Update after another 2 years

piranha

Dryer sheet aficionado
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
34
Wife (46) and I (44) teach in public schools. I've been teaching for 21 years and bought 5 additional years service towards my retirement... so I have 26 years of service in the public school system in my state. Our combined annual income is still around $165,000. We have 3 kids (16, 15, and 10).

Our only debt is around $55,000 left on the mortgage (10 year fixed at 3%) that will be paid off in exactly 3 years if we keep adding extra to the principal at the current clip. We plan on staying in our current house after retiring.

Rainy Day fund in bank (Money Market) totaling roughly $25,000.

Non Retirement investments (Mutual Funds) totaling roughly $140,000. A few trips and assorted expenses have forced us to withdraw from these accounts in recent years.

403b investments totaling $540,000

Roth IRA investments totaling $275,000

So... our investments (Roth, 403b, regular mutual funds) total $955,000.

Our kids educations and saving for their futures are not a consideration any longer. After running the #s, We are confident that we have saved enough $$$ for them to attend any public , 4 year university that they can get into plus be able to start their lives comfortably.

We are still currently contributing:
$10,000 a year total to our 2 Roth IRA's
$17,000 a year total to our 403b accounts

For me, the plan remains to retire at 48 years old. That's when I'll be eligible (as long as things remain how they are now) for an annual pension (45% of my salary at the time) with close to full benefits, and won't have any more house payments to worry about. My wife will not be eligible for a full pension until her mid 50's due to time off with kids. She has come around to the idea of me retiring early from my current career while she works another 3-4 years.

I've toyed with some financial calculators and my plan appears to still be attainable. Doing this mostly for myself, but would like to see what some experts here think about my plan.


Below the dotted line is the last post I made on this forum roughly 2 years ago.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wife (44) and I (42) teach in public schools. I've been teaching for 19 years and bought 5 additional years service towards my retirement... so I have 24 years of service in the public school system in my state. Our combined annual income is around $165,000. We have 3 kids (14, 12, and 8).

Our only debt is around $95,000 left on the mortgage (10 year fixed at 3%) that will be paid off in exactly 5 years if we keep adding extra to the principal at the current clip. We plan on staying in our current house after retiring.

Rainy Day fund in bank (Money Market) totaling $25,000. 2 new vehicles. I finally broke down and bought a 2014 Grand Cherokee... paid cash.

Non Retirement investments (Mutual Funds) totaling roughly $145,000. These have decreased in value due to the new car purchase and a decision to make some home improvements.

403b investments totaling $445,000

Roth IRA investments totaling $230,000

So... our investments (Roth, 403b, regular mutual funds) total $820,000.

We have also saved approximately $120,000 for our 3 kids (combined) up to this point in educational accounts.

We are currently contributing:
$10,000 a year total to our 2 Roth IRA's
$20,000 a year total to our 403b accounts
$6,000 a year total to our 3 kids educational accounts.

For me, the plan remains to retire at 48 years old. That's when I'll be eligible (as long as things remain how they are now) for an annual pension (45% of my salary at the time) with close to full benefits, and won't have any more house payments to worry about. My wife will not be eligible for a full pension until her mid 50's due to time off with kids. She has come around some to the idea of me retiring early from my current career while she works another 3-4 years, but isn't quite there yet.

I've toyed with some financial calculators and my plan appears to still be attainable... but would like to see what some experts here think about my plan.

Sure hope this market keeps up. I've been in index and some low cost growth funds up to this point. Start getting more conservative or keep doing what I've been doing?
 
Looks good w/out looking at expenses. Annual expenses are the X factor. Looks like you will have a 20,19 and 14 yr old when you punch. DW will still be working so you have some flex there. If you haven't done so I would meticulously track expenses for the next 2-3 years and see how you budget holds up. Good luck. Plans for you when you RE and wife is still working??
 
FireCalc is a good one to run your numbers through if you haven't already done so. If the numbers are close, I would probably work another couple of years if your wife is going to anyway. I worked a couple of extra years for the added cushion. You guys have done a great job....keep it up.
 
Back
Top Bottom