I have a 3% from May 2020. Hard to pay that off for any reason.
I have been in my house for long enough now that i have outgrown the mortgage and i think i have saved what i want in the kids 529 accounts. Looking at the past year, i saved about 30k on top of maxing out the company options, so my main goal now seems to be navigating the taxable investment options, which is new to me as i could always ratchet up the deferral rate. I am also looking at a sizable increase in income for 23, so that 30k could easily be 2-3x that over the next 12 months.
I feel like i am kind of waiting to see what happens over the next 5 years - i can probably pile away the mortgage balance in that time, but then the kids start hitting college. I’m sure I’ll spend some money on the house, but nothing major planned.
Lol. I feel like i have some catching up to do on the total retirement assets as i had to divide things by two some years ago, but in terms of annual savings things are in a pretty good spot.
Getting kids through college and having the house paid for (or equivalent) is a pretty big step towards the idea. I still think i am working until 60 something to lock in a certain lifestyle, but at least for now i am still enjoying work.
I was an idiot and got tempted into an ARM in 2020 by the lowest rate I’ve ever seen. 1.875% w/ no bought points. We planned on paying off early regardless and I thought, “Eh it’s probably just going to slide into like 3% eventually.”
It’s great right now and knocked $400/mo off of our original 15-year loan but might kick our asses in 2028, we’ll see. Bought in 2018, trying to get it paid by 2030. Or at least have investments sufficient to cover it at any time.
Should have gone with the 30-year that was around 2.875%. Don’t remember the price difference. Probably wasn’t a lot.
We are currently paying it off aggressively because I want to be debt-free, but I’m considering dropping any over-payment all into brokerages instead, and if I feel it’s worth selling and paying lump-sum in 2030 then do it.
That is a good point. We are looking at a move to a lower COL area and from what I’m seeing we can hit a 20% down payment from brokerage already and also a tidy profit off the sale of house.
However should the house not sell quickly and we suddenly need $15k… Should still be fine but tight.
then I load all my extra taxable cash into brokerage. I have enough in there at this point to pay off the house. I just let it go now. I look at it as down payment for next house.
It’s a good strategy, especially if you actually invest the cash and not having it sitting in well cash.
We always paid more than the minimum and refied the original 30 year to a 15 when we could and paid the house off a couple years ago. Very nice to not have a mortgage payment, allows us to pay the final kids college out of mostly current income without dipping into savings.
I’m looking for that peace of mind.11-year mortgage would be ideal, but 13 years is the realistic goal.
Suddenly I’ll be keeping enough extra money to take a pretty big vacation every couple months, or buy a nice car inside half a year without touching other savings or investments.
My partner’s always been a bigger spender than me, so it’s helped us meet in the middle to just tuck some of it away each month.
I inherited about as much from my dad as I lost during the pandemic, so I’m back over $1.3M. Willing to retire on a minimum $1.5M. I just learned this month about the rule of 55 which tells me I can quit my job in 2026 and have penalty-free access to my 401k. I wouldn’t have to wait until 59.5 or set up Substantially Equal Periodic Payments. I would probably arrange to work half-time for a couple years if possible - I’m hoping I can work out a deal with my boss because the actuarial department is just me and I’m guessing they’ll want me to stick around while the transition happens (they could use the manpower, I’ll want to vest more stock and options).
In addition to the amount mentioned - once I leave for good - I’ll also get 5 annual payments of about $30K-$40K from deferring income. I do hope to do other work out of my house; ramp up on the online tutoring I do, or maybe explore other contract jobs that sound interesting. I should be able to get $3,500/mo from Social Security once I’m 62 which is about the amount I’ll have from my deferred income.
If I plan to live off $70K/yr and already have half of it covered in this manner, I only need $35K from my investments. That’s a 2.33% withdrawal rate off a principal of $1.5M. $70K also seems quite high to me. With my dad’s passing around Christmastime and knowing he was going to get me 1/3 of the way left to retirement, I had a lot of time to think about this. I do also owe about $55k on my house, that would be paid off in the next 5 years.
A lot of you probably have more than this, and probably think $1.5M is a pittance. Maybe the stock market will tumble some more and delay it. I’m excited to see how the next couple years play out. I started full-time August 1996.
Yes the pre-59 1/2 exception to the 10% penalty that he is referring to is separation from service after attainment of age 55. (though it may just be the calendar year you turn 55) and the taxable distribution has to be to you directly and can’t first be rolled into an IRA.
I love to play bridge so that would occupy me Monday and Thursday afternoons - until the club dies off. My actuary friend and I also go to bridge tournaments in states neighboring Iowa. He works as a professor and always has the summers off, so I could do a bit more then.
Math tutoring. I love to tutor students (Statistics, Calc I, Trig, Algebra, have also helped a couple actuarial students prep for their probability and interest theory). The website (Wyzant) takes 1/4 of what I charge, but automates everything: calendar, payments, online whiteboard. After that and self-employment taxes I only make at best $30/hr but I can do it in my basement. Sometimes I get students through word of mouth or a friend.
I share adult sunday school teaching duties with two others in the class. Probably volunteer, feeding the poor or something like that. I don’t think I will get bored at all. And I certainly don’t plan on getting stoned - I couldn’t imagine that drugs could possibly improve my lifestyle, I’m quite content without them.