Wow! What a great site. Working at Megacorp, and traveling one week, I decided to do some Early Retirement web surfing and stumbled across this site. Reading the coaching, advice and watch-outs was one of the best road warrior evenings I have spent in my career. Like a great book, I have not been able to put this site down.
Without a doubt, I have found some useful information on this site – the 72t is probably the most useful as I think about “bridging” my family until I am 59. That said, I would like to share our situation with you and find out what you think. I am hoping people can coach me on if we are on track; I think we are, but other eyes and advice would be appreciated.
I am 44, DW is 38 and we have two kids 6 and 4. From a retirement perspective, I am hoping to retire by 50 and the DW is currently expecting to work until 48. My hope is I can convince her to hang it up earlier, but for now she is suggesting 48. I guess I will have a few years chauffeuring my son & daughter as I wait for my wife.
From a portfolio perspective, our account is a follows:
- 529: $40k current value
o 60% US Equity; 40% international
o investing $6k/year split evenly for each child until I retire
- 401k (combined): $765k current value
o 70% Large cap; 20% Small Cap; 10% international
o Investing $35k/year until I retire then ~$18k until DW retires
- Deferred comp: $130k current value
o 70% Large cap; 20% Small Cap; 6% international; bonds 4%
o Investing $40k/year until I retire
o Hoping to use this and potentially tap 72t to bridge to 59.5
- Cash: $35k
From an income / expense perspective, we have:
- 2nd Property bringing in $2k / month with recurring monthly expenses of $1,600. This rental has been rented to 4 different tenants over the past 8 years with only 1 month of non-rental income. $1400 / month expense is mortgage which will be completed before I retire.
- Current mortgage of $3500; higher than we want, but it is in a good middle school & high school district for our kids
- Quicken modeled in expected retirement expenses are between $80k - $100k; taking into account healthcare ($10k/year), rental expenses ($2k/year but will need to raise based on this blog), additional college expenses, wedding expenses, etc
- DW income for the 4 years she works post my retirement should cover 80% of our retirement expense with the deferred comp helping cover any misses and accelerate debt repayment
As for modeling, Quicken has us both making it to over 100 years old. FIRECalc strongly suggests we cannot retire today, but with some conservative assumptions, 50 looks feasible.
I have not been to a FA, and am hoping you can help with identifying what gaps you see or questions / advice you can share so I can course correct on the misses and become more confident with our journey.
Without a doubt, I have found some useful information on this site – the 72t is probably the most useful as I think about “bridging” my family until I am 59. That said, I would like to share our situation with you and find out what you think. I am hoping people can coach me on if we are on track; I think we are, but other eyes and advice would be appreciated.
I am 44, DW is 38 and we have two kids 6 and 4. From a retirement perspective, I am hoping to retire by 50 and the DW is currently expecting to work until 48. My hope is I can convince her to hang it up earlier, but for now she is suggesting 48. I guess I will have a few years chauffeuring my son & daughter as I wait for my wife.
From a portfolio perspective, our account is a follows:
- 529: $40k current value
o 60% US Equity; 40% international
o investing $6k/year split evenly for each child until I retire
- 401k (combined): $765k current value
o 70% Large cap; 20% Small Cap; 10% international
o Investing $35k/year until I retire then ~$18k until DW retires
- Deferred comp: $130k current value
o 70% Large cap; 20% Small Cap; 6% international; bonds 4%
o Investing $40k/year until I retire
o Hoping to use this and potentially tap 72t to bridge to 59.5
- Cash: $35k
From an income / expense perspective, we have:
- 2nd Property bringing in $2k / month with recurring monthly expenses of $1,600. This rental has been rented to 4 different tenants over the past 8 years with only 1 month of non-rental income. $1400 / month expense is mortgage which will be completed before I retire.
- Current mortgage of $3500; higher than we want, but it is in a good middle school & high school district for our kids
- Quicken modeled in expected retirement expenses are between $80k - $100k; taking into account healthcare ($10k/year), rental expenses ($2k/year but will need to raise based on this blog), additional college expenses, wedding expenses, etc
- DW income for the 4 years she works post my retirement should cover 80% of our retirement expense with the deferred comp helping cover any misses and accelerate debt repayment
As for modeling, Quicken has us both making it to over 100 years old. FIRECalc strongly suggests we cannot retire today, but with some conservative assumptions, 50 looks feasible.
I have not been to a FA, and am hoping you can help with identifying what gaps you see or questions / advice you can share so I can course correct on the misses and become more confident with our journey.