Wow, my early retirement is practically here – how are we doing with regard to our financial goals? Since I am going to be paid through mid May and DH through end of July, I will continue tracking our financial goals through July, at which point I will switch to tracking against the retirement spending goals, to make sure we are on track and learn about our true retirement expenses (not the imaginary ones)
March was a good month, with stock markets ending on a positive note not only for the month itself but for the entire quarter!
The gap to close shows what we need to accomplish by July 2023 to be able to retire early. In March we gained $43K, with the post-tax accounts beating the original goal by almost $33K. With three more months to go, I am sure we’ll be in a great shape for the retirement, especially if the markets start going in the right direction 🙂 And if not, we still will have a great cash cushion of about 1.5-2 years of expenses to wait out the slump in the markets.
Mortgage
Cumulatively, since July 2021 we reduced the mortgage gap by more than a half. At this point I am pursuing the intent to build a sizeable cash reserve rather than aggressively pay down the remaining mortgage, so I don’t anticipate that we close the mortgage gap any time soon. I anticipate having about $145K left by July 2023, which we can pay down on the normal remaining schedule over the next five years.
Post-tax accounts
Post-Tax accounts include cash and stock we own in our Brokerage Fidelity accounts. They also include the value of contributions I am making towards ESPP purchases.
In March, most of the gains are from the market. I am happy to see a negative number in the Remaining gap to close, which means we have more than originally planned, and it’s a great thing!
Pre-tax accounts
Pre-tax accounts include 401K plans with our current employers and Traditional IRAs.
In February, the value of our pre-tax accounts has increased by $10K, but the gap to close indicates that the value of the investments still did not recover to the original levels, despite our constant 401K contributions. Not much worried about it at this time, as we won’t be touching those assets for several years, and they will have time to grow.
Conclusion
In summary, we are doing great, I believe. With only three months to go, we continue contributing to our pre- and post-tax accounts, and with my severance package we should boost our cash reserve nicely, buying us a few more months before needing to start selling stocks from the brokerage accounts. Life is good, and the future is looking even better!
Stay tuned to the future updates!