Update after another year

[piranha]

Just spent the last 20 minutes or so going over my previous posts. It's amazing to see how much stuff has changed over the past dozen years or so. It's rewarding to see how my plan has pretty much come together with disciplined savings.

Anyway... as always... I'm doing this mostly for myself, but am interested in any feedback people have.


Wife (47) and I (45) teach in public schools. I've been teaching for 22 years and bought 5 additional years service towards my retirement... so I have 27 years of service in the public school system in my state. Our combined annual income is still around $165,000. We have 3 kids (17, 16, and 11).

Our only debt is around $40,000 left on the mortgage (10 year fixed at 3%) that will be paid off in around 2 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 $30,000.

Non Retirement investments (Mutual Funds) totaling roughly $160,000.

403b investments totaling $700,000

Roth IRA investments totaling $360,000

So... our investments (Roth, 403b, regular mutual funds) total $1,220,000.

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 in separate accounts not listed here 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), and won't have any more house payments to worry about. My wife will not be eligible to retire with a full pension until 3 years after I intend to retire. For the 3 years she stays working, we will still receive full benefits. After she retires, we will have to start contributing to our health care costs.

[cooch96]

Two incomes, with two pensions on the horizon, property, plus over a million dollars.

Congratulations! Sounds like you’re doing splendid!

And I love these long term, checking back in, posts. They help me keep up the grind and discipline for my own plans.

[walkinwood]

Congratulations! Even though ER'd, I still enjoy reading these "progress reports".

[Texas Proud]

When will you be able to start your pension?

Without a pension I see a problem with paying expenses between when you retire and when you can start to draw from you tax advantaged accounts without the special rules (which are hard from what some people post)....

I would want to put more money in my taxable accounts for the gap...

[caninelover]

Congratulations! You will be ER'd in the blank of an eye!

[piranha]

Texas Proud:

I will start getting 45% of my salary the day I retire.

In fact, it'll actually be substantially more than that in terms of "real" money I think. Let me try to explain...

* I won't be having a portion of my paycheck going towards retirement anymore when I'm retired... so that's more "real" money.
* I won't have union dues any more... so that's more "real" money
* I won't be driving a half hour each way to work any more... so that's less gas and wear/tear on the car... so that's more "real" money
* As I mentioned in the original post, I won't have a house payment any more either.

I haven't figured everything out exactly. I'm not as organized as most on these boards.

I just know life is too short to continue to work if you don't have to. I like my job for the most part, but I wouldn't go there for free. I'd rather putz around the house, get a dog, go work out a few hours a day, read a book, and binge watch shows. I'll probably do a bit more travelling and a bit more golfing, so that's adding to expenses a bit... but I don't see my lifestyle/expenses changing dramatically in ER.

A lot of my family and friends think I'm crazy to retire that young.
I think they're crazy for not having planned to do it themselves considering most of them earn substantially more money than me.

[Texas Proud]

My thinking is if you have enough in pension and savings to live until you can access your tax advantaged savings then go for it...

To me, the pension is a benefit since you know your base income... as long as you can live on that for awhile, good to go...

I tried to get my sister to retire a few years earlier... but she liked teaching too much... even when I showed her that she was almost working for 'free'... she had 41 years... she told me a couple of days ago when she retired that she talked to the main person with pensions who said it was rare that they got someone with that much tenor....

Now, she takes 6 to 12 trips a year.... and some are expensive... I keep telling her to go for it...