Recent content by proud_texan

Has anyone here had experience with Lord Abbott Funds? My Edward Jones broker is steering me toward those when I roll my 401K over into an IRA. Right now, I have everything in Fidelity.

I don't have anything against Edward Jones, I was just wondering what advantage there might be spreading my portfolio over multiple IRAs. From an investment standpoint, I think very little. I'm just not knowledgable enough about taxes to know how it might benefit me to do so. I already know...

My wife and I are working on our ER stratagy and today we spoke with a fellow from EDWARD JONES investments. He suggested that we might split our two 401Ks into multiple IRAs so that we can control the amount we have withdrawn before age 59 1/2 by only withdrawing from one of them. Sounds...

Good point, Patnbj! I know exactly what you mean about maximizing your leisure money. In addition, I like what you said about eliminating those things that don't add to the quality of life. It's just excess baggage anyway. We went through a period of wanting the so-called "better things in...

Being and peace with one's self and being regular should be everyone's ER goal. ;)

What an idiot.>:( Quitters, yes. Quitters from the stress, quitters from the commute traffic, quitters from working with A:-Xholes on a daily basis, quitters from bondage. I keep telling those people I know that work overtime and weekends and take work home, that you can love your job, but...

New exit strategy: spend all my money then die being shot by a jealous husband when I'm 95. :P

My wife and I both work for the DOD, so we have excellent benefits. Like you, our combined pensions are much more than our monthly expenses. In fact, we're taking a penalty by retiring early, but we are still getting a raise in our take home pay because we lived on so little and saved so much...

I've been using FIRECalc to run various withdrawal scenarios. It allows you to determine what you can withdraw with various percentages of safety and shows you what your mean balance might be in 35-40 years. I don't want a balance! How do I calculate what we can withdraw and make it last for 35...

:-/ We must still be in that mode...work regiment. I guess it will take us some time to transition. I'm a type "A", so that may take a while. But, I must admit that my hammock is calling me. I read somewhere in this forum that someone's blood pressure improved dramatically after ER. I'm hoping...

Even though were both excited :o about our impending retirement, my wife and I are somewhat terrified of the unknown. She's already developed a long list of "honey-dos" for me, but once we've exhausted the list there's a concern that we'll waste our time watching TV all day or something as...

Actually, I own my home and a rental property. A home equity loan might be the ticket. I'd eventually like to sell both properties and move to the country but my lovely marriage partner isn't quite ready to make that commitment just yet. We have to stay put for a little while anyway to take care...

My wife and I will need money next year to build a small cabin on our country property.  I'd like to get some advice concerning borrowing from a lender versus borrowing from my nest egg. I'm lothe to withdraw money from our IRA, because that's  tax deferred money that's getting pretty good...

My wife and I have been going over and over our retirement budget and have been able to categorize those things that are deemed as fixed expenses, i.e., taxes, insurance etc. and those that are discretionary. We plan on a lot of discretionary spending going out of the gate, but will slow down...

As I move into ER, I'll be rolling my 401K over into a traditional IRA. I'm certainly interested in diversification, but really, what kind of returns can one expect from commodities and futures? Most of us in ER will depend a steady cash flow from our investments. Wouldn't a portfolio of...