CCF suggested this idea and I thought it would be fun. Post a comparison of where you were 10 years ago and where you are now, and talk about what happened in the interim. So here goes.
12/31/09: Total financial assets (not including home)
$395,673.73
12/31/19: Total financial assets (not including home)
$1,329,432.03
12/31/09 Mortgage balance: $92,285.99
12/31/19 Mortgage balance: $0.00
So our net worth went up by $1,026,044.29.
Major financial events of the last 10 years, and I'm probably forgetting some
Bought my car in 2012, paid off in 2013
Bought my wife's van in 2013, paid off in 2016
Daughter attended college 2014-2018, all loans by her and us have been repaid
Paid off mortgage in 2019; now totally debt-free
Began a job transition in April 2016 that was completed in November 2017 and now earn more than double what I made at the old job
I think those are the real biggies. Obviously, lots of smaller things, car repairs, home repairs, travel, medical expenses, and all of the other normal stuff. It's pretty powerful to look back like that.
Ten Years of Finances
January 3rd, 2020 at 02:59 pm
January 3rd, 2020 at 03:08 pm 1578064123
January 3rd, 2020 at 06:21 pm 1578075681
January 3rd, 2020 at 06:58 pm 1578077915
Somewhere in the $2.1 to $2.5 million range should work nicely, and that is not counting Social Security.
I'm really not sure how to factor in SS without knowing when we will start collecting. We can get roughly $3,000/month at around age 65. In today's dollars, that would cover 40-ish percent of our spending meaning we'd have to draw a lot less from our nest egg. But I'd like to retire at 62 so for at least those first few years, we'd need the savings to cover everything including health care, which is another wild card in the calculations.
Assuming I'm still in good health, another possibility is "retiring" from full time work at 62 but continuing on either part time or per diem a couple of days per week. My current job is perfectly suited for that. Based on current conditions, 20 hours/week of per diem work would earn me at least $125,000 if I worked 45 weeks/year. After taxes, that would nearly cover our total spending and allow us to leave the investments to grow barely touched, and that's without collecting SS early.
Sorry for a very long answer to a somewhat simple question. There are a lot of options and moving parts in the plan at this point.
January 3rd, 2020 at 10:54 pm 1578092097
January 4th, 2020 at 02:23 am 1578104602
January 7th, 2020 at 08:51 pm 1578430282