I can retire this coming January, with the basics covered, plus a little more. I'm constantly crunching the numbers, having conversations with myself, and my wife when she wants to hear it for the umpteenth time, about whether it's enough, or whether instead I should work another year or two to add a little cushion.
The biggest elephant in the room for us is that we don't own a home. We're currently renting two apartments, because I work 125 miles from where she lives and works. I sleep 4 nights a week at my apt. then drive to see her on weekends. We've been doing that more than 3 yrs.
It probably makes sense to buy a house now, before I retire, but I HATE the thought of going in debt for a mortgage (although now's the time with the low rates) or even worse....spending the cash from my retirement savings. The majority of our retirement will come from my COLA'd pension that begins when I retire, and then 5 yrs later a smaller military pension begining at age 60. I won't really qualify for much SS, only around $200 or so. Wife will get some SS, maybe $600 at 62, but she's only 52 now.
If I pay cash for a house, that means no mortgage, which is great, but also wipes out a big chunk of our savings. We only have around $300k. If we spend $200k on a house, the pensions will cover everything, with a little breathing room.
I don't know if it makes more sense to carry a mortgage, therefore a requirement to withdraw monthly from the savings to cover the payments, or simply pay cash for the house, leaving the savings 2/3 lower, but then not needing to withdraw anymore due to the pensions covering everything. On one hand, mortgage rates are probably lower than I can earn on savings, however, carrying a mortgage means I can't really look at my portfolio for anything beyond paying the mortgage because I need it to keep earning enough to cover the mortgage. Perhaps a few yrs down the road it will have increased enough to kick off some excess $$.
If I had a substantially bigger portfolio, this would be a no-brainer to me. I'd pay cash for a house, skim off the remainder as needed...or if needed. Probably wouldn't need to touch it except for special occasions (or a new toy, emergency, etc.). Maybe I really do need to work a few more years to build up more cushion.