Recent content by whipsaw

Congrats on deciding to change your lifestyle to allow you a better life down the road. With your income, 34 is definitely not too late to make a meaningful impact on your retirement. A couple of notes. First, start tracking all of your expenses for several months to a year to see where your...

Wife and I (34 and 32) make about 180k total gross, and to this point have been maxing out my 401k but only contributing up to the match for hers. We would like to retire well in advance of 59.5 and will need funds from somewhere in order to bridge that gap, either from 72t out of our pretax...

I would imagine the gap growing is largely due to a vanishing factory workforce that received very good wages for jobs that required only a high school diploma (if that).

I don't believe it is treated as earnings for SS purposes. You may have to contact them in order to let them know that you received such a payment. http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10063.pdf

Income? Expenses? Age?

Do you know your annual expenses?

Any pensions or other income in the plan that you can tap at ER or thereafter?

Some information that might be helpful - How much per year are you looking to invest? Roths, for example, have relatively low maximum annual contributions. What are your retirement goals? What are your expenses now? What do you anticipate your expenses being in retirement? Are you planning on...

I was born in 1979 which puts me at age 65 in late 2044, essentially in the middle of 2040 and 2050. Up to this point I have put all my contributions in my TSP L2040 fund but looking at the breakdown it seems a tad conservative. Would you choose to contribute to the 2040 fund, the 2050 fund, or...

You know, that's a very good point. We bought into the house when it was appraised at 420k, and it has appreciated substantially since we bought it (500k might be a little optimistic but 480k is not) with an FHA loan. Obviously we are carrying MI and our current payment plan puts us just over...

Very recently found this message board and reading as much of it as I can as my wife and I plan for ER down the road. About me - 33, wife 31, and we have an infant son and will probably have at least one more child. I am a federal employee and she works for an association - we live in the DC...