I am 61 years old and I am afraid to retire. I have $ 650,000 saved but I would like to have more, I should have entered real estate before.

• Dan Steven Erickson built a retirement fund of $ 650,000 from a mainly teaching race.

• He also took advantage of real estate investments and retirement plans matched by the employer to increase his savings.

• Despite financial growth, he feels insecure about retirement and the desire to have invested before.

I obtained my first job at age 17 and worked mainly on unstead on restaurants, in construction and in mini-Martes. I was a late flowering and started the university in 1993 at 30.

I graduated with a degree and a master’s degree in communications and moved to Kansas to take a full -time post teaching at the community university level.

The work offered a state program called Kpers, a retirement program with some coincidence. I participated and contributed with a small amount, which began my retirement trip.

My partner and I lost our firstborn, and it was too difficult to stay there. Then I went to work for a university in Indiana. They also offered retirement benefits, such as the coincidence, in which I participated. I worked from 2002 to 2004.

I left Indiana and got a job at a university in Washington, where my daughter was born in 2005. I worked there for the next 20 years and I just stopped smoking in June.

Then I sold it in 2019 for a gain of around $ 70,000: it was worth all my student loans, credit card debt and automobile payments.

I moved to Maine in 2022 and still taught remotely. I bought another property in Washington in 2021, I sold it in 2023 and obtained a good gain.

I bought a third property in Maine. We live there for two years before deciding to move to Tennessee. I could not find full -time academic work in Maine, so I moved to better job perspectives.

I rent the condominium in Maine to a family member, so the mortgage is covered while paying the rent in Tennessee.

About five years ago, I began to contribute 7% of my retirement income, which my employer matched. I was earning enough money, so I invested $ 200 additional per month. As was consistent, my wallet grew.

When I was 59, my retirement accounts reached $ 500,000. I also received a small inheritance of $ 70,000 from my mother when she died in 2022. Together with my savings, that is about another $ 100,000 for my retirement. I have about $ 100,000 in capital in my real estate. So, my retirement egg costs around $ 650,000 so far.

On my retirement trip, I have had many jobs. I worked for postal service, but I resigned because I was working too much for very little salary. Now, I am working part -time in the teaching of Cabela already part -time.

I am nervous. My ex -wife and I divorced in 2006. I am single and building my retirement nest egg alone. Although $ 650,000 sounds at most, it is not. If I have lived $ 50,000 a year, my retirement savings will only last about 12 years.

I have some medical problems that can make my life a little shorter than that of the average person, but I do not know about being 71 years old and continuing to work, and I worry that I can run out of money. In my 70 years, I do not want to trust Social Security and public homes.

I am working to ensure another job in Tennessee. I will put another four years to reach 65 and I will probably retire, unless I love my work. So, I could start taking Social Security.

I have earned a lot of money with the real estate that I have had and sold. Real estate promoted me financially in my fifty years mediated at purposes.

I am frustrated because I am a creative person. I would like to spend my life doing a creative job, whether it wins money or not, such as writing, music, song composition or photography.

Now, I am caught working between 50 and 60 hours a week in several jobs, and it is exhausting. I don’t like any of the jobs I’ve had; They are means to an end.

I would like to have begun to save money before, and that is the advice that would give young people.

Of course, working on jobs without exit is difficult, and you barely make the salary pay. I would probably have begun to add a little more once I got a job with correspondence programs because that is where it adds.

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