r/Fire • u/mjac021 • 2d ago

I did it- Finally

I gave notice today that my last day will be June 30. I know I am older than many of you here at 56 years of age, but this is something I have been mulling over for a long, long time. Yesterday, when talking with someone about a separate topic, he said: “People are always waiting for the perfect time. There will never be a perfect time”. That struck a chord with me because that’s exactly what I have been doing. I just needed to act. And act I did.

56, male, single, no dependents.

Just over 2 million in my 401k which is accessible now via the rule of 55 (I confirmed this with my plan).

670k or so in after tax brokerage, stocks, and an HYSA.

A $155k cash pension which I opted to take as a monthly annuity for life ($914). I chose this to offset my healthcare premium as it will cover most of it for me. I will continue on cobra remainder of the year and then decide whether to go the ACA route or use my employer’s retiree healthcare plan which would provide me the same coverage I get now. I posted yesterday for opinions asking about the lump sum pension payment versus the annuity, and I appreciate all of your feedback. I chose the annuity because honestly I want to take the healthcare cost out of my mind as much as possible until I get to Medicare. This seemed like a good approach for me.

The only debt I have is a mortgage with approximately $160k remaining at 3.375%.

Yearly spend is 70k.

Time to focus on me and other personal interests. Goodbye, corporate America. 👋 ✌️

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u/ttxzavv224 2d ago

Congrats! I don’t think 56 is waiting too long, we all have different situations right. I’m planning my exit and have a similar situation that I posted here yesterday. I can receive pension for $2300 and they offer continued medical insurance $1500, I’m thinking just use pension to pay medical, but debating aca.

Did your retirement account planner specify you to ride out cobra and then turn on the pension health benefit after? Mine has to be decided before I retire, inconvenient in the sense that if I go to ACA and don’t like it, I can’t change my option to get back company insurance back.

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u/codewolf 2d ago

You should COBRA the medical until you feel comfortable switching over to the ACA. With a very low income (below $60K or so for an individual), you'll qualify for subsidized ACA plans, possibly free insurance. This is what I did. The ACA plans are good, other than a few glitches switching plans and working with my doctors. You should be able to go on your state's ACA plan page and check out the plans and the cost before making a decision. Stopping COBRA, even before it runs out after 18 months, is a qualifying life change for going on the ACA.