I did it!!! I gave my COJ my 2 week notice that I will be retiring and it’s all thanks to you and the great info your spread on your YouTube channel. I will turn 61 in August.
My expenses, including ACA health insurance, will be about $3000-3500/month. I have a brand new home that I paid cash for in The Villages FL, a 2018 Honda CRV that is paid off and no credit card debt. I am single and have no children.
Social security at full retirement will be about $2897 and I have a pension that starts at 65 but should be about $2900/month. Not sure yet when I will take SS – if I have enough in 401K to wait until 67 or 70 – I will but we shall see.
I have almost $300,000 in in 401K’s. I also have about 40K in ROTH IRA.
So I have about 4 years I will need to bridge until social security and pension. I will need to use what I have saved in 401K’s to tide me.
If I understand correctly, your recommendation for the barbell method- I have about $32,000 combined in checking and emergency fund – which is almost a years worth of expenses.
I think I should transfer about $100K from my 401K high earning stock mutual funds to a money market in the 401K as my 3-5 years worth of expenses.
I would leave the ROTH and the remaining almost $200K in the 401K high performing mutual funds to grow. In a down market, I can either tighten my belt or can go back to work at a minimal stress job to cover expenses should that be necessary instead of pulling more from my 401K mutual funds in a down market.
As I am hoping to have 35 years in retirement – I want to leave as much as possible in the market to continue to grow.
Thanks again for educating me that I don’t need to work until I am dead or can’t retire unless I had 3-5 millions saved.