While I have been a faithfull 401K participant (why pass up free money with employer match), I can't say we have accumulated alot of wealth. Well that changed recently with an inheritance that we recieved of about 0.5M and now I am setting about to reach FIRE at age 55 (currently 48) if I can parlay this into a suffiecent portfollio. At least it will be fun trying.

[Dawg52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by N2FIRE Hello All, I have enjoyed reading the various posts and absorbing some of the ideas, goals and suggestions that members have. Our situation may be a little different than that of many here. While I have been a faithfull 401K participant (why pass up free money with employer match), I can't say we have accumulated alot of wealth. Well that changed recently with an inheritance that we recieved of about 0.5M and now I am setting about to reach FIRE at age 55 (currently 48) if I can parlay this into a suffiecent portfollio. At least it will be fun trying.

Welcome! 1/2 million inheritance is a good shot in the arm. Good luck with your plans!

[LRS]

Your situation sounds like ours. DH and I had just started to think about ER about 5 years ago. I managed to pay off cc and auto loan debt in a couple years, and I streamlined our budget, but our total savings were only about 30k. Then we inherited about 700K (while losing 3 of our parents over a two year period, a most traumatic and heartbreaking experience for us.)

We decided that it made sense for us to pay off our $106k mortgage. This enabled me to cut back my work to 20 hours per week. We have a child who has a learning disability. I am now able to volunteer at her school and contribute the extra "momming" she needs.

We invested about $300 and about $300k is tied up in real estate (other than our primary residence). For now we are planning to work until we qualify to pick up our full public employee pensions. That will be about 7 more years for my hub and about 9 for me. We will both be in our late 50's at retirement, but I still consider it early retirement, considering that otherwise we would work into our mid-sixties.

Factors that influenced us to work on for several more years: I get a discount on college tuition for both my kids if I continue to work in my current position. We get full health care coverage/prescription coverage/vision/dental through my husband's job, and given our daughter's condition and our health (I have asthma, my hub has high blood pressure), we cannot afford to buy health care coverage outside of our jobs (even with nearly 1,000,000 of net worth, counting our home).

I found that cutting back to part time helped me get adjust to the idea of working longer. My hub is not too happy with his job, but he is trying to stick it out. We will evaluate our situation when he turns 55; perhaps he will be able to retire, draw a pension, and find a half time job wiith some bennies (although those are rare.)

I think problem for us is adjusting to a "saver" lifestyle from a "spender" lifestyle. We were just getting used to socking away a few extra dollars per month while living more frugally, when sudden wealth "struck". We have managed to live on our income, but I'd like to improve our savings rate.

And having said that, I really, really love travel and I am planning a vacation in Mexico this summer. I figure it fits into our plan if we pay for it in cash from our work income, which we can easily do. However, I accept that this is rationalizing a very large expenditure!

[astromeria]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LRS And having said that, I really, really love travel and I am planning a vacation in Mexico this summer. I figure it fits into our plan if we pay for it in cash from our work income, which we can easily do. However, I accept that this is rationalizing a very large expenditure!

Hi there, LRS.
There's travel...and there's travel. There's pampered travel (high-end tour groups or*resorts, expensive resaurants and souvenirs)...and there's do-it-yourself cheap airfare/hotels/restaurants where the locals eat, picnics of cheap local food travel. The difference in expense is enormous--I know coz I've traveled both ways. But that said--happy travels! And congrats for investing your inheritence wisely instead of letting it slip through your fingers. Think of it as jump-starting your own savings, but not replacing them.

We also were late starting to save big bucks for retirement, but made it. I retired at 55 and DH (56) is still working at his downscaled job (college instructor)--enough to live on...including travel

[astromeria]

Welcome also to N2FIRE!

We also got a couple of shots in the arm in the form of some stock options panning out*in Silicon Valley in 2000 (we sure paid for it in stress, long hours, and long commutes though!). On the other hand, we had little or no employer 401k match in our entire work histories. We all have our own good luck and bad luck, good decisions and bad decisions, eh.

Keep up your automated savings via retirement accounts and, if possible, additional taxable savings. If you qualify for Roths, don't miss out--we could've started ours the year before we did, and I regret not doing so. Anyhow, you'll be thanking yourself very soon for sticking with your savings plan and achieving your dreams.