I think I need to go back to w*rk

Life has knocked that confidence right out of me.


Take a deep breath. Give yourself some time to adjust to the change of being home instead of work. Change is difficult!

Start an expense analysis, keep track of what/how you are spending your money for a few months to start.

Perhaps a few sessions with a local therapist may help you re-focus, make sure you are not heading into depression or anxiety or give you tools to handle if you are.

Many folks here have been through similar. Feel free to ask questions.

Take Care.
 
Since this whole thing seems to be stressing you out and you have the time now, spend a little time analyzing your expenses for 2022. Look at what your normal expenses by looking at the checks that you wrote in 2022, credit card bill details, etc. Try to put together a budget for what you think you will spend in 2023 given your current lifestyle.

I'm guessing that your spending is probably lower than you are thinking that it is and that you are stressing unnecessarily and it's not good for you.
 
My biggest expenses are taxes (income and property) and insurance (all kinds). Best guess is I will spend ~ $1200 a month going forward on just that.

But yeah some is stress talking and not a $ issue. The number of people who say to me I was a fool to not take the other offer to rebadge is wearing on me.
 
OP: It seems to me that 1) when all the dust settles you'll realize you are 100% fine, financially but 2) you are stressing out because you don't have a firm handle on your finances.
I mentioned it in a prior response, but I'll reiterate you should take a half hour and literally write down your fixed expenses, any rough estimates of non-fixed expenses such as food, recreation, etc. and finally what your current net income is. Just seeing the totals in black and white could give you a sense of comfort.
A personal anecdote that may also help you: I was laid off at 58. I knew we were financially OK, but didn't think I could retire at that point. After a few weeks the realization came that yes, I could retire. As it worked out, I landed another position in a few months and I stayed at it for 2 additional years before leaving on my own terms. In short order, you may find yourself similarly situated.
 
Perhaps those saying that to you don't have a paid off mortgage, a million in 401K, vacation pay to last until a pension take over.
Don't listen to them!

OP--you are second guessing yourself to death. Get out of your own head. Breathe in, breathe out.
Take a few months to gather some info, live the way you have been, a couple of months won't make that much difference.

If you still feel stressed by spending instead of saving each month, look for a job then.

Many folks have posted that it seems you will be fine financially, based on the numbers you have posted.
You state that you are generally frugal anyway.
Give yourself some time to de stress.
Don't pay attention to what others say!
Live your own life. You are blessed to have a pension, many do not. And I think it was a good idea to do what you could to protect that retirement benefit.
 
In case it helps, I too got "involuntary early retirement" at 55.
I'm consider myself a "lean" fire compared to the majority on this board meaning my nest egg is considerably smaller and thus my risk tolerance is considerably lower than most posts on this board.
But it's been working. I had a low cost of living compared to the board (~40K/year) and so far my savings/assets have been flat for 6 years. Current food and property tax inflation does have me wondering if the experience of the past 6 years will continue forward. ACA subsidies have kept the biggest single budget item at bay.
At a glance, the differences between us kinda wash out... I might have started with a slightly bigger nest egg than you, but then I don't have any pension.
One difference is that I tracked my spending to the point of obsession. You may not know how much you spend and thus the burn rate on your savings, but that is fixable. A lot of banks and credit cards have spending/budget trackers. Just start with how much you spend a year and ignore the "on what". You can dig into the "on what" details later IF the gross yearly spend numbers aren't sustainable and you need to cut somewhere.
Even with the uncertainty... you may or may not be able to "sustain the lifestyle to which you have become accustomed", but you are still in better shape than the majority of people outside of the bubble on this board.
Ages 55 to 64

  • Average household retirement savings: $408,420
  • Median household retirement savings: $134,000
ETA: this tool suggests you're in better shape than 95.6% of Americans age 55-60 and thats not including the pension.
https://personalfinancedata.com/ret...min_age=55&max_age=60&retqliq=1250000#results


ETA: And just to show how similar we are, I'm within ~1 percentile of where you are at.
 
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My biggest expenses are taxes (income and property) and insurance (all kinds). Best guess is I will spend ~ $1200 a month going forward on just that.

But yeah some is stress talking and not a $ issue. The number of people who say to me I was a fool to not take the other offer to rebadge is wearing on me.

Then I'm really struggling to understand why you are stressed. For one, if your best guess is that you will spend $1,200/month on income taxes, property taxes and insurance and those are your biggest expenses, that is only $14,400 a year... a nothingburger compared to the $70k of so that you can safely spend according to FIRECalc.

However, that $14,400 sounds like it might be low... https://www.irscalculators.com/tax-calculator suggests that in 2023 that federal and state income taxes for a single with $70k of income (pensions, 401k withdrawals, etc.) would be $9,064, leaving $5,336 for property taxes and insurance.
 
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My biggest expenses are taxes (income and property) and insurance (all kinds). Best guess is I will spend ~ $1200 a month going forward on just that.

But yeah some is stress talking and not a $ issue. The number of people who say to me I was a fool to not take the other offer to rebadge is wearing on me.


People are literally calling you a fool? If that's true time to find a better class of people to hang out with. My best guess would be they are jealous of you and instead of looking at their own lives decide to talk crap to you.
 
My biggest expenses are taxes (income and property) and insurance (all kinds). Best guess is I will spend ~ $1200 a month going forward on just that.

But yeah some is stress talking and not a $ issue. The number of people who say to me I was a fool to not take the other offer to rebadge is wearing on me.

I'm betting that the people who are calling you a fool for not rebadging probably live paycheck-to-paycheck like many people do and don't have $1.125 million saved like you do.... so who do you think the real fool is?

Now OTOH, if you had no or negligible savings then they might have a point, but I'm guessing that they have no idea how wealthy you are.
 
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My biggest expenses are taxes (income and property) and insurance (all kinds). Best guess is I will spend ~ $1200 a month going forward on just that.

You have stress because you are guessing. It will take you 5 minutes to gather the actual estimate of income tax (PB4 has provided) PLUS your actual property tax, PLUS your actual insurance costs.

It will take you another 10 minutes (max) to know what your total spending from 2022 was. You can likely know 2021 spend in 10 more minutes. It's simple....total income less investments (retirement and after-tax) equals total spend. Total spend will include taxes paid, insurance paid, etc.

Then you have facts and can comfortably understand your position.

You are frozen with fear. 25 minutes (or less) of concentrated effort and you will be thawed out.

Do this, report back, and we can help you.
 
It's very simple, but you have to do the work yourself. For anyone else reading, this is the stuff you do long before you retire. But, for the OP, it means carve our tomorrow and get a calculator (it's all easy math, fortunately):

How much do you need each month? Shredded statements? Go to the bank, get the last two years reprinted. Add them up. That's your starting point. The good, the bad, the ugly, that's two years of expenses, voila. Good enough to say what you'll need for the next two, if you add 10-20% for lumpy expenses. You need $xthousand per month. Taxes, Mortgage, food, gas, movies, garden, repairs, utilities, shopping, hobbies whatever it is. Don't try to subtract (don't need this or that anymore) just go with that as a starting baseline.

How long till 59.5? If it's 4 years, double your first answer - that's how much you need to carry yourself. Subtract your pension income and savings, and then you'll know if you have a gap or you don't.

Do these two exercises, and you'll have your answer. If you are golden, good. If you are not, you'll know how much extra you need to make each year, and whether that's done with a job or some investment changes is a question for later. Or whether some of those expenses can truly be eliminated. But that's phase 2.

Phase 1 is your homework now.
 
However, that $14,400 sounds like it might be low... https://www.irscalculators.com/tax-calculator suggests that in 2023 that federal and state income taxes for a single with $70k of income (pensions, 401k withdrawals, etc.) would be $9,064, leaving $5,336 for property taxes and insurance.

Ugh you are right the tax was for the pension payment and I threw in some dividends. Not for future total income but it would still be off because insurance alone never mind property tax is more than that. ~ 10k + income.

People are literally calling you a fool? If that's true time to find a better class of people to hang out with. My best guess would be they are jealous of you and instead of looking at their own lives decide to talk crap to you.

W*rk friends who were affected by the layoff and who are stressed and upset and who made different, maybe "better" choices. But there is no going back. At least once a day if not more someone asks if I found a job (um no I haven't even looked).

I been trying to work in doctors appointments its miserable. Every visit new problem go to a specialist but oh they aren't free until May and oh you don't have a new insurance card so f u call us some other day when you know and . . .
 
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Retiring is a process - doesn’t matter if you are 55 or 70 years old. It takes a few months or even years to adjust. I’m suggesting not making any hasty decisions for a few months until you experience it yourself. Another thing - try not to worry about your retirement balance inching down. Most retirees that have some of their retirement in stock mutual funds or ETF’s find after a handful of years they have MORE money in their retirement fund than when they retired.
 
I guess I'd like to make 6K a month gross AND have some reserve left for like OMG my house burned down and I got cancer and wrecked the car and got sued and . . . all on one day.
 
If you're a naturally anxious person at the best of times, this must be torment for you and may well affect your health.
Do what everyone suggests, your next step has to be figuring up your monthly expenses plus spending money and set up a recurring transfer from your savings of "x" dollars every month and learn to live on it. You might go lean for the first couple of years just till you figure things out including taxes but with 1 million in 401K, retiree pension, no mortgage and you admit to being pretty cheap by nature I think you'll do fine.
You just have to have a little confidence in your decisions and not worry about others that are probably more stressed out than you are right now.
 
Referring to your post - you should have 1 million or 2 million in an umbrella insurance policy. You may have to bump up your insured amount on your cars, but the umbrella policy is pretty cheap at $325 for 2 million per year coverage.
 
Referring to your post - you should have 1 million or 2 million in an umbrella insurance policy. You may have to bump up your insured amount on your cars, but the umbrella policy is pretty cheap at $325 for 2 million per year coverage.

Our umbrella is more like $500 for 1 mil coverage.
 
I think you will feel better once you add up your expenses and get a general idea of how much money you need monthly. I know how it feels to have events outside of your control happen that radically changes your life but for me personally I figure things out as soon as possible because action helps with my anxiety.
 
I guess I'd like to make 6K a month gross AND have some reserve left for like OMG my house burned down and I got cancer and wrecked the car and got sued and . . . all on one day.

So, $1,125k in financial assets ($1m 401k and $125k of cash), $27k of pension starting in 2024, $24k of SS starting at 62 in 2030. Assuming a 45 year time horizon (100-55) and a 50/50 AA, FIRECalc indicates safe spending of $69,395 annually in 2023 dollars. Do you need more than $69k to live on during retirement?

At a minimum open a brokerage account with Schwab or Fidelity, move the $125k of cash to it and put it in a MMF that yields almost 4.5%.

The safe spending level at 95% success isn't all that sensitive to the time horizon:

35 years to age 90.... $70,790
30 years to age 85.... $72,323
25 years to age 80.... $74,883

It seems to me that you are really close and there is no need to be anxious at all. FIRECalc puts your safe spending at $69,395 a year if you live until 100 and $72,323 a year if you live to 85... that's the $6k a month gross that you would like to make.

A little belt tightening or a little part-time work should put you over the top.

On the first part, go back over your analysis of your expenses and do some nips and tucks as needed.

Since you are so close, IMO there is no need to rush going back to work. Why not plan to take a year off and see how it goes? It might well be that your estimate of $6k/month is on the high side and in reality you are all set.

Unless your work is one of those where your skills will quickly atrophy in a year then that might be something to consider.... or perhaps a little part-time work to ease yourself into retirement.
 
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I been trying to work in doctors appointments its miserable. Every visit new problem go to a specialist but oh they aren't free until May and oh you don't have a new insurance card so f u call us some other day when you know and . . .

Maybe I missed something, but if you have some new/recent health scare issues, then maybe it is a good thing you are not working. You have time to address them, attend appointments, follow up on insurance stuff.
Take Time to focus on you and your health!
 
Yeah recent health issues that are not improving, getting discouraged how little progress they are making. I have had more appointments in the last 6 months for stuff than I had in 15 years. I keep thinking I don't need a hobby - it is going to the doctor! 2 appointments today and w*rk so I will not get crap done.

While working i don't even think about money as evidenced by my lack of awareness on spending. It is just a new ballgame with no "income". With the idea of it not being replenished I feel a need to have more than I "need". That might wear off I guess. . .
 
It seems to me that you have 1,125,000 reasons not to fret about the long-term too much. Focus on your health.
 
Just saw this thread. Hey Badatmath, have you figured out your budget?

I thought I'd add that Lifetime Annuities look good now with high interest rates.
Maybe you can convert a portion of your $1.1 Million to a lifetime annuity.
If you have a $1,500/mo Lifetime annuity in addition to your $2,272 pension. You'd be getting like $3,772/month in stable income.
Since you are single, that may cover your basic expenses (housing, electric gas bills, internet/Tv, etc.)
 
Well as of today I have income zero because I got PTO paid out in a lump sum and still not really sure how long it will last but thank you for the suggestion. I have not ever really trusted annuities somehow though I don't know why. I will look more carefully.

I have to say the first week off was more stressful than fun as well as I am not used to having no human contact. Sure the phone rang a couple times but otherwise not the level of interaction I am used to.
 
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