Howdy everyone. First post might be kind of convoluted.
We have never been on the FIRE wagon directly, but about 5 years or so ago decided we needed to get out of debt and found Uncle Dave. We didn’t follow him totally, but it helped change our lifestyle so we could get out of debt. We have always put enough into what ever company retirement was available to get the total match. We are now both 60. We have one son on his own and one that is a professional student. He knows he needs to be self-supporting very soon and is working on that.
We still owe on our house and won’t get it paid off before retirement. But this is where we differ from most on here. We plan to sell the house and become gypsies. We are going to travel the country in an RV. We have camped all of our lives. Boy Scouts, tents, trailers, motorhomes. We have never owned a 5th wheel, but that’s what we think we want. Plan is to buy a used truck and used 5th wheel this spring and try it out. If I can buy a used truck and find someplace to rent a 5th wheel, I will. Weeklong and long weekend trips this year. Then, a year or so from now, we plan to retire and head out for a 3 – 6-month trip. If we are still married at the end of that, we know it’s for us.
We will come home and sell the house. We do believe we have enough in our retirement accounts to retire comfortably.
Now come the questions. Almost all our savings is in retirement accounts. We have about $40k in cash accounts. We need to decide how to spend that wisely. I can use Cobra for 18 months after retirement, but that won’t get us to Medicare. We will probably have to buy insurance on the exchange. We have never had an HSA available to us. Now if we use the cash to pay expenses until we get to 65 and just take out some money from our retirement, our income is low enough we would qualify for some subsidies. So if we want to do that, we would have to buy a truck and RV with a loan. When the time comes that we sell the house, our equity could/would pay those loans off. That is our current plan.
With that in mind, is there anything y’all think we should do other than just sock away as much cash as we possibly can this year? I don’t see any advantage to paying extra on the mortgage or putting a higher percentage in the retirement accounts. And I sure can’t see the benefit of buying a truck with the cash.
You can be harsh, let me hear it.
Thanks!