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  • Focused on tax privileged accounts

    Asked by someone from Kansas City, MO on 4/10/2017

    Hello:
    My wife and I are 57 and empty nesters, we are completely debt free except for our mortgage. Our kids are grown and are financially supporting themselves. Our combined household income is $137K per year. Through our careers we have always placed a priority on maximizing 401K / IRA's over paying off the mortgage. We don't have any credit card debt or consumer loans. We have $1.4 million in retirement accounts and $90K in an emergency fund, I will also get a pension when I retire, $24K per year but with no COLA. I just recently refinanced our mortgage balance for 30 years, $345K at 3.6%. We really like our house and are paying a monthly payment that is much cheaper than paying rent in our area, also its a very safe neighborhood. Are planning on working another 5 years or so.
    Our combined SS will be $34,680 at 62.
    How are we doing? What are your thoughts on the mortgage? Over the course of our career my investment portfolio has performed much better than the 3.6% mortgage.

    Thank you for your time.

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  • Categories: Retirement Planning, How Much Do I Need?

Answers

  • Steve 

    Steve 
    NewRetirement

    San Francisco, CA

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  • Hi - thanks for your question. Compared to the general population you are doing great since only 9% of people in your age group have > $500,000 in savings http://www.aaii.com/computerized-investing/article/newretirement-a-holistic-approach-to-retirement-planning

    How confident you can be in your plan comes down to some key factors like:
    - your expense rate vs. your guaranteed income
    - the level of risk in your investments
    - how well you have hedged out other risks (health care, inflation, longevity, interest rates, etc)

    Have you tried building a retirement plan on our site? It will handle modeling everything described above and provide you with some detailed analysis and potentially some ideas for further improving your plan.

    https://www.newretirement.com/

    Best,

    Steve

  • Login to rate this answer:   Answered on 4/21/2017
**All above answers are provided as general information only. No warranty is made regarding the fitness or accuracy of the information provided in this answer. You should seek advice from a licensed CPA, attorney or CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ as to your unique financial situation.