Breaking 500

[yakers]

Forty days ago I started a retirement countdown clock on my computer http://www.timeanddate.com/ I am now down to 500 days. The 540 went to 500 pretty quickly. I suspect 400 will come fast enough. Once I am under 365 it will get really interesting. The Nov 3, 2007 date looks good to me for a bunch of reasons. The main variables as to whether I follow through with this date will be having a handle on younger son’s college costs (he will be in first year of college then, so I should have a better idea on costs) and the general trend of the market.

I hope to retire at the end or even the middle of a recession, anything but at the beginning of one. Work is still fun so I do not feel a need to leave but not working still sounds better than working. But I can pick my time. Any pointers on timing retirement to avoid retiring into a recession?

 

[AltaRed]

Why does it matter?  If you have your finances set up to allow you to withdraw 3% or 4% SWR, a recession should not be relevant.

 

[Nords]

Any pointers on timing retirement to avoid retiring into a recession?

Sorry, I picked June 2002.

When you're a year away, maybe it'll make more sense to decide whether to have a couple years' cash in the portfolio or, if the economic picture seems grim, to pad it with a few extra years' worth.

 

[yakers]

Why does it matter? If you have your finances set up to allow you to withdraw 3% or 4% SWR, a recession should not be relevant.

Comfort, I guess.

My wife retired a few weeks back and it will be several months until we really see the effect on our life style & cash flow. She has a modest pension, mine should be better. But embedded in retirement thoughts are dreams as well as clearer thinking. My wife & I would like to do a lot of traveling and it would be nice to have a good reserve for travel. Its easier for me, I figure if I were on my own I could pull the plug and if funds were limited in would just be visiting Tijuana instead of Tahiti. My wife understands the concept but strongly prefers Tahiti.

 

[AltaRed]

FWIW, I retired end of April this year and thus have had the pleasure of watching my portfolio drop almost 8% since that time. While not happy with that experience, I also retired with sufficient cash reserve to withstand a few years of crappy equity markets.

Some folks might say that the markets had to take a correction after the recent run up, but I certainly had no idea it was coming when I selected timing for retirement back in January. And that was my point. You really don't know for sure, so a retirement decision should be independent of market gyrations and a portfolio should have the wherewithall to take such events in stride.