I can retire at 55, what do I do?

[corn18]

Not to derail my own thread, but my wife deserves all the money we have in savings if we ever got divorced. She is a saint and sacrificed a lot to be married to me and my military / corporate career as a stay at home mom. And she raised our two wonderful children with only some help from me. She is the matriarch of our family. 30 years later, I would still do anything to make her happy.

[disneysteve]

Not to derail my own thread

It's okay to derail your own thread. The problem is when someone else comes along and derails it.

[corn18]

And since we are fully derailed, I wanted to add that my wife also helps me immensely with my current job leading a company. I get caught up in the minutia and sometimes do not see the forest through the trees. She is my sounding board for difficult problems and she always helps me see things more clearly. She is my Nancy Reagan. So the mega bucks I make right now are as much hers as they are mine.

[rennigade]

Not to derail my own thread, but my wife deserves all the money we have in savings if we ever got divorced. She is a saint and sacrificed a lot to be married to me and my military / corporate career as a stay at home mom. And she raised our two wonderful children with only some help from me. She is the matriarch of our family. 30 years later, I would still do anything to make her happy.

Its easy to say that now since you seem to have a stable healthy relationship and you can never imagine anything bad happening. Not so easy to say those same things if worst case she would decide to start cheating on you behind your back.

Most of us have seen or heard about someone who has been married decades then all of the sudden wants a divorce and hates the person they loved for all those decades. Its not that uncommon.

[rennigade]

Also it feels less like you worked your ass off to build up this wealth just so your wife can spend your half of the money with another man down the road (this is how my friend now feels..when the rest of the world spends paycheck to paycheck..he sacrificed hard to build up this wealth and now it'll go to some other dude if wife choose to remarry who probably lived the paycheck to paycheck life while banging your ex wife..it really takes a toll on your psyche...it almost feels like you are paying someone else to bang your wife). If she contributed 50% of the wealth to the family than her taking 50% is pretty much her half anyways...so it feels less like what I just described.

In some states if ex wife would re marry then payments would have to stop. Ive heard stories where ex wife has a boyfriend but refuses to remarry because of this. Swallow that pill...yikes.

And like you said...if wife is working that would be less you would have to pay in support. When shes never worked then she relies 100% on you to take care of her. That cant stop when you split.

[TexasHusker]

The only bad thing about retirement is that you never get a day off.

[corn18]

The only bad thing about retirement is that you never get a day off.

Texas,

I'm reading a book right now called Rock Retirement. It has made me think of your approach to retirement and evaluate my approach. Maybe by the end of the book I'll get the guts to put a plan together to not dump another $1M into the market over the next 3 years and look at diversifying to non-market type investments.

Tom

[TexasHusker]

Texas,

I'm reading a book right now called Rock Retirement. It has made me think of your approach to retirement and evaluate my approach. Maybe by the end of the book I'll get the guts to put a plan together to not dump another $1M into the market over the next 3 years and look at diversifying to non-market type investments.

Tom

Don't do that on my account - I'll be the kiss of death for you!

[corn18]

Don't do that on my account - I'll be the kiss of death for you!

I have $350k / year to work with. My plan has me putting $150k / year of that into retirement accounts. I was going to use the other $200k / year to pay off the house in 2 years. That alone gets me to my number in 3 years.

Then I got to thinking about what else could I do with that $200k / year? Or maybe $350k / year? Seems I could diversify into something I had more control over than the whimsy of the market. Then I read that book and it said to invest in assets that do something, not just the market. Now I'm thinking about keeping $200k in cash so at age 55 I can slow down at work (if that's even possible) and start investing in assets that work for me. Then I got scared.

What would you do with $200k / year?

[TexasHusker]

I have $350k / year to work with. My plan has me putting $150k / year of that into retirement accounts. I was going to use the other $200k / year to pay off the house in 2 years. That alone gets me to my number in 3 years.

Then I got to thinking about what else could I do with that $200k / year? Or maybe $350k / year? Seems I could diversify into something I had more control over than the whimsy of the market. Then I read that book and it said to invest in assets that do something, not just the market. Now I'm thinking about keeping $200k in cash so at age 55 I can slow down at work (if that's even possible) and start investing in assets that work for me. Then I got scared.

What would you do with $200k / year?

$200K? There's a lot of cool things you could do with it. If you wanted something really simple, you could go and buy 5 residential properties with it and get really rich in 12 years.

You buy five $200,000 houses, and put $40,000 down on each. You then rent each house out for $2,000 per month. If you pay each mortgage as if it's on a 12 year note, you're at $1400 per month for your payment. Toss in $400 a month for insurance and taxes, and $200 per month for R&M.

Granted, you will have a vacancy here and there so you'll have to make the payment that month.

But in 12 years, you'll own $1 million worth of houses free and clear, and if they appreciated at only 3% a year, you'll own $1.4 million in real estate, with an investment of $200,000.

Don't forget that you'll be able to depreciate those properties. You'll depreciate about $22,000 a year. So if your income tax bracket is 25%, you'll be pocketing another $60,000 over the next 12 years.

So with your $200K investment, you have roughly $1.5 million in 12 years. That's not too shabby - it's about a 17.5% annual yield if my math is correct.

There's plenty of things that would do much better, but this one would be the slam dunk, sleep-soundly-every-night way.

You don't have to watch Cramer on CNBC either.

[TexasHusker]

If you are doing this every year, you're going to be stupid rich in 20 years.

[corn18]

If you are doing this every year, you're going to be stupid rich in 20 years.

I don’t want to keep doing this for 20 more years. An opportunity to make 7 figures is looming on the horizon, but I'm not sure I want to commit to it. Hard to turn down that kind of money, but it delays my plan to think about slowing down. That would be exactly the opposite. Heck, if I wanted to, I could find a path to $3M total annual comp, but that means another 10 years of working my arse off.

[TexasHusker]

I don’t want to keep doing this for 20 more years. An opportunity to make 7 figures is looming on the horizon, but I'm not sure I want to commit to it. Hard to turn down that kind of money, but it delays my plan to think about slowing down. That would be exactly the opposite. Heck, if I wanted to, I could find a path to $3M total annual comp, but that means another 10 years of working my arse off.

That’s pretty much where I was at. I told them to shove it at 46.

[disneysteve]

An opportunity to make 7 figures is looming on the horizon, but I'm not sure I want to commit to it. Hard to turn down that kind of money, but it delays my plan to think about slowing down.

There is always more money to be made. You just have to decide how much you want to work and for how long.

This year, I will make at least 65% more than I made just 3 years ago. I could very easily put in a little more time and make an additional 25% over my anticipated 2018 income. But I'm happy with what I'm earning and how much work I have to do to get it. I'm not interested in doing more even though I'd be well compensated for doing so.

At some point, you just have to decide that you have enough.

[AJ444]

I have a 45/50/55 retirement estimate, 45 to minimally retire, 50 to retire really well and 55 to retire spectacularly. My plan is to hold on to 55.

I’m going to go see a ton of sporting events live, broadway shows, art museums and visit all 50 states and multiple countries.

I wouldn’t fret your opportunity, I would embrace it, a lot of people can’t retire that early and don’t have the resources to do whatever they want when they do.