I’m currently a 40 yr old military officer approaching 20 years of service, after which I will retire. My retirement income from my service will provide ~$60k per year for the rest of my life, plus health insurance for both my wife and I. I currently have about $200k in personal retirement accounts.
The new job I anticipate starting in a couple years will pay around $150k initially, with a bump to $200k the second year and regular pay raises every year until I eventually reach about $300-350k per year. This industry also automatically puts about 12% or so of your annual salary in a 401k that you can match up to the max if you want.
Once we retire from the military and start this new career, my family and I are planning on moving to a part of the US that is pretty pricey. We’d be looking at buying a home that’s probably $800k-$1m. I’d also be able to use a VA home loan. We anticipate about $60k in equity when we sell our current home and have about $70k in just savings.
Would it be unwise to cash out my personal retirement accounts to put down on the home? I was thinking the return on that money could be greater in real estate, and it could be more recession-proof that way. Is that a bad idea?
