Hi to everyone. I just signed my retirement papers today and figured it was time to actually register as a member. I've been reading the posts to this forum since last fall. I have really learned a lot from all of you and want to thank all of you who are generous enough to share the details of your retirement with others.
I guess you'd consider my husband and I early retirees. I'm 52 and he's 53. We each worked at government jobs for nearly 30 years and both retired with pensions. We also have medical insurance through CalPERS.
During the last six monthes I have spent all my spare time working all those online retirement calculators. The FIREcalc one is the BEST I came across. That's for sure. The most valuable info I gather from this forum relates to investing. I like to see the posts relating to everyone's portfolios, what they own, how their investments did, etc. I really think the info here is so much more useful than the info available through all the brokerage sites.
My husband and I are both total newbies in the investment world. We know only what we have learned the past few months. My husband picked three funds for his 401k and 457 accounts 25+ years ago. In all that time we never once opened a quarterly statement from the broker. Is that crazy or what? Fortunately, we have a nice, big nestegg that we otherwise never would have had. At times, we would think about that money and wonder how we could get to it. Thank goodness we only borrowed from it a few times to help pay the kids college expenses.
It wasn't that long ago that we were in debt to the max and saw no way out. But, all of a sudden, the kids were through college and we were out of debt in no time at all. That's when thoughts of early retirement began. And here we are.
So what are we going to do? Well, we knew for sure we had to do something different. So here's the deal. We are going to become PTs, or perpetual travelers, like our mentors, Billy and Akaisha Kaderli. We are selling our home and traveling around the world. We plan to begin traveling in June.
I'll be posting questions soon about the pros and cons of rolling over our 401k and 457 accounts and about diversifying our investments.
Okay, about dryer sheets. Here's the way it is at out house. I use one per load. BUT, my husband, who happens to do most of the laundry, uses 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I guess you'd consider my husband and I early retirees. I'm 52 and he's 53. We each worked at government jobs for nearly 30 years and both retired with pensions. We also have medical insurance through CalPERS.
During the last six monthes I have spent all my spare time working all those online retirement calculators. The FIREcalc one is the BEST I came across. That's for sure. The most valuable info I gather from this forum relates to investing. I like to see the posts relating to everyone's portfolios, what they own, how their investments did, etc. I really think the info here is so much more useful than the info available through all the brokerage sites.
My husband and I are both total newbies in the investment world. We know only what we have learned the past few months. My husband picked three funds for his 401k and 457 accounts 25+ years ago. In all that time we never once opened a quarterly statement from the broker. Is that crazy or what? Fortunately, we have a nice, big nestegg that we otherwise never would have had. At times, we would think about that money and wonder how we could get to it. Thank goodness we only borrowed from it a few times to help pay the kids college expenses.
It wasn't that long ago that we were in debt to the max and saw no way out. But, all of a sudden, the kids were through college and we were out of debt in no time at all. That's when thoughts of early retirement began. And here we are.
So what are we going to do? Well, we knew for sure we had to do something different. So here's the deal. We are going to become PTs, or perpetual travelers, like our mentors, Billy and Akaisha Kaderli. We are selling our home and traveling around the world. We plan to begin traveling in June.
I'll be posting questions soon about the pros and cons of rolling over our 401k and 457 accounts and about diversifying our investments.
Okay, about dryer sheets. Here's the way it is at out house. I use one per load. BUT, my husband, who happens to do most of the laundry, uses 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
