How Much Do You think You Need to Retire? What Age Will You/Spouse Retire? General Retirement Issues (Part 2)

I assume that you owe quarterly taxes by Monday? Could you open a credit card which allows 0% interest for the first twelve months? The problem is that many CC will not provide a # immediately. AmEx may?

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I had to read that twice to wrap my head around it, but that does seem like a better logic to withdraw from Roth over non-Roth funds. If we withdrew from our Roth this year, we could convert to Roth funds next year after getting the boat sold, and likely be able to do so at the 24% tax rate, not the 32% rate we’d have to pay this year.

I’ll probably wait a few weeks to see if the broker sells it, but I feel like our luck is down this year.

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I did already pay quarterly taxes, fortunately. We do play the 0% credit card game, but I haven’t seen any lately that don’t also require a 3-5% fee to balance transfer. Do you have any suggestions?

So, if you are planning to wait a few weeks, that suggests that you will be paying the 8% IRS penalty, correct?

Here’s a recent article on the topic (gift link):

https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/taxes/quarterly-taxes-penalty-rate-59139fca?st=n6dzw6dhjlouy7z&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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Oh…so then you have until Sept 15th to sort this out?

I wonder if he’s just projecting his own personal situation onto yours. That he wishes he could retire, and would if he had as much as you. Maybe it’s just that simple. I would think as an advisor, sometimes it could be hard not to be jealous of other people’s financial situations.

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This is their financial planner who presumably is helping them decide all things related to retirement…including a timeline.

@maya54 you don’t have to retire when your planner suggests you do. But our planner gave us very sage advice about potential timelines and our finances. We reviewed the various options and were able to make an informed decision.

Did you ask your FP to give you options for if you retired soon, in five years, in ten years…or whenever? If not, I would suggest you do so.

@maya54 IIRC from previous threads, you are financially very secure.

Our FP also asks us every time we see him what our plans are for things we wish to purchase or do…and did this prior to DHs retirement also. It helped is again with some of our decision making.

@busdriver11 one if the reasons we did a Roth conversation and will do another was it gives us better ready access to that money if we need it for whatever. Taxes have already been paid. But we are doing this in our lowest income years.

It is summer…folks probably are thinking about boats now! Good luck with the sale.

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I have not tried carrying a balance on any of these cards–just found from a google search–but might be worth a try.

I imagine you know that Chase will not give you a new card if you have opened five cards in the past 24 months, and Capital One is very inquiry-sensitive–as in, no new cards in past six months for some applicants.

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No, the problem isn’t paying quarterly taxes to the IRS. The problem is paying for the large amount of quarterly taxes we paid last year, that we put on 0% credit cards (which we paid off with our HELOC when the rate jumped). So now we’re paying 8.75% interest for those. I’d thought we could pay that off when our boat sold (thought it would be months ago), but now we’re still waiting and paying, wondering how much longer we should pay on the HELOC instead of taking from Roth or non-Roths.

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Yes. We are very financially secure. But ā€œknowingā€ that and feeling that are two different things. I’m aware it’s a little crazy. Lol. I was just surprised by how assertive he was about retirement and spending too, making comments like ā€œDo you want to put your kids in a position to drive a Porsche or should you get that Porsche ā€œ? Like dude, we will be driving our Hondas for years. I just was wondering if there’s some reason he was pushing ā€œ earn less/ spend more.ā€ Or that’s what it felt like.

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I think you are being sensitive to his somewhat benign/somewhat his job comment that he wants you to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Or maybe it was a way to figure out your actual goal – accumulating money for your use or a desire to leave it all for the kids. Maybe he thinks he’s gotten mixed messages from you. You say that you are saving for yourselves. Well, here you are … are you going to spend it? Because his investment advice will be different depending on what you say. If you need this money for yourself, then he’s going to invest more conservatively. But if you never spend it, then maybe he thinks you really want to leave it for the kids, in which case the runway is much longer and he can invest more aggressively.

ETA: I hope this doesn’t sound critical. I TOTALLY get your attitude as it’s something dh and I continue to work on ourselves.

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Doesn’t taking the funds from either roth or 401k technically give you two months to decide? Pull the funds and decide in 60 days if you want to accept the withdrawal or roll it over since you sold the boat or found other method for the funds.

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@abasket I resemble that remark.

I have a retired friend who frequently tells me to retire. (I feel like she’s doing this to justify her own retirement).

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I think you’re right that you have 60 days to change your mind and put it back in. Apparently some people look at that like a short term loan. I can see doing that if we decided that we made an error in withdrawing it, or sold the boat in short order, but it doesn’t seem like it would worth it for the loan aspect. Definitely a good thing to consider, I didn’t know you could do that until you mentioned it and I researched it.

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Our financial planner, as well as folks on this forum, have said that the hardest thing about retirement income is learning to be a spender and not a saver. I agree. It was an adjustment.

For us, it was reassuring to hear and see the data to support this from our financial planner. And we ask to see updated data each time we see him. And he always has some other piece of advice about what we can and can’t afford. I appreciate his knowledge and what he shares with us.

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If you do this, make sure you withdraw all you need at one time. Only one withdrawal can be repaid (fully or partially) within the grace period for tax purposes.

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Uh, no. It has not been hard for us to be spenders. :grinning: But it has been hard withdrawing money out of our retirement funds so early. We really thought we were going to get by with pensions and savings, but it has not worked out that way. Learning how to spend more than we make? Not a problem…

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IMHO he probably was trying to get you to think about what your kids a going to do with the funds – and in part making sure you spend some on yourselves. But it does sound like he could have put out some projections for you so that you can decide, or can think more about when to retire.

@Busdriver11

I don’t think I’m ever mentioned spending more than you make. In fact, we discussed some expensive recent purchases with our financial planner before we made them…because we wanted to be sure they didn’t screw up our ability to pay all of our bills. He assured us we could make these purchases without tapping into some of the accounts we haven’t yet touched.

We are careful enough with our spending…but feel comfortable we have enough of a cushion to do the things we want to do without worry.

In my opinion, that’s one of the benefits to getting advice from our financial planner. He has a good pulse on our investments, keeping in mind that but DH and I have various retirement accounts and income streams.

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I think the reality for many people in retirement is that they’re spending more than they take in, because few people get pensions any more, and social security may not cover expenses. Unless you have rental income, annuities, or some sort of non-retirement investments, it’s likely that you will be dipping into your retirement funds when you’re not working. Hence, that’s what I consider spending more than what you make. I know that is what your savings are for, but I do have a hard time with withdrawing retirement funds.

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