My pension income streams will be solid in a year and a few years later extremely solid. Working for the GOV forever has it's upside. It's not even fair compared to the typical pension offers today (if there is one at all).
It seems the more I educate myself on financial options the more complicated my plans have become. I am glad I held and aggressively funded my 401K from 1995 to 2018. All through Bush's presidency I really wondered if my retirement plan was going to work out but I kept raising my contributions. My one and only real attempt at market timing was around 2008. I smelled it coming and went from 95% equities to 50%, then averaged back in every quarter during the GFC beatdown. I got lucky and now I get to retire on original schedule. I was determined to enjoy a few years of retirement very early and I did. Checked off some things from the bucket list. I should have went back to work a year earlier. Now I have about a year of living broke because I can't get to my money without tax penalties. My 83yr old mother tries to loan me money lately. She is a good mom. My net worth is nearly 10X hers.
I finally had to show her one of my brokerage accounts so she would stop stressing it.
For most of us some sacrifice must be made to retire early. More on topic, I have decided that I should not be so arrogant to think I really know what the next ten years bring for the equity markets and I better plan for all outcomes. I've been wrong half the time but just powered through it with new investment money. It's not so hard to mix it up some and reduce the stress.
It seems the more I educate myself on financial options the more complicated my plans have become. I am glad I held and aggressively funded my 401K from 1995 to 2018. All through Bush's presidency I really wondered if my retirement plan was going to work out but I kept raising my contributions. My one and only real attempt at market timing was around 2008. I smelled it coming and went from 95% equities to 50%, then averaged back in every quarter during the GFC beatdown. I got lucky and now I get to retire on original schedule. I was determined to enjoy a few years of retirement very early and I did. Checked off some things from the bucket list. I should have went back to work a year earlier. Now I have about a year of living broke because I can't get to my money without tax penalties. My 83yr old mother tries to loan me money lately. She is a good mom. My net worth is nearly 10X hers.
I finally had to show her one of my brokerage accounts so she would stop stressing it. For most of us some sacrifice must be made to retire early. More on topic, I have decided that I should not be so arrogant to think I really know what the next ten years bring for the equity markets and I better plan for all outcomes. I've been wrong half the time but just powered through it with new investment money. It's not so hard to mix it up some and reduce the stress.