Anyone retire a little early?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not retired yet but wonder if I could in about 5 years. I'm 49 now and have $960K in 401K, $195K in brokerage account. My SSN would be about $1500 a month if I work 5 more years. I also will have a small pension ( about $1000 a month). My spouse already receives SSN and pension in the amount of $3000 a month ( healthcare insurance is deducted from his government workplace). Our child will be heading to college in a few years and we have 4 semesters prepaid in 529. I wonder if I can retire in 5 years. We have no debt, house is paid off. We are pretty frugal. I'm so jealous of all retired people who have time and money and can travel anywhere they want. Can I retire too?

Yes of course you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired from Biglaw a little over a decade ago at 53 with a net worth of about $4 million. Net worth is now $8 million plus — $5.5 million in retirement accounts, $1.2 million in brokerage and checking and the rest in equity in our primary and second homes. We bring in about $75k a year in SS and rent on our English basement apartment.

My law firm has covered our medical insurance since I retired but I pay the full premium. Once I hit 65 I will switch to Medicare and so will spouse (who never worked outside the home). Kids fully launched long ago and college long paid for. Monthly budget of $20k is proving to be plenty and financial advisor calculates “likelihood of success” at this spend rate at 99 percent with a large nest egg leftover for the kids.

Have never been bored even when doing nothing. Absolutely love being retired despite
the large opportunity cost that I paid and have never looked back. It’s awesome.

Zero opportunity cost to to you but a ton for your children and grandchildren and grandchldren.

I could stop working now my self. But I like to pay kids weddings, help with downpayments in homes, afford to do family vacations, host Xmas. Host bridal showers. I know 8 million seems a lot but remember the 1970s a period of almost no stock gains and high inflation. You end up pulling from 401k and savings accounts way faster than expected in those time period. We are in a bull market since 2009. My brother retired in 2022 and his net worth is way way up these last three years not working. Had like 10 million has line 13 million even with spending. He is 99/10 stocks vs bonds. That’s not normal. Now if stocks fell 10 percent a year last three years and him not working might go other way

dp.. I would hope that my kids would be financially stable enough after we paid for the college education to pay for their own wedding, mostly. If they can't, then they need to have a smaller wedding. DH and I paid everything ourselves. I don't want my kids to be dependent on mommy and daddy their entire adult lives. That's not how I raised my children.

I help out my parents financially. I don't want my kids to have to help me financially so I make sure our retirement is set.

[Anonymous]

I plan on retiring at 56, next year. NW about $4mil, excluding home. No pension; all private sector. Will have to buy ACA. Yes, I know how expensive it is. We've had it before. Spouse has been retired for a year at 60.

PITI is like $2500, kids 529 enough for in state.

We are done with working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I plan on retiring at 56, next year. NW about $4mil, excluding home. No pension; all private sector. Will have to buy ACA. Yes, I know how expensive it is. We've had it before. Spouse has been retired for a year at 60.

PITI is like $2500, kids 529 enough for in state.

We are done with working.

You sound like us! Both of us are retiring next year. We are researching ACA for the two of us getting similar coverage to what we have now and it is currently around $1300/month. Apparently that will rise in January. Hopefully it’ll stay under $1500 and that’s manageable for us until medicare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just came to say, "you all are RICH"!

I'm not rich by DCUM standards but I'm 56 and plan on retiring at 62. I currently work for the Post Office and have 470 k in my TSP. I moved to Nevada 20 years ago and my house will be paid off soon. I will only need about 3k a month to live fairly comfortably. I hear people talking about needing 10k a month to retire and I wouldn't know what to spend that amount of money on.

[Anonymous]

I am unexpectedly retiring in a couple of weeks (thanks DOGE!). Husband (57) also RIF'd, but not eligible for retirement. I was initially VERY worried about our financial future, so hired a financial advisor. He really put my mind at ease that we are fine to actually retire. Our NW is ~2.5M, not including ~850K equity in our home and 529 accounts with more than enough to cover the rest of college for our three kids.

The hard thing is wrapping my head around 1) not saving anymore; and 2) not working. I am going to try it out, but my husband decided to take another job. We'll see how the next year plays out and probably re-evaluate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am unexpectedly retiring in a couple of weeks (thanks DOGE!). Husband (57) also RIF'd, but not eligible for retirement. I was initially VERY worried about our financial future, so hired a financial advisor. He really put my mind at ease that we are fine to actually retire. Our NW is ~2.5M, not including ~850K equity in our home and 529 accounts with more than enough to cover the rest of college for our three kids.

The hard thing is wrapping my head around 1) not saving anymore; and 2) not working. I am going to try it out, but my husband decided to take another job. We'll see how the next year plays out and probably re-evaluate.

Uh oh. Que the weirdo who is going to tell you that you aren’t retiring. You’re a stay at home mom. 🙄

3,2,1….

[Anonymous]

I retired at 62, two years ago. Not really that early but earlier than I'd planned to, at 65. Husband still works.

Able to do it because we paid off our mortgage and received inheritance. Have a (not federal) pension. Using husband's health insurance until 65 and Medicare. I could have stayed but I'm really glad I left when I did. At a certain point it's time to leave and I knew it had come. I don't regret it or miss working at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am unexpectedly retiring in a couple of weeks (thanks DOGE!). Husband (57) also RIF'd, but not eligible for retirement. I was initially VERY worried about our financial future, so hired a financial advisor. He really put my mind at ease that we are fine to actually retire. Our NW is ~2.5M, not including ~850K equity in our home and 529 accounts with more than enough to cover the rest of college for our three kids.

The hard thing is wrapping my head around 1) not saving anymore; and 2) not working. I am going to try it out, but my husband decided to take another job. We'll see how the next year plays out and probably re-evaluate.

Uh oh. Que the weirdo who is going to tell you that you aren’t retiring. You’re a stay at home mom. 🙄

3,2,1….

How old are the kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I retired from Biglaw a little over a decade ago at 53 with a net worth of about $4 million. Net worth is now $8 million plus — $5.5 million in retirement accounts, $1.2 million in brokerage and checking and the rest in equity in our primary and second homes. We bring in about $75k a year in SS and rent on our English basement apartment.

My law firm has covered our medical insurance since I retired but I pay the full premium. Once I hit 65 I will switch to Medicare and so will spouse (who never worked outside the home). Kids fully launched long ago and college long paid for. Monthly budget of $20k is proving to be plenty and financial advisor calculates “likelihood of success” at this spend rate at 99 percent with a large nest egg leftover for the kids.

Have never been bored even when doing nothing. Absolutely love being retired despite
the large opportunity cost that I paid and have never looked back. It’s awesome.

Zero opportunity cost to to you but a ton for your children and grandchildren and grandchldren.

I could stop working now my self. But I like to pay kids weddings, help with downpayments in homes, afford to do family vacations, host Xmas. Host bridal showers. I know 8 million seems a lot but remember the 1970s a period of almost no stock gains and high inflation. You end up pulling from 401k and savings accounts way faster than expected in those time period. We are in a bull market since 2009. My brother retired in 2022 and his net worth is way way up these last three years not working. Had like 10 million has line 13 million even with spending. He is 99/10 stocks vs bonds. That’s not normal. Now if stocks fell 10 percent a year last three years and him not working might go other way

dp.. I would hope that my kids would be financially stable enough after we paid for the college education to pay for their own wedding, mostly. If they can't, then they need to have a smaller wedding. DH and I paid everything ourselves. I don't want my kids to be dependent on mommy and daddy their entire adult lives. That's not how I raised my children.

I help out my parents financially. I don't want my kids to have to help me financially so I make sure our retirement is set.

Same. We help our in-laws, which is partially why we can't save enough to do everything that PP did. I wouldn't start giving away that amount of money until I reached $10m because I refused ever to become a burden to my kids, and I don't like my job enough to keep going after I get about $6m, so this means we can give our kids the gift of a fully funded education, but then they'll need to start adulting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I briefly retired at 52 with a NW of about $9 million. But, I still had a child in HS, none of my friends were retired and I didn’t want to hang out with 70 year olds so I went back to work investing in and running a company. I retired at 61 with a NW over $25 million. Retiring is great but if you don’t stay busy and engaged in something you like boredom will set in.

So then why did you retire the second time? Won’t boredom set in?

Fair question! I had to travel a lot and at 61 it was wearing me out. I've kept busy with a few Boards and I'm very involved with a non-profit, we travel a fair amount, young grandkids live nearby and I suffer on the golf course. No doubt some days are boring but no longer having to catch a Monday 6:30am flight to NYC makes it worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am unexpectedly retiring in a couple of weeks (thanks DOGE!). Husband (57) also RIF'd, but not eligible for retirement. I was initially VERY worried about our financial future, so hired a financial advisor. He really put my mind at ease that we are fine to actually retire. Our NW is ~2.5M, not including ~850K equity in our home and 529 accounts with more than enough to cover the rest of college for our three kids.

The hard thing is wrapping my head around 1) not saving anymore; and 2) not working. I am going to try it out, but my husband decided to take another job. We'll see how the next year plays out and probably re-evaluate.

You might be able to save if you look at it differently. If your net worth is $2.5m and you take out 4% a year your net worth could continue to grow assuming markets grow 6-7%. Yes, that's just an assumption! That 2-3% difference can be viewed as savings. I'm sure people would argue that its not technically savings but my net worth is growing a lot every year and that keeps me sane. I'm not spending what my portfolio is earning so that's a type of savings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I briefly retired at 52 with a NW of about $9 million. But, I still had a child in HS, none of my friends were retired and I didn’t want to hang out with 70 year olds so I went back to work investing in and running a company. I retired at 61 with a NW over $25 million. Retiring is great but if you don’t stay busy and engaged in something you like boredom will set in.

So then why did you retire the second time? Won’t boredom set in?

Fair question! I had to travel a lot and at 61 it was wearing me out. I've kept busy with a few Boards and I'm very involved with a non-profit, we travel a fair amount, young grandkids live nearby and I suffer on the golf course. No doubt some days are boring but no longer having to catch a Monday 6:30am flight to NYC makes it worth it.

I keep wondering when DH will finally shut down all the travel. He's not far off from your age and still going at 100% on travel, but he also set up a lifestyle that still requires him to work. Don't think our retirement savings would cover all the golf-related spending, for example. But don't you want to be done with cross-country red eyes at some point?

[Anonymous]

I envy all the people with a pension. I would love to retire early, but I don't have enough savings (am 55 and we live a long time in my family, lots of late 90 folks, so I would need my savings to cover me for about 40-ish years). As it is I pray I can stay employed to 65. I have never been unemployed but have been in do-gooder roles so not paid a lot. I have $1.1mil in retirement accounts and about $400K in equity. House will be paid off in six years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just came to say, "you all are RICH"!

I'm not rich by DCUM standards but I'm 56 and plan on retiring at 62. I currently work for the Post Office and have 470 k in my TSP. I moved to Nevada 20 years ago and my house will be paid off soon. I will only need about 3k a month to live fairly comfortably. I hear people talking about needing 10k a month to retire and I wouldn't know what to spend that amount of money on.

Lots of travel and helping out family.