Hello, kind forum readers. I mustache you a question... harrr harr.
Long-time reader, first time poster, etc. etc. I work for the gubmint and want to check to see when I can "quit this biatch." At the very least, I'm going to bail on public service at some point in the foreseeable future. Sitting at a cube all day makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I do IT work and it bloooows. I also would like to kindly request face punches where needed.
Life Status: 33, single, no kids
Income: 90k-ish range
Current expenses: roughly in the 30-40k range (further breakdown below)
Expected ER expenses: 25-40k yearly? This is a huge WAG for me - I could likely get this down a lot and frankly at this point have no idea how much I would need.
Assets:
TSP: 135k
Roth: 30k
Checking account: 8k
Condo: 265-270k
Liabilities:
Mortgage: 250k
I'm showing a NW somewhere in the 180-190k range, depending on the vicissitudes of the market, how much the condo would sell for, etc. I don't currently have a side hustle, but I aim to save up over the next few years and get into the rental bidnazz. Hopefully. Other pertinent details: I have only been making my current salary for a handful of years and paid out quite a large sum - let's say... 40k or so - to my ex when we split, so that certainly hurt the financial bottom line. I drive a 10+ year old Japanese econo-box and don't count the car's value in my NW, since I intend to ride that thing until the value asymptotically approaches 0...
Here's a pretty detailed breakdown of the budget - these are the "fixed" expenses, and there tend to be other variable expenses in there.
Mortgage (HOA, PITI, etc., all-in): 1800 [roughly 300+ of which is going to principal, so it's not really a 'cost' per se - I should also get an amount that would equal somewhere around 200-300 back come tax-time, so the real 'cost' of the mortgage is probably 1200-1300]
Car insurance: 50
Gas for car: 110
Internet: 50
Cell phone: 30
Utilities on condo: avg 40
Groceries: 350
Restaurants: 200
Alcohol/entertainment: 100
Church/other charitable giving: 100
Laundry (dry cleaning etc): 20
Total: 2850. Let's say 2900.
Variable expenses: gifts, travel, work clothes, etc. I don't like budgeting for these each month - that seems highly imprecise to me - so I just throw dough at them when needed. Last year, I spent like 4k on international travel/friends' weddings/gifts for family/friends, and I would do that in a heartbeat again this coming year. I believe in spending your coin in alignment with values, and that certainly aligns with my values.
I have a few specific questions.
1) ideas on how to trim this budget? Face-punches needed? I do great on specific expenses like car, cell-phone, etc., which I don't frankly care about, but then I will admit I'm a profligate spender when it comes to things like eating. I buy into the whole organic, grass-fed thing, and I'm not going to change that. In fact, I'm willing to work whatever extra amt of years is needed to insure that for the rest of my days on this planet, I'm buying my food from farmer's markets, cow-shares with friends, CSAs, etc. That's another 'value' of mine in the way that expensive tech/electronics/car is absolutely not. I do - whenever possible - try to trim this number down, say from buying from a cow-share where the average price for grass-fed cow drops to like $5 a lb, but I accept that it will be a higher number than it might be for some friends.
Also, as an aside, I realize I do have a fairly high restaurant/alcohol/entertainment budget but that is an artifact of being recently back on the market, so to speak. I expect that number to taper down in time, but am making up for years of a gnarly situation by enjoying myself now.
2) Is retired-age-makinbutter already set? Someone help me understand the pension system - my HR people are a Grade-A clusterfuck. My understanding is you get something like 1% of your top-three-avg-year-salary for every year you've worked. Let's say, conservatively, that I bail from the govt after two or three more years and have 10 years in at that point, and that for ease of numbers, my top three years' salary avg is 100k (it's not, but this is back-of-the-envelope-stuff here).
Avg top three - 100k
1% x 10 yrs x 100k = 10k a year. Granted, I can't collect this until I'm 60 or something, so in the intervening 25 years inflation (at 2.5% a year) will equal 1.025 ^ 25, orrrrr somewhere around doubling the cost of everything, or halving my 10k/year pension down to a real amount of - let's say - 5k. Thus, I have 5k coming in yearly from the pension.
Retirement accounts' current value 165. Assuming a conservative 5% real return, that means that in 27 years (age 60), the value will be 165 x (1.05^27), or 615k, which assuming a 4% SWR should throw off 25k/yr. This is without putting another dollar in ever, which is unlikely (I will obviously continue to contribute until I finally pull the plug).
This gives a retirement income - at age 60 - of at least 30k/yr. This is without dropping another dollar in.
Is retired-age-MB set?
3) If retired-age-MB is set, how realistic is it for current-age-makinbutter to take some steps to lower that "sweet, I'm set" age from 60 down to, say, 40? 45? I've only been doing this mustache thing for not very long and have made some huuuuge improvements already (suck it, big-cellphone-provider, I won't pay your shitty outrageous iphone fees anymore!). I also would like to get married/have kids some day, so I realize that expenses and priorities will change, but I want to plan now to make/save as much coin as possible so that I could, say, get out of the IT grind and do something entirely different that maybe didn't pay as much money but was more soul-enriching (hello, HS teaching! etc etc).
4) Other ideas? I appreciate face punches and pats on the back alike. It's been a shitshow the past few years but I'm looking forward to getting my house in order going fwd. Ideally, I'd want to get out of this grind and do something far less remunerative either part-time or full-time (if it was a sweet job) NOT for the sake of stacking bucks, because young-makinbutter already took care of that for future-MB. I welcome your thoughts.