Single Retiree (57) Breaks Down Exactly Why You Should Retire Today | Retirement Reality

At 57, with his kids launched and the numbers finally working, Doug finds himself asking a different question than most people expect: If I could go now… why wouldn’t I? 

In this episode of Retirement Reality, Doug shares what it’s like standing right on the edge of retirement. He talks openly about the freedom he’s craving, the hesitation created by healthcare uncertainty, and the quiet realization that he’s already built a life he doesn’t need to escape from, just more time to enjoy.

From buying an Airstream and testing longer trips off the grid, to dialing in a realistic lifestyle, Doug walks through how he’s preparing emotionally and financially for the transition. He also opens up about watching friends work longer than they need to, and why clarity (not a magic number) is what finally gives permission to step away.

This conversation is for anyone who feels “almost ready,” but wants to make sure they’re not missing something before making the leap. As you listen, consider this:
If your time were truly yours, what would you stop postponing?

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Doug is not a client of Root Financial Partners, LLC and received no compensation for participating in this video. His statements reflect his own opinions and experience and are not indicative of any specific client’s experience and are not a guarantee of results. No cash or non-cash compensation was provided, and no material conflicts are known.

Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.

The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements

Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.

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Ari Taublieb, CFP ®, MBA  is the Chief Growth Officer of Root Financial Partners and a Fiduciary Financial Planner specializing in helping clients retire early with confidence.

Transcript

Free Guides And How To Email

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I hope you guys continue to enjoy these episodes with the real guests sharing their stories, what resonates, what doesn't, and it helps bring clarity to you for your retirement. If you didn't hear on a previous episode I shared, you can always email me directly, ari at rootfinancial.com. My team responds to these messages. If you want more question if you want more clarity, not more questions, because that wouldn't help anything. If you want more clarity on, okay, how do I keep my healthcare low? How do I optimize my superhero account? How do I know if I should do Roth conversions? Well, you can just go ahead and email us and put in the subject line conversion if you have questions on Roth conversions, when they make sense. And we'll send you a free guide in a roadmap so you can see, okay, does it make sense for you? And if so, when? How to think through that. Same thing with healthcare. Email the word healthcare, withdrawal strategies, email the word withdrawal. If you want a guide on, hey, what's what are all those questions or things that I want to make sure I don't forget before I retire, email the word retire. So you can go ahead and do that once again. This isn't being posted what I'm telling you right now on YouTube. So on YouTube, most people can just comment easily and then I can send them the guide. You're all listening on the podcast app right now. If you're listening to this, so you don't have a way of getting information other than going in the description of this episode, which of course you can do as well. But I want to make sure if you guys have questions, whether it's conversions, healthcare, whatever it may be, you can go ahead and email me directly. My team will go ahead and get you that guide as fast as we can, generally within 24 hours. And then of course, more of these episodes with real people are on their way. Hopefully you guys enjoy. Thanks as always for supporting the show. So let's talk a little bit. I imagine it's not the case, but there are certain people that go, once I retire, I just cannot wait to buy X, or I can't wait to do that one thing. It sounds to me like it's less of that and more of just time. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yeah, I'm all it's all about the time and experience right now. I have everything I need. I'm trying to throw stuff away. I'm trying to downsize. Um, I have everything I need. It's time to take care of those shoulda, coulda, woudas. It's time to go out and find those experiences, take those trips, see those sites, get those memories. That's what I'm after now.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

What I'm doing in this new show, Retirement Reality, is having heartfelt, candid conversations with people who have already retired so you can hear from them what worked well, what didn't, and everything in between. I hope you enjoy. And if you're retired and you want to personally come share your story on a future episode, there's a link right below this in the description of this episode where you can apply to be a guest. Now go enjoy the episode. I once asked a client, how much money do you need just to live off the bare minimum? And they said, bare minimum, so I'm not flying first class or anything luxurious. I said, Yeah, just bare minimum, just so we can get a baseline. And they shared, yeah, about 10,000 a month. I go, okay. So 10,000 a month, that's like before you've done anything you really wanted, just like minimum. And they're like, Yeah, of course. And they said it as if it was nothing. Now, there are clients that we have who spend far in excess of that, but I'd say the majority of clients that work with us, they're in that$8,000 to$12,000 a month range. But that's them enjoying life to the fullest. So this client was like, yeah,$10,000 a month, and it's just, hey, before we've even kind of begun the discussion. That's very different from my guest today who shares how he's spending$6,000 a month in retirement, and that's with a mortgage. So once the mortgage is gone, he's really in a$4,000 a month range, and that's to actually be still doing everything he wants to do. He shares how he retired early and how now he can finally wake up in the middle of the night and not have to worry about going back to work. And he can instead go do cool things with his telescope, or he can decide he wants to go um look at some new camper and have fun doing whatever the heck it is he wants to do because he's got the freedom to pursue it. My guest is very articulate and is very honest about the struggles when it comes to retiring and how he did push back the goalposts and why he's glad he retired at the time he did. Enjoy. So, guys, we have a fun episode of Retirement Reality for you today because my guest is not yet retired, but he's very close. He's targeting end of the year, still some things we want to debate before we actually started officially recording. Doug started to share, well, the Affordable Care Act and some healthcare stuff. I'm still kind of trying to see what makes most sense for me. And as all of you know, if you want to come on this show, you can fill out my form in the link below. And my guest today, Doug, he shared, I've got friends that I think are gonna work too long. So how the heck do I talk to them about this? And there's a lot of cookie cutter financial advisors out there, but I like that it seems like your channel and your partner James go deeper. So that's what we're gonna be exploring today. Now, Doug, I asked my guests the same question first, which is if there was one word you could use to pick your retirement so far, what would it be? But that does not apply to you today. So I'm gonna change that and say, if there was one word to describe the feeling of what you think retirement is gonna be like, what would you choose? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Um, and not to be a cliche, I'm looking for the freedom. Freedom. Yeah. The uh what has really gotten me, especially this last few months, is uh walking out to the truck in the morning to go to work and it's absolutely beautiful out, and I want to do this other thing. Um, so having that freedom to look at the weather report for the next week and decide where else I could be. Um and I have a camper, so I'm gonna hook that thing up and go someplace else.

Why Retire At 57 Now

SPEAKER_00 5:34

A lot to explore there. Now let's start getting the backstory on Doug. So how old are you today? What are you planning to retire end of the year? Why now?

unknown 5:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

So I'm 57. Um, why now? Uh the the numbers actually hit a little while ago. Um, but I have a 23-year-old daughter who just graduated college and just started her career. And I have a 20-year-old son up at college, but he is rocking in his career already. So that just that news in the last month of how those two are starting to fly. Um this huge weight lifted off of me. And so now I'm kind of like, okay, I can I can kind of just go whenever I want. Um, so I really stepped up my research, stepped up dialing in my budget. You kind of mentioned the the affordable care act stuff, um, really starting to look at buttoning this up and making sure I'm ready to jump.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Love it. I talk about it a lot, which is the risk of an early retirement really is not 65 to 95 a hundred. The real risk is you retire at, let's say, 57, 58, and you've got healthcare expenses. You want to travel more because you have your energy and your health. And at the same time, there's no Social Security. So, what people do is they go, I'm gonna delay because all the pressure's on my portfolio. And maybe I want to do a remodel, or I've still got kids who might go to grad school or I want to help with the down payment. And so if we put too much weight on a portfolio at the beginning, it's not like you won't be okay, but maybe you're not living the dream retirement. So I like the way you're thinking through this already. Talk to us a little bit about what do you do for work and specifically if you are to transition, let's call it the end of the year, that conversation with your employer, is that something that you're dreading or you go, no, it won't be hard, can't wait to go.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Um, yeah. So right now I'm a specialist or consultant with a law firm. Um, I previous job, I was with a local municipality or government for 20 years. So I've kind of created a um, I'm an expert in a certain field. So this law firm pulled me away. Um, and it's been great. I I cannot speak badly of this work environment. For the first time ever, I'm really comfortable. I like what I'm doing and what I'm around um the conversation because I like the the attorneys I work with. Um, but I also think they're gonna be super supportive. So I'm not I'm not nervous about that. Um so yeah, it's um that's also kind of feeding into the timing. Like I'm in a good place. Uh, I could stay if I want, I could go. So I don't think I'm hurting anybody other than myself if I keep going.

Camper Dreams And Flexible Travel

SPEAKER_00 8:22

I love that. And sorry if I'm interrupting because we do the interview virtually, sometimes it's hard to tell when you're completely finished. So I do that more often than I should. I will say, Doug, this makes me happy because some people are worried to retire just because of what the conversation is going to look like with employers. And you're like, no, they're gonna be supportive. It's mainly the healthcare stuff or the other stuff that we're gonna get into. Do you mind first just telling us a little bit? You already shared, it's gorgeous outside. I've got a camper. What are some other things or diving deep into those things that you cannot wait to start doing once you're retired?

SPEAKER_01 8:55

Um that's kind of it. I bought this camper. It was kind of a dream of mine for years, and I bought this camper, and it's been the thing that's been kind of the thorn in my side since I bought it, because I don't have the freedom to just run. Now I've made the last what two or three years, I've made a per on purpose. I've made my vacations kind of how I'm dreaming it. So this this summer I spent the longest ever. I went for 10 days um up in the mountains of Wyoming, off grid, gone. And two things just to see how the camper did for a long stay and kind of a budget. And and again, it was 10 days for only like 600 bucks and 400 that was gas, you know, telling the camper all the way out there. So um those kind of things. I really want to go travel. Um, my daughter, before she started her job, she went on a 17-day trip. So I gotta one up her. I gotta I I want to do that. I was so impressed. It was so cool looking looking at her photos. There's so much to see just in our country, but I do want to jump over the ocean and see some other things too. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

So you said 10 days, you said longest ever. Are you saying in the last 40 years since you've been working, there has not been a longer trip than 10 days?

SPEAKER_01 10:14

So to go backwards. Um my family owned a business. We were a candy wholesale company. We took maybe a Saturday one weekend a year, maybe Friday, Saturday, maybe just a Saturday. I didn't get on an airplane until I was in my late 20s. Um, I never left the state per se until I was, you know, on a vacation. So the so vacation to me was weird. Like when I started working, I I had no concept that you could actually just bail from work for a week. Um, that that was weird to me. So no, I've never done much more than just a Saturday to a Saturday or something like that. Um, so those 10 days is the longest I've ever had on a vacation. Um to piggyback off of that a couple years ago, I had blocked off a week for vacation and I mapped out two locations for my trip, total different directions, watched the weather. It started raining up there, so I bailed and went that way. So I had the camper hooked up. I just waited till the last minute and I just decided which way to go. That's what I can't wait to do. Um, is just that ability to just go. Love it.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Watch, watch for cheap hairfair, watch for whatever it is, and just go. I have two really dumb questions. Okay, my first dumb question. I like to there's actually a a request. I like to sometimes guess when I'm doing these shows about random things. So I like to guess the price that you paid for the camper. Is that okay? Sure. Okay. I really don't, I'm not experienced. I have a lot of clients, and I have certain ones that have shared with me. They have the bougiest camper ever. Others have shared, hey, I used to get that, you don't even need it. I just need this level. If I were to say 35,000, would I be close? Yeah. Higher. 60,000 or so? Uh a little bit lower, yeah. A little lower. Okay. So tell us a little bit because there are some people that watch that are in the same spot as you going, I want to make sure I get the right camper. And I know nothing about that. So please enlighten us.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

Yeah, well, that's something that uh again, I was looking around at campers for a long time. Um, campers, generally, all campers are kind of the same. Camping industry is getting upset now. Um, all campers are about the same. Uh, when I was young, um, I had one of these moments where um I was over at a friend's house and his older brother was dating this gal, and they pulled up in a brand new airstream. And I was like, oh, what is that? So it's always been under my dream, and I never knew if I really wanted to drop the money on it. Um, both my parents passed away in uh 2019, 2020. Um, so I got a little bit of inheritance, and and I was like, you know what? I've been looking at campers, and now I'm gonna I'm gonna buy something once in my life that's a little bit beyond my my budget. Um, so I bought an airstream. Um and uh it the other thing about the air, the reason I bought this camper too is I'm six foot two, and surprisingly, camper beds are very short. This got a king-size bed I can actually like fit.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

So I'm five foot five, so I could probably fit into any camper. In fact, I could probably buy any camper.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Well, that's what my daughter just did the 17 days in the backseat of a Ford Focus. Oh my god, because she's like this tall. So so yeah, she everybody was surprised that she was camping out of that thing.

Vacation History And Learning To Leave

SPEAKER_00 13:39

So here's question number two that's gonna be more dumb than you've probably ever heard in your entire life. What do you do while you're in the camper and you're traveling around? And how mapped out is this? Because the questions I'll get from clients that go, you don't hear this a lot? I go, No, I do, but I just don't really know. Which is okay, great. So you pretend you're retired tomorrow and you can go off. Can you just like begin? Or what's the actual process? What are you doing day to day? Do you have a schedule or do you just see how you feel that day?

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Uh well, I guess that kind of depends on where I'm going. So, like last summer, my son and I went to the UP of the upper peninsula of Michigan. Um, and so we just um knew where we were going to camp. And then we just uh used that as the hub and just went out to different spots and hiked and found waterfalls and looked at different things. This Wyoming trip, uh, I I fly fish, so I was out in the mountains fishing. So there's a bunch of streams out there we knew. There's a couple streams we didn't know that I hiked a mile back to go fish in. Um, so every day it was get up, go fishing for a while. And my buddies didn't show up for four or five days. So I was out there for four days by myself. So get up, go fishing in the morning, come back, have lunch, hang in a hammock, you know, uh go look at there's moose everywhere, go look at something, go fish some more. So that was generally just totally laid back and easy. And you know, try something new every day, a new stream every day.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

I can tell you're excited, and I'm excited for you. Now you've already taken one big tip from me, whether you know it or not. I try to tell as many early retirees as possible. Before you retire, what can you tackle? Because there's certain things you cannot tackle. Healthcare, that is not something you have to worry about until you retire. Now, should you plan for it? Absolutely. Superhero accounts and things I talk about. But what I'm talking about is you already made that purchase. So maybe in the moment you felt like, hey, maybe this is a little beyond my means. And I'm saying, I'm glad you did the non-financial decision in that moment because imagine now you've got that additional expense and we pretend we want to do Roth conversions or tax gain harvesting or these other things I talk about, it would make it pretty difficult. So I want to shift gears a little bit, if that's okay, to the financial side of things. I want to start by asking how much money, and feel free to not share whatever you don't want. But everyone in the comments, um, they'll ask, hey, could you go a little deeper and see if some of these potential retirees are willing to share how much they're spending? So is there an amount that you're targeting every month, or how are you thinking through that?

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Yeah. And that's how from you and my own experience, that's exactly how to approach it. Um, how I came up with the number is looking at what I live off of. And so um right now, and and and you know this trick, other people have talked about it. I how I started was putting away my 10% every year I got an increase, I kept adding it up. I have lived this lifestyle my whole life. So um, I'm not looking to change much. I'm actually gonna pay myself a little bit more. So I'm looking at probably about six thousand a month. Um, and because I have everything I need and I've remodeled this house upside down, inside and out, there's really not much left for me to do, but go go have to.

Choosing An Airstream And Why

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Let's be clear for everyone here because I love this. And guys, let's give some kindness to Doug in the comments here, who's openly sharing all of this, please. Now, six thousand a month, that's after taxes, correct? Six hits your account. That's adjusted for inflation. Do you have a mortgage today? I do have a little bit of mortgage, yep. Is that included in there? Yep. Okay, so that's included. So let's assume the mortgage is paid off and whenever it's paid off. I like to separate that because that will be gone one day. So it sounds like let's call it maybe 4,500 or 4,000. That's what you're actually living on so that you could enjoy your retirement. Yeah. Okay. I mean, guys, you just you've heard other episodes where people have shared, I need 12 a month, I need eight a month. Here you are sharing. I I don't really value that as much as my own freedom at this point. Um, tell me a little bit more about, okay, so let's, whatever the number is, let's call it 6,000 a month for now, including the mortgage. Do you mind sharing what your current mortgage interest rate is? 2.5. Okay. So if you were to pay that off, we'd be having a deep conversation. Okay. That's me joking with my clients. Um, but my point here is I like that you're like, hey, I get it. It's not free money, but it's pretty close. So at this point, I I don't get the sense you're losing sleep retiring with a mortgage. Would that be safe to say?

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah, no, not worried about all.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

So let's talk a little bit. I imagine it's not the case, but there are certain people that go, once I retire, I just cannot wait to buy X, or I can't wait to do that one thing. It sounds to me like it's less of that and more of just time. Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah, I'm all it's all about the time and experience right now. I have everything I need. I'm trying to throw stuff away. I'm trying to downsize. Um, I have everything I need. Um, it's really, it's time to take care of those shoulda, coulda, woulda's. It's time to go out and find those experiences, take those trips, see those sites, um, get those memories. That's what I'm after now.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

It sounds like some of the hesitancy was yes, there's your daughter, but there's also, as you mentioned to me before we start recording, the Affordable Care Act. What is your current plan to approach healthcare? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

So um I'm I'm I'm still gonna go ahead with the Affordable Care Act. I'm just waiting to see at this time of recording. I'm waiting to see what happens at this federal level. Uh I met with a um uh healthcare broker a week ago, and he his crystal ball said plan on adding 20% um in our state. Um asterisk side note to that too. I was why we're having this discussion. I have been looking to downsize. I have been house shopping for over a year now. Um, and I've been looking to jump the river to the state next door. Uh as soon as I mentioned that, he goes, Oh, and he pulls up their affordable care act, and it's not apples to apples. I'm sure you know that. It's 50% more over there. So I'm like, oh, okay, maybe I stay on this side of the river. Um, yeah. So that was a that was an aha moment. Um, but no, I'm not 20% more doesn't screw up my budget. It's not fun, it's not a good thing, but uh, but yeah, I just I just want to see come uh uh coming up here as everybody gets into the renewal time to see where really what where it lands.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

So makes perfect sense. I'm gonna add on a little bit because I think you're thinking about it really well, but I'd go a step deeper. So the the first thing is when it comes to healthcare, I'll hear the following all the time. I can't retire early because of healthcare. That's just not the case. I have clients that are legitimately spending$2,000 a month as a couple, and you're like, well, that sucks. It does. And I have other clients that are spending a few hundred bucks a month. It is in your control if you have the right pieces in play. One of the biggest things I talk about is this superhero account. So you can massage your income and choose what you want it to look like. Now, the reason I'm bringing this up now is you brought up that aha moment of, well, if I move states, that's really going to change healthcare. Yes, it will, but have we analyzed what my actual kind of next five years of optimal income would look like if we were to sell in downsize, paying capital gains taxes, yada yada. How much extra money would we have left over? Because that would be in a superhero account, hypothetically. So that would allow us to do different things. And so what I would be doing, and you might be doing this on your own or with your advisor, is running the analysis to say, what if I move states? Okay, what would that look like from a healthcare perspective? Just with conservative estimates. I'd probably go 25%, but whatever. Now from there, I would say, what if I sold it? What would my life look like? Would I be happier? I'm downsizing, kind of healthcare and other aside, what would my life look like? And now that I have more money in my disposal, does that make it so that I can actually qualify for either other subsidies or look into doing harvesting or conversions and say, great, here's two financial analyses. Now, where would I like my life to be? And then you can go, okay, I understand what both the financial kind of A and B say, but where would I be happiest? And I only bring this up because I had a couple. Once that retired to Florida because I showed them some tax projections that looked very attractive. And then they went, We're going to be okay either way, right? Like if we go to Florida or not. I go, You will. And they're like, Yeah, then we're not going to go to Florida. I see I would save more money, but my life is better because my friends are here. So I want to talk about your friends a little bit because one of the things you shared with me in the questionnaire ahead of the this conversation is I don't know why my friends are working so long. Why do we feel this way? Why did you put that comment in there?

What Camper Life Looks Like

SPEAKER_01 22:27

And that's just so my core group of buddies, we've known each other. Well, my one friend and I have been together since kindergarten, everybody else since junior high. So we're all the same age, and we've all we're and so we get together the first week of the month and have dinner and talk. And and I started bringing up this retirement thing a while ago. Um, one of my buddies, since I sent you that email, has uh told his partners he's stepping back. So he's semi-retiring. He he's self-employed, he he he's got that power. Um but uh uh this goes into that uh the discussion uh maybe a couple dinners ago about what what is your plan? What is your budget? What is your plan? And so my my one friend and his wife, they like to travel a lot. So they plan on probably working into their 60s because they have travel plans. Um great, you know, and then I've I've got another friend, though, that's he's got a military pension, electric pension. Uh they've got their house, they've got everything. And he keeps talking about he needs to live longer. Do you need to have three million dollars to retire? I'm like, where'd you get that number from? And you don't go anywhere. So so no, he's got all this stuff. And he he met with somebody this summer and he's like, uh, all right, I see now, I get it. So it's it's that misunderstanding of what it really what that number is. Um and but it's also what your goals are. I mean, like I said, my my one friend and his wife, they want to keep traveling, they have stuff to do, and so they they want to fund it through work, great, and they like their jobs, they're doing fine. So it's it's it's all up to you um what you want to do. I just want to make sure I have somebody to play with. I want somebody to retire with me. So um, no, I think everybody's set. We have kind of all had this 60 rule. We're not gonna go past 60. And that's kind of our we've all had that, that's been the one constant in our discussions. So I think uh maybe I'm the first, but they'll they'll be tripping right behind me.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

I love that you have this friend group because so many people retire and they're like, well, my coworkers are my friends. And then all of a sudden you start to go, well, they're not really talking to me as much now that I'm not working. And sounds like that's not gonna be the issue. I like that you have friends who are also like, we're happy to keep working if it means we can travel to this degree. For them, first class might be most important to them or luxurious travel or whatever it is. So they want to do that. As we always say, there's no right or wrong. What I want to go a little deeper on is the what some people are calling the rosy retirement nowadays. I've I see different phrases for it, but what they're saying is the first year of retirement is super rosy because you've got life and freedom and oh my gosh, possibilities are endless. And then after that year, there's well, I don't really feel that purpose or meaning anymore. Certain people just doesn't bother them at all. Is that something that you're thinking about or not so much?

Monthly Retirement Budget And Mortgage

SPEAKER_01 25:22

No, I think you gotta be realistic with that. Um, and and I'm just as guilty as anybody of able to just flop in that chair and watch that TV. Um but sometimes it's because I know I have to go to work tomorrow. I know I have to do something, so I don't really want to stay start that activity. Um it's again back to the freedom thing. I want to push myself to get back into shape, eat healthy, all those standard things. But I also want to have that ability that the weather looks great for the next two weeks, get in the camper and go. Or my telescope right there. Yeah if I hear there's something happening tonight, but it's at two in the morning to go see that thing, it's like you know, forget it. I gotta work in the morning. No, I'm staying up tonight because I want to go see that thing. So I'm gonna probably have to travel so I can get to some dark sky. So I want that ability to do that. I and again, like I said, I like to fish, I like to be out in the woods. Um the one thing I'm budgeting higher on is fuel and car maintenance because I just figure I'm gonna be instead of driving to work, I'm gonna be driving either tall in the camper or just driving to go fish or go see the stars or go do something.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

I'm excited for you. And I want to see 2 a.m. selfies with you out in the sky. It's gonna be awesome. Um, do you mind sharing, Doug? And please tell me um no if you don't want to share. But the general breakdown, I don't mean the number, but the general breakdown, how much is in pre-tax assets, brokerage assets, and Roth? Because people are always trying to go, what's the right mix? And there's really not a perfect mix, to be honest, but certain people just want to hear. Do you mind sharing just general breakdown?

SPEAKER_01 27:12

No, it's and and the one thing that I guess we all need to understand too is you know, Roths weren't invented when I was started investing. So when Ross came along, I'm like, what are these things? Um, so yeah, so my portfolio is uh and and also I was fortunate enough being a local government employee. Um they uh I I so I have eight percent of my portfolio is just HSA. Um we had a we had a thing where and I never took a six leave either. So when I left, that was all paid out at my last salary, so I got a huge HSA account. Wow, don't see that often, I'll admit. So I think it's 12 um Roth, 8% HSA. The rest of it is all uh 401 or 457 because I was government. Um, and then uh a small portion of that is inherited. That's why another reason I can bail is I do have this inherited IRA I gotta spend in the next few years. So that's gonna be the first thing I'm tapping. So beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah. So for those who don't know, inherited IRAs are different rules based off when you inherit it, there's a time frame. So that's what Doug's alluding to. Now I didn't hear a superhero account. Did I mishear that?

SPEAKER_01 28:28

No, see, I didn't have YouTube or you. Uh so that's something I'm kind of looking at trying to get started now. Uh actually I just was on the phone with my son um because uh uh he wants to start investing because he's actually, like I said, he's off and running on this career as he's going to college. So um and and and I started kind of looking at, you know, the CDs right now are four percent. Could I instead take that money and invest it, you know, start my superhero account. So um, yeah, I'm kind of looking at some of my liquid assets and thinking about starting something. Might might be late, but it's something I think I can do. Uh it'll be a fun thing to do on the side. Yeah.

Affordable Care Act Planning By State

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Yes, it will. Yeah. And so, guys, here's the good news. So I appreciate the print transparency there, Doug. You don't need to have the superhero to retire. It's not like, oh my gosh, if I don't have it, I can't. The the reason I talk so much about it is when you have a 401k. So Doug has a 401k, 457, he's gonna pull from that as a reminder to all, and many of you know this, but just a refresher. Doug puts money in his 401k. Good. Doug's happy. Tax deduction. It grows. Doug pays no taxes, Doug's extra happy. Doug's a little less happy when he has to take it out and pay taxes. Now, many people go, oh my God, I'm gonna have to pay taxes. Yes, but you'll also be in a pretty low tax bracket. So it's really not as big of a deal as the world wants you to freak out. And if you see an article online that says, you need$3 million to retire because 30% is going to taxes, that's just fear articles trying to scare you. So please ignore those. What I want you to do is focus on your retirement. So Doug, for example, he's gonna be spending$6,000 a month. That's$72,000 a year that Doug needs. If Doug takes$72,000 from his$0.1K, Doug will not have$72,000. So Doug needs to take a little bit more to end up with$72,000. So the reason I talk about superhero accounts is if Doug pulls from his$401K, that$72,000 is all ordinary income. In the future, Doug's going to have Social Security. And so there's additional income that's gonna be coming in. So Doug might have in the future$100,000 plus dollars theoretically that could come in from what are called required distributions, if his portfolio grows, and Social Security. Now, some of you might be going, Ari, have you not listened to Doug today? He doesn't need$100,000. And I'm like, I'm listening. The government does not care. And they're gonna force you to take it. And all of that extra that you don't need gets taxed at what I call up the wazoo or not your fund tax bracket. So when you have the option of retiring early, there's two real things to consider. One, what's called the tax window, which you have, Doug, as soon as you retire, that's your window from right when it begins until you start collecting Social Security and when RMDs begin. That's the magic. So I have certain people that reach out to me and they go, yeah, so I'm a little late to the game. I'm I'm 74. My RMDs begin next year. Uh, can you help me? What do I do? And I'm like, look, I'm kind of sorry, but there's not that much I can do. It's almost like you go to the doctor and you're like, so my leg's broken. Can you make it so my leg's not broken? It's like, no, we need to do surgery now. So the ultimate goal of retirement is not having the optimal superhero to Roth conversion mix to healthcare to RMDs. The ultimate retirement is you look back in life and you go, I'm glad I retired three years earlier because I spent more time fishing or I didn't have to wake up. So I was able to prioritize my health and live longer. And Doug, you're a great example of someone who, quite honestly, didn't have every single thing I talk about dialed in because how could you? And you're still, it sounds like in a comfortable position. So kudos to you for thinking through this. And I would encourage you, with the amount of months you have left, to go, wait a second. I've already got most of my money, about 80% in a pre-tax account. It's gonna feel weird because I've been putting a lot to a 401k. But maybe I take a step back and actually not max it out. We always want the match because free money is free money. But beyond that, do we start to look at maybe doing a superhero account to help bridge the gap or potentially downsides or other things like that so that your income can be low and you can get some healthcare moolah? So any questions on that or make sense there?

SPEAKER_01 32:31

No, no, I'm I'm watching your videos. I get it. Awesome. Love it.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Doug, last thing I want to say here, uh, well, really, I want would like you to say, because I appreciate you coming on and sharing this. This is what makes the show so fun for me. Is I know you haven't retired yet, but normally I will ask the question, okay, what would you tell someone else who wants to retire in the next five years or so? But you're about to be there. So if you don't mind, do you mind talking to someone? I'm gonna shut up for the next minute, two minutes. Do you mind talking to someone who wants to retire in, let's say, the next five years? What would you tell them leading up to their retirement date?

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Uh again, I'm a big list guy and I like to do the pros and cons. So start doing that. You know, figure out what your budget's gonna be. Really figure out what your budget's gonna be. What is that number you're trying to get to? Um, and then what are those things you want to do? Um so you can also add that into the budget, figure out if you're on track, um, and start doing your homework. You know, don't be waiting to the end, you know, look into the ACA or what you're gonna do for health, what you're gonna do for uh tax strategies, all these other things. Um and start practicing. Like I said, try a 10-day vacation. It was really cool. Um, try try some of these things so you can actually see uh how it's all gonna fit in, I guess. That's kind of what I've been trying to challenge myself um really hard over the last probably two, three years when I really started focusing in on this now. Um and and like I said, I think the aha moment to me was when both when I finally saw my kids being successful, that was the thing I was probably working for. And now that I not I don't really have to worry about them so much anymore, then I really saw a green light to to go. So um yeah, I don't, I don't I it is scary, there's anxiety, I get it. But if you do these exercises, watch these videos, you know, start writing it out, it it goes away. It will. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

Kudos to you as a father, Doug. Thank you for sharing all of this. My my guess is if we if you had taken that 10-day trip a few years ago, I bet we would have been having this conversation even earlier. So um ultimately the goal is live your best life. We always say the sign of a good financial plan is a life well lived. And Doug, we're excited. And so, guys, everyone, if you enjoyed this episode, please go in the comments and thank Doug for sharing his time. Doug, that's all I got for you today.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Thanks again.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Thanks. If you enjoyed this episode of Retirement Reality, check out how we help people retire with confidence. You can see we have an FAQ section on our website. If you just hover over the resources tab, you can go ahead and see this FAQ section here and learn everything about what it's like to work with us, including our personalized planning process, a quick overview of how everything works, do you have enough money to become a client? Where will your money be? Everything from tax planning to fees. We are extremely transparent and want to make sure that you're working with someone that resonates with you. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode. And if you once again want to be a guest on a future show so that you can share your story, you can see that in the link of this episode. Thanks. Thank you all, as always, for listening to the early retirement podcast. I love getting to host these shows and make different content for you guys every single week. I've not missed a single week in years, and that is because I love getting to do this. Now, please be smart about this before you actually execute any strategy that you see me talk about or hear me talk about, should I say, please talk to your financial advisor, your tax preparer, your estate attorney. Please be smart about this. None of this should be construed as financial advice. This is for fun, educational, informational purposes only. Once again, just quick disclaimer here, guys, please be smart about this. Appreciate you listening as always. And you can, of course, submit a question on my website, early retirementpodcast.com. If you, of course, want me to address a specific case study or topic. I will not promise I can get to it, but I respond to every single person. And if I find it will be helpful for a lot of people, I will absolutely make an episode on it. At the very least, give you some insight. That's it. Thanks, guys.