Right now, I am enjoying the relative freedom from stress. I had a very stressful job for 29 years with daily deadlines.

I read that Marketwatch story on saving too much for retirement. I love Marketwatch, but I think that article was basically crap. I hope it doesn’t make people more complacent than they are.

Roth IRAs are great, but most of my money is in tradition IRAs and my 401k. If I don’t get a job soon, I plan to begin taking substantially equal periodic payments from my IRAs next year under IRS rule 72(t), which allows penalty-free –but not tax-free–withdrawals based on life expectancy. I intend to spend no more than 4 percent per year of my total financial assets.

If I had been able to wait until age 55 to retire, I could have taken unlimited withdrawals from my 401k without penalty, but I didn’t have that option.

I have been reading this blog for only a couple weeks, and I can’t remember how I found it, but it’s fun.

It’s amazing how quickly your life can change after being the same for so long. If you had told me five months ago that I would be retired now, I would have been stunned.

Yeah saw the article and have questioned it myself a couple of times….about having too much saved up for retirement. Like you I’ve thought about cutting off retirement at a certain point and putting into a taxable account. I guess the Roth IRA and Roth 401k (if you rollover into Roth IRA) do give you access the money penalty free (you can withdraw what you put in penalty free)

@Omo – Is there a condition on the buyout that says you can’t get a different job somewhere else. I would think if you had the health insurance wrapped up you could really find a job that you would enjoy and would supplement your income. Independent contractor/freelancer comes to mind.

But the newspaper I work for was being sold to God-knows-who, and buyouts were offered to senior staffers. The offer included subsidized health insurance until age 65.

I crunched the numbers and decided I could survive on my assets, without working if I didn’t want to. It was a gut-wrenching decision, and I won’t be living a lavish lifestyle. But the alternative was to maybe be stuck at my job for another 12 years because I couldn’t get affordable insurance.

The worst-case scenario: The new owner fires me and I end up with no buyout and COBRA.

Here’s what I recommend: Save as much as you can and get your house paid off. I’m sure there are lots of people, both white- and blue-collar, being sideswiped like this by retirement these days.

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My plan is to save as much as I can with maximum Roth IRA contribution, a good chunk in 403(b) and then increasing contribution in a non-retirement account.

This way my issue, should I be successful and not die young, my issue will be Mike’s… deciding when. And by retire, I also mean switch tracks. I do not dislike my job now, but I would like to not work full time, sooner than my 50s.

@Lazy – Yeah I have a completely unscientific number that I think I would like to have and that is $10 Million, however I know to reach that I either got to have a substantial increase in income, invest like Warren Buffett, or not retire until I’m old an nearly dead (by my calculations age 65)

Now that I think about it, the $2000 a week is not really a financial goal, but a lifestyle goal. That’s what it really comes down to. If you want a magic number as a goal, that’s fine. But what you really want to answer is what lifestyle do I want to be able to afford.

Here is a good example of that: My goals are to retire at 55 (tentatively) and have a lifestyle that would cost about $2000 a week. But, if I’ll 55 and am only 75% of the way there, I my very well make the call that the part of my lifestyle I am least willing to sacrifice is not working (at least not working full time). People don’t say it this way, but this is probably the reason most people retire earlier than they planned. It’s not that they hit their financial target early, its that they want to stop working and relax.

That being said; If you have a PF blog like we do (sure, mine’s in its infant stage), its not very elegant to have a posted goal of “retire at 55 and be able to play golf”.

So, to directly answer your question: $2000 a week. (but that’s certainly not the whole picture).

When you can be off by 100% like that, I’m not really sure the value in picking a number. I like the series short term goals where you can at least make a reasonable estimate.

Of course, if I keep working for a few extra years, even in a part time job, that makes a huge difference to the number as well. However, I have a number of possible plans for when I quit my current job and only some of them involve working.