Hi, I'm a newbie to this forum but not to retirement planning-I've been obsessed with the topic since my 20s (which seems like an eternity ago), which I hope will pay off for me now. My company is beginning to downsize (a direct result of the current and upcoming defense budget cuts), and given my age (mid 50s) it is unlikely that I will easily find a job (any job, let alone one that pays what I am now earning), so I am firing (no pun intended) up the retirement calculators to see how much pain I have to inflict on our current lifestyle if the worst case happens. I've already checked out the Firecalc web calculators and have been following the Retire Early web site for some time (and py]laying with the numerous excellent spreadsheet calculators available there), but now that the reality of the situation is hitting me, it definitely impacts the way I think about the numbers that go into the calculators-before it was more of an engineering or probabilistic exercise, but now my future (and that of my wife and children) are dependent on the accuracy of the predictions that I generate to determine how much to withdraw, how much our future expenses will be, when to tap into pensions and SS, what to assume for inflation rates, taxes, annual yields, etc, etc, etc, etc-my head is hurting just typing about it!
From reading the forum threads, it seems like there are a lot of kindred spirits here that are in the same boat as myself (or at least in the same harbor), so I am looking forward to participating in the forum. Thanks for spending the time to read my post, and I look forward to lots of stimulating interactions on the forum.
From reading the forum threads, it seems like there are a lot of kindred spirits here that are in the same boat as myself (or at least in the same harbor), so I am looking forward to participating in the forum. Thanks for spending the time to read my post, and I look forward to lots of stimulating interactions on the forum.