As I stated above I have been thinking about getting out for a while. Just couldn't make myself do it. We have been talking about retirement for more than four years since the old plant where I worked closed. Mrs. RSKY retired last June from her teaching job. I always expected my retirement to be closer to 59 1/2 when the 401K became available.
Anybody ever hear of IRS 72-T ??
You can use that rule to draw out your 401K early with no penalty. But it is somewhat complicated. More on that later.
The biggest of out three 401Ks is with Fidelity. They have an excellent planning page on their website, www.401k.com. Don't know if you can get into it if not a customer but I would try if I was thinking of retirement.
The first thing we had to do was learn how much we spent each month before we planned anything else. We have a 'one checkbook' rule for paying the bills. One checkbook is placed in a certain spot and all 'payments' are made from it. No groceries, clothing, or extras, just bills. My wife made out a template and put all our monthly and regular expenses for 2010 on it. Electric, gas, water, internet, satelite tv, house phone, cell phone, insurance for home and vehicles, church contribution, health insurance, trash pickup, newspaper, safe deposit box, payment for her vehicle, and (drum roll) allowance for a tractor payment. I put all these on a spread sheet with lines at the bottom for average, monthly high, and monthly low.
I took the highest month for the year for each item and added them together. For example our gas bill was $200 in March, but only $6 in June. So gas gets budgeted $200 a month. Others stay the same all year round, Internet, house phone, etc.. I took this total and added $1000 to it for food and clothing. This is our monthly 'essential expenses'.
I entered this number in the expenses slot on the planner. It then asked for monthly 'discretionary' spending. I put in an amount that I thought would allow us to eat out regularly, buy stuff for grandkids, travel, and buy new tractor implements.
The planner asks a lot of questions about your investments, work in retirement, etc.. It also adjusts for inflation. In the planner I placed all my funds on the very conservative, safe, lower paying investments.
Anyway, according to Fidelity we will run out of money at age 93. Told my daughters that each would have to take one of us to live with them.
Anybody ever hear of IRS 72-T ??
You can use that rule to draw out your 401K early with no penalty. But it is somewhat complicated. More on that later.
The biggest of out three 401Ks is with Fidelity. They have an excellent planning page on their website, www.401k.com. Don't know if you can get into it if not a customer but I would try if I was thinking of retirement.
The first thing we had to do was learn how much we spent each month before we planned anything else. We have a 'one checkbook' rule for paying the bills. One checkbook is placed in a certain spot and all 'payments' are made from it. No groceries, clothing, or extras, just bills. My wife made out a template and put all our monthly and regular expenses for 2010 on it. Electric, gas, water, internet, satelite tv, house phone, cell phone, insurance for home and vehicles, church contribution, health insurance, trash pickup, newspaper, safe deposit box, payment for her vehicle, and (drum roll) allowance for a tractor payment. I put all these on a spread sheet with lines at the bottom for average, monthly high, and monthly low.
I took the highest month for the year for each item and added them together. For example our gas bill was $200 in March, but only $6 in June. So gas gets budgeted $200 a month. Others stay the same all year round, Internet, house phone, etc.. I took this total and added $1000 to it for food and clothing. This is our monthly 'essential expenses'.
I entered this number in the expenses slot on the planner. It then asked for monthly 'discretionary' spending. I put in an amount that I thought would allow us to eat out regularly, buy stuff for grandkids, travel, and buy new tractor implements.
The planner asks a lot of questions about your investments, work in retirement, etc.. It also adjusts for inflation. In the planner I placed all my funds on the very conservative, safe, lower paying investments.
Anyway, according to Fidelity we will run out of money at age 93. Told my daughters that each would have to take one of us to live with them.
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