I have been reading the forum for a while and am looking for suggestions from members.
My situation is as follows:
My wife and I live in small town USA in Central IL. I “retired”, quit work, in April of 2003 at age of 58. I had a minor health issue, plus couldn’t handle the rat race any longer. Probably reason #1 of top ten reasons to retire early.
Since then, I have sold personal stock to live on and invested the rest. The small company I worked for never traded its stock publicly and once a person leaves the company, you are required to sell the stock back to the company. My wife and I have no children living at home. No mortgage, no car payments (we have four?), no CC debt. Wife does not work. I am self employed as much as I want to be (about 8-10K per year). I pay our health insurance (1K per month). We figure it costs about 50K per year to maintain our present life style. Major expenses are: RE Taxes-6K per year, Health Insurance-12K per year.
As of present date:
250K in CD’s, interest is withdrawn
55K in muni bonds maturing in 2035 to 2041
110K in T-bills and notes, some 5 yr TIPS
125K in IRA, no distributions yet
Small fixed annuity will pay 10K per year beginning 2007
Eligible for SS in 2007
In 2006, I have 1.1M in an ESOP account that I will roll to an IRA. I have not been convinced by the financial planners I have spoken with to let them handle my money for the 200-250 basis points of gross they charge each year. I moved all my 401K funds out of the stock market just before the big bust (had an uneasy feeling when Clinton announced the gov was going after Bill Gates) and haven’t had the courage to reenter the stock market. I have been pondering the idea to place the entire amount in CD’s and withdraw the minimum I need each year (40-50K). Any additional money I have will be invested in T-bills.
My situation is as follows:
My wife and I live in small town USA in Central IL. I “retired”, quit work, in April of 2003 at age of 58. I had a minor health issue, plus couldn’t handle the rat race any longer. Probably reason #1 of top ten reasons to retire early.
Since then, I have sold personal stock to live on and invested the rest. The small company I worked for never traded its stock publicly and once a person leaves the company, you are required to sell the stock back to the company. My wife and I have no children living at home. No mortgage, no car payments (we have four?), no CC debt. Wife does not work. I am self employed as much as I want to be (about 8-10K per year). I pay our health insurance (1K per month). We figure it costs about 50K per year to maintain our present life style. Major expenses are: RE Taxes-6K per year, Health Insurance-12K per year.
As of present date:
250K in CD’s, interest is withdrawn
55K in muni bonds maturing in 2035 to 2041
110K in T-bills and notes, some 5 yr TIPS
125K in IRA, no distributions yet
Small fixed annuity will pay 10K per year beginning 2007
Eligible for SS in 2007
In 2006, I have 1.1M in an ESOP account that I will roll to an IRA. I have not been convinced by the financial planners I have spoken with to let them handle my money for the 200-250 basis points of gross they charge each year. I moved all my 401K funds out of the stock market just before the big bust (had an uneasy feeling when Clinton announced the gov was going after Bill Gates) and haven’t had the courage to reenter the stock market. I have been pondering the idea to place the entire amount in CD’s and withdraw the minimum I need each year (40-50K). Any additional money I have will be invested in T-bills.