[Courtney]

.. Did you fund more money into your taxable brokerage account as a bridge account before you started to fully fund your IRAs, 401Ks/TSPs, etc? Which order did you do these in, and how did you calculate that you had enough in your 401Ks in order to snowball the rest of your money into your bridge account?

[Brian]

Great question. I’m trying to figure out if it is time to stop finding retirement accounts and build that bridge. It’s hard to walk away from the tax advantages but I think you have to bite the bullet at some point.

[Ryan]

I’ve not retired yet but I’m well on glide slope. We have a target retirement age (50). I did some basic spreadsheet work to determine how much I’d need to cover the gap until 59.5.

Of course, I’m continuing to heavily fund retirement accounts, but not maxing the 401k, instead I’m diverting a chunk into taxable brokerage. And because I’m extra, I’ve way overestimated my need and underestimated my RoR.

We started doing this intentionally around age 35 or so.

Don’t miss: For those who’ve retired early, like 50s or whatever. How do you access your money?

[Brian]

We have a brokerage account but we also have a 457B which allows us to pull before 59.5 under certain conditions.

[Tom]

I sold some real estate and bought dividend stocks in a taxable account. That became the bridge account.

[Daniel]

I’d recommemd fully funding a Roth IRA, if eligible, before going to a taxable brokerage.

All contrubutions can be pulled tax and penalty free anytime you need them to fund whatever you want, including normal living expenses prior to retirement age.

Explore these too: I want an estimate that assumes no income beyond the year I retired – 2021. Is there a calculator for this?

[Charlotte]

Early retirees need some strategy to access money before 59.5 whether it’s a taxable brokerage account or getting money out of retirement accounts using a Roth conversion ladder, 72t, or rule of 55.

We chose a brokerage account and made sure it had enough to cover us until 59.5. Have you used a compound interest calculator or FIRE calculator?

[Don]

Seems sorta silly to fully fund 1-5% things before 10% things. IMO.

[Author]

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