canadianAg said:

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Well we made it! 33 going on 34. Going to go celebrate with a nice dinner this weekend with the wife and then back to work! Admittedly I brought in our 529 accounts this time but I figured that's always optional and may or may not be used.

401k: $415k (50/50 Roth and tradition).
Company stock: $210k
Cash value of defined contribution pension: $120k
Roth IRA: $40k
Traditional IRA: $35k
HSA: $75k
Cash: $70k
529s: $40k

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LMCane said:

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In all my years of study and podcasts and youtube and books and online

I have never heard a single expert say to keep one million dollars IN CASH.

especially not now with high inflation.

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Ag92NGranbury said:

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LMCane said:

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In all my years of study and podcasts and youtube and books and online

I have never heard a single expert say to keep one million dollars IN CASH.

especially not now with high inflation.

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I'm an expert...

Cash is King!

Keep that powder dry, boys!

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LMCane said:

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In all my years of study and podcasts and youtube and books and online

I have never heard a single expert say to keep one million dollars IN CASH.

especially not now with high inflation.

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canadianAg said:

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Yep! Just don't include it in any calcs because I need somewhere to live and even if I wanted to downsize the house in the future, I'd probably just upsize on the land.

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YouBet said:

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oragator said:

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Yeah this is one area where boring can definitely win in the end. I am blessed with a pretty well paying job, but my expenses are less than a quarter of my income. 14 year old car, no debts outside my house, and no crazy spending. That leaves me a good chunk every month to invest, and it adds up and compounds quickly. Once I made those life adjustments I got there in short order.
Now I'm in my mid 50's, and could retire, but can't seem to accept the idea that I really could. Hard for me to believe I got it right and am one of the lucky ones you know? So I find doom scenarios that keep me working and saving. Like what if SS goes broke, am I still good? Or what if I feel differently and want to move somewhere really nice and expensive in a few years? What if I have to support my parents or pay for their assisted living etc? So I chug on, but that freedom to know if I got laid off or got fed up at work I am likely good is a pretty nice feeling. Security and safety has always been my motivation anyway in saving.

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You are me; I am you. I don't worry about SS as that is not in my projections, but I have the same scenarios of what if we wanted to outright move and/or get second place and paying for my parent's health. We've already lived through one parent in memory care and that was $8k per month.

Luckily, his retirement nest egg covered that but my parents do not have near the same level of money. We would need to supplement and ultimately own all of it. My mom will absolutely end up in assisted living if/when my Dad passes before her because she's blind and deaf. He wholly takes care of her right now.

Every time I talk to our FA I ask him if I can retire and just walk away and he gives me the same tired head look of, "Yes, you have more than enough money."

Me:

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AgOutsideAustin said:

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He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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LMCane said:

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In all my years of study and podcasts and youtube and books and online

I have never heard a single expert say to keep one million dollars IN CASH.

especially not now with high inflation.

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My financial advisor is telling me he wants me to sock away 3 years worth of expenses in cash or cash equivalents in preparation for retirement. I must say, I have never been a fan of having a lot of cash on board unless I was specifically saving up for a purchase, and I am not excited about holding that much back out of the market, either.

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I actually have done that to protect against sequence of return risk and have a bridge to social security. I am retiring very soon though. Running the numbers with a 2000 or 2008 loss would be very painful especially with no new money coming in. With markets at all time highs it was time for me to take some money off the table and look at it in terms of years of retirement spending not dependent on the market. A good book I read was The Psychology of Money and a quote in there was "why risk what you have and need for money you don't have and don't need". If you have enough saved why risk so much? Each person is different but I know myself and if I stayed with as much tied up in the market like I had and we had a big drop I would kick my own ass, then my wife would get a turn.

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He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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AgOutsideAustin said:

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He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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LMCane said:

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In all my years of study and podcasts and youtube and books and online

I have never heard a single expert say to keep one million dollars IN CASH.

especially not now with high inflation.

---

My financial advisor is telling me he wants me to sock away 3 years worth of expenses in cash or cash equivalents in preparation for retirement. I must say, I have never been a fan of having a lot of cash on board unless I was specifically saving up for a purchase, and I am not excited about holding that much back out of the market, either.

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I actually have done that to protect against sequence of return risk and have a bridge to social security. I am retiring very soon though. Running the numbers with a 2000 or 2008 loss would be very painful especially with no new money coming in. With markets at all time highs it was time for me to take some money off the table and look at it in terms of years of retirement spending not dependent on the market. A good book I read was The Psychology of Money and a quote in there was "why risk what you have and need for money you don't have and don't need". If you have enough saved why risk so much? Each person is different but I know myself and if I stayed with as much tied up in the market like I had and we had a big drop I would kick my own ass, then my wife would get a turn.

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I get what he is saying and agree with the concept of it, it just seems as if 3 years is a lot to put away. I would rather do maybe two years. I am curious, as you say you are already doing this - do you continue this ad infinitum into retirement? That is, do you always circulate out of equities and into cash equivalents so that there is a constant 3-year (or whatever) buffer you are drawing from? Or do you plan to just do this at the beginning of retirement?

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He Who Shall Be Unnamed said:

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LMCane said:

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In all my years of study and podcasts and youtube and books and online

I have never heard a single expert say to keep one million dollars IN CASH.

especially not now with high inflation.

---

My financial advisor is telling me he wants me to sock away 3 years worth of expenses in cash or cash equivalents in preparation for retirement. I must say, I have never been a fan of having a lot of cash on board unless I was specifically saving up for a purchase, and I am not excited about holding that much back out of the market, either.

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RightWingConspirator said:

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I'm 52 and I struggle daily with whether to retire now or not. I keep telling myself to work until I can get my 14-year-old out of high school, but part of me is tired of the work and the associated frustration of working in an corporate environment. These last few years have probably taken about 5 years off my life expectancy with stress, etc. Thankfully my wife and kids and I went and visited some locations where I think we'll retire when the time is right. Coeur D'alene, ID is where I think we're going to land. Anyone been there? Anyone have different ideas of where to retire? Where have you landed?

To stay on topic, we fully fund an HSA, my 401k with company match hits the $77500 limit every year, we do jumbo back door Roth contributions as well as fully fund a Roth for me and my wife through back door conventions given my income surpasses what is allowed. We're in a good spot. Right now we have bout $181,000 I keep as a rainy day fund and I invest that in TMCXX. If I retired today, we could live till I'm 100 spending about $30k more than what we spend today. We're in a good spot, I think.

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