OMY = One More Year.
Reading everyone’s plans and preparations is both exciting and agonizing: I still have a torturous 37 weeks to go. But at least I can now say, “I’m retiring this year.” Man that feels good! I calculate I have plenty of money: 36x current annual spending, which should put my withdrawal rate just under 3%. And I feel good about backup plans. My wife is very onboard with my RE plans but has no interest in retiring herself. The best parts are: she loves her job; she makes significantly more than me; she has a 6 minute commute and is fairly frugal herself (except for her J. Crew habit, which she can easily afford). We paid off the mortgage last summer and have redirected those payments to an online savings account. So I have zero debt and she has a couple more years on her car payment (we keep our finances fairly separate).
The only reason I’m gutting it out is for company-sponsored retiree health care. If you are 55+ and have 10+ years of service, you can stay on the company plan for the rest of your life (you have to pay the premiums yourself). For some of the more fortunate long-term employees, the company subsidizes the premiums based on years of service. PLUS, I can add my wife to the policy later on. Once you turn 65, MegaCorp insurance becomes secondary to MediCare. I’m assuming the premiums will be lower than getting onto my wife’s work plan, but I can’t get an estimate until I’m less than 6 months from my 55th b-day. My company also offers a pension plan (now frozen for several years), so I have a $30k buffer I can access any time after 55 without penalty. Or I can leave it be and it will payout something like $250/month starting at age 65. I don’t expect to need it anytime soon.
My plan is to convert my 401k balance to a 10-year income annuity. Over the past year I’ve moved quite a bit out of equities and bonds and into cash since I’m already able to fund above my current spending. That takes me to age 65, allowing my other investments to grow for a decade before I start drawing from a couple of rollover IRAs and a Roth IRA. If I need money before then I can access my taxable account, or withdraw some already-taxed contributions from the Roth without penalty. And in 4 years I can withdraw from the rollover IRAs w/o penalty. I will claim Social Security at age 70. Of course I could also do some part time work as my career allows me to work remotely very easily. And I have a hobby that can generate money. I think the only thing that could improve my current situation is if I got a layoff package right after turning 55!
My only issue right now is dragging my ass through yet another day at the office. Ugh. I work in a cubicle, but my cube is in a very remote corner of the floor where no one visits. Being an introvert, this is ideal. (Rumor is that the company will be renovating our floor and replacing our shoulder-height cube walls with the very low “open office” structures. I can’t get out of here soon enough!). Even better, we are allowed to work from home 2 days a week. And I’ll be honest, I am being given very little work to do these days (but the work I do get is completed quickly and accurately; I just haven’t raised my hand to ask for more). So I can do whatever I want for the 8 hours a day I’m home as long as I am close enough to hear the dreaded “ding” of a new email message being delivered. So it kind of feels like I’m already transitioned to part time. Only 106 more “cubicle” days! Tick-tock. Carry on.