Early Retirement

I've been thinking about the same thing. The best I've come up with is Roth contributions (pre-59.5), real estate, and just plain taxable.

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paid for house (axles and everything....)

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Tires will dry rot on your doublewide the longer it sits. Plan for that.





I'm doing the same thing. I'm 51, plan to retire at 55. I'm basically in the mode of saving 4.5 years of expenses to bridge me to 59 1/2. That is my plan. Luckily for me, my wife is already retired with a pension, and we can jump on her health insurance when we want to. Right now, we are on mine. I have to allow for that as well, and am planning on that cost to be $1500/month.

The good news is I don't have to make this decision now, will make it when I'm closer to 55. The insurance will be my main indicator of retiring early.

For many the economic crashes over the past couple of decades have pushed retirement down the road. It takes years to recover from economic damage we have seen in the last 8 years

What I've been doing hasn't been overly drastic. Depending on your company match, maxing out your 401k annually for 20yrs can easily make you a 401k millionaire. Get your house paid for, and at that point you're sitting pretty.

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And that will give you an income of $40,000 a year before taxes if you don't want to outlive your income, even less if you retire early.

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I wouldn't draw from a 401k until eligible. Hence the question in my OP. 401k would continue to grow untouched after I early retire. Additionally my wife would still be working,and her employer health coverage in place on our family.

Have you looked into a 72t SEPP? This could get you around the 10% penalty if you retire early at around age 55. I believe it lasts for 5 years and ends at age 59.5. Whichever is longer.



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First off, I'd realistically think of a budget you want in retirement. When you don't go to work everyday, your expenses drop quite rapidly actually. A ton of the things you paid for like oil changes can start to cost 50% or less. If you want to, you eat out less, drive much less, and have more time for things like yard work and house maintenance.

2ndly, why retire completely? If you don't have to work, you know how easy it is to just make $15k a year? You could work at a retail store you enjoy like a lowes, bass pro, etc. that is low stress for 10-20 hours with 12 weeks off a year to help pay your bills until you are 60.

What about owning and renting real estate? It is low tax investment and you can own it in an LLC and open a SEP or Simple IRA to put a large amount of your income into for retirement.

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The last thing any retired person I know wants to do is yard work and home maintenance, or even just sit at home

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This is exactly what I look forward to doing most in retirement. Having the time to enjoy these kinds of things, the slower pace, to notice things and to just be still. To each his own I suppose, but I plan to live very well on $50k or so a year. House will be paid off and I won't need to invest anymore.

Yep pretty easy, joined the Army at 19 and have invested 10 - 15% of what I've made. Since the years they paid for me to go to college don't count for retirement though I'll be 43 not 39 when I hang it up. :cheers:

Retired at 57, am now 60. Work part time to stay busy and to have monopoly money. Have a pension which will continue if I should pass before my wife. We reworked our insurance coverages, paid all debt (house, credit cards, school loans on children, etc) and banked/invested the rest. Still have one car note which could go away today. We live a conservative lifestyle but do the things we enjoy without worry.