I'm trying to get a handle on how my wife and I are doing, relative to our demographic, on retirement preparation.

We are in our late 50's (me 58, she 56) with no kids and no mortgages. Our primary home is worth about 1 million and we own a rental property worth about $450K. In investments and combination of Roth and tradtiional IRA's we have another $600k.
Roughly our net worth is just over 2 million.
We're both in good health except for knee problems of my wife's but they are covered by workman's comp.

We'd like to retire at 62. Our SS income at that point would be about $1500 per month. The investment property makes about $1400 per month.
We currently live on about 70k per year. We've traveled extensively around the world as part of our career so we aren't looking to do lots ofthat, preferring to stay around and enjoy Montana.

Any financial advisors out there want to give us an idea of how we are doing relative to our peers? I hear so much about the boomers being utterly unprepared. I'd like to have a sense of whether I should buckle down and really work hard for the next 7 years or so or whether, relative to others, we can release ourselves from some of the anxiety.

Rett

talaniman

I'm 54 and retired from a 30 year job at 48, had enough, so moved. Helping raise grandkids, is about all I'm good for. Wife agrees, and is mad about inheriting my old job of taking out the trash. You and your wife need to sit down, and honestly plan on what it is you want to do with the rest of your lives. Then do it.

Fr_Chuck

you are 300 times more prepared than most,

The normal perosn your age has no IRA or retirmement plan what so ever, normally owe for over 1/2 of thier home value still and wil not be getting it paid off till they are in thier late 60's if then. and have no investment property.

So most people your age will find theirself still working at 70 as the greeter at walmart becuase they can not afford to ever retire

ebaines

You don't say whether the $1400/month from rental property is net (after expenses such as mortgage and real estate taxes). Assuming it is, then you're not in too bad shape. The $600K in your investments should allow you to withdraw about $30K/year - that's a 5% draw rate, which is pretty conservative. That plus the SS and rental income will generate the $70K/year you're looking for. You don't mention what you plan to do with the house - you may want to think about taking advantage of the capital gains exclusion for selling your primary home to get some equity put - perhaps moving to a less expensive property. One bit of advice: don't be too conservative with the investments - you need this money to last about 25 years or so, and if you get too conservative with it you run the risk of having inflation eat you up. So while $70K sounds like a nice annual take now, 25 years from now you will probably need more like $150K/year to maintain your standard of living. Think of it this way - if you had retired 25 years ago you would have probably thought that $30K/year was more than sufficient. So be sure to stay reasonably invested in a mix of stocks as well as bonds so that your investment can continue to grow even as you withdraw at 5%.

ScottGem

I would say you are more prepared than most, but you aren't out of the woods. As eb pointed out, that $600K is not going to last too long. I would be more comfortable if you were to downsize the home upon retirement. Even if you went into a property half the value, it would still be tight.