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I grew up in the South so its like going back home. Mom is on an old family tobacco farm my ggg grandpa built after being released from Vicksburg. We are struggling on who will assume it from mom. Managing a house 200 plus years old is a job that you pay for. We have to juggle the selfishness of our wants and needs vs becoming caretakers of the property. Me and my brothers will figure it out
It is good you found an employer that can pay you a pension for about the same number of years you worked for then. Unfortunately I do not think younger employees that work for someone with a good pension system realize how much they are really making each month. In short you will be paid more in retirement than you earned when working.
I just retired last Friday at 56. No debt--not even mortgage. No kids. No divorces. Worked hard all my life. My wife too. Money did not burn a hole in our pockets. Ever.
West Coasting,
That's OK retiring at 56, it's a happy medium for early retirement and your total expected income is OK too and should be enough to live on in Tennessee and or where ever.
I worked all my young and adult life in N. Calif. for the U.S. Government for 30 yrs and took a voluntary early retirement at age 49 due to medical reasons and with an initial meager Civil Service pension we immediately moved overseas.
18 yrs later we're still here and still enjoying our retirement lifestyle and more so when all of my other pensions (military & SSA) kicked in (only half going towards our monthly living expenses) at age 60 and 62 and our home is paid for and without any bills to worry about.
I'm now 67, my wife is a young 54 and our retirement lifestyle is better than ever before.
Where in the world did you relocate to? Are your living expenses substantially lower there than here? Just curious.
West Coast! Thank you for posting! I just returned from a walk with my wife and have been doing the same "thinking" for a few months. Here's my deal and maybe with your experience of research, you can help:
1. I own my home in S. Cal. Zillow says it's worth about 915K.
2. I am in year 23 of my job.
3. Real debt: About 35K total at 3.5%.
4. Kids: 18, 16, and 12. Two oldest are content with SBCC and not a 4 year school right away. Both are bright and have jobs while in high school and college. 12 year old- Starts 7th grade next year.
5. I meet with my STRS (Teacher's Retirement) person in two weeks to go over plans.
6. Like you, I have no intention to work to 62, although I LOVE teaching.
7. I'm 46. At 55, I'll get about 3300 for life per month.
8. I LOVE Cleveland and have family there. There is more to do there than here in Santa Barbara, not to mention COliving is a fraction.
I've been reading about a 4% rule: Live off of 4% of investments. My home may yield about 36k per year and then in 9 years, the retirement kicks in another 3300 per month.
Of course, I can work in CLE part time. I also run a towel company (gross about 42K per year).
I'd like to NOT wait to 55 years old to get there. I want to get out and use their park system, theatre district, sports teams, ski/sled resorts, etc. They also have a very good transportation system so only need to rent a car when traveling way outside the area.
In Oct. I can sell my home with no cap gains.
Oh.. I own about 50K in undeveloped property with my 2 brothers- 50K is my share.
Help me convince the wife to head to CLE!
BTW: Yes, we are on the ocean, but we do not surf or use it enough to justify the cost of living here. I was born here, but 8300 per year for prop. taxes, $3.50 per gallon of gas...etc. You know the drill. I love RVing and have a class C. In Ohio, I can afford a class A and take it during colder months.
In what I read from a few, they do not own homes anymore as well. They rent and travel. Easy to rent short term here and there.
I would prefer a "home base" situation in CLE and then travel in RV. My former principal does this... retired and has very nice diesel pusher. Has a base in S. Dakota and spends most of the year traveling in the RV.
I'll have to research health insurance since I'll be 47ish and my Dist. is not interested in paying for any of that after I leave. Even though I'm going to save them about 50K with a new hire.
West Coast! Thank you for posting! I just returned from a walk with my wife and have been doing the same "thinking" for a few months. Here's my deal and maybe with your experience of research, you can help:
1. I own my home in S. Cal. Zillow says it's worth about 915K.
2. I am in year 23 of my job.
3. Real debt: About 35K total at 3.5%.
4. Kids: 18, 16, and 12. Two oldest are content with SBCC and not a 4 year school right away. Both are bright and have jobs while in high school and college. 12 year old- Starts 7th grade next year.
5. I meet with my STRS (Teacher's Retirement) person in two weeks to go over plans.
6. Like you, I have no intention to work to 62, although I LOVE teaching.
7. I'm 46. At 55, I'll get about 3300 for life per month.
8. I LOVE Cleveland and have family there. There is more to do there than here in Santa Barbara, not to mention COliving is a fraction.
I've been reading about a 4% rule: Live off of 4% of investments. My home may yield about 36k per year and then in 9 years, the retirement kicks in another 3300 per month.
Of course, I can work in CLE part time. I also run a towel company (gross about 42K per year).
I'd like to NOT wait to 55 years old to get there. I want to get out and use their park system, theatre district, sports teams, ski/sled resorts, etc. They also have a very good transportation system so only need to rent a car when traveling way outside the area.
In Oct. I can sell my home with no cap gains.
Oh.. I own about 50K in undeveloped property with my 2 brothers- 50K is my share.
Help me convince the wife to head to CLE!
BTW: Yes, we are on the ocean, but we do not surf or use it enough to justify the cost of living here. I was born here, but 8300 per year for prop. taxes, $3.50 per gallon of gas...etc. You know the drill. I love RVing and have a class C. In Ohio, I can afford a class A and take it during colder months.
TN: Is beautiful!
Thanks!
teacherdad,
Congratulations are in order for you sir. At 46, you've made a host of the right decisions to be in a position to start solving this equation. From my 100,000 foot observation, it appears financially wise, you may be in good shape. Couple of things to consider,
- In Oct you can sell with no capital gains? I'm sure you've looked at the financial benchmarks that qualify for it. I think @500K profit you start paying tax on a sliding scale. You are 46, yet the one time exclusion for Federal Income tax is 55 years old an over. Maybe your wife is 55 plus or? I'm no tax expert so you may have other options with the Feds at your disposal
- Do you have a 401K? I can see the sale of your home could become one. But it would hurt to take profit that is maybe tax exempt only to apply it in a manner than now it becomes taxed. If you pay off debt you still have a large sum of money to put somewhere. And we know the brick and mortar banks are not going to yield the 4% we're looking for to offset the 4% draw. I use a monthly disbursement calculator that factors in projected growth and disbursements based on life expectancy. I'm a realist and use 85 years old based on family history. My wife is projected less than that due to other contributing factors. Solving for X on this equation was tough.
*** We had a bottle of wine afterword and toasted each other.
- We didn't move across the tracks I mentioned due to the kids. My sons were established in their respective activities and I didn't want to disturb that. I grew up moving every 5 years and lacked that stability I wanted for my kids. We're proud to say our kids walked to school from our home at all three levels, Elementary, JHS and HS. How are your kids thinking about a possible move to Cleveland?
I think one of the beauties of your job is you can always go back to work. Good teachers are in demand, and who can't remember their late 50's teacher or college professor?
BTW- I'm just down the road from you in the Ventura/Oxnard area. Love the weather and that's about it.
Good luck to you and I'm sure you and the family will make the right decisions. I'm a believer that sometimes what is best for you, is also best for your family
I clicked on this thread thinking it would be another public sector employee with a defined benefit pension. Yep. Not exactly shocking. I'm 57. I couldn't dream of retiring with $550K in a 401(k) and $300K in home equity.
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