37F single mom here, just wanting a little perspective on how I’m doing financially.
I went through a really painful divorce 4–5 years ago. Last year, my ex emptied our daughter’s 529, so I’ve been working to rebuild it and plan to pay for all her college expenses on my own. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve worked hard to get to a stable place. I have been focused on rebuilding our lives.
Here’s where things stand:
- SEP IRA: $550K
- Roth 401(k): $150K (maxed yearly now)
- Brokerage: $530K (saving $30K–$40K/year)
- Home: $450-500K value, ~$50K left on mortgage
- Car loan: $15K
- 529 (8yo): $40K, contributing the max until ~$100K
- Emergency fund: $60K
- Income: $270K/year with a potential of 40% annual bonus (typically paid out at 90%)
- No other debt
My goal is to retire around 52-55. I’m proud of the progress but still sometimes question if I’m doing enough. How does this look from your perspective?
Single Mom – Need Advice on Financial Status
byu/No_Establishment3494 infinancialindependence
Posted by No_Establishment3494
2 Comments
Clearly you’re doing well. I would definitey do traditional and not Roth 401k at your income.
See if your 401k accepts “reverse rollovers”. If it does, consider rolling your IRA into your 401k do allow yourself to make backdoor Roth IRA contributions.
Whether you are on track to retire before 55 would depend on your expenses which you do not list
It looks like $1.3M in investments, 60k in cash AND an almost paid off house PLUS money for your kid? Yeah, you’re doing amazingly, lol. And with that income, you should be fine – you make more money each quarter than some people do in a year!
Now I will say the thing I say all the time around here: You have to know what your SPENDING is in order for any of this to make any sense. FI/RE is all about if liquid investments can cover your spending and without one side of the equation it is impossible to know. Find out how much you spend in a year and multiply by 25 to get the 4% rule FIRE# or 28.6 to get the 3.5% FIRE#. Voila. From how much you seem to save each year, you might not be far off at all. Might be able to retire like a whole decade earlier.
Only other thing, I see no reason to have both a $15k car loan AND a $60k emergency fund. Pay that off and I bet you e-fund will be back at that mark in like 6 months with a small slip stream away from that 30-40k you put towards brokerage. Unless it’s like a 0-2% loan and a 3% HYSA.
PS: what the heck is wrong with that ass to empty their child’s 529? Good job getting out.