Should I stop daydreaming about retiring at 55?

[Anonymous]

I am 55 with a spouse a few years older. My plan was to leave at 55 with my corporate pension and healthcare. I turned 55 late last year and I am still working.

We have $2.8M in retirement and $1.7M in brokerage accounts. House is worth $900K. Plenty of cash in the emergency fund and in CD’s. Our combined SS will be $80K. Another $80 in pension if I left today.

Kids have graduated college and doing their thing. If I asked the Bogleheads they would tell me I am good to leave now. DCUM would tell me I am nuts to retire with anything less than $10M.

I guess I am waiting for some sort of “sign” or maybe a package. Seriously though, I would give some thought towards what you would do with your time. I think that is what is holding me up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 55 with a spouse a few years older. My plan was to leave at 55 with my corporate pension and healthcare. I turned 55 late last year and I am still working.

We have $2.8M in retirement and $1.7M in brokerage accounts. House is worth $900K. Plenty of cash in the emergency fund and in CD’s. Our combined SS will be $80K. Another $80 in pension if I left today.

Kids have graduated college and doing their thing. If I asked the Bogleheads they would tell me I am good to leave now. DCUM would tell me I am nuts to retire with anything less than $10M.

I guess I am waiting for some sort of “sign” or maybe a package. Seriously though, I would give some thought towards what you would do with your time. I think that is what is holding me up.

I wouldn't tell you're nuts, you have 160k in sure income and healthcare! Maybe start doing some "pretirement" -- that is, stop saving, and spend on the kinds of things you think you might like to do in retirement in your spare time and see how fulfilling they are to you. See if you can get a month sabbatical with no pay and try a more intensive version.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question- you retiring, or both of you?

I am thinking about myself. I don't think DH is considering retiring early right now, he is more pessimistic than I am. I think he would want to if he felt like he could.

[Anonymous]

Hell I have less than that, but we have a full military pension and benefits so hoping to retire before that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you imagine that you will be done with kid related expenses when your kid is 20?

You can plan for it, but we are there and probably have the money to do it, but the idea of retiring now with kids this age (17-22) is laughable to us.

The key is one kid. You have multiple kids aged 17-22. Too many things can go wrong. You've got to keep your income going until that 3rd kid is in college or launched so you don't get hit with multiple kid-related emergencies at once. Of course it feels laughable to you.

The other thing about one kid is that it allows you to make an assessment based on the one kid. There are some kids who parents will look at when they are 17 and say "let's go ahead and keep working and see how college goes" before retiring. And then there are kids where you'd retire and not even worry. When you have multiple kids you can't make that individualized assessment -- you have to kind of look at everyone at once and ask if you feel like there won't be any major unexpected expenses and unless you are very wealthy most people are just going to suck it up and work a little longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 55 with a spouse a few years older. My plan was to leave at 55 with my corporate pension and healthcare. I turned 55 late last year and I am still working.

We have $2.8M in retirement and $1.7M in brokerage accounts. House is worth $900K. Plenty of cash in the emergency fund and in CD’s. Our combined SS will be $80K. Another $80 in pension if I left today.

Kids have graduated college and doing their thing. If I asked the Bogleheads they would tell me I am good to leave now. DCUM would tell me I am nuts to retire with anything less than $10M.

I guess I am waiting for some sort of “sign” or maybe a package. Seriously though, I would give some thought towards what you would do with your time. I think that is what is holding me up.

You obviously can retire anytime you want. It just depends how much you want to spend in retirement. Do you own the house or still have a mortgage. Is the $160K in SS plus pension enough to live off (including paying for medical, but I suspect you are government and will have cheap access)? If not, how much more do you need?

[Anonymous]

At 55 your kid has a good chance of being in college. You will need to plan for full coverage of the expenses and health care. Waiting until 57 to retire may be a better plan.

[Anonymous]

Daydreaming is free. 55 is far enough out- go ahead dream away. You might end up wanting to stay until your DC graduates from college (an extra year or two). Or you may not. It is also a long enough time to see how your investments do and see if you need to make any adjustments.

In the mean time, I would look around where you work to see if there is another job you might like better that is not as soul sucking. Is there a skill you could get that would give you a different job that would be more interesting? Changing up your job -even slightly helps. Is there a different department?

[Anonymous]

I’m 53 now with $4M NW including $900K paid off house. HHI $275K.

I wouldn’t dream of retiring. $3M is not what it used to be and it will be worth even less in 15 years.

[Anonymous]

I am 47 and I decided in the last month to stop fixating on retiring at 57. I am going to try to save what I can while living my life and reassess at 55. I want to be present in the moment and not spend the next 10 years focused on retirement which may or may not be possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you imagine that you will be done with kid related expenses when your kid is 20?

You can plan for it, but we are there and probably have the money to do it, but the idea of retiring now with kids this age (17-22) is laughable to us.

If you have enough money in 529 what else do you need?
You want to spoil your adult children? Is that what this is about?

[Anonymous]

I would look for ways to make life a little less soul sucking now, but there's no harm in daydreaming. You might find that you enjoy work more when your child is older and less demanding (and gone a lot). I have a kid in college and it doesn't feel onerous to work nor do I wish to retire. My friends are all at work during the day and I have plenty of time on evenings and weekends for hobbies and fun activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Daydreaming is free. 55 is far enough out- go ahead dream away. You might end up wanting to stay until your DC graduates from college (an extra year or two). Or you may not. It is also a long enough time to see how your investments do and see if you need to make any adjustments.

In the mean time, I would look around where you work to see if there is another job you might like better that is not as soul sucking. Is there a skill you could get that would give you a different job that would be more interesting? Changing up your job -even slightly helps. Is there a different department?

It's complicated. It has to do with senior leadership being terrible, especially to women. My awesome boss mostly deals with them but it can be demoralizing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How long do you plan to live? Do you plan to get any inheritance? Do you care about leaving money when you die?

I put in 95 in the Fidelity calculator. My grandparents passed in their mid-late 80s.

Possible inheritance but not banking on it (my guess is $500k). Do want to leave money behind. Currently the calculator says I would have lots left but of course depends on the market. And who knows with inflation.

[Anonymous]

You are doing fine with retirement accounts, but also, take a note of you spending. Maybe you can cut from somewhere without even feeling it. Many of us don't need as much crap as we think we need.
Now take that money and invest it in an investment account or new Roth with RH or Fidelity. I turned $50k into $300k in few years and learned a lot doing so.
I also doubled my two Roths this year and hope to do it again by next summer.
You can open new Roth and start with the $7k if you want to keep it nice and separate. Do you homework into what stocks to buy. Buying and selling inside of Roth is tax free. You will learn a lot even when your investment goes down, usually temporarily. Don't forget to note why it went down.
Down market is the best market.