Mumbo said...
If the premise is "take it because we didn't need it" and "if i dropped dead today", a whole lot of options open up.
Most would say if you don't need it, let it ride since there is little risk for the 8% and the market can provide more or less depending on when you retire and/or die. It might be fair to ask if you don't need it, why would you you care about the return? Since you are going to die soon, the money could go to insurance premiums for better return on investment.
However, happy wife, happy life. That I understand... even if she is a CPA....
Yes, little risk at 8% but she figured she’d do better (and has) and has the advantage of accumulating the principle in the process that doesn’t go away if I do.
I suppose our situation might be different from many as we never planned to have SS or a pension so we started saving, pretty aggressively, decades ago, by saving and investing and frugality. Except for our first house we have always lived debt-free and about
10 years into that mortgage we sold it and paid cash for a house where homes were less expensive. I made a mid-life career change and became a teacher aso ended up with a pension from that. We bought some rental property (cash) and with the income from that, SS, the pension, and our investments, I am doing at least as good if not better than when I was working. My wife has tax clients who are looking at retirement but still carrying lots of debt and have never built a budget to see if they can actually afford to retire. She helps them with that and many find that retirement is not on the horizon.