[napscoordinator]

That’s a very good point. Xers have it better because we mostly have ROTH or converted out traditional IRA which means tax free…..yeah!

[Tell It Right]

Thanks. I by no means meant that most Generation X'ers have planned for retirement. I'm just saying that the few who have planned for retirement have done so in a more DIY fashion than Boomers who were raised in the generation that told them that someone else should provide a pension (and/or the government will be good stewards with all the SS FICA contributions we've made).

And most of our investments are in Roth IRA's as well. Not all of our money has been converted yet, mainly because I'm quasi-retired, still have a taxable income, and thus don't want to put myself in a higher tax bracket. So I'm still converting tax-deferred money into Roth IRA money a piece at a time (just enough to max out our tax bracket without going into the next one). All of my wife's money is in Roth IRA. (She's a few years older, turned 59.5 last year, and the 5-year rule for her last conversion to Roth IRA expired this year. So every penny of her Roth IRA is available penalty free and tax free when we want to make withdrawals.)

After I retire I plan to do 4% annual withdrawals, maybe 1/3% per month, mainly from hers but not mine. This is in case the govt adds RMD's to Roth IRA's like they every now and then talk about doing (if they do we'll wish most or all of the money will be in my name because I'm younger).

Another thing I thought about doing is, as we withdraw year after year from her Roth IRA, is if the balance in her Roth gets down to equal to the mortgage balance, I'll quit withdrawing from her Roth IRA at all except for making the monthly mortgage payment. We'll count my Roth IRA as the one we live on, and her Roth IRA as the one we'd use to pay off the mortgage balance if we ever decided we had to (i.e. if there was some dispute between me and the bank and I said screw it, we'll own it outright). But if we always have a good relationship with the bank we'll keep her Roth IRA money invested and earning way more than the 3.3% interest rate of the mortgage, withdrawing from her Roth IRA just enough to make the mortgage payment.

Combine that with us not having hardly any energy costs (because of home solar, with an all-electric home, and doing most of our driving in our EV), then my Roth IRA is way more than enough to live off of. When my wife starts collecting SS two years from now it'll be gravy on the top.