CountryBoy
Dryer sheet aficionado
Hi everybody—I’m also one of those year-or-so lurkers. I’m 51, single no kids. I own no property but have zero debt. I own a 9 year old car with less than 20,000 miles on it (I use public transportation, mostly).
I come from a small town, moved “to the big city” (Pittsburgh) back in 1990 & my goal for the last few years has been to retire on my 59th birthday or maybe a little sooner. All I want is to find a small place back home & be near family and old friends. I came from some pretty humble beginnings which prompted me to save as much as possible, but it’s not like I have an investment portfolio or anything.
My current gross income is 58K, but I’ve been tracking my expenses for the last 3 years (I love Mint.com) and surprisingly it's only been around 20K per year. I’m not naïve enough to know it will always be that low though.
I have 224,000 in cash savings (which I add around 15K a year), 150,000 in my 401K (which I contribute 10% my employee matches 50% up to 6%) and 30K in a Cash Balance Plan (which grows about 4K a year).
I plan on collecting social security at 62, but that’s still 10 years away. But like most of the people here, I don’t WANT to work into my sixties. I haven’t used FIRECALC but I have used the AARP & MSN Money calculators, both tell me I can probably retire at 58-59 with a bit more money than what I’m spending now (in fact AARP says I can retire even earlier) but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Anyway, just wanted to say hi to everybody—a good group of smart, friendly people!
I come from a small town, moved “to the big city” (Pittsburgh) back in 1990 & my goal for the last few years has been to retire on my 59th birthday or maybe a little sooner. All I want is to find a small place back home & be near family and old friends. I came from some pretty humble beginnings which prompted me to save as much as possible, but it’s not like I have an investment portfolio or anything.
My current gross income is 58K, but I’ve been tracking my expenses for the last 3 years (I love Mint.com) and surprisingly it's only been around 20K per year. I’m not naïve enough to know it will always be that low though.
I have 224,000 in cash savings (which I add around 15K a year), 150,000 in my 401K (which I contribute 10% my employee matches 50% up to 6%) and 30K in a Cash Balance Plan (which grows about 4K a year).
I plan on collecting social security at 62, but that’s still 10 years away. But like most of the people here, I don’t WANT to work into my sixties. I haven’t used FIRECALC but I have used the AARP & MSN Money calculators, both tell me I can probably retire at 58-59 with a bit more money than what I’m spending now (in fact AARP says I can retire even earlier) but I’ll believe it when I see it.
Anyway, just wanted to say hi to everybody—a good group of smart, friendly people!