Give me some feedback please

[Rollie]

I plan to retire at 55 1/2...Dec 31, 2009...wife will be 51.  Should have $550K in 401K...Pension...I could take a lump sum (now projected at $735K) or a joint annuity option of $3700/month (not indexed to inflation).  Will not have any debt.  Have about $40K in mutual funds. Last child will be in college...funded by 529plan.  Will have Retiree Medical coverage from company.  Will need about $4500/mo. to live on.  Am I on target?  Thanks,
Rollie

 

[REWahoo]

Hello Rollie. Welcome to the forum.

At first glance, looks like you have your bases covered, but I would sure like to have good results running my numbers through FIRECalc to be comfortable I was where I need to be. Have you done that?

 

[Rollie]

I have used Financial Engines and it gives me a 95% + success rate. Not sure if they use the same FIRE Calcs...I know it uses the Monte Carlo formula.
Thanks,
Rollie

 

[REWahoo]

FIRECalc http://www.fireseeker.com/ uses 130+ years of actual history rather than monte carlo simulations. Some of us think it is a better tool than Financial Engines, but that's always debatable. There's a link describing how it works on the page.

FIRECalc is free, simple to use, and your numbers can be input quickly. I recommend you give it a look.

 

[Coach]

My take is that Financial Engines is mostly about the accumulation phase -- tjat's where it uses Monte Carlo simulations. For retirement income it just looks as the range of ending portfolio balances and figures what you would get if you annuitize. I think Firecalc does a great job on posibilities in the distribution phase. Check it out.

Coach