jvmarathon
Confused about dryer sheets
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2017
- Messages
- 5
Hey folks!
Well, the internet has long intrigued me with stories of folks retiring in the 30s and 40s. I’d love to jump on the bandwagon, but I’d like to get feedback from y’all on how on track I am. Don’t sugar coat things and telling me I’m crazy and not on track is feedback I need!
I’m 11 years into a career at a downstream oil refining company, and my husband has nearly as much time there as I do. We are degreed engineers. The first year, we couldn’t contribute to the 401k plan, so we’ve been saving in the plan for 10 years. Also, there were a few years our contributions were capped due to the “highly compensated employee” rules. We cannot contribute to a Roth IRA. We have two daughters, one in third grade and the other a toddler. We’d love to retire in our mid 40s but to qualify for retiree health benefits, we have to work till age 50. We are both 32 years old.
Now for the numbers: our only debt is our house mortgage at $206,000. Our combined income pre tax is $290,000, and we max out our 401ks. I have $374,000 in my 401k; hubby has $332,000 in his. We are invested in index funds that track the s and p and the Dow, and he is in a Fidelity commingled pool as well. We both have sizeable amounts of company stock in our portfolio; our plans are to sell some of it and rebalance over the next few months. We are aggressive investors with our portfolios entirely in equities.
Our company offers cash balance pensions. Our current balances are $61000 and $62000. Our company matches a percentage of your salary based on age and years of service, minimum 7%. Unfortunately, the interest rate at which those savings grow is tied to the Us Treasury 30 year, which is barely 3% these days. So, the pot of money doesn’t look like it’s going to grow super quickly.
We have $160,000 in savings, we are getting ready to remodel our basement and paying cash. What’s leftover after subtracting 6 months of living expenses is going in a brokerage. Due to our high incomes, I don’t think traditional IRA can offer us much. My plan is to sock as much cash as we can into brokerage, investing in indexes with low expense ratios. I am planning on the brokerage coupled with our pensions as our income stream that will get us buy until we can withdraw from our 401ks penalty free at age 59 1/2.
How are we doing? Are we on track or dreaming to think retiring at 50, or maybe even 40s is an option?
Well, the internet has long intrigued me with stories of folks retiring in the 30s and 40s. I’d love to jump on the bandwagon, but I’d like to get feedback from y’all on how on track I am. Don’t sugar coat things and telling me I’m crazy and not on track is feedback I need!
I’m 11 years into a career at a downstream oil refining company, and my husband has nearly as much time there as I do. We are degreed engineers. The first year, we couldn’t contribute to the 401k plan, so we’ve been saving in the plan for 10 years. Also, there were a few years our contributions were capped due to the “highly compensated employee” rules. We cannot contribute to a Roth IRA. We have two daughters, one in third grade and the other a toddler. We’d love to retire in our mid 40s but to qualify for retiree health benefits, we have to work till age 50. We are both 32 years old.
Now for the numbers: our only debt is our house mortgage at $206,000. Our combined income pre tax is $290,000, and we max out our 401ks. I have $374,000 in my 401k; hubby has $332,000 in his. We are invested in index funds that track the s and p and the Dow, and he is in a Fidelity commingled pool as well. We both have sizeable amounts of company stock in our portfolio; our plans are to sell some of it and rebalance over the next few months. We are aggressive investors with our portfolios entirely in equities.
Our company offers cash balance pensions. Our current balances are $61000 and $62000. Our company matches a percentage of your salary based on age and years of service, minimum 7%. Unfortunately, the interest rate at which those savings grow is tied to the Us Treasury 30 year, which is barely 3% these days. So, the pot of money doesn’t look like it’s going to grow super quickly.
We have $160,000 in savings, we are getting ready to remodel our basement and paying cash. What’s leftover after subtracting 6 months of living expenses is going in a brokerage. Due to our high incomes, I don’t think traditional IRA can offer us much. My plan is to sock as much cash as we can into brokerage, investing in indexes with low expense ratios. I am planning on the brokerage coupled with our pensions as our income stream that will get us buy until we can withdraw from our 401ks penalty free at age 59 1/2.
How are we doing? Are we on track or dreaming to think retiring at 50, or maybe even 40s is an option?