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Doolish1

Dryer sheet aficionado
Joined
May 25, 2026
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Location
Iowa, louisiana
Hi, I am John, my friends call me JD. I am looking at a retirement date of Jan 12, 2027 0r 2028. I am 49. I have 6.6 years to get the federal LEO retirement with all the golden handcuffs that come with it, but I dont need it. I am single, no ex wives no kids. The people I work with and my friends can not understand giving up 124K a year and give up the 1.7% multiplier and lifetime health care to retire 6 years early. Everyone thinks I am crazy. I do have some private sector friends who say you can always find a job if you needed it so stop working!

I read a lot and you all helped me a lot. I am not crazy. I am buying 6 years of my best healthiest years, especially to work in a prison.


I have no debts. House paid off, car, etc. 2 doxies.

Here are my numbers and plan. Please offer any criticisms and/or support of my mindset.

Spending analysis is I spend about 36-42K a year over the last 5 years. I also have a 94 mile a day commute that will be eliminated. I am a saver, I eat at home, I actually got myself to get first class flights the last 3 years or so, which was hard but I did it! I even played a golf course that cost 280 dollars in St George called Sand Hallow... I never would have paid that 5 years ago, and my spending still is under 42K a year.

Assets:

10K savings and I will get 10K in an annual leave payout. Year 1 is covered with this and dividends basically.

325k in a brokerage account.

Sadly, my mom died and she left me 250K in cash that I expect to receive soon. Also the house is about 700K that my sister is buying my half from me over the next year.

I will roll my TSPs into my Schwab account.

125K Roth TSP (88k contributions - accessible now if needed)

600K Traditional TSP. (access at 59.5)

Current home - paid off worth about 275K.

Pension: 17K at 62

SS: 35K? at 67? ish.

Plan (where I want to be in 2-3 years):

In a home in Westbrook Village, Peoria, AZ. worth 450-500K, with a golf cart, a Tundra, a 22-25 foot travel trailer.

ACA health care with low controllable MAGI.

figuring on 12k dividends, I can sub teach, ROVER, referee hockey if I am bored to make a little money.

So, even without the inheritance home sale, I figure I will have 350Kish plus 88k Roth Contributions to get through the bridge. Or, I wait until 2028, save the one more year, and let the NY home settle and have that cash in hand to make this really a no brainer with an extra 300K to work with.

That does mean 1 extra year in a horrible place to work. Look up any survey on Federal Bureau of Prisons and how people feel about working there. It is rated the worst place to work in government running 10 years. But, if that is what I need to do, that is what I need to do.

Thoughts! Thank you!!
 
I don’t think you are crazy for wanting out, but I would be careful about romanticizing retirement at 49 — retirement is not a never-ending vacation and can bring loss of structure, identity, and social contact.

Retiring at 55–60 is already an excellent outcome, and in your case the 6.6 years buys you real lifetime benefits, health care, and optionality. Unless the job is truly damaging your health, I would not burn that bridge.
 
I don't see a problem financially why your ER in a few years down the road won't work. You have a million $ portfolio and a NW of ~1.75 million is what it looks like.

The thing is you are a saver and can adjust if things go south. With pension and SS coming you will do just fine. Health Insurance you can start learning about ACA and if you play your cards right won't cost you hardly anything.

If you feel you are ready for a life time vacation you need to do it. You won't regret it but ER to something just don't ER and sit have a plan and find something you like to do and take t to the next level.
 
I would be mandatory at 56. I have moved 6 times for the agency and now live in rural Louisiana. I do not want to live in rural Louisiana. Of course, I will also continue to seek to have the agency move me to PHX, where I want to end up, but the agency has denied this a couple times.

Ultimately, It is a toxic place to work.

Once I have a net worth of 2M, I don't really see a good valid reason to trade 6 healthy years to be dead worth 10M vs 2M.

Retirement to me is not a never ending vacation, it would be a new reality where I control where I live and what I do with the time, which would not be driving 94 miles a day to be in prison 40 hours a week. I have a strong social structure set up in PHX already where I will be very active.

I am ER to go where my tribe is, and I am healthy enough to do all these activities. One example: I play(ed) hockey which is not happening in rural Louisiana, and I am healthy enough to still get out there, and my tribe is part of a thriving hockey community in PHX. Can I still get out there at 57, waiting to retire and move, for more money I will never spend? I do not know this.

If I need some kind of daytime social structure that the retirement community isn't providing, I can substitute teach and need be I can always get a job teaching full time in public school or a prison.
 
Doolish1 said:
I would be mandatory at 56. I have moved 6 times for the agency and now live in rural Louisiana. I do not want to live in rural Louisiana. Of course, I will also continue to seek to have the agency move me to PHX, where I want to end up, but the agency has denied this a couple times.

Ultimately, It is a toxic place to work.

Once I have a net worth of 2M, I don't really see a good valid reason to trade 6 healthy years to be dead worth 10M vs 2M.

Retirement to me is not a never ending vacation, it would be a new reality where I control where I live and what I do with the time, which would not be driving 94 miles a day to be in prison 40 hours a week. I have a strong social structure set up in PHX already where I will be very active.

I am ER to go where my tribe is, and I am healthy enough to do all these activities. One example: I play(ed) hockey which is not happening in rural Louisiana, and I am healthy enough to still get out there, and my tribe is part of a thriving hockey community in PHX. Can I still get out there at 57, waiting to retire and move, for more money I will never spend? I do not know this.

If I need some kind of daytime social structure that the retirement community isn't providing, I can substitute teach and need be I can always get a job teaching full time in public school or a prison.
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All I can say Doolish1 you can never get back time? and I think with what I read about you. you will have no problem retiring. I went at 58 and I'm spending less now than when I was working and only you can decide to retire we all here can just give you our opinions, but I vote to go as soon as you are ready to do it period
 
I have run all the calcs and all the AIs and they give me 100% after I get all the inheritances settled. Without the inheritance home, I am at 100% depending on the price of the cost of the retirement house and/or how much side income I make in the bridge years (6k seems to be the right amount to get to 100%).
 
I can understand your wanting to retire and I think you probably could. You need to run your situation through FIRECalc. As you work through the tabs along the top, I would suggest that you go to the Investigate Tab and select the last option which will calculate the amount that you can safely spend each year with a given success rate (95% is the default and is ok IMO).

Get on the SSA website and nail down what you SS will be with no additional payroll taxes paid... there is a calculator for that very scenario on the SSA website.

Since you are not fat FIRE, you may want to find some part-time work for the first few years to use up time and provide a little income.

Whatever you do, do not buy a new travel trailer. There are loads of gently used travel trailers out there at a significant discount to the cost of new.
 
My 95% spend rate was like 70K which is way more than what I have ever spent!!

I've been over analyzing this for quite some time. I have quite a backstop with the huge Traditional TSP portion 600K and Roth TSP 125K still growing for another 9 years, 17k pension and SS. The SS estimates seem to have me at 42K at 67 if I stop working.

I really just look at those bridge years. 325K brokerage now, 250K inheritance cash coming, no debts, plus a 700K inheritance home being sold, split 2 ways.

I always also figured a 72(t) SEPP was another emergency break glass option, however unlikely to ever need it.

I agree with you on the new travel trailer! I def will be getting one used. People are dumping them all the time.
 
I think the most eye opening thing about this whole research process is learning about the MISERY TAX.

I make 124K and about 50K of that goes to taxation and commuting to and from the place. THAT was really eye opening.
 
When you use FIRECalc are you reducing your starting portfolio for the paid-off AZ home, the Tundra and the travel trailer? IOW, assuming that you collected the entire inheritance, sold your current home, but the AZ home and the Tundra and the travel trailer so what was left over could be use for retirement spending in addition to pension and SS coming online later on.
 
I would think twice about giving up lifetime Healthcare. Its a wild card. I have a slight subsidized plan from the state. My cost doubled in 3 years. If you have to work another 6 years to get it , it would be time well spent.
 
Yeah I def entered all the data and things that I want in the calculators


6 more years in Louisiana working in the prison for a health card where I pay more a month than any aca calculator says I'm going pay with lower annual max not working is worth it?
 
I get it, but the aca may not be around forever, or it might even get expanded. The problem is no one knows, thats why its a wild card.
 
I am curious why you would not at leadt try to find a less toxic LE position in PHX. Around here we have small community PDs as well as campus, environmental, transit police etc. Some are more like security positions but many seem to require LE skills and experience with less toxicity. Plan B? You'll be fine whatever you decide.
 
If the fbop wants to let me move and stay in the system I've been trying but so far they are keeping me here. I've been looking at jobs in luke AFB also to try to stay in the feds. But I'm not staying here much longer so if my way out is FIRE I just don't know many who regretted it.

The question for many is how much is enough.

The two big revelations is the misery tax to work and the little I actually spend.

I used to think I needed 100k to survive when in reality I was spending only 40k. Wow
 
I'm sure you have considered the higher cost of living in Westbrook Village, Peoria, AZ compared to the Iowa/Lake Charles area. Lake Charles is lower than the national average and Westbrook is higher. It's not trivial.
 
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Doolish1 said:
Repeal and replace is a fantasy at this point everyone. There will be no repeal. There def won't be a replace. This is the new reality like medicare won't be repealed or replaced.
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I agree with this. The ACA is pretty much here to stay, with tweaks here and there. Probably more reliable than SS at this point.
 
Doolish1 said:
In the fantasy world aca and Medicare are repealed I'll just go get a teaching job lol
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Good, because while I agree that it's really unlikely that the ACA will be repealed, you shouldn't take anything for granted. As long as you feel you have a viable alternative, you have a plan.
Doolish1 said:
If the fbop wants to let me move and stay in the system I've been trying but so far they are keeping me here. I've been looking at jobs in luke AFB also to try to stay in the feds. But I'm not staying here much longer so if my way out is FIRE I just don't know many who regretted it.
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One nice thing about being Financially Independent is that you don't HAVE to Retire Early, but it means you can do so whenever you want. It sounds like, once you're sure you're ready, you can tell the BoP that you are quitting (retiring) unless they move you to PHX. In which case, they might decide to move you rather than be even more understaffed than they are now. They can always tell someone else to relocate to Louisiana.
 
Slim11 said:
I would think twice about giving up lifetime Healthcare. Its a wild card. I have a slight subsidized plan from the state. My cost doubled in 3 years. If you have to work another 6 years to get it , it would be time well spent.
Click to expand...

The dilemma is this great potential benefit vs 6-1/2 more years in a toxic work environment.

OP, have you transferring to a different job with your current employer either where you live now or elsewhere to finish things out? Even if it was elsewhere you could sell the house, rent for the interim and avoid the long commute.
 
Interesting thread with not a definitive answer. It appears that the OP is coming here with a good financial background and is not a newbie to the knowing the nuances that most are in the beginning of a retirement.
It is a tough decision, but the OP is clearly one who values the time is more important than money concept that we push here to many OMY posters.
Yes, free medical and 124k yearly is not a tiny amount. I would lean towards retiring now but definitely is not a slam dunk decision.
 
I'll just add one thing. Peoria, AZ is a great place to live. All the shopping amentias (no matter where one lives), Plenty of hospitals within 15-30 mins radius. Some of the nation's well known hospitals within 45 min radius.
 
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