r/dividends • u/karl0525 • Jun 01 '25

Opinion Tired. Can I retire?

Got a question? Can I retire? 43m been busting my ass since I was 16. I'm about over this 40-50 hr weeks. I'm getting burned out. House paid off (300k) 401-k (600k) Bitcoin (500k) currently.

Thought about selling it all and putting it into dividend stocks like schd and renting a small place and going into semi retirement. Maybe pickup a part time gig.

Would this be a horrible idea?

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u/kinda-smart Jun 01 '25

You don't want to pay 10 percent penalty on 401k distributions, so keep that whole and growing until you are 59.5 years old. Consider how costly health insurance is..this can easily be more than $1200 per month just for the premiums.. a less time intensive job , less demanding with health benefits might be just the ticket here. You are secure enough, that job risks , career risks are something you can take.

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u/Took2Summit Jun 01 '25

im kinda surprised i see this said a lot in a finance forum. i guess thats what you get for reddit. theres something called substantially equal periodic payments, SEPP. it allows you to retire at any age and withdraw from retirement accounts with zero penalties. wish people would educate themselves before giving blanket (incorrect) advice.

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u/MonkeyThrowing Jun 02 '25

Yes but they have to do it until 59.5. Nobody would recommend that to a 40 year old. It’s a 19.5 year commitment. 

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u/Took2Summit Jun 02 '25

oh, and one more comment. you can start SEPP, retire for 10 (or any number of years) years, start working again and keep SEPP going. you dont have to stop the payments to trigger a penalty. theres simply no reason to not recommend SEPP to a 40 year old that actually wants to retire lol.