What is your approach or reccomendation?45/39, Single-income, two adult household here. $65k/yr tradeworker. We "own" ($74k mortgage) our stick-built house on 10 rural acres. 27yrs remain on our mortgage @ 5.12%. Land is a seperate loan $65k @ 1.5% 12yrs remain. We are otherwise debt free. We have $5k emg fund growing $350/mo. $111k Roth mostly S&P ETFs. We raise 100% of our meat, eggs, dairy and *try* to grow our fruit & veg seasonally. I designed, paid cash and installed a 7KW solar system w/ 20kwh battery. Grid-tied, non-export. our monthly Grid connection bill ~$40-$50/mo. Grid & yearly $200 propane fill are our only utility bills + $75/mo ISP. We do have life, property, auto & umbrella insurance. let's call that an additional $350/mo. Health insurance is on The Dole because we are peasants. I will qualify for Gov't Cheese *if* I survive to retirement age. I think my non-earning wife will too? I have worked for the same employer for 13yrs. nonetheless, I always fear i will lose my job due to cuts or more specifically, be replaced with lower wage, less skilled labor when my boss retires. AI is taking all the "easy" jobs formerly taken by retirees and broken-down tradeworkers.Am i gonna work till i die, then be dumped in a Pauper's Grave? Will my plan of paid off homestead, self-sufficiency & poverty-tier investing provide us a dignified peasant's countryside comfort in our "Golden" Years?
>>62245332>27 years>golden yearsLmao.
You need a lot more in retirement savings. $111k for two people in their 40s isn't a whole lot.
>>62245332Should've bought link in 3921 Back to RDDT bitch
>>62245332the government is a beast. It will take more than it provides, one way or the other.If you organize you life in a way where you enjoy its benefits and return very little, you and your family will be consumed one day.Build a life where you take little but contribute much.
To expand & clarify:We *currently* put aboot $150/mo into retirement. I have 22 years until "full retirement age". Once the land is paid off (12yrs) that will free up $560/mo that we can increase retirement contributions & accelerate the house payoff. Being that 5.12% is a relative low rate on our mortgage debt, I will likely focus most or all of the additional $560/mo into retirement to catch up for all of my "starvation mode" contribution years.A big part of our plan is to be totally mortgage & debt free in aboot 15 years and obviously stay that way as far into retirement as our health and medical needs allow. when we become too crippled, we will stop farming & ranching. when we become too decrepit to live on our own, we will sell the homestead and move into assisted/nursing facilities. the house & land combo should be worth millions by that time.
>>62245332The answer is to raise income and for her to get a job unless there is a significant reason not to. Your income tier is poverty for your age.All the other shit you wrote is completely irrelevant.I am not trolling or trying to put you down. Also your trade matters - can you do side work with it? Again, your income is absolutely absurd.
>>62245712we are in a LCOL area.median income in our area ranges from $58k-$66k/yr. average income in our metro area is around $90k/yr. average income in the larger rural/suburban/city combined is closer to $60k/yr I would assume i fit in the upper end of tradeworker income for our geography.my wife has a full-time job on the farm feeding and providing for us by offsetting other costs. she keeps the house, food & animal medical care and generates $10k-$12k annually with her farm-based sales. i did not account for this in the original post because it has largly been reinvested into establishing the homestead. we should start to "feel it as income" with the completion of her barn next month. by 2027, I would say our total income will be around $77k once all of the farm & ranch infrastructure is completed. we only began settling the land 3 years ago.
>>62245781I guess I don't understand you and can't help you. I genuinely feel like what you are describing is full-on larp (not that I doubt that you are doing it, my point being that it's silly).I say this as someone who literally sold cucumbers and tomatoes at local markets and raised them, grandparents had a year-round greenhouse with diesel heating. The other context is that I understand trades insofar that I was a mechanic at some point and did bathtub framing back in the day in-between being the "install drywall" slave labor to pay for college.Anyway, given that context, what I am reading from you STILL feels like some sort of survivalist fantasy. From my perspective of not understanding you at all, despite (imo) having the background to do so, you should probably start a youtube channel / business selling your ineffective lifestyle to other larpers. And again, I am not intentionally out to insult you. I would probably read your blog on par with that guy who builds little pools in the woods on youtube.
>>62245332
>>62245332>200k in JEPI -- standard deduction income>1 mil in VOO which you gradually sell/trade for SCHD as you approach closer to retirementthat folio will net you about 50k a year and should be relatively tax free and you'll still have a good bit of annual growthit'll take a while but you'll get there.
