So, been lurking here for a while now. The “Despondent Millionaire” post finally got me to register & post.
As you probably guessed from my screen name, i'm not quite all "Mustachian" yet...
Here's where we are:
Early 50's, been on the Dave Ramsey plan for a few years, no debt except the home (and will have that paid off within 18 months). saving ~20% in retirement accounts, plus paying ~33% of income towards clearing the mortgage. once that's gone, we'd be living on <50% of income. kids grown and out of the nest. Live in central Indiana
Have many spreadsheets & projections for retirement, but these all geared towards "typical" retirement age (65, 67,whatever). So it includes a bit of Soc Sec income, a small pension from an old job (that i can take as a lump sum), and withdrawals from 401k/IRA. Will caveat all that by saying I still have no idea what things like health care will cost, or how much we’ll want to travel.
Well on track to meet our guesses at expenses
Current net worth is just over $XXX, split out:
Home Eq: 20%
401K: 48%
IRA: 18%
Pension/lump sum; 10%
Liquid Savings (“FFEF” in DR language): 4%
With a net worth that high, we should be able to declare FI – maybe waiting till the house is paid off.
Lots of questions still – and a still a bit far away from taking the leap. You all have me thinking about it tho. It feels a lot like when we 1st started following DR…”No one can really do that…” “Everyone has a mortgage/car loan/credit card debt….” Once we finally drank the koolaid, it became, well not exactly easy, but worthy. That is, worth the time and effort to pay down the mortgage, etc.
Oh, and I really love my job. Took many years to find what I love doing, but I’m there now. Many missteps along the way, short term gains that really were bad moves in retrospect. OTOH, our CEO is leaving soon (small company). This happened once before in my career, and the person who replaced him didn’t have the “vision” that the CEO had, and the company lost its way. We don’t yet know who the new CEO will be (COO became interim CEO), but in the back of my mind, it’s “Here we go again…”
So, 1st round of questions….
1. For those “retiring” early, are your assets in 401k/IRA accounts, or did you save / create wealth through other means?
2. If “yes” to 401k/IRA, are you drawing those down & paying the tax penalty for doing so before 59 1/2?
3. Still working part time?
And, I know if we took the leap soon, we’d have to restructure our lifestyle/expenses to be more Mustachian. Certainly doable, but would be a sacrifice on some fronts. Again, not there yet, but feels like it did at the beginning of DR, so really starting now with an eye on (say) 2 years from now. will have many question here - many answered elsewhere in the forums already, so some searching & absorbing to do there.
One more thing, we had rental real estate early in our marriage, and it wasn't for us. I know many of you are taking that path successfully, and enjoying it, but that won't be our path to FI.
Thx all…you really are an inspiration
b
edited to take out net worth....i've invited others here and don't want to share that with people i know
