40 and starting to refine our plan

[JohnKeating]

I've been lurking around this message board for about 2 years now and finally taking the plunge.

Here are the details:

Me: 40, DW: 49 (retired), 2 children 9 and 11
Taxable: $175,000
My 401k: $575,000
My Roth IRA: $50,000
DW 401k: $400,000
DW tIRA: $80,000
College (9 year old): $90,000 (split between 529, custodial, and general)
Mortgage: ($350,000)
Home Value: $470,000

Net worth: ~1.5M
Expenses: $85,000 (include mortgage)

Hope to retire at 52 (2027).

We've run FIRECalc using many scenarios and all are very positive. Have my own spreadsheets that I use as another data point as well as Quicken and its planning tools. So we feel pretty confident of our high level plan.

Recently brought in an estate planner (fee only) to run some independent calculations and review our plan and documents (wills, beneficiaries, insurance, etc.) and his results also confirmed that we're on a good path.

Another reason for the estate planner is he is also a specialist in special needs planning as our 11 year old has Down Syndrome (hence no college planning or any assets in her name) so planning for her needs after 18 and after we pass is very important.

Both DW and I are LBYM (~ 30% saving rate) and don't really see that changing. I enjoy what I do now and it's very low stress so can't complain but also the prospect of ER at 52 or earlier is very exciting.

John

 

[retire2020]

Welcome!

 

[Katiek]

Welcome, and kudos to you for meeting with a planner to help ensure your daughter's needs are appropriately addressed. That's a very important step.

Without info on your expenses, it's hard to tell much about your plan, but your savings rate is excellent and you've done a great job so far. I look forward to seeing more of your participation here!

 

[MBAustin]

Welcome! Now that you're a member, we look forward to your participation!

Great job to be planning for your special needs child now. I'm sure there are others here who will benefit from your experience with that particular subject.

 

[ivinsfan]

Welcome! Now that you're a member, we look forward to your participation!

Great job to be planning for your special needs child now. I'm sure there are others here who will benefit from your experience with that particular subject.

This is an interesting topic and I've read that having a special needs child leads people to work longer to make sure everything will be taken care of. In your case 52 seems like a great possible outcome. Are you buying life insurance or something along that line to take care of this?

 

[JohnKeating]

We are still in the early stages of finalizing our long term plan but life insurance will be at least part of the picture.

You may or may not know but individuals with special needs cannot directly have assets above a certain level to qualify for government assistance. This leads to making sure everything left to them runs through a trust of some sort.

We are still learning but there is special consideration that needs to be taken when leaving pre-tax to a trust. It's a bit of a mess so leveraging a life insurance product of some sort makes life a bit easier.

As the plan comes into better focus I'll provide details.