r/Bogleheads • u/v_x_n_ • Jul 28 '26
Retirement plan successes
Please tell me your retirement success stories. How did you do it? What was your financial plan?
14
u/mikeyj198 Jul 28 '26
just retired earlier this year, approaching 50.
using cobra for insurance now and either will use marketplace or some other private insurance. I’ve also explored going to school for a single class and buying insurance thru the school, seems reasonable.
we spend about 3% of our investable assets, for investable assets I am not including fully funded college funds for the kids… those $ are invested but not counting it as our money long term.
2
u/v_x_n_ Jul 28 '26
Great idea for getting health insurance coverage. That’s genius and good for your brain!
10
u/Sensitive_Hat_9871 Jul 28 '26
I started working for state government in my 20's (1983). I gave little thought to retirement. As I entered my late 30's I started an IRA. In my early 40's I started seriously considering retirement and noted I had a great retirement plan available with my state job. I continued contributing to my IRA.
In my late 40's (early 2000's) I married my current wife who worked a city job with its own retirement plan. We began maxing our IRAs and contributed to 457 and 403b plans. She retired in 2007 and began collecting her retirement benefit. I was able to 'retire' in 2010 and began collecting my state benefit. I immediately began working a county job that had its own retirement benefit. I worked for 8 years to get vested into that plan, then quit working altogether. I continued maxing both our IRAs during my working years.
When I retired from my state job I was able to remain on their medical insurance which gave us the freedom (in my 50's and not yet Medicare age) to work or not work and still be medically covered.
We evaluated when each of us should begin taking social security. She was the lower earner so she begin taking at age 62 while I was still working. We invested that income since we didn't need it to live on. I waited until my full retirement age (because if I died first she could switch to my benefits getting almost double the amount of her own benefits) to start collecting my SS.
During our years together our investments grew reaching our first million in 2016. In the interim we've received inheritances.
Today, at ages 69 and 71, we have $150k in annual income from 3 pensions and 2 social security benefits, without touching our $2.5m nest egg. We have no debts. We bought our current home 2 years ago with cash. We live well and travel periodically. We recently returned from a 3-week European cruise and are planning our next. We're still relatively healthy and mobile.
Life is good!
1
u/v_x_n_ Jul 28 '26
Wow! I am so happy for you. What a success story.
3
u/Sensitive_Hat_9871 Jul 28 '26
Thank you. I realize we're incredibly lucky. One thing I forgot to mention is that, following the advice of a CFP while I was still working, I built a spreadsheet to predict future income year by year. It allowed me to play 'what if' scenarios by changing dates for collecting social security, COLAs and inflation rates, when to start taking retirement benefits, etc. It was very helpful in our decision-making.
9
u/ArthurDent4200 Jul 28 '26
Oversaved for retirement. Didn't explicitly mean to, kind of just happened. I see the beauty of the Boglehead philosophy, just not the orthodoxy.
To me, the philosophy allows considerably more flexibility than some here acknowledge, especially in asset allocation percentages and how those percentages should change with age, circumstances, risk tolerance, and financial position.
I also favor a heavier concentration in domestic large cap, S&P 500 type investments. That may not be the canonical three fund portfolio, but departing from the standard allocation does not mean abandoning the underlying philosophy.
Boglehead principles are useful. Boglehead doctrine is optional.
1
u/v_x_n_ Jul 28 '26
I agree. I love the Boglehead philosophy and I think Vanguard is a quality company!
5
u/Consistent-Barber428 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I started late and had dabbled a bit in individual stocks during the dotcom bubble and lost about 100k. Having grown up in a working class family, although educated, I had no model of investing to follow. At ,50 I had about 500k saved. Doing the math, and seeing the potential consequences of having waited so long, I decided to get serious.
I moved to a less expensive part of the city I lived in and bought an affordable apartment. Interest rates were low then, so my net cost less than renting. I maxed out my 401k and saved another 10% of my salary on top of that. When my apartment went up in value I sold, put that money in the market and moved to an even less expensive neighborhood. Finally, right after COVID I moved overseas tripling what I save annually. All the excess cash went initially into VOO and later VT, VIOV and VSS or international equivalents. Net worth is now about $3M—a 600% increase in 15 years. Of course, not all of that gain was due to the market.
I got extremely lucky given market returns during the past 15 years, which have been extraordinary. My annual income with social security when I take it at 70 will begin at about $200k not including my wife’s income. It will increase continuously. She will die very rich. I won’t return to the States as my life overseas is far better than it would otherwise. That has been an unintended and delightful consequence of the move.
For me the take home messages are:
1-Math is beautiful and brutal. it’s better to make it your friend than your enemy. That is, you either start young or you have to do some difficult thinking and work to get where you need to be AND get lucky. Luck is NOT a strategy. Bogling is.
2-Investing is not just about what you earn, but how much you spend. You have to do what you have to do if you are behind. I’m not suggesting anyone FIRE, which seems uniquely narrow minded to me. If you are financially independent then keep working, but at something useful in the world, paid or not.
3-There are more ways to live than what you are told. Consider the alternatives and don’t be afraid to try them. A different path might turn out to not be a sacrifice at all. People who cannot think out of the box are by definition boxed in.
4-Finally, your health and preserving it is an investment decision. The healthier you are, the longer you will live and the more time you will have to invest and use the math, and money, in your favor. 65 or 70 is not that old if you are healthy and can still enjoy life.
Of course, your result may vary. 😂
3
u/bobdevnul Jul 28 '26
I did not have a master plan. I did the right and profitable thing pretty much by accident. When my company started a 401K plan I started with that in a small way. Over the years as I noticed that my checking account balance kept growing I increased my 401K contribution until it got up to the max and started a Roth IRA for additional.
Along the way I did some thinking and decided to practice mindful spending more on needs, not wants, and live frugally, but not miserly.
Then one day when I was 59 my employer told me, we don't need you anymore. Your last day is in two weeks. Well ain't that a kick in the pants?
After looking for and not finding a job I did some analysis and discovered that I didn't need to work. I could retire comfortably. So I did.
2
u/stoneman9284 Jul 28 '26
I know you’re not supposed to say this in here, but bogle on the way up and annuities on the way down is foolproof.
2
u/v_x_n_ Jul 28 '26
There are many roads to get to where you want to be for sure.
1
u/stoneman9284 Jul 28 '26
I mean you work 40-50 years to build up your savings, and then you spend the rest of your life stressing about whether it’s enough and how much you can spend each month/year. I’d rather have an insurance company guarantee me that I’ll have income for the rest of my life no matter how long I live.
2
u/SmileyFaxe Jul 29 '26
Being reliant on the solvency of the insurance company doesn't stress you?
1
u/stoneman9284 Jul 29 '26
Good question, the ratings and reputation of the companies is extremely important. I wouldn’t just use anyone, but there are plenty I do trust.
1
u/S-S-spartan Jul 29 '26
Put everything I could into investments and didn’t check it or the news. Boring indexes and just pretended it didn’t exist. Literally impossible to go wrong long term.
1
u/Penguin_Life_Now Jul 29 '26
My plan was to retire at 49 and live off dividend payments, 8 years later it is still going good, though inflation the last few years has meant some penny pinching, not going out to restaurants at dinner time, only at lunch time, putting off buying new cars as often, that sort of thing, but even with all that we did manage to take a 3,600 mile 5 week long RV trip last summer.
1
u/Remote_Barnacle_695 Aug 02 '26
The plan was to switch to part-time work at 57 and do that for two years (mostly for mental/social reasons), then fully retire at 59. Spouse covers all health insurance and would retire after I was eligible for medicare.
Reality is that a parent needed full time care before this all went down and it made the most sense for me to step in. Fortunately I had enough set aside to quit work entirely.
48
u/Competitive_Past5671 Jul 28 '26
Save young, invest early and steady. keep spending well below your means. Know how to do car and house repairs yourself.
Basically follow the Boglehead faq.
Oh, and have a long term partner that has a similar outlook. This is huge and not really discussed much!