I was excited to pay off the house - then had a near $40k roof to pay for 
I have a sheet to track my bond payments each month. I created on excel. Itās simple and effective.
For stocks I donāt but I know about how much they pay from my tax return ahd I always check the 1099 to ensure each paid the proper amount of dividends.
I donāt use anythjng formal.
Thanks. We can only afford to contribute the minimum to get our employer 401K matches right now. I squirrel away a nominal additional amount monthly in a Roth IRA right now. Iām going to have my spouse open a Roth IRA this year and do the same, to get that 5 year clock ticking. Weāll max those out as soon as we have some more money, then put the rest in our employer-sponsored plans.
I opened custodial Roths for my kids as soon as they started working, and their earnings have been fantastic. Itās a great savings vehicle. I hide some of our emergency fund in my Roth IRA, so it doesnāt show up in our bank account and get spent by my spouse.
Iāve read a lot about investment strategies over the years (including on Bogleheads) so feel pretty good about our allocations. For predictions, I use conservative projections and run all the monte carlo sims. Spouse likes set it and forget it lifecycle and index funds. I keep track and adjust my own portfolio to make sure our combined allocations are appropriate. I do my own low-expense index fund portfolios. Weāve done quite well so far with the nest egg we have. I also manage all my elderly motherās finances, which has been a lot of work but a good learning experience.
I have budgeted extra for paying all our own health care costs in our 60s (I researched our employer cobra policies), but I understand Iāll need to watch that carefully.
Weāre downsizing because our house feels too big, already. Weāre only waiting because we still have a kid living here. Weāre not interested in waiting for our kids to fully settle before making a move. Itās just too much house, and weāve been wanting to do this for years. Numerous reasons (including the 3% interest) have kept us from selling, but weāve been itching to do it. If a mortgage rates are still high when we buy, weāll just pay cash. Now, when we actually retire 13+ years from now? I could see us trying to live close to the kids.
We may not retire by 60, but we like just knowing that one or both of us could. Weāve talked about this stuff a lot with our colleagues / friends, and the ones on track with their retirement plans are doing much better coping with certain stresses life throws at us.
My dad got dementia not long after he retired at 67 and barely got to enjoy his life, yet Iāve also had to put a ton of work into making sure my mom has enough money to live on ā lots of good lessons there. After feeling financially underwater for nearly my entire life, Iām so excited about moving into a more secure phase, and Iām SO ready to sleep better at night.
We replaced our roof, boiler, and driveway after retirement, but we have always had a capital improvement account in anticipation of these replacements. That should be part of any home owners retirement planningā¦in my opinion.
Yes it should - my point to the previous comment. Things come up out of the blue.
Given how I invest and lucky I had a bond call, I didnāt need one.
But thatās because I invest for monthly income. And had a bit of luck with the bond call. And if not I could have sold something.
But others that do not - that invest for capital growth - surely need to.
You have done a lot to get ready and definitely have had insight with helping manage your momās. Sounds like you are doing well with it.
The 3% interest - we shall see if rates go that low for a while out. Certainly it will be a joint decision with your spouse on changing your home situation.
My dad died of cancer at age 64, and mom at age 77. I have survived my ācancer boutā (aggressive stage IIIa) in 2009 (last IV Jan 31 2011) and 10 years of oral medication that gave me fatty liver disease - but I am cancer free. Key is to pay attention to your health/spouseās health, watch for family history stuff (I am keeping my husband well-managed health wise). We have meds available and treatments available now that they didnāt have earlier.
My parents could afford, and did travel in their mid-50ās on and dad was able to live a pretty good life until the cancer took hold - he owned his own construction business and since about 1976 he finally felt like he āmade itā (SWAN) - so about 18 years prior to his death. He sold the construction business properties when he was about 60 (lined up jobs for all his employees, about 30 people - he had a full cabinet shop and property he was able to sell to a buyer that is continuing in business there today). The apartment properties (one building owned and remodeled into 5-unit apartments; two buildings totally newly built - which included eight two-bedroom apartments with garage, two three-bedroom townhomes with two car garages each, and six one-bedroom apartments with garage) ā the 5-unit was sold a few months before mom died; the other two buildings were sold by a local buyer for cash with selling at about $100,000 below appraised value. The real estate was great cash flow for my parents - built well so easy to maintain; the two buildings were the nicest apartments in town (doctors and lawyers were some of their tenants). If they were in a bigger city, my siblings and I would have kept these two buildings even with a property manager due to better escalating value of property and rents.
DHās parents both lived to age 92. Right now DH and two siblings and a niece own their residence - and one brother wants to sell his share (as another has already done) since he isnāt planning on using. For us, it is worth hanging on to, and we think niece will eventually use it as her home (she is in military now, Lt Col) - niece owns several homes already, and is moving back to one of her homes for a 2 year assignment. Our share of taxes on the house this year was about $1,000, and then it is just our share of homeownerās insurance.
DH and I are also both planning to retire early (mid to late 50s, so 3-5 years away for us), so weāre also working on getting all our ducks in a row now. Iāve read several good reviews/endorsements of the Boldin Financial planning tool (which until recently was called NewRetirement): https://www.boldin.com
Apparently itās much more robust and sophisticated than most others. We havenāt taken the plunge on buying it yet, though, so I canāt endorse it personally yet. Anyone else like/use/recommend it?
Oh, I was just looking at that one! I looks cool and I think Iām going to download the free trial. I did some scrounging on the Bogleheads forum this morning. Iām a scientist and I usually prefer powerful / versatile tools even if theyāre a bit trickier to learn. I donāt think online calculators or simple spreadsheets are going to satisfy me long term, especially as weāll be running a lot of scenarios to help us plan.
So I think Iām interested in Boldin (New Retirement) or Pralana. Iād also love to know if anyone here has tried either one.
I downloaded the free trial, too, but itās a super stripped-down version, so doesnāt even begin to show its full capabilities. Iāve watched YouTube videos of financial planners āplayingā with the paid version, and itās so complicated that I havenāt bit yet. (I also donāt have enough info yet on our actual spending ā weāre finally starting do that now for 2025 ā to be able to fully utilize its potential.) So, keep us all posted if you do!
@ColdWombat - Sounds like you are doing a good job on planning.
As you do your medical insurance enrollments each year, consider doing tax deductible HSA (Health Savings Account) contributions. I started doing HSA years ago, when employer perk of $500/year extra when pick high deductible plans. Money grew (untaxed) with the market, once I realized I needed to go to the Fidelity HSA website to set up the investment choices.
In retirement, I use my HSA debit card for medical copays, vision/glasses, dental checkups (in years where I donāt get dental coverage)ā¦ and this morning for the significant copay on my new crown. Itās nice not to have eat into cash flow for that. You can make an argument that is better to just let it to continue to grow untaxed, but in the name of simplicity Iām spending it down. Hopefully when I need cataract surgery someday theyāll still be money left.
I may have missed mention of current health coverage, but did ColdWombat say the family was enrolled in an HDHP?
Agree with you about the benefits of HSAs. Triple tax-advantaged, so to be prioritized when possible.
Does Fidelity provide a debit card? I have not spent any of my HSA funds yetājust keep adding to the account annually.
Thanks for the HSA info, thatās a great tool. Iāll love the day (if it ever comes) when we can enroll in a high-deductible plan, as I think it would be a good fit for us. Then Iāll definitely use an HSA.
For now, we have to use my employerās premium plan because we have a kid at college in another state, and the cheaper plans are geared toward more local care. He also has some health issues that require appointments / tests with pediatric specialists in another state. Once he gets his own option for insurance weāll reevaluate. Iād love to get a cheaper plan. But for now Iām grateful my employer offers a nice plan ā my spouseās fanciest plan costs much more and provides less, so we all use mine for now.
Find a good Fiduciary Financial Planner in your area (to compare the cost and time with using the Boldin Financial planning tool)- many will meet with you for a free consult. Some do āpay by the hourā and perhaps this is what you are looking for, with periodic meetings. We found our FA via a class he offered (two evenings, 2 hours each class) with only paying for the materials ā they used the Financial Educators Network material āRetirement Planning Todayā. The second session was the part for people with some knowledge - it covered Investments: cash accounts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, individually managed accounts, tax-deferred annuities and important considerations before you invest. The highlight of this section is 5 strategies for managing investment risks. Another section, risk management and asset protection, and finally estate planning.
We then met with Don individually for some sessions (starting in 2013) before we started using him with some of our retirement funds - consolidated stuff, then moved stuff into Roth IRAs that are managed by his firm. We still handle DHās sizable 401k, and of course our real estate and cash and separate investment account (which is an emergency fund and source of major spending). We have purchased annuities (out of 401k account) to reduce our overall portfolio risk (again over time, when the right annuity met our needs, each annuity has 6 - 12-year contract). Currently 27% is in annuities, 35% in qualified retirement (401K), 11% in Roth IRAs, 5% in cash and taxable investments, and the rest is value of our home. Our cash flow in retirement is SS and these annuities (we do maximum withdrawal w/o penalty, which starts after hold annuity one year based on the contract). We SWAN. We have semi-annual āstate of the marketā update meetings, and then meet individually with our FA. At some of the social or financial meetings, we see people we know.
Yes, with my HSA setup Fidelity did provide debit card. Still kicking myself for missing out on a lot of earnings because I didnāt bother to set up the online account when knowing Iād not use any HSA funds until retired. It was all in ācashā (super low interest) fund, uninvested.
Another lesson I learned was that you have to move some of the funds back into cash when you want to use the debit card. At the first use, the receptionist said ācard deniedā. I gaspedā¦ saying there was suppose to be over $18K there. Had to figure out how to go onto the website to convert a portion of the invested money to cash (honestly itās not as straightforward as it should be, ie clunky website design).
Thanks!
My HSA is just listed as one of my Fidelity accounts. Buying and selling positions works the same way as it does in the brokerage or IRA, and I find it to be super easy. I struggle when I attempt to do anything at Schwab, but that may be because I donāt spend much time on the Schwab account.
Is your HSA in a separate Fidelity HSA account?
Thank you for the heads up about having to sell out of something in order to have a cash balance. Does your HSA treat MM funds as cash, or you truly need to sell to cash?
When I buy something in my other Fidelity accounts, Fidelity will pull from cash first and then from MM. I am sure I will figure this out when the time arrives, and if not, the super helpful Fidelity reps will explain!
When my dad died last year, I was at the end stage of organizing their finances and was about to cash out his annuities and move all my parentsā accounts to Fidelity. After his death, I met with a local Fidelity advisor in-person to look over and mail the paperwork. We also spend a good amount of time discussing the strategy Iād come up with and he suggested some helpful tweaks. We did a zoom a few weeks later to
firm things up. My mom also used Fidelityās help in her city to get forms filled out and mailed back and forth to my local office. All those interactions were free and they were just amazing!
My employer offers free planning through Fidelity, and I asked that planner for advice on when I started there. He was helpful and assured me that we were doing great with our retirement plans. Another wonderful interaction, and my colleagues have had great success with the employer-provided planners as well.
My parents retained a planner and an estate attorney before they retired, at my insistence. The planner wasnāt amazing, and for various reasons I eventually removed them from his care, but he did way better than having no one. My in-laws are on speed dial with their planner. I imagine they pay handsomely for his services, but their portfolio is excellent, they love him, and thatās their preference.
My spouse and I met with a planner when we had a surprise inheritance 18 years ago. That was helpful, but we havenāt felt the need to meet with anyone other than our workplace planners since then. Weāll likely keep that up, but I could see us paying a fee for periodic advice before transitions or if our situation gets more complicated. Though we both like DIY in general, my spouse doesnāt like thinking much about finances. I deal with stress by gathering information, so I like to manage our finances myself and enjoy learning about it.
I know itās highly personal. I do think having at least one free or fee-based meeting with someone can be really helpful. But yeah, the strategy you choose is largely about what makes you feel safe and comfortable.
I love Fidelity but have been underwhelmed by the few times I have met in person or via phone with my assigned rep. Fidelity has since changed the balance requirements for an assigned rep. (Or so I believe as I no longer see a name on my account and no longer receive periodic calls to schedule a meeting. Instead the call is routed to the Private Client Group, which is easier than trying to reach a specific rep.) I am glad your in-person experiences were better.
I have been able to find answers within specific departments when the need arose, and have been very happy with every interaction.
Completely agree with your last sentence.
Oh, thatās interesting.
Iām not sure why I got the white glove service with my momās Fidelity account, which is pretty small. Though it was quite tricky to get my initial calls routed correctly to even set up the appointment. I suspect they were happy to help with getting signatures (including notarized POA) and mailing forms to transfer money into their firm. Then the guy went the extra mile by discussing things with me extensively. He also knew I wanted to buy her a SPIA, which may have helped. Seems like they donāt normally offer much personal help until you get above $500K and even that can be minimal until you get waaay higher.
The workplace reps are part of totally different offices, so I couldnāt have gotten help with my own account there even if Iād wanted to. Seems Iām lucky to have access to good workplace reps.
Yes. I can access it directly via Fidelity login or from a link to my employer/retiree benefits website (associated pension and 401K info are also via Fidelity).
I have a fidelity HSA account, itās separate.
I have never used the debit card. I put everything on my credit card to get the cash back, then I get the money I spent into my checking account and then pay the credit card. Easy for me.
I havenāt spent any of the money yet, but suspect I will find plenty of ways to use the $68K sitting there once I hit 65. No rush to spend it at 65, other than keeping in mind that if the money is not spent, it is taxed as ordinary income to the beneficiaries.