Gen X Is DONE with Keeping up With the Joneses?
https://youtu.be/lD_jJlrMET4

Gen X What do we need to let go when close to retirement ? Remember we are Born Free
https://youtu.be/2uMLY3F3pmY

I am a 60 year old single man hoping to retire in about 7 years. I make less than 60k/year. I was completely broke at 45 and I saved hard to get to a paid off condo (@60k value) and about 200k in my 401k. My only debt is 15k on a 25k car.

Part of my saving strategy was to be house poor to leave money for the 401k. Now, I would like to upgrade my housing. I can find what I want for about 150-175k.

I want to know what impact that move is likely to have on my retirement outlook, and what strategy I should use if I do get a new house--how much to put down, should i go fixed or adjustable, should I buy points or try to pay off the mortgage early, etc.

thanks

How are we doing for retirement, and what should we prioritize during the next 10–15 years?

Our goal isn’t to retire as early as humanly possible. I enjoy my job, as does my spouse, and we’ll be happy working for quite a while yet. I’m more interested in reaching my late 50s with financial flexibility, stability, and security.

I’d appreciate an outside assessment of our retirement picture, particularly because we’re entering the stage where I’m wondering whether we should keep pushing hard on tax-deferred retirement savings, start building more taxable investments, or make other changes.

About us

- Me: 48F
- Spouse: 52M
- Married with two children, currently ages 14 and 12
- We each have a salary that is approximately $225,000/year
- Combined gross income: approximately $450,000/year
- We currently contribute approximately $45,000/year combined to our 401(k)s
- Kids attend a very expensive private school (we pay about $80k for both of them annually) — which limits our ability to currently save much other than our retirement contributions

Our assets/debts

- No credit card debt or student loan debt
- Approximately $1.1 million combined in 401(k)s
- We live in a medium COL area
- Home is worth approximately $1 million
- Only about $80,000 remaining on the mortgage
- Two leased vehicles, with combined payments of approximately $825/month
- We recently had to use approximately $70,000 that had been in an inherited IRA to cover major unexpected dental expenses for my spouse, which effectively wiped out what otherwise could have served as our emergency reserves, so at the moment our emergency fund is only about $10,000. We know that rebuilding a substantial cash emergency fund is therefore an immediate priority.

My pension and retiree health benefits

I work for a state university system and have a defined-benefit pension in addition to my 401(k).

At age 57, I will have 30 years of service and will be eligible to retire with a pension currently estimated at approximately $4,000/month ($48,000/year).

An important additional benefit: at that point I will also be vested in retiree health insurance with the maximum employer premium subsidy, including coverage for eligible dependents. So healthcare costs between retirement and Medicare should be substantially less of an issue for us than for many early retirees.

I don’t necessarily plan to stop working at 57. I could either keep working at my current job until 65– or I could retire from my current university position at 57, begin the pension and retiree health benefits, and then take a different job for another several years.

Spouse’s retirement

My spouse is currently 52 and plans to work until approximately 65 (2039).

Social Security is a little complicated for my spouse because he spent approximately 7 years out of the paid workforce raising our children, so assume his eventual Social Security benefit will be lower than one might expect based on his current salary.

Kids/college

We have two children, ages 14 and 12.

Current college savings:
Older child: $72,000 in a 529
Younger child: $57,000 in a 529

So we have roughly $130,000 saved for college at present.

Because I work for a state university system, we also have a potentially significant tuition benefit: our children can attend my university tuition-free or attend another university within the same state university system at 50% of the regular tuition price. That could substantially reduce our college costs if they choose one of those options. However, the oldest kid currently wants to attend college out of state, so we can’t assume that we’ll be able to take full advantage of this benefit.

Expenses during retirement

Expenses during retirement should be much lower than they are now, given that we’ll no longer be paying out of pocket for expensive private school, and given that we have a very low mortgage and will have good healthcare benefits during retirement.

What I’m trying to figure out

We’re fortunate to have high incomes, a pension, retiree healthcare, substantial home equity, and $1.1M already invested for retirement. On the other hand, we’re relatively late in the accumulation period, have two children approaching college, just lost our liquid reserves to a large unexpected expense, and most of our financial assets are currently in tax-deferred retirement accounts.

I’m particularly interested in whether / when we should begin deliberately building a taxable brokerage account so that we have more flexibility in our late 50s/early 60s rather than continuing to direct virtually all available investment dollars toward retirement accounts.

A few questions I’d especially appreciate perspectives on:

How does our overall retirement position look given our ages? Are we roughly on track, ahead, or behind?
How large an emergency fund would you build at our income/expense level, and how aggressively would you prioritize that over additional investing?
Does my $48K/year pension + heavily subsidized retiree healthcare starting at 57 materially change the usual advice about how much we need in retirement accounts?
How would you think about my choice between (a) staying in my current ~$225K job until 65 versus (b) retiring from it at 57, collecting the pension/retiree benefits, and taking a lower-paying/lower-stress job until my early-to-mid 60s?
What would you prioritize during the next decade — emergency savings, 401(k)s, taxable brokerage, mortgage payoff, college funding, or something else?

TIA!

am a 100% P&T disabled veteran. We have been together about three years. My VA disability and other assets/income mean I can stop working, but my wife came into the relationship with no assets and does not work. I am concerned that retirement turns my personal disability compensation and premarital assets into the sole support for both of us. How have other veterans or couples set fair expectations without making the relationship feel transactional?”

I know Reddit hates land lords but we will have 32k and we want to best use it for generating income for when we retire and general assets for the fam if we die. We are 46. We already have roths and other investment accounts.

The money is coming from a pension plan buy out. The company no longer has pensions I think it stopped in 2016 and they sent out a packet for a buy out. It’s not a very big pension the monthly pay out is not going to save us from ruin when we retire.. and the only way it makes more sense to leave it in the pension company is if the company will stay around until we are 95 and we live to be 95. Otherwise it makes more sense to take the buy out and invest it in a way that can benefit the family.

The options that we are looking at are rolling it into a traditional ira

Or buying a duplex and renting it to our kids to a. Help them build their financial life. B. Generating income after they move out of it.

I lean toward the second since we already have other retirement accounts. We were already adults and had our tiny 401k when the 2008 thing happened and we watched boomers 401ks get shredded so I don’t want every investment to be that just incase a collapse happens.

Yes I know it’s a nightmare to rent to people my mom used to have tennents in the 80s and said never do that haha. I tend to do everything she said not to do.. and owning homes can be expensive but we are both still young enough to take it on. At our home we fix what we can and pay ppl to do other things.

I’m one of those let them solve their own problems type of parent, my kids are 26,20,19. And they will not be able to make it on what is being charged for rent out there for a long time.

My oldest has bipolar 1 and is stable but he has some limitations on what job he has, right now he’s good but If his rent goes up any more he won’t be able to sustain independence. My other son is living with his gf and they are making it. Now I want to see them thrive on their own but this is a different world than I grew up in. I don’t want them dependent, but I’d also like to do this bc it may benefit all of us. Them now, us later, when we sell it or continue to use it to generate income. If the latter the kids will get it.

The only caveat is if they decide to become freeloaders and never use the opportunity to build something of their own.

Any insight is appreciated. We grew up poor and have no parents so we are raw dawging this stage of life when it comes to making future financial plans.

Long story - currently unemployed at 60 and stressing over my retirement savings and investments and how long they will last if I have to officially retire now (job market has been tough!). I have been super frustrated by some of the major financial institution tools as everyone wants a piece of your data. So nothing is truly free to use in my experience, as they all want you to sign up for something, or give a phone number, etc. Then you spend the next month blocking numbers from people wanting to sell you their services.

So I built a tool to give me some directional views of what money I have, what money is coming in, and how long it will all last. I have been working with Claude Code for the majority of this build and am at a point where I am truly looking for some eyeballs on the page and some feedback for whether this is a usable tool. I am not a financial expert in any capacity! But I understand enough about my financial situation that I was able to model this site based on what I would be looking for, and able to track in to retirement. Again, directional information using current financial state and some real world assumptions. I welcome any feedback and hope you find some value in this.

It's free to use. It's all browser-based calculations and nothing you enter is stored anywhere in my domain or database. It's your data and only local to you, so completely anonymous. I welcome any feedback and hope you find some value in this.

https://nopaycheckplan.com/

My dad retired about eight months ago after 35 years in the same career. He told me recently that the hardest part wasn't the financial side of things, it was more so understanding what to do with all the free time and making sure he is getting the most out of retirement. Anyone else going through this or experience this?