29 Jun 2018 23:33
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Early in June I posted an article “A Little Light at the End of the Tunnel“ where I documented some of my investing mistakes over the years and one of them was locking up too much of my savings in retirement accounts and here is a great example of how this was a mistake and made me miss an opportunity.
Last week my employer for the last 31 years sent me a voluntary layoff offer where based on my seniority I would get a lump sum 6 months of pay. Unfortunately because most of my savings is locked in retirement accounts and I am only 50 years old I simply could not jump at the opportunity to retire early with an extra pile of cash. Argh!! This was so frustrating! But alas it is my fault.
I realized my mistake 8 years ago and started aggressively saving into my brokerage account. My brokerage account to date generates on average $350 per month which is far short of living on month to month. If I invested the lump sum payout it would generate an additional $200 per month for a total of $550/month or $6600 a year. While this is not an insignificant amount it is still not enough to live on. I will probably have to watch this scenario play out again as I still have 9 years until I am 59 ½ though it is frustrating chasing the opportunity train and not being able to hop on.
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Close previewThat stinks that you got laid off. But st least you started planning. Being semi retired I have a nice chunk in a TSP but also have after not investing for a few years built up my brokerage account. Right now I’m bringing in around 6,000. But I’m hoping to build that up in 4 years to 10,000. Don’t know if it will happen but I’m sure gonna try. Hopefully you find another job that pays better.
Thanks Doug for the concern but I did not get laid off (yet), this was just a voluntary layoff and because I'm not in a FIRE condition I did not take the opportunity to volunteer and collect a pile of cash. Next month is the involuntary layoff and I'm confident with my skills and experience I will not get laid off.