later_riser
Confused about dryer sheets
Hi,
I am 46, married, no kids, and we are homeowners in a dream home on a dream island, already. We live on Martha's Vineyard. People may think it's only rich people here, but my wife and I actually live and work here year round and work hard! But I am looking into early retirement for us and this forum is a new thing. Since this is anonymous, my resources are:
-Approx 60K basic annual expenses, with are generally fixed, including mortgage, car, cell, food, etc. and travel, but health insurance always could fluctuate. And inflation, of course!
- Net worth of close to 800K, exclusively in investments and savings, some securities and mostly various retirement funds over the years. Assets over a million. No debt other than mortgage.
-Looking to partially retire early, i.e. go down to part-time job for my wife is the main goal, as early as available, since we already count ourselves as extremely fortunate with where and how we live. This means one or two regular part-time jobs between us, perhaps worth 40K/year?
-We are not high earners. We have a joint income for two of about 90K gross a year. That said, we max out our retirement accounts every year, but frankly they don't let you add much per year. The limit of $6500/year per person is not a lot. The excess we sometimes invest elsewhere, or it goes into a savings account - the "emergency fund".
So...say you want to go down to part-time, from 90K to, I don't know 40K/year, to start with...how do you begin the process if your retirement income isn't available until 59 1/2 for example! And Social Security isn't available until later, either? How do people get around all that, if they want to bow out of the system ten years early!?
Apologies in advance for not being well aware in this area, maybe these are basic questions, but I (we) would love to know where to begin to explore how to partially (and then fully) retire in a rational and safe way. That's what an "introduce yourself" forum is for, I guess, to get started from not knowing anything at all about this game.
I suppose there are best books and sites, so any of those are welcome, as are all thoughts that are friendly and realistic.
I am 46, married, no kids, and we are homeowners in a dream home on a dream island, already. We live on Martha's Vineyard. People may think it's only rich people here, but my wife and I actually live and work here year round and work hard! But I am looking into early retirement for us and this forum is a new thing. Since this is anonymous, my resources are:
-Approx 60K basic annual expenses, with are generally fixed, including mortgage, car, cell, food, etc. and travel, but health insurance always could fluctuate. And inflation, of course!
- Net worth of close to 800K, exclusively in investments and savings, some securities and mostly various retirement funds over the years. Assets over a million. No debt other than mortgage.
-Looking to partially retire early, i.e. go down to part-time job for my wife is the main goal, as early as available, since we already count ourselves as extremely fortunate with where and how we live. This means one or two regular part-time jobs between us, perhaps worth 40K/year?
-We are not high earners. We have a joint income for two of about 90K gross a year. That said, we max out our retirement accounts every year, but frankly they don't let you add much per year. The limit of $6500/year per person is not a lot. The excess we sometimes invest elsewhere, or it goes into a savings account - the "emergency fund".
So...say you want to go down to part-time, from 90K to, I don't know 40K/year, to start with...how do you begin the process if your retirement income isn't available until 59 1/2 for example! And Social Security isn't available until later, either? How do people get around all that, if they want to bow out of the system ten years early!?
Apologies in advance for not being well aware in this area, maybe these are basic questions, but I (we) would love to know where to begin to explore how to partially (and then fully) retire in a rational and safe way. That's what an "introduce yourself" forum is for, I guess, to get started from not knowing anything at all about this game.
I suppose there are best books and sites, so any of those are welcome, as are all thoughts that are friendly and realistic.