Any updates to this thread. At the time of this thread, the market was rallying and everybody was experiencing nice gains.
Does anybody care to share their experiences from the last 3 years?
Cheers, The Dude.
Three years ago at this time, I began my reduced P/T work schedule, going from working 3 days (20 hours) per week to 2 days (12 hours) per week. While this helped relieve the stress related to my awful commute, getting me home an hour earlier on the 2 days I made the trip, I knew there was a good chance this would not be enough. I was stepping up my plans to retire early, by the end of 2008.
Because I switched from 20 hours to 12 hours, I became ineligible for my company's group health plan, going to COBRA instead (for 18 months). I offered to pay 100% of the premiums instead of the 50% I had been paying sine I began working P/T in 2001, but they balked because I was now part of a "high-risk" pool of people near Medicare age (not me, I was only 44 at the time) who were working less than 20 hours per week, so it was not fiscally affordable. I told them they were providing subsidized health insurance for hundreds of people who did not even work for the company such as retirees, spouses, and children of covered employees (regardless of age or degree of risk) so why couldn't they offer coverage to me, someone who was actually
working for the company?
On the personal portfolio side, I was nearing the $1M mark in investments, most of which was retirement accounts. [It took a dive in 2008.] The company's stock value was still rising quickly so if/when it got to the $300k mark, I felt I could cash it out at low, cap gains rates (NUA). That happened in late 2008 so I retired.
I did pierce the $1M mark in investments in late April 2010, but the declining market has pulled me below that mark again. Oh well. As long as I am getting about "the big nickel" per share on my big bond fund's monthly dividend (from the company's cashed-out ESOP), I will do just fine. And I am.