My husband and I have been thinking about early retirement for awhile but after a rough month at work we are now all in. I’m wondering where to even start? Our stats:
He’s 41 and I’m 31. We have 2 kids, ages 4 and 6. Currently have about $230,000 in 401k and IRAs, $3500 in 529 and $40,000 in a mutual fund. We are about to inherit around $500,000. We each make about 75,000 annually.
We are able to max our contributions to his IRA and 401k currently and should be able to do the same for mine when we finish paying for daycare and payoff car debt in the summer of 2019 (our only debt besides our mortgage). Our house is worth about 130,000 and has 100,000 still left on mortgage.
My 2 big questions that remain after all of my research:
1) How do we determine how much money we actually need to retire and begin to set out short term goals? Hubby has a harder time sticking to budget than I do and I think we need to have short term savings goals to get us to the finish line.
2) Where do you invest if planning on retiring before 59 1/2? I know that there are a few work arounds for IRA and 401k to avoid early withdrawal penalties but I’m not seeing any advice to just invest in some basic non tax sheltered index funds to use before 59 1/2. Is that unwise for some reason?
Thank you for any advise or resources that you can provide!
He’s 41 and I’m 31. We have 2 kids, ages 4 and 6. Currently have about $230,000 in 401k and IRAs, $3500 in 529 and $40,000 in a mutual fund. We are about to inherit around $500,000. We each make about 75,000 annually.
We are able to max our contributions to his IRA and 401k currently and should be able to do the same for mine when we finish paying for daycare and payoff car debt in the summer of 2019 (our only debt besides our mortgage). Our house is worth about 130,000 and has 100,000 still left on mortgage.
My 2 big questions that remain after all of my research:
1) How do we determine how much money we actually need to retire and begin to set out short term goals? Hubby has a harder time sticking to budget than I do and I think we need to have short term savings goals to get us to the finish line.
2) Where do you invest if planning on retiring before 59 1/2? I know that there are a few work arounds for IRA and 401k to avoid early withdrawal penalties but I’m not seeing any advice to just invest in some basic non tax sheltered index funds to use before 59 1/2. Is that unwise for some reason?
Thank you for any advise or resources that you can provide!