Realistically, when do you think you can retire?

I retired on October 1 of this year from a power plant. I just turned 61, I will farm until I die.

edit: I was lucky and the company I worked for still had a pension. I took a buy out (they wanted to downsize.) I took the lump sum pension payout plus the 401k and put it in an IRA that someone else keeps track of the investments.

 

I have found myself in a pretty great situation recently that is giving me a whole new perspective on life. I've very blessed but at the same time I've worked hard to be in this position and all the hard work has been worth it.

I will turn 30 this coming May. If my math works out and I continue to work hard, I will be able to retire by 35. My spouse will be 38.

Still trying to wrap my head around that and what its going to mean, because obviously sitting at home eating bon bons all day isn't my retirement plan.

It's going to be incredible to know that I can go on to do whatever I want whenever I want.

Thank you to all you people on here who have offered wise advice to keep your head down, hustle, work hard, invest, and don't spend into oblivion. Know that some of us listen.

 

10 million....rough estimate....figuring...calculating....I'd estimate 125 years old.

 

Well then, I;m going to die in the office also

 

I can retire now and live comfortably for the rest of my life if I wanted.

I'd just have to off myself in a few months.

 

Thank you

I'm blessed to have had people in my life that have shown me what is possible and have given me the knowledge to do it. Not everyone gets that which is why some people won't have the money to retire.

 

Does anyone have advice on finding a financial advisor that you don't feel is going to screw you over? My wife and I both have good jobs, and mediocre 401K's. I also have some stock and a separate retirement account from a previous job. Together its probably worth 100k at the moment. I'm 37 and we have 2 kids under 4. Once we can stop paying psychotic amounts of money for childcare, we want to invest more of our income, but I am struggling finding someone I trust to handle my money.

 

Don't be discouraged if you need to sit down with multiple people before you find someone you like. It can be hard to find someone you jive with and adds value to your financial planning. I wouldn't expect to find someone right off the bat. I took 6 consultations/interviews before we found someone.

This is an important person in your life so it may take while to find the right person for you.

 

Depends how much longer it takes to pay off my student loans, 12 years in at this point.

 

I use Hantz Financial. They charge me $100/month and it is well worth it. They can take care if everything from estate planning to home/auto insurance.

We do all our meetings via computer, so running around to get to meetings.

 

Who is doing your 401K's at your work places? Generally they offer OK advice, maybe not perfect for your situation, but I have found Fidelity to be OK as a starting point.

First, though, you are correct in your attitude - just assume they will screw you. I am somewhat in the same boat as far as looking the department - well except I am trying to find a tax advisor. Seems like a very rare species! My guy retired...........really no one to turn to for some pretty huge decisions. I just retired and have over $2.5meg in tax protected accounts and maybe a years worth of after tax dollars. I'm 62, own a couple businesses that earn decent side money, I have a small pension and am deciding not to take SS early (maybe). Health care insurance is our #1 expense, (~$1500). House payment is small ($800), moving in 2021.............my point is not to bore you with my stuff, but I'm thinking someone reading my details may be thinking "Why hire someone for that?" And indeed that is what I am thinking for you.............so while you still can look for someone, I'm telling you, you don't really need someone at this point - plus you can get started NOW.

YOU MUST MAX OUT ALL SAVINGS.

1) Save as much as you two can. I mean save until it hurts and then save a few percent more. If your plans have Roth 401K use that, if your previous savings was not Roth, fine - just get it into an ETF like VTI or the widest market, lowest cost fund the plans offer.
2) Your savings is your largest and number 1 bill. You have to pay that first, not much else matters when it comes to money outgo. Serious! Does either of your work places have a discount stock purchase plan or any other savings vehicles? Even auto deductions to a bank or discount broker. Yes it will be painful at first, not easy, but after 6-12 months, you will not even notice it.
3) Find out if your 401K's have some type of brokerage or stock/ETF purchase ability, or as Fidelity calls it, Brokeragelink. Get in there and buy VTI with your $100K. It you can't buy that ETF, find the best, widest mutual fund your 401K offers and buy that, then either way every pay check buy more (automatically) - you want to buy buy buy = save save save and make sure you have dividends set to buy more shares.
4) Don't even look at the balances, you keep buying.
5) Every raise, every bonus, save that. Don't think it's just more money to spend - it must be more money to save! You have to change your thinking.

These 5 points are good now and should be a good grounding when and if you find an advisor. If he is more fancy than this, you may indeed question WHY.

And of course once the kids are grown and you have a few million, then OK we can talk stocks, options, etc

 

Mutual of America manages our current jobs retirement plan (we work at the same company), the old one of mine is still in Charles Schwab and company stock options. We have pre-tax money that is being dropped into the retirement account each check (403b). Im not sure if it just makes sense to drop more money each month into that account, or open a separate account we could have more control over. The company doesn't do a "match" but they do a yearly drop into the account depending on how well we do (average has been about 4-5k each year) regardless of how much money i put in.

We live pretty middle of the road when it comes to expenses. House payment is more than reasonable for the area thanks to the money we made on my previous cheap foreclosed bachelor house we sold and moved out of. we both have car payments but they are in the 300.00 range. By far the biggest expense is childcare (around 2200 a month. For anyone about to have kids and living in a major city, take note of that!). this only leaves us about 300.00 per month "extra" that is going to savings these days, but i feel like i should be doing something with that money.

 

This is also making me realize just how much life has changed in 10 years, holy crap. when i joined this site it was me, my dog, an ugly house i got to remodel for fun, and an access cab tacoma with the back seats removed. My biggest problem was remembering to buy beer on Saturday since Minnesota didn't sell alcohol on sundays. now im married, 2 kids, different dog, different house, worrying about retirement. Man time flies.

 

I'm not sure what retirement calculators some people in this thread are using. My wife and I are mid 40s and have about $650,000 in our 401Ks, our house is paid for, and we have a piece of farm / hunting land worth about $250k that we paid off 10 years ago. When my kid hits college in a few years, we'll sell that and still have about $100,000 in cash left over after taxes and his education at a good state university like Clemson or Carolina.

We'll be lucky to retire at 62 years old. The cost of healthcare is one thing....private insurance costs about $1200 a month until you get to Medicare at 65. Medicare sucks and we'll probably still want supplemental insurance anyway. Plus even down south, our property taxes between the house and three vehicles is around $3500 a year unless you drive real old shitboxes. Utilities and cell phones are $7500 a year. Food is $6000 a year. Car insurance about $2000 a year, maybe a little less once my kid starts paying his own way. Gasoline is probably $2000 a year even at the low prices we have now.

Thats over $32,000 just to live. Even if we have $1.2 million by the time we retire, we'll need a guaranteed 3% return to cover that and inflation while slowly drawing down our principle if we expect to be able to have any kind of disposable income for grandkids, travel, the movies etc. Social Security may provide up to $18k for us after taxes but the prognosis for SS isnt good. We'll be lucky to get 70% of the promised payments.

One problem with "guaranteed 3% return"....you can't get that in interest any more (and probably never will again).....one good market crash can lead to some very bad years in a retirement account.

F---ing globalist bankers and socialist morons in the US government pissed it all away with inflation and lost interest income due to phoney Monopoly money printing.

 

Not sure what your choices are in Mutual of America. See if you can contact them, I bet they have a person who at least will listen and advise.

https://www.mutualofamerica.com/GroupProducts/grpSupportForParticipants

I did this with Fidelity. The first guy I worked with didn't help much, but this gal who actually came to our workplace was very helpful in a 1:1 meeting. Thanks for the clarification - you and wife work for the same place. Take a new look at the choices, they may be limited, but there may be a fund or two that are at least decent. Sometimes it could be wise for you to be in one and and wife to be 100% in another fund. With both of you working, it does come down typically that pre tax, and the taxable income lowering are beneficial, regardless of the future abuse that MAY be in the cards (see my post above, a chunk of change that has not been taxed yet).

The old one in Schwab - what are you invested in? What stock options? From previous company? This needs some real attention, IMHO.

I know the child care expenses $$$$$. We were in the same boat, but made a critical decision around 1998. Basically we became a one income family and I think our kids were better for it, frankly. Oh we couldn't keep up with the Joneses but all in all we are OK.

As for advisors - always you will need some level of knowledge to judge them. I'm sure you know enough to avoid the pushy type who are just sales weasels. You don't need that kind of help. People who promise or talk dreams...........well you don't need that either. They will talk positive, ok I guess, but it's not them doing the moving, it's the market. There is no magic they will tell you that will help you, over time, beat the market. Period. I see the Fisher ads, they claim they are fiduciaries but I really they will have their heart and soul in your best interests for their fees.

Maybe focus on what to avoid. I'm not going to tell you to always avoid individual stocks, or great/particular funds, but I say at this point it's just to difficult to pick. So again, back to the wide market funds. Avoid sectors, speculation, checking too often, moving in and out, trying to time the market, not saving enough, not starting soon enough................

I made three stupid large investment decisions in my life (and a bunch of minor ones hahahhaha) - each sort of branch out, but I will avoid the details in my summary here:

1) Allowing politics to impact what and how and when I invest. (This was awhile back) - keeping it simple: just keep saving and investing in the wide market. At the time this probably cost me $30K, but over time this was money that could have helped build a larger retirement.
2) Getting too sector oriented, doing fine, becoming overconfident then getting distracted by life, business, everything and thinking I can autopilot. When energy got whacked really really hard a few years back, ok maybe it was like 5+ years ago now, I took a $100,000+ hit...........on 3-4 companies that basically went bust. Ouch. Linn Energy (LINE), SDRL, etc.......I still feel like an idiot. I looked at my account and I was pretty devastated. Luckily my wife didn't leave me!
3) Not saving a huge % amount early enough. I really wish I started saving 20% from day one and going up from there. I started at 8% and stayed there for too long. Although the last 20+ years, the percentage was much higher, playing catch up is hard to do. I could have retired much much sooner if I hadn't believed that 8% was enough. You need to up your savings NOW and keep it up.

Again, I hope you can take something from this. Not meant to include everything nor am I trying to come off as an expert.

 

You young guys start saving. I started puting 10% in my 401k at age 22 any by 2001 I was banking $12k a year away. Now I have over $300k nearly 25 years later. Wish I'd put the max in the whole time.

 

Yeah I left it at 10% for about 7 years. Never looked st it never thought about it. Then I moved a bunch of stuff around and am dumping as much $ in it as I can. Currently at 20% + 5% match. I'd like to get to 100k by the time I'm 30 and when I move on to a new job hopefully have 100k in 401k, 30k on roth IRA, and 30k in a separate account im having fun with

 

I don't want to fault others, I should have factored in human error, minimum returns, etc............enough to scare me to go 20+% from the start. 401K was almost brand new (started in 1978) at the time (early 1980's), I was in my mid 20's or so.............8-10% "should be enough"....