Hi. I'm a new Mustachian. I'm 49 and want to retire by age 55. Is it too late for me to do this?
We'll see. The good news is, you'll know how long you want your taxable stash to last -- well, we all do, but it's easier to make it last five years than thirty five years.
I have around 300K in a 401K, but I cant touch that until I'm 65 without penalty. I have a pension of around 20% of my annual salary coming, but that doesn't kick in until I'm around 65.
Did 401(k) rules change? When you leave your job, you can roll it over to a (traditional - don't pay taxes on it all at once) IRA, and I believe you can withdraw from those at 59.5. If not, look up rule 72(t).
My wife and I have a combined annual salary of around 140K, We have 3 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 cars. The only debt we have is our home mortage of around 200K, and a car loan of $300 per month.
You should know the site well enough by now to know how we're going to react to the car loan. Can you sell the car, retire the note, and use the proceeds for a reasonable own-it-outright car? Alternately, how much is left on the loan, and at what rate?
I just looked at our monthly bills, and from what I can see, I can only cut about $500 a month. We dont want to move to a smaller home because we have a great 15 year mortgage rate, and dont want to lose it. Plus, we dont want to move anyway. Our house is not huge or anything. Its a 2000 sq. foot colonial, no garage.
We dont go on vacations. The only stuff we spend our money on is food, gas, and fees for my kids activities.
Any suggestions on what we can do to save more money and invest it to have enough money to retire in 6 years?
You should post a budget, or at the very least, an itemized list of monthly expenses (expense and amount). Categorize everything into needs and wants -- and we'll look for waste in each.
I doubt the only things you're spending money on is food, gas, and fees for your kids' activities. For example, you have a car loan and a mortgage.
What's your current savings rate? How much goes into your respective retirement accounts? How much is left on the mortgage? What's your current non-401(k) savings? Do you have an IRA? Old 401(k)s somewhere? Taxable investments? How are your investments allocated? Are you doing this in a tax- and cost-efficient manner?