Conservative saver- is it time?
My wife (51) and I (50) are currently planning to retire when she turns 55. She can access self pay employer healthcare of she retires at 55 (maybe $1600 month) decent PPO until 65. We are conservative and been saving all our lives. We have paid for house (750K) in MCOL area. Kids 19 college and 16 high school and college accounts are fully funded. No debt.
Liquid:
Brokerage 3.2M with 2.25M cost basis
401Ks. 3.1M
Roth 350K
Cash 80k
HHI is about 450k. Focus now is all savings we would put into money market /short term bonds to build up cash buffer for market downturn. But we are quickly running out of steam. Every day gets easier and harder given we could retire tomorrow. Easier means more coast attitude and harder just dealing with corporate BS and work travel.
Estimated 170k worse case spending which likely declines in next 5-7 years as kids become more independent. We are fully versed in financial concepts like 0% cap gains brackets, Roth conversions and how to control income / Aca subsidy and the trade offs. Planning to mostly live off brokerage for next 10 years +/-. Don’t want to die with zero and would like to pass along a nice estate to the kids.
Our biggest struggle is wanting to build more cash buffer and healthcare and walking away from good income. Don’t have financial advisor and really enjoyed studying and learning to manage our retirement planning/ taxes.
My brain knows the answer but heart struggles with being very conservative, but feel we are in the one more year trap.
Thanks for any perspectives or suggestions.