Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

The people who haven't quite figured out how to navigate all of the thousands of informative FIRE and retirement sites and who hang out on their company's layoff's boards might know. You may want to check with them, they are mostly brilliant.

As interest rates lower, the lump sum increases, and vice-versa. If rates increase 1% across the board, it could lower your lump sum by almost 10% depending on your age and length of service. This calculation applies only to Chevron employees hired before January 1, 2008. Rates are up about 4% compared to just 2 years ago. Do the math.

I would post your question to the bogleheads forum. You'll get a detailed response from the guys who love doing that sort of thing.

In general though the money you need is your spending divided by .04 for a ballpark figure.

How much money a retiree needs to retire well is really up to each individual person. Ask a monk in a Tibetan temple and the answer you get would be very different than the answer you’d hear from a city slicker in Houston, San Ramon or anywhere in between.

I used the 10x your gross salary and no debt rule. With 30 years plus service, you should far exceed that amount. Roughly a 4% retirement draw should get you to your current salary until end of life.

I couldn't afford to go to collage. But I did go to a college-prep school lmao!

CFP - Retired Engineer had a great response.0

As others have said here, talk to a financial advisor, where you can get into way more specifics than you can (or should) here. They can give you the best advice when you are financially prepared to retire. An important point, you also need to plan on what you are going to do in retirement. "Stay busy, stay active" is very important. To be perfectly honest (we've been retired 3 years now), you don't want any of that retirement "free time" (i.e., boredom). Instead, you want "quality time", be it discovery (travel, hobbies), family, exercise, or volunteering.

It’s amazing to me the perception an average person in the general public has about who a Chevron employee is. Almost all think a Chevron employee is the brightest and most knowledgeable people around. Yet, if they only came here to this Layoff website to read the commentaries, their entire belief system will be turned upside down.

If you don’t start a new job or roll the 401k into an IRA, you can access the funds at your last employer penalty free at age 55. (You’ll still have to pay taxes on any withdrawal.)
Withdraw just enough from the 401k to keep you in the 15%* tax bracket and any long term capital gains on your brokerage withdrawal will be taxed at zero - assuming no other income sources.
I don’t know about your expenses but this should be enough to live comfortably “in the country” with no debt.
If you want to spend a little more, I’d suggest filling up the 25%* tax bracket with some Roth conversions… but that will make your taxes jump.
You should have enough to enjoy retirement without going too crazy. Good luck.
Find a CFP that charges by the hour to get some advice.

*Unless extended by Congress, the current low tax rates expire at the end of 2025

At 50 & 52 years old, each year you work in your 50s for CVX your lump sum increases 5% (due to the elimination of the 5% discount per year in the calculation.

For example, when you work the 10 years between 50 and 60, you will receive an additional 50% (5% per year for each of those 10 years) in your lump sum pension.

I'd seriously consider working until late 50s--- kids will be out of college and you likely will have 20 to 30 years of retirement w/ good health

There’s plenty of resources available for free without having to pay for a financial planner. If you go the planner route, be sure to choose a fee-based fiduciary vs. commission-based salesman.

As others have said, 4% rule is the basic approach, but you first have to nail down how much you plan to spend. Then, you’ll need to figure out the most efficient withdrawal strategy to minimize taxes/penalties etc.

Here are a few sites that offer a ton of free info on this topic:
Bogleheads
Reddit - r/financialindependence
Mad Fientist
Mr. Money Mustache

In all sincerity, you need to talk to a financial planner vs asking people on a layoff board. Having said that, best of luck to you.

You forgot your pension. And SS.

The standard 4% rule is a good place to start, which is the same as a nut 25 times annual expenses. Some people argue that 3% would be a safer estimate, becasue you can't control market timing (if the market crashes just after you retire it is worse than if the market initally soars, even if you have the same avrage rate of return on investingments long term). Consider some current expenses you will no longer have (e.g., saving for retirement, communting, bussiness clothes, and morgage payements) and others that you might need to add (increase health care and bucket list trips). At 4% for the 2 million you have (in both tax and tax defered accounts) you would expect to spin off on average $80k per year (at 3% only $60k), plus SS payments down the road. Many folks would be happy with that income, but others unhappy...if you are in the latter camp you better keep working!

Per the last thread, petrotechs are easily at $9mm by 52 so don't worry bud you are only $8mm behind these CVX Wunderkinds noone has ever seen.

Somehow you can earn $360,000/yr off interest alone from $9mm but they just keep working to get to $100,000,000

How much do you need to spend every year? Multiply by 25. Stop working when you get there.

If you are both working, do it for 10 more years.