Current biographical/financial picture: Late 30's, working (part-time) spouse, $100k mortgage, $12k savings, ~$20k other debt (all low-interest...vehicles, etc, no monthly balance on credit cards). Total combined yearly gross income of ~$90k. Any raises from here out will only be cost if living raises, I am topped out on our pay scale.
I have 12 years in my career with 18 years to go before my earliest retirement date with unreduced pension (HRA not included, but is available if I stay for an additional 8 years which is just not happening). Current pension estimated at ~$4200/month if I retire at the earliest date..
I got into the retirement planning portion of my career a little late, but have been contributing to a 457b deferred comp plan for the past 6 years. I do $300/month, and increase a little each year ($25-$50) with raises. The contributions thus far have all been traditional/pre-tax, but I am now able to make Roth contributions, which I have switched to. I manage it myself and currently have it all in stocks, but I rebalance it every year. Last year I managed a 22% RoR, but the annual average is around 10% (2022 was rough). Current balance is around $30k.
I've had an experimental brokerage account for a few years and have done nothing but lose about $2k with it. I'm not good at actually trading stocks, so last year I started investing in ETFs/index funds. I'm still largely uneducated in that realm, but there were at least gains. That account has a balance of about $6k.
I also dipped into crypto back in the day when bitcoin was around $250, and prematurely sold them all in 2018 for $20k instead of becoming a millionaire, but that's a different story. I still have about $2.5k in various crypto right now.
This year I opened two IRA's, one traditional and one Roth. I plan to max out my contributions to them for the 2023 tax year using some of the remaining funds in my brokerage account, along with income tax returns. I also plan to max out throughout the 2024 year with monthly paycheck contributions, with a 60/40 split going mostly into the Roth fund.
Both of the IRA's have mixed investments in SWLGX, FXAIX, FSELX, CHGX, SDY, VUG, VOO, VXUS, VNQ and VTI. I will admit, I don't know a lot of details on investment selection, and am aware these may not be optimal.
I'm not looking to retire, buy a lavish yacht and travel the world on a bottomless budget. I just want to live the same lifestyle as we currently enjoy without having to work anymore once I get there to keep it up. Maybe also have a small nest egg to leave the kids, since that's a luxury my wife and I never had.
So my questions are as follow:
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Does my current retirement forecast seem reasonable given the above investment information?
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Should I consider consolidating the IRA's into either just Roth or just traditional? I am not sure what my tax forecast for the future is, which is why I chose to split them up.
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Should I keep the diversified investments or switch to one fund (I've seen a lot of people talk about VITAX, for example)?
I realize this is a gigantic post and I appreciate any and all input given.
Submitted February 12, 2024 at 11:36PM by bcg85 https://ift.tt/VWwcnuH
