1924F4mandolin
Dryer sheet wannabe
Just found this site a few days ago, so I have been slowly sifting through the threads looking for things that will help me out. This could be a little long winded….
I’m in a situation at 51 where it finally hit me in the last 6 months that I might be able to call it quits from teaching by the summer of 2010 or 2011 after 27-28 years. I had been single all my life until I married a local gal here in England almost 2 years ago. At that time I figured I would be retiring here in another 7-8 years or so. We bought a house to move into and then last year it hit me that if we moved back to the Spokane area (I’m originally from a small town called Castle Rock in WA) in just a few years….we could retire SOON. That was my downfall, since then I have been a bit fixated on retiring. We both would prefer to retire here since I can live in either place comfortably, but the house market (even with the downturn) is a lot more expensive here. So last summer we bought a house outside of Spokane that we are currently trying to rent out. After reading a number of the threads so far….it looks like most of the posters have a LOT more money than we do. I am in a US Govt job working for the military, but our pensions don’t do much for us (although better than no pension). At this time the Pound exchange is also killing us. We have the house here that we still owe almost 200,000 Pounds on and my wife has about 70,000 Pounds in a savings account. So we are sitting about like this….
IFFFF things go our way…and they offer VERA again next year (retire summer 2010 at 53)…I think we could move back to Spokane, fix the house up and buy a new car (only 1) etc etc and still have at least $500,000 in money from the savings, TSP, house eventually sold here (probably rent out for a couple of years until the market comes back a bit) etc. I would get an immediate pension (do you pay tax on the pension?..I thought I read where you do) that would be about $16,000+ a year before tax. The SS annuity would kick in 3 years later at 56 which I can only guess at the amount, but from the blogs I have read it is less than most people think it will be…but I would hope that would bring in another $700 a month. We both wouldn’t mind picking up a part time job for the 3 years or so until this extra money comes in. We both live rather cheaply and I can only drool at the really big pensions/accounts I read that other people have. I figure most months we could easily live on $2000 with a yearly estimate of from $35,000-40,000 to live comfortably. I will keep the reasonable health benefits from the current job. I have an estimate of $14,000 or so for the S.Security and a finance guy I have talked to said my wife (even though she is British) will be eligible for spouse S.Security which would be 50% of what I would get. My worries….my pension will not be inflation adjusted until I hit 62 (8-9 years).
If this is all just a fantasy for my wife and I….I would sure appreciate one of you folks taking a hammer upside my head to get me back in the real world. Working an extra couple of years is the smarter thing to do, but that isn’t my strong point….. I haven’t lived in the US for very long since about 1980….so I am slightly clueless on how much you really need to live on.
I guess to make all this even shorter…is retiring possible? I have played around with the FireCalc a little bit and it seems to give a fairly positive result.
1. $500,000 eventually in savings etc
2. At least $1000 a month take home from the pension
3. $700 a month from 56 to 62 from SS annuity
4. A little over $1000 a month from SS at 62 to 64 for me.
5. At least $500 a month SS for my wife at 62+
Now I need to get back and start reading some more of these threads since I have the next couple days off….Happy Thanksgiving……
Fred Hicks
I’m in a situation at 51 where it finally hit me in the last 6 months that I might be able to call it quits from teaching by the summer of 2010 or 2011 after 27-28 years. I had been single all my life until I married a local gal here in England almost 2 years ago. At that time I figured I would be retiring here in another 7-8 years or so. We bought a house to move into and then last year it hit me that if we moved back to the Spokane area (I’m originally from a small town called Castle Rock in WA) in just a few years….we could retire SOON. That was my downfall, since then I have been a bit fixated on retiring. We both would prefer to retire here since I can live in either place comfortably, but the house market (even with the downturn) is a lot more expensive here. So last summer we bought a house outside of Spokane that we are currently trying to rent out. After reading a number of the threads so far….it looks like most of the posters have a LOT more money than we do. I am in a US Govt job working for the military, but our pensions don’t do much for us (although better than no pension). At this time the Pound exchange is also killing us. We have the house here that we still owe almost 200,000 Pounds on and my wife has about 70,000 Pounds in a savings account. So we are sitting about like this….
IFFFF things go our way…and they offer VERA again next year (retire summer 2010 at 53)…I think we could move back to Spokane, fix the house up and buy a new car (only 1) etc etc and still have at least $500,000 in money from the savings, TSP, house eventually sold here (probably rent out for a couple of years until the market comes back a bit) etc. I would get an immediate pension (do you pay tax on the pension?..I thought I read where you do) that would be about $16,000+ a year before tax. The SS annuity would kick in 3 years later at 56 which I can only guess at the amount, but from the blogs I have read it is less than most people think it will be…but I would hope that would bring in another $700 a month. We both wouldn’t mind picking up a part time job for the 3 years or so until this extra money comes in. We both live rather cheaply and I can only drool at the really big pensions/accounts I read that other people have. I figure most months we could easily live on $2000 with a yearly estimate of from $35,000-40,000 to live comfortably. I will keep the reasonable health benefits from the current job. I have an estimate of $14,000 or so for the S.Security and a finance guy I have talked to said my wife (even though she is British) will be eligible for spouse S.Security which would be 50% of what I would get. My worries….my pension will not be inflation adjusted until I hit 62 (8-9 years).
If this is all just a fantasy for my wife and I….I would sure appreciate one of you folks taking a hammer upside my head to get me back in the real world. Working an extra couple of years is the smarter thing to do, but that isn’t my strong point….. I haven’t lived in the US for very long since about 1980….so I am slightly clueless on how much you really need to live on.
I guess to make all this even shorter…is retiring possible? I have played around with the FireCalc a little bit and it seems to give a fairly positive result.
1. $500,000 eventually in savings etc
2. At least $1000 a month take home from the pension
3. $700 a month from 56 to 62 from SS annuity
4. A little over $1000 a month from SS at 62 to 64 for me.
5. At least $500 a month SS for my wife at 62+
Now I need to get back and start reading some more of these threads since I have the next couple days off….Happy Thanksgiving……
Fred Hicks