This is my first post and I’m looking for guidance and opinions.
I’m 51. My wife is 50. We have one child, a daughter in 8th grade. We live in coastal Southern California. We have a current gross income of about $158k. We have a mortgage, and living here is pretty expensive.
I’m sick of my job (been doing it for 26 years) and would like to retire one year from now. I have a now 100% vested government pension through CalPers that will provide health benefits, and will receive a monthly pension amount of $4000 a month gross (the longer I work, the higher the pension will go, but, again, I’m sick of my work and tired of Calif). My wife’s pension will kick in at age 62 and be about $2000 a month. We both will qualify for SS. We have 401k/IRA savings of about $350,000, and other after tax savings of $80k. We have home equity of about $530,000. At some point, an inheritance of maybe $200-300k may happen, but who knows...
We want to move out of So Cal, maybe to northwest Washington state, Boise or Southwest Florida (we like all three, and have family or good friends in each). We would buy a home outright for about $375k, and bank the rest of the California house equity money. We have no other debt and no pricey hobbies (no boats, Harleys, country clubs, vacation homes, fancy vacations, or Cessnas, etc), but by the same token we are not bohemians and enjoy modest vacations/traveling.
We both want to work part time in retirement, but anticipate that the jobs likely will not pay well (ie, maybe work at a library, community center, garden store etc). We anticipate our daughter going to a state university.
Anyone had a similar scenario and acted on it? How is it turning out for you? All comments would be Greatly appreciated.