Hello fellow Mustachians! LOVE the blog and am excited to finally be part of the forums!
Unfortunately, although I became interested in personal finance in my 20's, a disastrous divorce/bankruptcy in my 30's and some bad luck with a house I bought in 2008 has forced me to start over at the relatively advanced age of 41. Since there's no equity in my home at this point and only a little more than $35K in my retirement accounts, I'm wondering how to best proceed. (I also have about $7K in emergency savings.)
I make about $42K a year after taxes and as the primary breadwinner (1 child) can only save about 50% of my take home pay (although I'm trying to apply Mustachian principles to increase that amount). Since this would mean an "early" retirement at the age of about 58, is it even worth it? And if so, what should the plan be? Do I live off of savings until age 59 1/2 when I can start tapping my Roth IRA (allowing my traditional IRA to keep growing)? Or is there a more tax-efficient way to approach it?
Thanks in advance for your input!