I’m 61 With $2,800,000. Why Can’t I Retire?

[@RandyColby-mj1zm]

Wow, $2.8 million is a pretty substantial amount! At first glance, it seems like you should be in a great position to retire, right? But I totally get how retirement decisions aren’t just about a number. There’s a lot to think about lifestyle, expenses, healthcare, longevity

[@LoydJohnson-kp3jv]

Retirement isn't just about having money. It's about making sure it lasts, meeting all your needs, and preparing for the unexpected. I think sometimes we focus so much on the amount saved that we forget about the strategy behind it.

[@DianaTownsend-kj5kj]

With $2.8 million, you're in a great spot, but without a clear plan, even that can feel uncertain

[@georgeearling905]

Absolutely, I think a lot of it depends on your lifestyle and how much you plan to spend each year in retirement. Are you planning to travel a lot, maintain the same house, or maybe downsize?

[@ericbergman7546]

things like medical costs can rise pretty quickly as you age. It’s normal to feel unsure, but with that amount, you're definitely not in a bad position

[@AliciaCrone]

That makes sense. I mean, I do have a comfortable lifestyle now, and I don’t want to downsize or compromise too much. But I guess what worries me is if something unexpected happens like health issues or market downturns. How do I make sure my money stretches for the next 20 or 30 years?

[@jeffDwyer1]

I plan to retire at the end of 2025 at 62 after 36 years in Telecom as a sales engineer. My wife will retire in May 2026 and she's loving life! But walking away from a good income stream and building the nest egg to living from the nest egg is a scary proposition couple with the alarming recession and CPI report

[@jstar1000]

If 4% of 2.8 mill will not give you enough money in retirement to live, you need to downsize your lifestyle big time.

[@benstepanek2808]

Until you are taxed into oblivion.

[@jstar1000]

@@benstepanek2808 Your not taxed at the same rate on investment income as you are on earned income. My inlaws only pay around 10% in taxes off their investments in total retirement.

[@Lucas-e2v-g9d]

The thought of retirement makes me cry. My apologies to everyone who have retired and filing social security during this time after putting in all those years of work just to lose everything to a problem you never imagined to happen. It's so difficult for people who are retired and have no savings to fall back on.

[@ronrusso6133]

Imagine having that kind of savings at 61, and kicking the bucket at 62. Live while you're alive.

[@JohnPartyka]

Anyone who can't live off the income from $2.8M must be wasting money on ridiculous things. Or else his/her financial advisor is an idiot.

[@mikewarby9795]

Trying to leave $2.8M when they die seems bit much. Not for me but if that's what they want... Expenses over $9,000 per month? Living Lavida Loca!! No mention of what debt they may have. Maybe that's driving the need for this much $$?? Sounds like their Financial Advisor either was not given all the information because sure seems like they should be ok with a reasonable lifestyle and expenses.

[@toantruong7901]

Exactly. With SS plus gains from their portfolio they don’t even need to touch principle.

[@ivanvarykino8202]

They have a child who lives overseas. If they already have health issues, flying economy may not be an option. We'll see how brilliant you are when you retire and say, holy crap just to pay all my insurances, property taxes and daily life is 60k+ annually. You might be suprised when you get there.

[@JohnPartyka]

@@ivanvarykino8202 Already there mate. I'm 71 now, retired at 63 with less than $100k in savings.

[@martywilliard]

Bruh! Dude is part of the 3% in the USA. Probably part of .05% in the world of 8 billion people. All about expenses - spending.

[@Andrew-zh6jl]

Great explanation. Everyone’s mix of assets, expenses, income, goals and outcomes are different. Thank you.

[@xlerb2286]

That's pretty close to our scenario except we're in good health (knock on wood), we don't have quite that much in investments, but we do have rental property (farmland) that brings in about 15K a year after expenses and could be sold if need be. We have more modest spending goals though. We were living on less than 7K a month and that's plenty in retirement as well though there will be rare larger expenses such as cars, some work on the house, etc. We've also ignored social security in our plans but not because we think it won't be there, we just wanted to put together a very pessimistic plan and see how it held up under analysis. We've both loved the work we do so early retirement wasn't of too much interest to us. But things change. New management at the company where I work, a realization that it was no longer a good fit for me and that I don't want to start over someplace else. Long story short we ran the numbers and I retired this spring a few months before I turned 64.

[@earlyretirementadvisor]

💪💪💪

[@kerrybyers257]

If guy doesn’t quit soon, you’ll be calculating a 2.8M retirement for one. Previous advisor was milking his client big time.

[@Gratefulwon]

Similar numbers here. I really wish you started near the beginning with their liabilities and portfolio to decipher better between wants and needs.

[@lleong666]

They probably need 50 million USD to retire!

[@russthompson4296]

To the people with more than 2 million complaining "We can't retire", hey downsize and don't complain you are the top 3.2%. Most of these have very expensive houses and still have large mortgages and pay an exorbitant amount on utilities. I have friends who retired at 57-62 and travel regularly on 500K and own paid off houses.

[@jimg1172]

Majority of portfolio is $2M in IRAs. These are taxable impacting income taxes, cost of healthcare Medicare and eventually RMDs

[@jimg1172]

How manage sequence of returns risk?

[@bg5215]

"Only have $9000 a month to retire on"

[@fgilmont]

Their plan has a high probability of failure. They really need to reset their expectations.

[@steves3234]

If they can't retie on 2.8 million than they are wasting too much money

[@carlonardone2134]

I know you are just doing your best to optimize this couples situation, but a $2,079 monthly government subsidy for their healthcare plan with a $2.8m portfolio is part of what is wrong with this country with everyone on the take. If you have assets at that level you should not be eligible for a subsidy.

[@bulldogfightingforfreedom]

I am 42 years old networth $5.1 M including properties and investments. House all paid off. I can start to plan my retirement. I am going frugal.

[@kckuc310]

I don’t even need to watch, it’s lifestyle

[@Maxrotor1]

Why don't they conservative structure a dividends portfolio yuelding 3.5 -5%. This portfolio would consist of high quality dividends aristocrat's and ETFs. With this model they never run out of money and don't have to pay an advisor 1%.

[@shoobidyboop8634]

Why would anyone use a 4% withdrawal rate? Even funds like harvard's endowment fund use 5% or more, with the goal of lasting forever. At 61, he's just gotta bridge to SS and medicare. Run the calcs, I'd bet he could safely do 8% up to SS, then 6% or so thereafter.

[@fortgrove3166]

That is a nice green shirt. Where did you get that sir?

[@earlyretirementadvisor]

I made it

[@robertburkhardt7248]

If you can't live on 9k/ month, then I can't feel sorry for you. I have never earned 9k in my life and I'm 64!!

[@sj2073]

Withdrawal from brokerage account doesn’t automatically means low taxes. It depends on capital gains!

[@miken7629]

Dollar devaluation causes dollar to lose half it's value every 12-13 years, have to plan for expenses to double in 12 years just to maintain same lifestyle. Another way to look at this is to increase expenses 6% per year. I am up to $2.5 million, 100% invested in Income, money market CDs bonds dividend stocks & closed end Income funds, I reinvest unspent income.

[@Jaye2U]

I don’t believe this guy. I don’t believe their first FA told them SS won’t be around. That sounds very fishy. This guy is really proud of his ROT comments. “Rules of Thumb” are not bad, they are just guidelines and no FA advisor knows the future or when you’re going to die.

[@vp5781]

I'm not sure how the total withdrawal amount of $455,741 remains static under each scenario assuming a 5% withdrawal rate when most of the portfolios run out of money within less than 25 years. Conversely, wouldn't the total withdrawal amount be greater if withdrawing 5% of an increasing balance per the 7-12 scenario? Perhaps I missed something.

[@billreynolds944]

clickbait...

[@earlyretirementadvisor]

😂😂😂

[@fortgrove3166]

I hope they both start collecting SS at 62.

[@mjs28s]

Just how did you get their MAGI so low that they were only $55,000 per year when it came to the ACA when they are clearly taking in more than that? My income is almost all long-term dividends, I (married) use HSA which reduces MAGI and my MAGI income is still way higher than theirs while I am also generating less income than what they are taking in and spending. Do their IRA not contribute to MAGI? Is that $800,000 brokerage account mostly cash so not actually income but they spend it like it is income?

[@MillennialRescueOrg]

Money isn't worth sacrificing your health over. If Duane for retiredearly500k can do it, 4x as much can easily be achieved. 60-70's. early good health years in retirement. 80-90's feeble years your not going to be doing anything if you have no energy. Best Retire Early, Sell the Houses and stack that cash! You do not know what this crazy world is going to bring in the future.

[@MillennialRescueOrg]

You cannot rely on the Stockmarket going forward. a 50% market drawdown will never be made up if your in your 60's. I would not have more than 10% in the market, 5% Bitcoin and 5% Stocks. The rest in Gold and a portion in Cash. I don't care about inflation when a market drawdown is way above that. That is why you invest in GOLD.