Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 10:57     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone keep insisting that the mortgage needs to be paid off before retiring? I’ve been early retired for 10 years, I’m still not 65, and we still have a mortgage. I could pay it off tomorrow, but it makes no sense to do that financially. It all depends on the interest rate, the tax deductions, and how diverse your overall portfolio is. You are all retirement planning amateurs for focusing so much on mortgages.


You almost always need more money to retire if you have a mortgage because your 3-4% withdrawals have to cover the mortgage payment, which is comprised of principal and interest. I don’t feel like drawing up an example, but do the math and you’ll see that I’m right.

At a certain point, it’s about retiring and enjoying your life, not maximizing net worth. Otherwise, people age 60 would use their entire nest egg to buy 10 rental properties, which would not generate any cash flow because they would be highly leveraged. They would have an extremely high return but could never retire. Glad I could help you understand this.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 10:49     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How on earth do you spend $18k a month? I’d think with that kind of spending you absolutely can’t retire with $5 million saved. I could but my spending is probably 1/3 of yours. So you need to keep working.


Op here. I know $18k a month is a lot. Our “base” spending in a month is probably closer to $11k with the mortgage payment, but we like to travel and spend a lot on that, so that is averaged into the 18k a month along with other less frequent but higher cost items like home maintenance. Fortunately, we are past daycare years and starting to ramp down on aftercare/summer camp needs, too. I don’t scrimp when it comes to fixing up the house or other “nice to have’s.” I know we don’t need these things, but we have had good salaries the past couple of decades and we definitely got used to that. The 529s are set for undergrad.

I think with my ramped down job and DH at his job a few more years, and without a stock market tank (fingers crossed), DH could retire in three years. With my ramped down job right now, I should be able to take some of the daily stress out of our lives just by being able to handle more around the house and being there for the kids and their activities. I am not trying to keep us on the hamster wheel forever.


You need to focus on cutting spending if he wants to retire

Also, I cannot imagine retiring in your 50s with kids not out of college with only what you have.
You are right to worry about ACA costs. Ours will be $2-2.5K/month once we hit 55/56 and it comes with a deductible of over $7K and max OOP of $18K. It's not unreasonable to expect $3-4K/month and that is just for 2 of us. If you have to include the kids, add more

Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 10:46     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Anonymous wrote:350k each or together? If together, how did you amass 5 million?


I’m wondering this too. We are a few years younger than OP, make close to $400k combined and have been maxing out retirement for ages. We have just under $3M total (incl house equity) and I’m not sure exactly what we could have done differently to get to $5M. There was either some impressive market picks or they have a non-standard form of income.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 10:38     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
You need to factor in the costs of the resentment that will ensue when you “ramp down” your job while insisting that he keep earning at his current level.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 10:31     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Anonymous wrote:Can you quantify “set” for 529s?


I project there will be about $250K in each 529 for college. If per chance that does not cover all of undergrad, we will cash flow the balance. I am not worried about the 529s.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 09:16     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Anonymous wrote:Hopefully health care options will be better in a few years for the mid-crowd- retired but not Medicare eligible.


Hahahahahaha

I am sure right after MAGA gets done withMedicare they will work on improving the ACA.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 09:08     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Hopefully health care options will be better in a few years for the mid-crowd- retired but not Medicare eligible.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 09:06     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Anonymous wrote:Let him retire and you, stop spending. It's unnecessary.
Concentrate on making the money you have grow faster. There are other ways to save on taxes than kill your money in 529.
I could double 1 million (or the 5 you have) by the end of the year. Instead, you are making the man work longer.


How to double the money? I want your secret! Seriously!
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 09:06     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Can you quantify “set” for 529s?
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 08:53     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Anonymous wrote:How on earth do you spend $18k a month? I’d think with that kind of spending you absolutely can’t retire with $5 million saved. I could but my spending is probably 1/3 of yours. So you need to keep working.


Op here. I know $18k a month is a lot. Our “base” spending in a month is probably closer to $11k with the mortgage payment, but we like to travel and spend a lot on that, so that is averaged into the 18k a month along with other less frequent but higher cost items like home maintenance. Fortunately, we are past daycare years and starting to ramp down on aftercare/summer camp needs, too. I don’t scrimp when it comes to fixing up the house or other “nice to have’s.” I know we don’t need these things, but we have had good salaries the past couple of decades and we definitely got used to that. The 529s are set for undergrad.

I think with my ramped down job and DH at his job a few more years, and without a stock market tank (fingers crossed), DH could retire in three years. With my ramped down job right now, I should be able to take some of the daily stress out of our lives just by being able to handle more around the house and being there for the kids and their activities. I am not trying to keep us on the hamster wheel forever.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 08:29     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
How on earth do you spend $18k a month? I’d think with that kind of spending you absolutely can’t retire with $5 million saved. I could but my spending is probably 1/3 of yours. So you need to keep working.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 08:24     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Anonymous wrote:Why does everyone keep insisting that the mortgage needs to be paid off before retiring? I’ve been early retired for 10 years, I’m still not 65, and we still have a mortgage. I could pay it off tomorrow, but it makes no sense to do that financially. It all depends on the interest rate, the tax deductions, and how diverse your overall portfolio is. You are all retirement planning amateurs for focusing so much on mortgages.


I don’t know why they keep insisting that the mortgage be paid off, but I wouldn’t take financial advice from them.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 08:02     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Why can’t he retire? If you want to keep working, that seems fine.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 08:01     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Why does everyone keep insisting that the mortgage needs to be paid off before retiring? I’ve been early retired for 10 years, I’m still not 65, and we still have a mortgage. I could pay it off tomorrow, but it makes no sense to do that financially. It all depends on the interest rate, the tax deductions, and how diverse your overall portfolio is. You are all retirement planning amateurs for focusing so much on mortgages.
Anonymous
Post 07/06/2025 07:29     Subject: I said we can’t retire yet. Am I wrong?
Let him retire and you, stop spending. It's unnecessary.
Concentrate on making the money you have grow faster. There are other ways to save on taxes than kill your money in 529.
I could double 1 million (or the 5 you have) by the end of the year. Instead, you are making the man work longer.