After many years of diligently saving, helped (after a fashion) by an inheritance from my mother's untimely passing, I am now going to pay off my mortgage and will be debt free. I really wasn't expecting to be in this situation quite so soon, but there are worse problems to have I suppose. Feels like a rather Pyrrhic victory.
I am 44, married, and we are now making about $17k per year over and above my expenses, and some years that will be closer to $30k due to grant work. I am a tenured professor in the state retirement system. I have 6 months of expenses socked away in an emergency fund, and about $8k of MCD DRIP stock that my mother gifted to me many years ago. I have $80k in a traditional IRA from my previous 401ks invested in an S&P500 index fund.
So I am trying to establish my financial goals to which I can apply that income. We'd like to travel, and I think $4k-$5k /yr would be ample for what we would like to do. I own two small properties, one a condo in very good condition and a small bungalow that isn't. I am thinking of a improvement fund for the bungalow. I do my own work on the house and so this would basically fund materials. Maybe $4k - $5k / year for a couple years to knock out some larger projects. I already have extra money put away to replace my older car paying cash. I do my own vehicle maintenance and it is something of a hobby keeping my old car running.
So upshot is I still have money to work with. Given my tenure and state pension, I am not sure how crazy I need to go with funding my own retirement accounts. I can max my IRA contributions. I am looking at an HSA as well, but I don't know about maxing that out as well as it seems I might be locking away a lot of money for later in life at the expense of the now. I am wondering if simply investing and keeping those assets somewhat liquid outside an IRA or HSA might be a better approach despite that tax treatment.
I'm also thinking of what I can do to pay this forward for my niece. She's in college now, and is likely going to graduate without too much lingering debt (again, thanks to my mother). It seems to me that I could potentially invest something for her now that would come to fruition when she retires. Something something time and compound interest suggests that some wealth can be built here.
So what do I do with that money to consistently enable a traveling lifestyle near term, provide appropriate security for health and retirement, and use the long time available to grow a legacy for my niece, and maybe charitable giving?
Submitted January 11, 2018 at 12:49AM by Relaxed_Engineer http://ift.tt/2mg310k
