Advice for a first poster

[tjm1975]

Hi, wanted to get some insight regarding retiring early. Wife and I are comfortably living right now but I would like to retire early. Wife is a stay at home. We currently have our own mortgage, a rental mortgage, and a car payment and nothing else. We are both 34 with 2 children (a 2 year old and a 1 year old) and would like to secure financial security for us as well as put them through college. Money coming in from my job and expenses, we are able to put about a $1000 month into savings. We have a good savings of approximately $500k (due to real estate and getting out at the right time) and wondering what would be the best bet to make this money last and retire early and live comfortably. We are thinking of reinvesting in real estate again as our housing market is pretty down with rents remaining relatively high but am open to other options. My company also has a 401k (no pension) and I am currently contributing 15% of my salary towards my 401k and my company currently contributes $.40 on the dollar of the first 5% of my salary. I have never been much of a financial whiz, just lucky in the real estate market, but I would hate to put all my eggs in one basket. Ideally, would love to retire in no more than 20 years, (earlier would be even better). Any information or advice would be helpful.

 

[Midpack]

Everyone here will tell you start with FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator. Start with the simple version and build from there, it is a very good place to begin your search for an answer.

And welcome aboard, there's a lot of knowledge (and some humor) here...

 

[DblDoc]

Welcome to the forum!

It looks like you have a very good start to your nest egg and early retirement should be very doable for you. For gathering information I'd recommend hanging out here. There are some here that invest in real estate and can help you in that area. For general investing advice I highly recommend this reading list: Investment Books

DD

 

[LOL!]

With your $500K, buy some books and read them. It is not wise to get information from the internet until you know enough to figure out if it is any good or not. Some books to read:

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
The Four Pillars of Investing
The Millionaire Next Door

After reading those books, you should have figured out that you would be contributing at least $16,500 of your own money to your 401(k). If your 15% gets you there, good; but if not, then you need to contribute more.

As to what to invest in, those books will get you started.

And it will take you a month or so to go through the books, but what's a month's preparation worth for the next 50 years of your life?

 

[tjm1975]

With your $500K, buy some books and read them. It is not wise to get information from the internet until you know enough to figure out if it is any good or not. Some books to read:

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
The Four Pillars of Investing
The Millionaire Next Door

After reading those books, you should have figured out that you would be contributing at least $16,500 of your own money to your 401(k). If your 15% gets you there, good; but if not, then you need to contribute more.

As to what to invest in, those books will get you started.



And it will take you a month or so to go through the books, but what's a month's preparation worth for the next 50 years of your life?

thanks for the titles, will look into it. and yes the 15% gets to the max.