At 35, is 1M a big enough nest egg

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a good start and can last once you are retired if you live frugally, but that’s a long way away. It would last me about 3 years.

Do you know how compound interest works? Or do you think you'd spend $2.5M a year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lmao, yes, it’s enough. If you don’t put a dime into it, it’ll be $7.5 million at 65 in today’s dollars (i.e., controlled for projected inflation). From that, you can safely withdraw 350k a year in today’s dollars with like a 95% chance of not drawing down the principal.

If you can’t comfortably live on 350k/yr in retirement, I judge the shit out of you.

And op states they plan to “only” continue to max tsp contributions (so currently an extra 49k total in investments/year for the two of them plus a 5% match each) which collectively brings their projected total up to almost 11.8 million at 62 with a safe withdrawal of ~475,000 per year. And let’s not forget that as dual Feds they’ll also be entitled to pensions which could jointly total well over another 100k/year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lmao, yes, it’s enough. If you don’t put a dime into it, it’ll be $7.5 million at 65 in today’s dollars (i.e., controlled for projected inflation). From that, you can safely withdraw 350k a year in today’s dollars with like a 95% chance of not drawing down the principal.

If you can’t comfortably live on 350k/yr in retirement, I judge the shit out of you.

And op states they plan to “only” continue to max tsp contributions (so currently an extra 49k total in investments/year for the two of them plus a 5% match each) which collectively brings their projected total up to almost 11.8 million at 62 with a safe withdrawal of ~475,000 per year. And let’s not forget that as dual Feds they’ll also be entitled to pensions which could jointly total well over another 100k/year.

Yup. But they should worry about retirement, apparently.

[Anonymous]

If they max out, they will be contributing more than 24.5k bc there will also be an employer match on top of that of 5% of their salary.

[Anonymous]

Is this some kind of humble brag? Why would someone with a top 1% net worth be so clueless about their financial situation to ask this question?

[Anonymous]

1M at 35 is not in the top 1% for net worth. Plenty of couples hit that milestone before 30.

[Anonymous]

OP, as others have said, if you continue to both max out TSPs and get the federal match (on double GS-15 salaries), you'll be socking away about $65,000/year. That is plenty to set you and your spouse up for a great retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:1M at 35 is not in the top 1% for net worth. Plenty of couples hit that milestone before 30.

Yes top 1% is like 1.3 million US households.

Absolutely worst case is top 5%. Again how can someone in that position not be aware of where they stand?

[Anonymous]

Op here:

We were both big law lawyers, me for 8 years, DH for 10. That's how we got the nest egg. I feel like it would be impossible to save that much on a dual fed salary.

Being among big law lawyers warps your perception of wealth, sorry if I seem clueless. I've also saved for 10 years pretty religiously, so it feels weird to not actively save and live off salary. Tsp is automatic so I never see it, and do budgeting off of what is deposited.

Thanks for the reassurance! Promise, not a troll!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For a nice retirement? My DH is the higher earner, but taking a well deserved step back and got a nice Fed position. We'll both be GS-15, maxing out TSP contributions, but won't be able to invest in our brokerage in a meaningful way with expenses. Our house is worth about 900k and we still owe 500k on it, at pandemic level interest rates.

I realize I'm fortunate but it's weird not to be able to contribute to the brokerage account anymore. We're in a total world index fund fwiw

I'm assuming you'll continue to work at your GS-15 jobs for a while? If so, then yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, you need $10mil at 35.

+1 to I usually think DCUM posters are unnecessarily harsh on these kinds of questions, but I'm starting to see where they're coming from.

Setting my personal grouchiness aside, sincere congratulations to you OP. Two GS-15 jobs, $1M, and low housing costs is awesome!

[Anonymous]

OP, now is not a great time to be a dual fed family, thanks to Trump. But I guess if he's five year in and not making partner or counsel, it's time to leave? But whereas pre Trump being dual feds was great, now it's kind of risky.

[Anonymous]

You are in really good shape. If you want to retire early or do something different, a brokerage account becomes a valuable lever. I would revisit the decision not to contribute to the brokerage in a year or two.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, now is not a great time to be a dual fed family, thanks to Trump. But I guess if he's five year in and not making partner or counsel, it's time to leave? But whereas pre Trump being dual feds was great, now it's kind of risky.

I’m assuming these aren’t normal civil service jobs but ideological appointments. Which makes it insanely risky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, now is not a great time to be a dual fed family, thanks to Trump. But I guess if he's five year in and not making partner or counsel, it's time to leave? But whereas pre Trump being dual feds was great, now it's kind of risky.

I’m assuming these aren’t normal civil service jobs but ideological appointments. Which makes it insanely risky.

Why assume this? Because DOGE bled us dry, we are hiring again. I’m currently hiring two GS 15 attorneys for my work group and that’s a drop in the bucket of what my agency is doing overall. Winning! We encouraged all the people to retire or leave with all their relevant experience and now we are hiring again, which is a tedious and time consuming process that could have been avoided if they’d just left us alone. Also, please take my acting executive job away as I truly hate it.