Retirement-how soon

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L1: Retirement-how soonWould like to know the best option a person has to retire early. I am 52 years old and my IRA is funded at present $1,045,000 and my 401-k is funded at present $318,000. What amount could a person retire on safely and still have legacy monies. I am married with 2 children and really would like to retire. If possible could you give me a direction on whick way to go to with early retirement. Thanks2008-05-19 17:42, By: Dalqui52, IP: [72.60.103.61]
L2: Retirement-how soonThat is a very personal decision. I pulled the plug at 50 with a smaller nest egg and am happy 3 years later. Might I suggest some reading at http://www.early-retirement.org? These are a great group of folks. many of which are happily un-employed and loving life. Due Diligence by you in knowing what your expenses will be and what you can generate for income is the staring point. Also, a real biggie is the Health Insurance. Can you handle multiple down market years?
Do your homework 1st and enjoy life. We only get 1 shot at it!2008-05-19 18:13, By: Crazy Connie, IP: [130.13.105.210]

L2: Retirement-how soonIf your employer”s plan allows you to take periodic distributions, not necessarily equal ones, can you bear to continue working there until January of the year in which you will become 55 ? Will your employer accept a rollover/transfer from your IRA to your 401-k ? If so, you can retire with the best of all worlds, and not be subject to the restrictions and complexities of SEPP 72-T plans.
To answer your question of “how much do I need?”, you must determine your budget of needs and wants, including college educations for you children, retirement, and health insurance and uncovered medical expenses. (Look into HSA —Health Savings Accounts.)2008-05-19 21:02, By: dlzallestaxes, IP: [151.197.60.248]

L2: Retirement-how soonI agree with the above comments, especially Crazy Connie”s comment about retirement timing being a very personal issue. It”s in the same class as “who should I marry?”, as questions go. There are so many specific issues in an individual”s life that they simply HAVE to make such decisions themselves.
You do seem to have plenty of retirement resources, though. I agree with DLZ that you might consider hanging on until the year in which you turn 55, IF your company allows partial retirement distributions. Some 401k plans do and some don”t. If yours does not, then waiting until age 55 probably has less appeal to you.
It is good to know exactly how much money you will need for retirement living expenses. My wife and I did this by putting a fixed amount into our “house” checking account and paying all of our expenses for a year from that account before I retired. Although we never went through the nuts and bolts of setting up a budget, our process gave us an excellent idea of how much we were spending without getting bogged down in minutia. I also suggest that you use the calculators on this web site to determine just how much money you can take from your retirement accounts under the 72t rules. If that will cover all of your expenses plus some extra for those “uh-oh” situations, then you can start planning more seriously. In your situation, you might be able to set up a SEPP plan on your large account while saving your smaller one for unforeseen financial problems. That way, you can take occasional distributions from the smaller account without busting the SEPP on the larger account.
Healthcare IS the 800 lb. gorilla in the retirement room, so that needs to be covered in some way. I was fortunate to work for a company that offered retiree health insurance benefits for long-time employees, while my wife had a job that allowed her to convert her unused sick leave into medical insurance benefits. Between these two things, early retirement became accessible.
Congrats on your saving and investing for retirement. You”ve done very well with that.
Ed2008-05-20 18:33, By: Ed_B, IP: [67.170.159.37]