May be retiring earlier than I thought

[MaryContrary]

You are forgetting that 62% of $7,560 would be able to be saved between age 49 and 60. Assuming a 4% return that leaves $70K at age 60 when you could then start taking the annuity, if that is the plan, and @ 4% that 70K since it is not in the spending plan will grow to 188K by age 85:

You are quite correct and I forgot about that. Added a column for 4% interest on the after-tax annuity starting at age 49 to age 60.

According to my calculations it comes up to a difference of $39,400 in favor of the lump sum.

Not a lot over a span of 25 years. I then need to consider longevity risk versus leaving the balance to my 3 children.

 

[MaryContrary]

I chose the lump sum. It hasn't been paid yet, supposed to be any time now and I opened a roll-over IRA already because I needed the account number for the forms.

Things have changed some in the meantime. The company is splitting up and they have a buyer for the still profitable part. The systems and people we have are valuable in the industry. No one can say if there will be further layoffs or not or how things will go, whether the deal with go through or not, etc.

I guess this is good and bad. Right now, even though I knew my job would be ending, I still had a good severance package and a 15% per year retention bonus. I assume that if there is a new owner/continuing business, that will go away. I just really want to retire at age 55 if at all possible.