Well, not knowing if you're independently wealthy or not I'll offer a short true story...

My sister and her husband decided they were tired of the rat race and wanted to 'live' off the land... They both gave up great jobs, he worked for an airline manufacture ( white collar job ) and she was a psychiatric technician at a big California state hospital... They quit work, sold the house ( for $250,000. ) and everything in it and bough a $50,000. farm in Kansas... That was 20 years ago... Today the money is all gone, he delivers newspapers for a living and she puts the advertisements in the papers... He has another 5 years before he can start collecting his pension and social security, she has 8.

Rita

We are not independently weatlthy at all. My question is why can;t both of them get the same job that they were doing or something close before they took the jump? My hubby and I are both physical therapists and our job is currently in demand. I think it will be more in demand the next couple of years with baby boomers retiring. I plan to just take maybe 1-2 yrs off from work. 3 yrs at most. More than they I probably will get tired of travelling instead of enjoying it.

A short hiatus in an "in demand" field probably wouldn't harm you at this stage of life. It doesn't hurt to plan for it and if it doesn't work out then the worst that will have happened is that your house is paid off and you have money in the bank. My daughter and her husband have stressful, high paying careers and they are planning an early retirement. They plan to have everything paid for, and then spend some of their time managing their portfolios and rental houses and work a little at Starbucks if that seems like fun. I think they will be fine. My daughter is in sales and I don't think a good salesperson is ever out of work. I'll bet the same is true of physical therapists so long as you don't let your skills get too rusty.

On the flip side, I always had a terrible time finding work after taking time off for kids or something, but that is because I was in a field that changed quickly and my skills became obsolete almost overnight.

They moved from a big city in California to a town of 3000 in Kansas, there are no jobs there... They thought their T-Bills and the profit from selling the house would be enough to hold them until they started collecting their pensions and SS but it wasn't...

Taking a couple of years off shouldn't be a problem for you and your hubby but I wouldn't count on retiring at 40 then going back to work when you get bored... You never know what tomorrow will bring... A year ago I could do anything anyone half my age could do, today it takes me 2 minutes to go up or down one flight of stairs...

Will you make enough money working only 9 months a year to pay for health and dental insurance and the property taxes & home repairs and appliances and the car insurance & repairs and the house insurance & repairs and food and clothes and whatever else... Once you get used to a certain style of living it's really hard to cut back to less than what you had before... You must conceder all that before giving up what you have now...

I made the mistake of telling hubby it was ok for him to 'retire' 12 years ago, from a $62K a year white collar job... He's now working for $10 an hour greasing big trucks... He resents the fact that I can no long work and he is still working, he doesn't really have to... He's turned into a very angry tight fisted person who I no longer know...

Whatever you choose I wish you good luck...

Rita

Oh Rita, you were serious about your "cranky old buzzard". That has to be so hard. I am so spoiled.

My husband has supported my working and supported my staying home. His dad was a good negative example and my husband adored his mother whose health was severely comromised from the stress of living with her husband. I tease him about becoming a crazy old man, mostly because he now has the time to fund his hobby of collecting antique guns, joing the NRA, and target shooting. I am a dyed in the wool liberal Democrat, so you see the problem. It saves us money because we rarely make political contributions so as not to cancel each other out.

I hope things improve for you when your husband decides it is okay to retire again.

Thank you kind lady!!!

Sounds like you got lucky, having a good hubby... But if he starts getting cranky hide the bullets or you may want to take up target shooting..... LOL

Rita

Mysafehaven,

I'm not seeing in your plan where your income will be derived when you're not working. It's probably going to take more money than you think to live and travel for a number of years. Also, you really shouldn't tap into your 401k as it will mess up your future earnings.

We retired when I was 39 at the peak of the stock market boom only to have the market plunge. We did not go back to work, but started a cabin rental business in the town where we retired. It's worked out o.k. for us - but we work harder now than we ever did. Now we're planning for our next retirement!

Have you looked into owning rental property to provide an income?

Maxing out your 401(k) is a good idea in general, but if you're only 30 you won't be able to touch that money for a long time without penalty.

So the problem is going to be: (1) How much can you save up? (2) How are you going to invest it to have a reasonable chance of getting the returns you need? With answers to those questions, it might be possible to dig deeper.

Here's a rule of thumb for you: Take the amount of money you want to spend per year and multiply it by 25. If you have that much in savings, you can spend what you planned each year, more or less, increasing it to keep pace with inflation, and have a pretty good chance of never running out during your lifetime.

mysafehaven,

Don't forget to factor in the loss of value of your dollar-denominated asset annually due to the depradations of inflation.

ole joyful

P.S. I envy your husband, if you're willing to work till you're old nd decrepit ...

... to keep him in the style to which he has become accustomed.

You wouldn't happen to know where I might be able to find someone like you - with a few more miles on her odometer?

o j