CautaServans
Recycles dryer sheets
Hello, ERs!
I have been a lurker here a few times a year for a few years. (I'm a very slow, wary person.) It's a pleasure to meet you.
Personal: I am 58 years old and believe I could have retired or moved into part-time retirement about four years ago. However, I really like my job in the education sector and am concerned about being without employer-sponsored health insurance. I'm married without children. Fear is my biggest problem.
Habits: I have been a "super saver" my whole life. I save between 50-60% of my take-home pay. However, I put it into credit unions and chase CD rates, which was very challenging from about 2009-2022, and I tread water staying about .5-1% above inflation. I have bought two new cars outright and held/hold on to them for 13-17 years. My house is small and cheap, and we have owned it outright for about 14 years. I also have been a five-figure earner for most of my life, though I moved into the low six figures last year.
Goals: In 2018, I decided that I needed to invest after listening to people from the FIRE community. My family is working-class, and I never learned much about investing, though my money-saving role models are excellent! I especially liked an old podcast called "Optimal Finance Daily" and two blogs: "Mr. Money Moustache" and "The Root of Good." I decided in 2018, after getting to about 80% of my goal, that I should meet my employer's retirement representative (from TIAA), who suggested I shift from my heavy savings of after-tax dollars to putting as much as I could into my 401b and a 457b. So, I began a 10-year plan to reach my goal, but the adviser's advice allowed me to save a ton more. I also allocated 80% to equities and 20% to Traditional. Then, the stock market took off (notwithstanding some turbulence). Now, I have doubled my goal.
What I would like to learn from this community: 1. Having saved about $500k in CDs and watching the sunsetting of the good interest rates of the last several years, I have to make some decisions about moving that money into better-performing buckets. 2. After tripling my retirement account, which I reallocated in November 2025 to 70% in equities and 30% in Traditional (it had run up so much that it was 90%/10% when I checked on it), I need to decide how to allocate the money if I want to work full-time until age 61 and then go on half time for up to five years after that. Headlines are saying things that make my Depression-era grandmother's advice about keeping money safe nag at me, such as "the market is 'frothy'" and "too few companies are driving US market growth." In November 2025, I allocated about 10% of my retirement funds to international funds.
If you could direct me to some of your favorite posts/discussions about allocating retirement savings in a "frothy" environment while being three-to-six years from depending on retirement savings, I would appreciate it a lot!
I have been a lurker here a few times a year for a few years. (I'm a very slow, wary person.) It's a pleasure to meet you.
Personal: I am 58 years old and believe I could have retired or moved into part-time retirement about four years ago. However, I really like my job in the education sector and am concerned about being without employer-sponsored health insurance. I'm married without children. Fear is my biggest problem.
Habits: I have been a "super saver" my whole life. I save between 50-60% of my take-home pay. However, I put it into credit unions and chase CD rates, which was very challenging from about 2009-2022, and I tread water staying about .5-1% above inflation. I have bought two new cars outright and held/hold on to them for 13-17 years. My house is small and cheap, and we have owned it outright for about 14 years. I also have been a five-figure earner for most of my life, though I moved into the low six figures last year.
Goals: In 2018, I decided that I needed to invest after listening to people from the FIRE community. My family is working-class, and I never learned much about investing, though my money-saving role models are excellent! I especially liked an old podcast called "Optimal Finance Daily" and two blogs: "Mr. Money Moustache" and "The Root of Good." I decided in 2018, after getting to about 80% of my goal, that I should meet my employer's retirement representative (from TIAA), who suggested I shift from my heavy savings of after-tax dollars to putting as much as I could into my 401b and a 457b. So, I began a 10-year plan to reach my goal, but the adviser's advice allowed me to save a ton more. I also allocated 80% to equities and 20% to Traditional. Then, the stock market took off (notwithstanding some turbulence). Now, I have doubled my goal.
What I would like to learn from this community: 1. Having saved about $500k in CDs and watching the sunsetting of the good interest rates of the last several years, I have to make some decisions about moving that money into better-performing buckets. 2. After tripling my retirement account, which I reallocated in November 2025 to 70% in equities and 30% in Traditional (it had run up so much that it was 90%/10% when I checked on it), I need to decide how to allocate the money if I want to work full-time until age 61 and then go on half time for up to five years after that. Headlines are saying things that make my Depression-era grandmother's advice about keeping money safe nag at me, such as "the market is 'frothy'" and "too few companies are driving US market growth." In November 2025, I allocated about 10% of my retirement funds to international funds.
If you could direct me to some of your favorite posts/discussions about allocating retirement savings in a "frothy" environment while being three-to-six years from depending on retirement savings, I would appreciate it a lot!
