googily
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2013
- Messages
- 792
Hi all--
I have some financial decisions to make soon, and would be interested to hear various points of view. It's also not the sort of stuff easily discussed with "real-life" friends, as will become apparent.
A parent just died, with a trust that bequeaths about a half-million dollars each to myself and siblings. There is the choice of taking some or all of the money either in cash or in property she held.
One piece of property is a house, valued at about $180k, in a smallish town two time zones away. The location is one where DH and I would love to spend summers once we are no longer working. It probably requires about $3-4k a year in expenses.
I am 47, DH is nearly 52. No kids. Combined maxxed-out 401ks, IRAs, and savings at about $1.2M. We both work for a Megacorp where we have also have a good old-fashioned defined benefit pension plan. Our mortgage in a big expensive city is about $330k (3.625%) on a house that could easily sell for $850k.
We aren't penny pinchers, but we don't opt for a lot of Keeping Up with the Joneses-type stuff. (Combined income is about $230k.)
My job has changed over the past few years, and while Megacorp is still happy with me, I am totally ready to be done with full-time working. I could probably get a contract for a while for about half my salary, which would give me some additional day-to-day flexibility without completely gutting my income stream (and would be work that could be done remotely). DH is in a similar position, but he could also probably hang out a shingle and do well.
I haven't obsessed to the point yet where I have been running things through FireCalc (soon!), but I have used Quicken's planner and it does seem like I could retire in the next few years if I took the trust money all in cash, and maybe even with a cash/property split.
I know that from a harsh financial perspective, taking ownership of the house because we might spend a few months there each year isn't the most solid decision. On the other hand, if things go way way south someday, we could sell our current house and move there with a huge profit. (With no heirs, we're not really thinking a lot about permanently preserving huge amounts of our assets.) Also, if we sold the house, and then later on decided that we really really want to own something in that town, would we hate ourselves for having pulled the trigger on the old house too soon?
What questions should I be asking myself? About the house, about how realistic ER may be, etc. etc.?
Thanks....
I have some financial decisions to make soon, and would be interested to hear various points of view. It's also not the sort of stuff easily discussed with "real-life" friends, as will become apparent.
A parent just died, with a trust that bequeaths about a half-million dollars each to myself and siblings. There is the choice of taking some or all of the money either in cash or in property she held.
One piece of property is a house, valued at about $180k, in a smallish town two time zones away. The location is one where DH and I would love to spend summers once we are no longer working. It probably requires about $3-4k a year in expenses.
I am 47, DH is nearly 52. No kids. Combined maxxed-out 401ks, IRAs, and savings at about $1.2M. We both work for a Megacorp where we have also have a good old-fashioned defined benefit pension plan. Our mortgage in a big expensive city is about $330k (3.625%) on a house that could easily sell for $850k.
We aren't penny pinchers, but we don't opt for a lot of Keeping Up with the Joneses-type stuff. (Combined income is about $230k.)
My job has changed over the past few years, and while Megacorp is still happy with me, I am totally ready to be done with full-time working. I could probably get a contract for a while for about half my salary, which would give me some additional day-to-day flexibility without completely gutting my income stream (and would be work that could be done remotely). DH is in a similar position, but he could also probably hang out a shingle and do well.
I haven't obsessed to the point yet where I have been running things through FireCalc (soon!), but I have used Quicken's planner and it does seem like I could retire in the next few years if I took the trust money all in cash, and maybe even with a cash/property split.
I know that from a harsh financial perspective, taking ownership of the house because we might spend a few months there each year isn't the most solid decision. On the other hand, if things go way way south someday, we could sell our current house and move there with a huge profit. (With no heirs, we're not really thinking a lot about permanently preserving huge amounts of our assets.) Also, if we sold the house, and then later on decided that we really really want to own something in that town, would we hate ourselves for having pulled the trigger on the old house too soon?
What questions should I be asking myself? About the house, about how realistic ER may be, etc. etc.?
Thanks....