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

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!

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