Hello! New member

[RetireEarly50s]

Hello, I have been reading this board for about a year or two and finally decided to register and post. I have got some great information from reading this site and reading all the great advice given. It is nice to have a site where people actually think the same way I do. I have found out I can not talk to many people about early retirement everyone thinks I am crazy. They say I won't be financially able to retire or I will get bored. People just don't understand that there is way more to life than work. I only work because I have to for now and I travel and enjoy life as much as possible and am hoping to do it even more when I retire. So here is some info on me and my plan let me know what you think.

I am 33 and my wife is 33 I am in the Air Force and have been in for 11 years. I currently make about 56K and my wife currently doesn't work I have given her the option of taking some time off so we can travel even more because she never gets enough vacation to match mine. She may or may not work in the future we are doing fine without.  We have no children and don't plan on having any. We currently have 18K in my Roth IRA and 18K in her Roth IRA, 11K in my TSP account with the Air Force and she has 7K in a 401K from a previous job.  We also have a mutual fund worth 9K so a total of 63K right now. The 401ks are through our employers, and the Ira's and mutual fund are through fidelity. I currently put 200 a month into each IRA and 200 into the mutual fund and 100 into my 401K so a total of 700.00 monthly. If my wife goes back to work part time or anything we will invest more. I will also invest more as I get promoted as we already are used to LBYM. We also have a house that we built 2 years ago for 160K and now is worth 280K. Our plan is to retire at age 47 or maybe earlier if possible. I will receive a military pension at 47 of anywhere from 30K to 40K depending on what rank I make. With our current savings most calculators I have done show we would have 400K in savings at 47. I would like to live on 40K a year which is actually a little more than I do know after you take away mortgage payments and investments which I will not have in retirement. Worst case scenario for my pension would be 30K so I figure I would only need to take about 3% out of the investments even lower than the suggested 4% and that would give me 42K per year. Of course many things could change between now and then such as wife working, promotions etc. that could hopefully help me retire earlier. I could retire at 41 with a pension of 20K. Does it look like I am on track to retire at 47 or possibly earlier? I know this was long but I have seen you like thorough explanations so you can give the proper advice.    Thanks         

 

[Nords]

Welcome, Retire, it sounds like you guys have a great plan.

I'd stay in as long as you're having fun. If that's 25 or even 30, great. If it's 20 years & five minutes then the government will still reward you handsomely for your time. If it's only 16 or 17 years then there's always the Reserves and a later reward while you pursue other civilian-career interests. It's good to have choices.

Between the TSP and the Roths you could theoretically put away up to $23K/year, and the TSP has funds with some of the world's lowest expenses. Depending on your asset allocation that $200/month might be better aimed at one of the TSP's funds than at the taxable mutual fund... but that's just polishing cannonballs on a plan that's already more than good enough.

 

[RetireEarly50s]

Nords, Thanks it feels good to know someone else besides myself thinks the plan will work. I do agree about the TSP and will probably look at switching more to the TSP after the mutual fund is sufficient for emergencies.