The accountant says we can retire early. Woohoo!!!

[CloverKnollFarms]

I had a pension at my first career too... Rolled that into an IRA years ago. Then invested the max in my ROTH 401k and ROTH IRAs until retirement.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

We had one of our anesthesiologists retire and come back...

He said the dynamics of being retired just didn't suit him.

At work he is a respected Doctor and at home he became the family gopher for everyone...

Not all have financial and emotional fulfilling careers. Escaping high stress work places can make retiring very desirable if one is just working to make more money.

 

[Torvy]

Not all have financial and emotional fulfilling careers. Escaping high stress work places can make retiring very desirable if one is just working to make more money.

True.

For some people, though, it is just how they value themselves. The job defines them.

Of course, imo, there are two ends of that spectrum. Many young 'uns value work too little in the work-life balance.

In our case, retiring early improved our chances of having some healthy years to enjoy in retirement. For many, by the time they retire, they spend half of their time at the Dr.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I have one 'pension'. First full-time job at a major bank. After I'd been there 5 or 6 years, that ended. Had to start investing for myself, but at a time disadvantage.

I never count public employee pensions as such because they are effectively immune to the mergers or financial failures.

I think your experience is more the exception than the rule. I worked for 4 or 5 companies with 401k style plans and only one had a 'vesting' period. The pension plan did. The money in the 401k is yours. Even when you don't have any employer match, it far outperforms SocSec.

In the doctor's example above SS can be as much as $4500 monthly plus their high income professional income. Another plus they are continuing to help fund SS for the rest of us.

 

[Torvy]

In the doctor's example above SS can be as much as $4500 monthly plus their high income professional income. Another plus they are continuing to help fund SS for the rest of us.

I've done the math. Everyone would have been better off investing their SocSec rather than having it to through the government. Even in 100% safe investments. 50+ years of just S&P500 indexed funds would return about 7% after inflation. Even low-income people would have much more than they get today. No one else should be funding your retirement unless you have a severe disability.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I've done the math. Everyone would have been better off investing their SocSec rather than having it to through the government. Even in 100% safe investments. 50+ years of just S&P500 indexed funds would return about 7% after inflation. Even low-income people would have much more than they get today. No one else should be funding your retirement unless you have a severe disability.

I think the reality of that is not factual if you will look at people in general and they're investing capacity and abilities.

Keep in mind SS is not a retirement plan but a social safety net for the poor. Realizing that you may have more appreciation for the social program . While the many drawing $50,000+ of SS annually may not need they do support the rest of us that do need it .

 

[DarkBlack]

We got around the 59-1/2 by placing $500k in a brokerage outside of retirement. That brokerage averages 12%.

How did you “place” $500k in a taxable account without paying a huge tax bill the following year?
It would have to come from an already taxed area, like cash, or savings account.

 

[Torvy]

I think the reality of that is not factual if you will look at people in general and they're investing capacity and abilities.

No abilities needed. If, for example, rather than requiring SocSec, the government required everyone to invest that same % into the S&P (or similar fund) and leave it there to retirement age. Even through our depressions and recessions, it has beaten inflation by 7% annually. When you run the numbers, the beauty of compounding interest shines through. Literally everyone would have more money than they will get from SocSec. If you think we are obligated to provide for others through the government, they could take 10% of your retirement at age 65 and you would still have more money than SocSec would provide.

 

[LittleBill21]

No abilities needed. If, for example, rather than requiring SocSec, the government required everyone to invest that same % into the S&P (or similar fund) and leave it there to retirement age. Even through our depressions and recessions, it has beaten inflation by 7% annually. When you run the numbers, the beauty of compounding interest shines through. Literally everyone would have more money than they will get from SocSec. If you think we are obligated to provide for others through the government, they could take 10% of your retirement at age 65 and you would still have more money than SocSec would provide.

actually yea, people can't save money, thus why there is a law trying to get through to force people to opt out of I think a 3% investment into 401k, because people are so horrible with money.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

How did you “place” $500k in a taxable account without paying a huge tax bill the following year?
It would have to come from an already taxed area, like cash, or savings account.

Yes, it was already taxed money... Like my ROTH 401k and ROTH IRA monies are.
It came from our income being invested in a brokerage over the past several years.
The capital gains on the brokerage will be 0% however due to our new, and glorious tax bracket.