On Track for Retirement at 55?

Summary

Podcast Summary: "On Track for Retirement at 55?" - Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger

Episode Overview In the January 31, 2025 episode of Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger, host Jill Schlesinger delves into the ambitious goal of early retirement, specifically aiming for retirement at age 55. Through a detailed conversation with Ben from Idaho, Jill explores the financial strategies, challenges, and considerations necessary to achieve financial independence ahead of the traditional retirement age.

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Listener Profile: Ben from Idaho

Age and Employment Ben, a 44-year-old professional from Idaho, is contemplating early retirement. He earns approximately $150,000 to $180,000 annually, with variability based on commissions and other factors (04:50). His primary concern is the physical demands of his job and the potential toll it may take on his health, prompting his desire to retire early.

Family and Dependents Ben is married to a 43-year-old spouse who is a homemaker, managing the household and raising their two sons—one aged 15 and the other nearly 11 (04:37). They own their home, valued just shy of $600,000, with only $56,000 remaining on the mortgage, which they plan to pay off in the next few years (07:22).

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Financial Snapshot

Retirement Savings and Investments Ben and his wife have diligently saved for retirement, with a combined total in their traditional 403 IRA SEP IRAs amounting to $1,100,000 (06:48). Additionally, they hold $171,000 in Roth IRAs and $27,000 from a prior job’s 457 plan, alongside $368,000 in brokerage accounts (07:03). Ben also maintains a Health Savings Account (HSA) with $55,000 (07:40).

Children’s Education Funds Ben has allocated substantial resources for his children’s education. His eldest son has $58,000 in a college fund and $38,000 in Roth and UTMA accounts, totaling $97,000 (05:55). His younger son has $42,000 in a college fund and $70,000 combined in UTMA and Roth accounts (06:24).

Side Income Ben engages in a side business, contributing approximately $18,000 last year, with earnings typically ranging between $7,000 to $20,000 annually (08:08). He plans to continue this as he transitions to part-time work, projecting his total compensation to remain around $100,000 (08:17).

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Retirement Goals and Strategies

Target Retirement Age and Income Ben aims to retire at 55, potentially reducing his work hours to part-time while maintaining an income of about $100,000 (04:03, 08:30). His goal is to sustain his lifestyle, estimated at $6,000 per month, which he anticipates may decrease once his sons are out of competitive sports (08:58).

Investment Allocation Adjustments This year, Ben adjusted his retirement contributions based on his CPA’s advice, allocating 8% of his salary to traditional 403 IRA accounts and 4% to Roth 403 IRAs, with the intention of increasing his Roth contributions over time (09:21).

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Jill's Financial Planning Advice

Utilizing the Rule of 55 Jill introduces Ben to the "Rule of 55," a provision that allows individuals to withdraw from their current employer’s retirement plan without the usual early withdrawal penalty if they leave the job in the calendar year they turn 55 or later (14:44). This rule applies exclusively to the current job’s retirement account, not to IRAs or other retirement funds (15:43).

Jill Schlesinger [14:44]: "You have something called the rule of 55. There's no tax penalty if you leave that job after you turn 55."

Withdrawal Strategy Jill advises Ben to leverage his substantial traditional retirement accounts by allowing them to grow until retirement. Upon retiring at 55, Ben can begin withdrawing from his traditional accounts to cover his living expenses, effectively utilizing his savings without succumbing to the early withdrawal penalties.

Jill Schlesinger [11:25]: "You have that money and then I think that's the money. Instead of converting, you would just pull that money out and live on it."

Tax Considerations Jill emphasizes the importance of understanding tax implications. She suggests that Ben may remain in a lower tax bracket if he manages his withdrawals wisely, allowing his traditional funds to grow tax-deferred until needed.

Jill Schlesinger [09:41]: "When you turn 50 to 55, we just live on your part-time income. You fully retire at age 55. You then leave your organization, you're pulling money out of your traditional."

Estate Planning and Insurance Jill recommends that Ben update his estate documents to reflect his current family situation and consider extending his life insurance policy before it expires in five years. This proactive approach ensures financial security for his family during the early retirement phase.

Jill Schlesinger [17:45]: "I would do it now for sure. All right, so like a half a million dollar policy right now. See what it costs just for the heck of it."

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Addressing Potential Concerns

Spending Adjustments Jill highlights the importance of maintaining or reducing current spending levels to ensure financial stability throughout retirement. She cautions that any increase in expenditures could jeopardize Ben’s retirement plans.

Jill Schlesinger [13:30]: "But if our game plan is at from 50 to 55, we just live on your part time income. You fully retire at age 55."

Sustainability of Savings Jill reassures Ben that his disciplined saving and investment strategies should sufficiently fund his retirement goals, provided he maintains his current spending habits and continues to save diligently.

Jill Schlesinger [16:24]: "I don't think this is a problem. I think Ben from Idaho really does have his [financial aspects] together."

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Lifestyle and Personal Goals Post-Retirement

Ben envisions a fulfilling retirement filled with travel, family time, and enjoying the great outdoors. His aim is to maintain his health to fully capitalize on these activities.

Ben [16:36]: "The retirement years. The hope is to be able to do a little bit of travel, spend some time with my family. My parents are still young, so I want to be able to enjoy the time that I have with them and try to enjoy life and enjoy the great outdoors as much as I can while I'm healthy."

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Conclusion and Key Takeaways

In this episode, Jill Schlesinger provides a comprehensive guide for individuals like Ben who aspire to retire early. By leveraging strategies such as the Rule of 55, optimizing retirement account contributions, and maintaining disciplined spending, early retirement becomes a feasible goal. Additionally, the episode underscores the importance of proactive estate planning and insurance management to secure financial well-being during the transition to retirement.

Notable Quotes:

• Jill Schlesinger [14:44]: "You have something called the rule of 55. There's no tax penalty if you leave that job after you turn 55."

• Ben [16:36]: "The retirement years. The hope is to be able to do a little bit of travel, spend some time with my family."

• Jill Schlesinger [16:24]: "I don't think this is a problem. I think Ben from Idaho really does have his [financial aspects] together."

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Additional Resources: For more information on financial planning and early retirement strategies, listeners are encouraged to visit jillonmoney.com and subscribe to Jill Schlesinger's weekly newsletter. Engaging with financial advisors and staying informed about retirement plans can further aid in achieving one's financial independence goals.

Transcript

[Jill Schlesinger]

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[Ben]

Thanks, Jill. I appreciate you having me on.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Sure.

[Ben]

I'm 44 years old and I kind of want to be one of those financial independents, possibly retire early. And so been looking at my numbers and just trying to figure out, you know, if I'm on the right track to, you know, potentially be able to, to go part time at fifth, potentially 50, and maybe even retire by 55 so I can hopefully enjoy my, my early retirement years.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Why do you hate your job?

[Ben]

I like my job, but it's very physically demanding and, and I worry that my, my body may give out and I don't want that to happen.

[Jill Schlesinger]

So I don't want that to happen for you either. Okay. I don't want. I mean, it's always like when I have, like, white collar job folks. I'm like, do you hate it? But it's different with the, with a physically demanding job or teacher who's like on their feet all day and also sort of that emotional extra part of it, which is really tough. Let's see if we. What we can do for you. So you're 44. You're working full time. Are you married?

[Ben]

I am.

[Jill Schlesinger]

And does your spouse work well?

[Ben]

She doesn't work outside the home. She has a tougher job. She's raising the kids. But how old is she? She is 43.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Okay. How many kids do you have?

[Ben]

Two boys.

[Jill Schlesinger]

How old?

[Ben]

One is 15 and one is almost 11.

[Jill Schlesinger]

How much do you earn right now?

[Ben]

It varies. It's roughly 150 to 180,000 per year, depending on the amount of call or things like that I have to take.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Okay. And will you be entitled to any pension, Ben?

[Ben]

I wish I could say yes. But unfortunately.

[Jill Schlesinger]

No, that's all right. Listen, we suffer. Have you set aside some money in a retirement plan already?

[Ben]

Yeah, I've got a fair amount saved in different ventures. I. Look, I mean, I can go into depth if you want, but yes, I.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Like to do depth. First of all, let me just do one quick question. Have you saved money specifically for the kids for college? Let's keep that separate.

[Ben]

Yeah. So I have saved money for each of my boys and I have that separated out. And I have it not only in college funds, but I have a side business. So I actually pay them and they have some Roth IRA money, hopefully giving them a step up from what I had when I was young.

[Jill Schlesinger]

All right, how much is in college funds and how much is in Roth for them?

[Ben]

So college funds for My oldest is 58,000. And then in Roth and a UMTA account, he's got about another 38,000. So he's got 97,000 total for in college and different accounts.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Do you think he will be going to private or public school?

[Ben]

Public school.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Okay, and the 11 year old, how much is the total there?

[Ben]

So he's got 42,000 in his college fund and then total he's got about 70,000 with his Umta and his Roth.

[Jill Schlesinger]

All right, now that's for them. Now let's talk about you guys. Does your wife have any retirement holdings right now? Does she have an IRA or a Roth ira?

[Ben]

Yeah. So I've kind of combined both of our IRA and Roth IRA stuff together.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Great. So let's give me those numbers.

[Ben]

So our traditional 403 IRA SEP IRAs is 1,1100,000.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Okay, great. Congratulations. That's awesome. And traditional. 1,100,000. Got it.

[Ben]

And then we have Roths combining 171,000. And then we have four five sevens that my wife had from a prior job with 27,000. And then we have 368,000 in brokerage.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Wow, that's great. That's a lot of money you guys have saved. Do you guys own your own home?

[Ben]

We do. We owe 56,000 left on that. So it will be paid off here in the next couple of years, which I'm looking forward to.

[Jill Schlesinger]

And you're not going to move. You're happy where you are.

[Ben]

The plan is to stay.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Okay. How much is the house worth?

[Ben]

Just shy of 600,000.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Any other real estate?

[Ben]

No other real estate. The only other that we have is we do have an HSA that has 55,000 in it.

[Jill Schlesinger]

When you retire, would you be entitled to health insurance? Or is that something you're going to have to actually pay for in the future?

[Ben]

I will have to pay for it.

[Jill Schlesinger]

So the you said you sort of have a side hustle business. How much do you earn? When you said 150 to 180, how much is the side hustle part of that?

[Ben]

It varies from year to year. This past year I was like 18,000. So it's usually somewhere in that seven to $20,000 range.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Okay, and is that what you're thinking you would continue? So if you said to me, okay, I'm good at 50 to go part time, is that the amount of money you would make or think you'd get an actual part time job?

[Ben]

No, I would continue doing what I'm doing, but I would just cut back my hours and it probably put me back to, you know, about 100,000 for my overall compensation.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Oh, okay, I got it. And then you'd keep doing the side hustle maybe. Or not.

[Ben]

As long as I can continue it to go. That would be the hope.

[Jill Schlesinger]

So when you look at your spending and I know you're saving a bunch of money, but the actual spending, what do you think you need to spend right now to live your life?

[Ben]

Probably right around 6,000amonth is where I'm at. I'm hoping that will drop a little bit once the boys are no longer doing their competitive sports.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Essentially if for the next six years. Right. You're 44, you keep socking away money in your retirement account. And are you putting money right now into a traditional or Roth? What are you doing currently?

[Ben]

So I just changed it this year. My CPA said I could change it. So I'm now doing 8% of my salary into traditional.403% into a Roth.403 to try to start bumping up my Roth stuff. And then my hope is to when I retire early to be able to convert some of the traditional stuff to a Roth.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Okay. When you look at sort of the, you know, when you say the spending, it could go down. Let's just keep it at six. Okay. Let's for the heck of it. Right. And then let's also presume that when you turn 50 and you go part time for 100,000 that you're essentially probably not going to be putting money into a retirement account because you'll have that 100,000 you put up whatever. Do you have a match? Are you entitled to a match?

[Ben]

Yeah, I do.

[Jill Schlesinger]

What percent must you put in to get your match?

[Ben]

6%.

[Jill Schlesinger]

So let's say that maybe at age 50, you go down to 6% just so that you can. You don't have to touch your assets, right? You just live on what you earn from age 50 to 55 and then just putting 6% away. And then at 55, you now can start looking at taking some money out and supplementing, whatever that. I don't know, maybe you do your side hustle or not, but then you're supplementing what you need, right? And so from. And youth figure like 55 to 65, 67. You. You want to do Roth conversions? I don't know if you should do Roth conversions. Maybe you should just take the money out and live on it. If you only need six grand a month, okay, and you got a whole heck of a lot of money in your traditional already. Like, you know, you have a million bucks, 1.11 million already, right? That's going to grow for. Let's, let's say that you really don't touch it for. Until you're 55 years old, right? So you have 10, 11 years here where you're just going to have that money grow. That traditional money is going to grow. Even if it doesn't grow by that much, even if we have a terrible 10 years in markets, it's going to grow. And 2 million, right?

[Ben]

In 10 years.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Yeah, 2 million bucks. You have that money and then I think that's the money. Instead of converting, you would just pull that money out and live on it, you know, and you'll be in a. I mean, it's today. I don't know what the tax brackets are going to be, but let's say it was. This was. We were going to pretend all the tax rates are exactly the same. You'd still be in your 22% tax bracket. You'd pull the money out of the traditional and you'd live on it. And you do that for a bunch of years. 12 years at age 67, your full retirement age. Do you know what your Social Security benefit is?

[Ben]

I don't. I should have looked it up, but I don't.

[Jill Schlesinger]

That's all right. All right. But I mean, if we looked at your. I don't know, it's going to be a few thousand dollars. So if you pull the money out of your traditional in those years. Right again, 55 to 67, you're just living on. You say, hey, I give myself permission. Instead of converting the money, I'm just going to live on it. I'm going to pay the tax anyway. Live on it. And what we're trying to do is pull the money out of the traditional, pay the tax that's due so that as you move forward towards like your 70s, we're trying to get as much money out of those traditional accounts as we can because of course there is going to be this thing called a required minimum distribution. So one way to get around it is to convert the money. The other is just live on it and you'd be fine.

[Ben]

Can he, what kind of account, can he pull it out early without the penalty?

[Jill Schlesinger]

Well, he'll be at 55. Right. Can we do the rule of 55? He's got a traditional.

[Ben]

But is he still there working part time in a reduced capacity?

[Jill Schlesinger]

Well, he's there and at age from 50 to 55. And we're saying at 55 he starts pulling the money out. Yeah, he's done. Done. We're planning on. That's the question, right? Full retirement at 55. If, if not, it doesn't matter if he keeps work. So Ben, if you were to just say like, hey, you know what, this hundred grand a year is awesome. I'm going to keep doing it and you can just live on it, then you might want to convert. But I mean if our game plan is at from 50 to 55, we just live on your part time income. You fully retire at age 55. You then you leave your organization, you're pulling money out of your traditional. Your wife can clean up that 457 plan also, she can just take the money out. You pull the money out of your traditional account, let's say again, in today's dollars, let's just say you're going to pull out $110,000, $100,000 a year. You pay the tax that's due on it and you live on it. And you're going to do that for from age 55 to 67. So you almost, you know, again, we don't know exactly what it's going to be worth, but let's say it is 2 million. You're going to like eat through half of your traditional account, which is fine. That's what it's there for. We're getting the money out. You live on it. You'll have your Roth, the money will keep growing in your Roth. You'll have your brokerage account. Money will keep growing. Whatever you're putting away for college is fine, you know, but I don't think this is a problem. I think this is oddly doable. Even though you're not like a bazillionaire, you don't spend a lot of money, you have done an incredible job of accumulating assets. This amount of money should allow you to retire early, presuming you don't mess up. On the expense side, if all of a sudden you're not spending six grand a month and it's ten grand a month, then you know, in today's dollars, then it's not going to work. But it works at six grand a month. It really does.

[Ben]

I thought you couldn't get into your traditional like 403B till 59 and a half. Can you take it out of 55?

[Jill Schlesinger]

You have something called the rule of 55. There's no tax penalty if you leave that job after you turn 55. I guess the year you turn 55 or later. To me, this is one of those things we don't like to talk about a lot. Do you know why? Because we don't want people to take their money out early. But you are doing. You're. You're planning on it because you want to get that money out and you've saved a lot of money in there. So this is the rule of 55. And here's the actual rule. If you turn 55 during the calendar year, you either lose or leave your job. You can begin taking distributions from your retirement account without paying the early withdrawal penalty. The 401k or the 403b. You can do this only your current jobs account, not your other account, not your ira, but your current jobs account. That's right.

[Ben]

Okay. Which. The lion's share of the money is in that current jobs account.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Exactly right. Exactly right. It does not apply to individual retirement accounts. You have to leave the money in your current 401k plan. Penalty free distributions, baby.

[Ben]

Perfect.

[Jill Schlesinger]

All right. Again, the reason why people are like, why don't I know about this? Because people like me, we're old curmudgeons and we don't like you to necessarily get all the money out that you can. It's a little scary to people like me because we've heard people like drain their accounts and then all of a sudden they're 70 and they're broke. I don't think that's going to be you. I feel like Ben from, from, from Idaho really does have his blank together. Am I right to assume that, Ben, you're not going to blow through all your money?

[Ben]

I sure hope not. I work too hard to save it. I don't want to blow through it and be poor at the end of my life.

[Jill Schlesinger]

That's right. So what are you going to do in Idaho? Just ski. Ski your tush off. What's going to happen for those years?

[Ben]

Well, the retirement years. The hope is to be able to do a little bit of travel, spend some time with my family. My parents are still young, so I want to be able to enjoy the time that I have with them and try to enjoy life and enjoy the great outdoors as much as I can while I'm healthy.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Also. Ben, do you have all of your estate documents done is we got to protect your income for a while. You have life insurance? What's going on with that?

[Ben]

I have life insurance and I have five more years on that and then I'll have to re up it. I do have my estate documents, but they are on the older side. So I actually that's on my list this year is I need to have them updated because my kids are starting to get a little bit older and they were younger when, when I actually started those.

[Jill Schlesinger]

Okay, well, let's do that. I don't necessarily think that you need a ton of life insurance if you could buy it through your employer and just, you know, again, you're really just trying to protect those years from 50 to 55. Right. So that if something happened to you in those years, you'd want to be protected. And so maybe if you could just bump that up a little bit, that would be helpful or maybe just look and see right now, if you went privately, what would a 10 year policy cost you? Just to add that little layer on top.

[Ben]

So basically just to get to meet until 55, is that exactly right? I wouldn't wait five years until this one expires because it's going to cost.

[Jill Schlesinger]

You more money, right? I would do it now for sure.

[Ben]

Okay.

[Jill Schlesinger]

All right, so like a half a million dollar policy right now. See what it costs just for the heck of it. Half a million level term. 10 years, 44. You don't smoke or drink or do anything bad like that, right? I mean, you could drink, but you don't smoke, right?

[Ben]

No smoking. Try to stay healthy.

[Jill Schlesinger]

All right, Keep, keep saying. I feel like everyone in Boise must be healthy. I don't know, maybe the whole state. I'm going to go for it. I've never been to Idaho. Should I come?

[Ben]

If you like the great outdoors, yes, you should. It's a beautiful place. The mountains are amazing. Rivers and lakes are awesome too.

[Jill Schlesinger]

All right, I'm going to put it on my list. That could be a place I come. This is great. All right, Ben, good luck to you. Go get some insurance. Don't lose your job and keep doing what you're doing. Everyone else should. You invoke the rule of 55. You want to know more about it? See if you can do this. It's one of the reasons actually that it could argue for against rolling over a retirement account. You know that it's just like we always talk, roll it over, have control. Well, you lose the ability to do that. You cannot invoke the rule of 55 for an IRA. So maybe that's something we should be thinking about more often. Give us a holler if you've got a question about that or anything else going on in your financial Life, go to jillonmoney.com, click the contact Us button, write us a note, and if you'd like to join us on the air live, just check the box. Mark will do everything else. Hey, you can subscribe to us on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your favorite podcast. Please leave us a rating and review wherever you listen. And it is Friday, so let's do some business. Our music is composed by Joel Goodman. Mark Telero is our executive producer and king of all things web. We are distributed by Odyssey. We ask you to do something nice for someone else today. It's going to make that person feel good and it's going to make you feel good. Change your work, change your wealth, change your life. Thank you for listening. We'll talk to you next week. Real Estate it's been a cornerstone of wealth building for generations, but it's also often a major headache for investors. 3:00am Maintenance calls, tenant disputes, property taxes Enter the Fundrise Flagship Real estate fund, a $1.1 billion real estate portfolio built for you. We're Talking more than 4,000 single family homes in thriving Sunbelt communities, 3.3 million square feet of in demand industrial facilities, all professionally managed by an experienced team. With the Flagship Fund, you're tapping into real estate's most attractive qualities. Long term appreciation potential, a hedge against inflation, diversification beyond the stock market. Check, check, check. All without complex paperwork, massive down payments or soul sucking landlord duties. Visit fundrise.comjillonmoney to explore the portfolio. Check out historical returns and see just how easy it can be to add real estate to your investing strategy. Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Fundrise Flagship Fund before investing. This and other information can be found in the Fund's [e-mail] Flagship this is a paid advertisement.

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