Have you considered whether or not working less and spending more time at home with family might make the job more bearable? You are doing well but it helps to enjoy the journey:wink: What does your wife think of your retirement plans?
I agree with
Boghie re: putting extra money in retirement accounts rather than house. If you itemize on your taxes, you may be reducing you mortgage interest deduction.
If you retire at 45, you have 8 years before your police pension kicks in. So you are looking at $36,660/year and moving to new location and buying new house, which should reduce living expenses without a mortgage. With a substantial reduction in income, it may make sense to finance the house until your 2nd pension kicks in. When you sell the house, there will be real estate costs (~6-10%) that will be deducted. You need to factor in moving expenses once you decide where you are moving. You may want to factor in where your son plans to go to college, although you have expenses covered through GI Bill, there is substantial difference between instate and out of state tuition if they decide to go to State University where you are now--it might impact when you actually want to make the move. If you move out of the area, there will be travel cost associated with son coming home to visit for holidays.
You don't have very much in retirement accounts ($27 TSP, $25 Roth, $30 401K) so you should focus on increasing both contributions and earnings.
I recommend maxing out the Roth for both you and wife (8 years x 11K = $88K + earnings) Think of this as an emergency fund--you can withdraw contributions (taxes already paid) in certain situations and earnings grow tax free
Taking Early Withdrawals from Your Roth IRA | RothIRA.com
Although you can't contribute to TSP, you can still manage it. You didn't say which life cycle fund you have it in or whether it is traditional or Roth. It may be possible when you retire to roll your 401K into TSP or vise versa (don't know rules for your current plan), or all or part to outside IRA. But let's say you have combined $135K when you retire at 45 and start life expectancy payments the following year...you would start at ~$300/month ($3,600/year) using 6% RoR, e.g.
https://www.tsp.gov/PlanningTools/Ca...ependentAge=46
Only problem is that once you start, you have to continue until age 59.5 and a significant market downturn could impact the outcome. Alternatively you can't just turn it off once your pension kicks in at 53 and returns are generally variable, with the calculation being done each year based on end of year balance and age factor. You can change the assumptions but I suggest that you increase your current contributions to 10-15% of your salary
I'm not sure it is advisable to purchase rental at same time as buying your home because for 8 years you have reduced cash flow and a house is least liquid asset (what if renters don't pay the rent or significant repairs are needed), especially if you are moving to a new area that you are unfamiliar with. I think it would be better to invest the funds and keep some in near cash assets until you are comfortable with your finances and your new location. One option is to buy a less expensive home to live in and later upgrade to better home and rent out the first home. You can also finance the home, which would give you more flexibility (deductible expense if you turn it into a rental). What if you or your wife end up hating the new location?