Retiring in a little over a year @55, the light at the end of the tunnel is in sight!

[OK EE]

New member here, but have been a FIRE/retirement saving student for 10+ years. My path to retirement has been a little unconventional. DW and I started our professional careers in the mid 90s. By 2000 I knew I wanted out early, but due to lack of internet information and my working for small companies most of my career, combined with 2000 DOTCOM bust and dead decade, I didn't get much saving done in our 30s. What that did mean is that we paid off our house quickly, and back in the days of 7% mortgages that mattered. Then after the 2008/2009 crash things accelerated quickly. By 2016 I knew I needed a little extra help so I hired a CFP. He got me squared away, and after years of research I finally stopped using his services due to cost. We're past our FI number due to the performance of the market in the last 3 years, but will likely stick it out until 55 to be able to use Rule55 to have access to 401Ks if needed. My employer is going through some pretty drastic changes though, and I may just hang it up a year early.

We live in the cold Midwest. We bought property in North Carolina a few years ago and plan on building a snowbird home there. I know the general advise is not to build a new home for retirement, but I think this is the right move for us. It's in a beautiful spot and I can't stand the cold winters here. North Carolina should provide some welcome relief.

By all measures, we've won the game. That doesn't mean I'm not going to optimize for a higher success number. From the handful of days spent here reading and even participating in some threads, this looks like the right place for me! I can't believe in 2025 there is still a forum with such an active user base. I was on dozens of forums 10 years ago and most are now a shell of their former selves.

 

[old medic]

Welcome and congats to ya.... We started our new home remodel just before I retired. If your planning on it being your forever home make sure to incorporate to stuff to make aging in place easier.

 

[latexman]

Welcome aboard! Good luck to you. We live in NC and snowbird in FL. Where abouts in NC?

 

[OK EE]

Welcome aboard! Good luck to you. We live in NC and snowbird in FL. Where abouts in NC?

On the water outside New Bern (east coast)

 

[latexman]

On the water outside New Bern (east coast)

Very nice! On the Neuse River, or a tributary?

 

[pacergal]

Welcome to the forum. Hope to hear more from you along the way.

 

[engineernerd]

Welcome!

In my area "beautiful spot" = incredible hassle and expense to get a building permit, plus disappointment over what ends up being allowed. I recommend careful investigation of the building regulations/zoning code and asking locally about others' experiences before you get too attached to the idea of building on your waterfront lot.

This problem is worse for rural-zoned acreage than for already-subdivided urban lots, but shoreline regulations affect both.

 

[Koolau]

Welcome to the Forum. Keep us posted on your progress. We love success stories.

 

[Mook1e]

Welcome! As the time to retire approaches, it seems like a lot of FIRE folks find our way here!

 

[mebden]

Welcome OK EE and when you finally do pull the plug it will be a weight you didn't know you were carrying around with you is finally gone

 

[38Chevy454]

Welcome to the forum. Are you an Electrical Engineer? We have many engineers on here, myself one of those.

 

[mh]

New member here, but have been a FIRE/retirement saving student for 10+ years. My path to retirement has been a little unconventional. DW and I started our professional careers in the mid 90s. By 2000 I knew I wanted out early, but due to lack of internet information and my working for small companies most of my career, combined with 2000 DOTCOM bust and dead decade, I didn't get much saving done in our 30s. What that did mean is that we paid off our house quickly, and back in the days of 7% mortgages that mattered. Then after the 2008/2009 crash things accelerated quickly. By 2016 I knew I needed a little extra help so I hired a CFP. He got me squared away, and after years of research I finally stopped using his services due to cost. We're past our FI number due to the performance of the market in the last 3 years, but will likely stick it out until 55 to be able to use Rule55 to have access to 401Ks if needed. My employer is going through some pretty drastic changes though, and I may just hang it up a year early.

We live in the cold Midwest. We bought property in North Carolina a few years ago and plan on building a snowbird home there. I know the general advise is not to build a new home for retirement, but I think this is the right move for us. It's in a beautiful spot and I can't stand the cold winters here. North Carolina should provide some welcome relief.

By all measures, we've won the game. That doesn't mean I'm not going to optimize for a higher success number. From the handful of days spent here reading and even participating in some threads, this looks like the right place for me! I can't believe in 2025 there is still a forum with such an active user base. I was on dozens of forums 10 years ago and most are now a shell of their former selves.

(if you have not come across it yet) FIRECalc: A different kind of retirement calculator
is always a good sanity check to run your numbers against

 

[Dtail]

Welcome to our forum. Hope to hear on your ongoing progress to the land of retirement.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

Just for clarification, Rule of 55 states that you can retire in the year you turn 55.
You don't have to BE 55

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Welcome aboard!

 

[ArmchairMillionaire]

Just for clarification, Rule of 55 states that you can retire in the year you turn 55.
You don't have to BE 55

Came here to say just that. You can separate from service any time (even January 1st!) in the year that you turn 55. I would suggest that if you're planning on taking a distribution from that 401(k) make sure your plan allows:
1.) Yearly (not lump-sum) distributions.
2.) Distributions before age 62, or 59=1/2, or whatever arbitrary age some plans enforce.

Welcome to our little group of (mostly) like-minded individuals.

 

[OK EE]

Just for clarification, Rule of 55 states that you can retire in the year you turn 55.
You don't have to BE 55

Heh yeah I know. My birthday is shortly after new years. So for me it's essentially the same thing

 

[tulak]

Some plans allow for a partial/split distributions after separation. In the year you turn 55, you can rollover part of the 401k distribution to an IRA and the other part to a taxable account without penalties.

I was hoping for Rule of 55, but my plan doesn’t support it. I’m thinking of using split distributions to fund 1-2 years until 59.5.

And luckily my birthday is at the end of the year, so I qualify shortly after turning 54. Just need to make it to 2028.

 

[Diogenes]

...We're past our FI number due to the performance of the market in the last 3 years, but will likely stick it out until 55 to be able to use Rule55 to have access to 401Ks if needed. ...

... I know the general advise is not to build a new home for retirement, but I think this is the right move for us. ...

With the recent buoyancy in the stock market, it's natural to feel that such gains are transitory and can't be counted upon. Hence "OMY" and related skepticism. This is widely panned, but I think that such skepticism is warranted, not in any sense of being a "perma bear", but just from desire to build a cushion. The psychology of money, is far more important than the money itself!

As for building a new house for retirement, I've not heard of any general deprecation of such a move. Am I missing something? Lots of folks dream of FIRE, not so much to quit working, as to quit living where one had been working. Suppose that someone is a New York City person, born-and-bred, who works in the petroleum industry... in Texas, or the Middle East. Our hero maybe likes his work, but doesn't care for the environs of where he works. The solution is to retire, not because the cubicle is onerous, but because local life outside of the cubicle is the core problem.

 

[pjigar]

Welcome to the forum. Are you an Electrical Engineer? We have many engineers on here, myself one of those.

Welcome OK EE from a fellow EE!

 

[pjigar]

We bought property in North Carolina a few years ago and plan on building a snowbird home there. I know the general advise is not to build a new home for retirement, but I think this is the right move for us. It's in a beautiful spot and I can't stand the cold winters here.

Some tricks for a new custom build. (We have done 2 so far!):
* Stay on-site to watch over everything every hour. Things are far easier to catch and fix sooner rather than later. Workers/Builders WILL cut corners. Learn a little bit about construction (or search on youtube for each phase of construction on "pitfalls") to catch them yourself. I am a self-taught construction manager and I can spot mistakes in EVERY house being built to has been built by a traditional builder. Construction sloppiness is unbelievable!!
* To help you stay on-site, you can look in to buying an RV for short term living or have a small cabin/ADU built which can be converted to a guest house later (if building codes allow). ADU can be your learning vehicle.
* Add everything needed for aging in place. Too many to list. There was a thread a while back.

 

[MarieIG]

Welcome to the ER Forum EE.

Two links that many have found helpful with their retirement planning process are Frequently Asked Questions and FireCalc (noted above in post #12).

There are a few others on the forum whom have built their own retirement homes.

We hope to "hear" from you often.

 

[NeilDH]

Some tricks for a new custom build. (We have done 2 so far!):
* Stay on-site to watch over everything every hour. Things are far easier to catch and fix sooner rather than later. Workers/Builders WILL cut corners. Learn a little bit about construction (or search on youtube for each phase of construction on "pitfalls") to catch them yourself. I am a self-taught construction manager and I can spot mistakes in EVERY house being built to has been built by a traditional builder. Construction sloppiness is unbelievable!!
* To help you stay on-site, you can look in to buying an RV for short term living or have a small cabin/ADU built which can be converted to a guest house later (if building codes allow). ADU can be your learning vehicle.
* Add everything needed for aging in place. Too many to list. There was a thread a while back.

Side note: I think you could sell services as a "construction consultant" to watch over our projects! We could have used your watchful eye on our recent project, though thankfully we did catch things ourselves and got the contractor to redo inadequate work with no extra charge.

 

[pjigar]

Side note: I think you could sell services as a "construction consultant" to watch over our projects! We could have used your watchful eye on our recent project, though thankfully we did catch things ourselves and got the contractor to redo inadequate work with no extra charge.

Thanks. My friends tell me the same thing but I am trying not to start another thing that would sure will turn in to w*rk! I do guide anyone pro-bono who asks in my extended social circle.

 

[Happy30]

Congrats! We bought a lake home when I retired and 3 years later we have gutted it and adding an addition! So exciting!