One More YearI'm writing with an update to
my June 2015 post. That thread was very helpful in getting me to crystalize my thoughts, but ultimately stamina won out and I stayed gainfully employed, mostly. I did take several months sabbatical. The promise of that time off kept me motivated when I was really struggling after I posted that thread.
At the time, one more year syndrome became one more quarter syndrome. Now it's one more month syndrome.
I'll be retiring young (under 45) so my stache has to last. I don't expect to never earn another dollar, but I won't be able to get back into my industry easily. In short, I have defined an arbitrarily large, round number that I'm trying to hit. With a little bit of luck, that will happen in about 5 months. At that point, I will have just a bit more than I need to live my modest, frugal-yet-comfortable, low-impact lifestyle, and pursue whatever comes next.
The SlogBut here I am, facing another rough patch. It's a combination of things, but ultimately I just don't find the relentless generation of shareholder value to be very fulfilling. To make it worse, I've been working for some industries and in some business scenarios that are in conflict with my own values. Some of this work makes me feel just a wee bit dirty.
Spending on toys? Not worth it. Even the prospect of massive charitable donations a la effective altruism isn't enough motivation.
One Less YearSo I'm re-running the numbers and plotting my escape. I told my boss that I would be leaving within the next 6 months. For now it's just between us. I'm now set on a variable withdrawal strategy, probably based on some variation of the Guyton-Klinger rules.
Am I There Yet?It seems pretty clear that I am. Since my last post, my total net worth increased by almost 26% from market gains and aggressive saving. Per my FIRE goals, I now have 26x my target FIRE expenses, or 39x my basic expenses (in the event I had to scale back). I've been living at my target FIRE expenses comfortably for years now, so I guess I should knock it off already.
But holy crap. 15+ years as a square peg in a round hole, so many lost weekends and evenings, so many nights in hotels and airports, multiple sabbaticals to recover from overwork, so much tooth-gritting; and I may well be done with that world? It's hard to believe.
I'm both elated at the prospect of leaving the fortune 500 world, and anxious about leaving the corporate womb as we enter a period of Trumpian uncertainty around healthcare and economic stability.
Withdrawal StrategiesSimulations on cfiresim.com tell me that I can use a variable withdrawal rate that would allow me to withdraw a fair bit more than I'd expect to need in retirement. It's essentially a variable 3.1-5% withdrawal. At the low end it more than pays for my basic expenses to live comfortably. At the high-end it's more than I need, but not more than I could comfortably spend.
Net Worth Breakdown:
- 43% in 401k
- 4% in roth 401k
- 48% in taxable
- 3% in roth IRA
- 2% in cash
I can draw from the taxable accounts for some time while setting up the roth conversion ladder.
The ACA is the only wildcard I can see in all of this.
Questions to Ask a MustachianI've read the
Pre-Fire checklist, but I'm at a loss about how to get started. I need to make my T-6 months countdown plan. It should include a graceful exit from my employer, but it's hard to stay motivated. I feel as though I should also start getting serious about cultivating some local contacts for contract work. It might not be a bad idea to semi-FIRE to start.
So my questions:
- Can anyone give me a good reason not to FIRE?
- What are the chances I can make it long enough to at least front-load my 401k this year?
- How many pens should I liberate from the office supply closet?
- Should I feel at all guilty for skipping the 6PM virtual working session that they scheduled for tonight?
- Can you all forgive me for this humble brag? It's lame, but a chorus of "just quit already" actually makes it easier to step off the ledge.