u/AZJHawk

I’m planning on retiring in about 10 years at age 60 with somewhere between $2 million and $2.5 million in retirement accounts. I will also have a paid off house worth around $1 million.

I don’t need a house this big and the kids will be long since grown and launched by the time I retire, so my plan is to downsize to something more like a $400k house and use the remaining proceeds (probably about $500k after expenses) to fund a bond ladder.

My annual spend will be between $80k and $100k, with increases for inflation. My question is, should I throw the whole thing into a bond ladder, which will probably cover 6 years of spending, or is that overly cautious? Should I limit the ladder to three years and invest the rest in a brokerage account?

I want to mitigate the sequence of returns risk, but I also don’t want to be overly conservative.

Has anyone here worked full or part time for an airline as a BaristaFIRE gig? When I hit my FIRE number, I’m thinking it might be a possibility to work as a gate agent or something similar until I am eligible for Medicare.

I live in a city that is a hub for American Airlines and it looks like you and your spouse can get free standby travel and access to health insurance as benefits. This could solve the healthcare issue and also make travel a lot more affordable.

The downside would be having to deal with assholes a lot of the time, but I do that already. Has anyone done this?