OP, congratulations to save and invest so much money. Great job.

Anonymous wrote:3.5-4M of tax exempt bonds would meet your tax exempt income goal. However, I’m assuming that some of your $ is in 401k which you wouldn’t invest in tax exempt bonds

Beware of high inflation with this approach

Anonymous wrote:So if you have 3.5-4M in savings (not including your house), where should you put this money so it generates safely 100-150k$/yr? Can that come to you tax free? We are age 55 with this amount. TIA!

If you don’t put it in a dividend fund like schd ir something, a cash management account at fidelity that automatically splits it into fdic insured blocks and earns 3-4% per year is what you would do. Fidelity only pays interest once a month though on the 1st of the month so that’s an adjustment.

It’s not tax free but interest income is taxed at something like 15%. Don’t take my tax advice, do your own due diligence.

Anonymous wrote:We just crossed it, this morning, based on this market price advance. (Investment portfolio, not counting house.)

So that's $2.5M per person. Not enough to retire early.

Anonymous wrote:You can retire with basically nothing if you have a big enough pension or real estate. If you think that you need more than 5 mil, you probably have a spending/mental problem.

Well the two things you mentioned are things most people don’t have so

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just crossed it, this morning, based on this market price advance. (Investment portfolio, not counting house.)

When do you expect to retire? We’re at 5.5M, and it’s hard to know what number is realistic. Not asking for advice; just curious what others are doing.

The number is different for everyone. We retired with ~4M and we’ll be more than comfortable.

What does that look like? Are you relying on the cash to produce income without drawing down the funds or are you relying on pensions and social security if you are old enough to collect those?

OP it all depends on what your income streams) will be, when they kick in a how stable they are and what you spending is like today and what you want it to be in retirement.

If you have health care covered and have stable income streams (pension, rental income, etc.) that cover 70% of your spend goal, then you are OK. If not build a larger nest egg, properly invested that should grow to about $20M by 61 or 62.

Anonymous wrote:can you retire yet?

And give up a good government job?

Anonymous wrote:So if you have 3.5-4M in savings (not including your house), where should you put this money so it generates safely 100-150k$/yr? Can that come to you tax free? We are age 55 with this amount. TIA!

There might be others, but municipal bonds are Federal tax free. Generally, if you buy municipal bonds in our own state those are tax free. Then you have tax free income. However, they aren't paying that much currently, regardless of the state. You'd have to put all your money into municipal bonds in order to make that kind of income. Note: while municipal bonds can be tax free, they do affect your IRMAA bracket, which affects how much you pay for Medicare Part B.

Anonymous wrote:Early retirement came first and then money. I wanted to brag too. I'd take early retirement over money any day.
Had I known that money would follow, I would have retired at 40 already. Nobody talks about the reverse order of the two.

You are fortunate that you retired into an amazing market, and didn't hit sequence of return risk.

Anonymous wrote:One can minimize all expenses to stay within their budget but healthcare and nursing home expenses.

Agree that healthcare and potential LTC are the biggest wildcards. The two other expenses that could become challenging in retirement are property taxes and home/car insurance. As we've been diligently tracking our expenses over the last 7 years, the biggest increase has been in our assorted insurances.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We just crossed it, this morning, based on this market price advance. (Investment portfolio, not counting house.)

When do you expect to retire? We’re at 5.5M, and it’s hard to know what number is realistic. Not asking for advice; just curious what others are doing.

Op. In about 20 years

Most 40YO DCUMmers have $20M by now, per the latest threads. So, with $5M you're behind.

Exactly! Everyone has $20M at 40 bc they sAvED and LiVeD bElOw ThEiR mEaNs. And aren't house poor.

I've heard it possible if you don't buy guac @ Chipoltle.

I don't make the rules...

I love when a crazy comment from an older thread gets repurposed. 😂

One can minimize all expenses to stay within their budget but healthcare and nursing home expenses.

Health insurance is the issue, more so if one spouse was SAHM.

Early retirement came first and then money. I wanted to brag too. I'd take early retirement over money any day.
Had I known that money would follow, I would have retired at 40 already. Nobody talks about the reverse order of the two.