re: Retiring at 50 with $2MM in savings

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Why? SS is not going anywhere.

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I hope to God social security isn’t around still when I retire. It means my poor kids will be getting raped for having to float the boondoggle just like we are.

I’ll gladly cut my losses today if it means my kids won’t be obligated to participate .

And anyone that says different needs to admit they care more about themselves then their kids and grandkids

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You should easily be able to retire with $2m at 50

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Honestly, I wouldn't want to retire that young unless I had enough money to not even bother living on much of a budget. I'm almost 50, and will still have kids in college at that age, and I had kids young. There are probably plenty of 50 yr old dudes with kids playing little league.

I kind of feel like late-career burnout sets in a little later for most people. I think 60 might be the sweet spot for me if I can swing it.

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think 60 might be the sweet spot for me if I can swing it.

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Makes sense, but I'm 61 and while I am planning to retire soon, suddenly I'm worried about giving up my salary, even though I feel confident I have enough retirement savings. It's a weird feeling.

Right, but 120k would be a relatively significant household income decline for us, especially when considering the cost of health insurance. I'm not saying that I wouldn't consider it if I had 6 million or something like that, but I'd probably still go work part time doing something for awhile.

We are almost empty nesters. Our youngest kid is off to college in August.

I’m 53 and we saved over $3MM. Wife stayed at home with my girls. I was never in management although am well compensated. If I add my pension, we’re at $5MM. It’s possible but it takes discipline and saving until it hurts.

I pick up my girl’s living expenses while in college but they’re on the hook for books and tuition. My daughter just graduated with a degree in accounting and paid for all her own school. She took on no debt and graduated debt free. We emphasized scholarships and saving money. My oldest worked by pet sitting. She saved thousands of dollars. My next in line has over $10,000 in her account. Between scholarship and saved money, they can easily pay for school. They both attended or will attend BYU (queue Mormon jokes) which is heavily subsidized by our church. Point is, they’ll graduate with marketable degrees and no debt and we did not have to pay for anything other than living expenses. Can I afford to pay for all their school? I think so, but both me and my wife put ourselves through school and we both believe the satisfaction of paying your own way through school far outweighs the benefit of someone else paying for it.

I’m a big fan of 70s and 80s punk. Streams of Whiskey is a Pogues song sung by the late, great Irish drunk, Shane McGowan.

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Length of retirement, inflation, and market downturns.

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The chances of a massive market downturn in the next 10 years (like down 40% in a single year or more) is a lot higher than people want to admit.

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The chances of a massive market downturn in the next 10 years (like down 40% in a single year or more) is a lot higher than people want to admit.

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I'm not sure about 40%, but several major investors are talking in terms of another year or two up, then a decade of flat returns.

A decade of flat markets, coupled with inflation, could be almost as damaging to the OP strategy as a downturn. But obviously a super-bear event like a 40%+ downturn would tear hell out of a "just-enough-savings to retire early" plan.

I think you want to be safe enough in terms of portfolio size to withstand a major downturn without needing to panic and pull your money out (locking in losses)