How much would you need to be FI if you kept working (for fun) and only lived off of that income?

[Evgenia]

Stress and burnout is real. When you have FU money, semi-ER becomes a tempting option.

^ This. In retrospect, knowing we'd end up choosing to do sporadic part-time work (and that said work would add up to a decent income), I wish we'd gone FIRE sooner. We were just scaredy cats and waited until we paid off our SF Bay Area mortgage (not representative of today's astronomical home prices, as we bought a VERY small house near the bottom of the Great Recesssion/late 2012).

We're 5.5 years into FIRE now. After our initial six months of lay-about, sleep lots, burnout recovery, we ended up taking on very casual, ad hoc, part-time work. Depending on the year, we've had $55k-$97k in income, usually more in the $65k-$75k range before expenses and deductions. We haven't touched our savings. 5 stars, strongly recommend, would do this lifestyle again.

To answer the original question, that would have been about $800k without a paid-off house, to be FI and keep working. Instead it was $1.5m + paid-off house that (in today's ridiculous Covid bubble market for single-family homes and comps on our block, has an estimated value of $1.4-$1.7m, 3x what we paid ~8 years ago). When we were able to FEEL FIRE in our bodies -- how much better we felt, better sleep, everything -- I wished we'd done it sooner.

[mistymoney]

Stress and burnout is real. When you have FU money, semi-ER becomes a tempting option.

^ This. In retrospect, knowing we'd end up choosing to do sporadic part-time work (and that said work would add up to a decent income), I wish we'd gone FIRE sooner. We were just scaredy cats and waited until we paid off our SF Bay Area mortgage (not representative of today's astronomical home prices, as we bought a VERY small house near the bottom of the Great Recesssion/late 2012).

We're 5.5 years into FIRE now. After our initial six months of lay-about, sleep lots, burnout recovery, we ended up taking on very casual, ad hoc, part-time work. Depending on the year, we've had $55k-$97k in income, usually more in the $65k-$75k range before expenses and deductions. We haven't touched our savings. 5 stars, strongly recommend, would do this lifestyle again.

To answer the original question, that would have been about $800k without a paid-off house, to be FI and keep working. Instead it was $1.5m + paid-off house that (in today's ridiculous Covid bubble market for single-family homes and comps on our block, has an estimated value of $1.4-$1.7m, 3x what we paid ~8 years ago). When we were able to FEEL FIRE in our bodies -- how much better we felt, better sleep, everything -- I wished we'd done it sooner.

this is hard for me to hear, actually. I've been waggling on the precipice of taking a sabbatical with 1099 income and seeing how far I can make it vs continuing to grind.

I've been researching everything I can here and elsewhere about how it all works, AA, WR, taxes, simulations, fail rates, etc. etc.

I'd just today decided to go for 3 more years....then read this.....


....

[Evgenia]

this is hard for me to hear, actually. I've been waggling on the precipice of taking a sabbatical with 1099 income and seeing how far I can make it vs continuing to grind.

I've been researching everything I can here and elsewhere about how it all works, AA, WR, taxes, simulations, fail rates, etc. etc.

I'd just today decided to go for 3 more years....then read this.....


....

Oh, I'm sorry. This is all very easy to say in hindsight, knowing things have turned out okay (that there was ad hoc work at all, for example, and at decent pay, which is luck and privilege in spades). None of what has happened was a given, and I was risk averse too... would we be on the Mustachian path if we were taking impulsive risks all over the place? Nah. It's okay to want to be secure and do the figuring and have more than enough, just in case.

It's funny... I *say* I would have done it before paying off the mortgage (hindsight) but, at the time, it was the paid-off house that -- at risk of sounding dramatic -- evaporated the real need to work. I had no idea how much it apparently drove my staying in the traditional workplace. As soon as that mortgage was gone, work life was SO much more of a palpable drag. Some totally unforeseen thing like that may tell you when you're ready and help you leave. :-)

[mistymoney]

this is hard for me to hear, actually. I've been waggling on the precipice of taking a sabbatical with 1099 income and seeing how far I can make it vs continuing to grind.

I've been researching everything I can here and elsewhere about how it all works, AA, WR, taxes, simulations, fail rates, etc. etc.

I'd just today decided to go for 3 more years....then read this.....


....

Oh, I'm sorry. This is all very easy to say in hindsight, knowing things have turned out okay (that there was ad hoc work at all, for example, and at decent pay, which is luck and privilege in spades). None of what has happened was a given, and I was risk averse too... would we be on the Mustachian path if we were taking impulsive risks all over the place? Nah. It's okay to want to be secure and do the figuring and have more than enough, just in case.

It's funny... I *say* I would have done it before paying off the mortgage (hindsight) but, at the time, it was the paid-off house that -- at risk of sounding dramatic -- evaporated the real need to work. I had no idea how much it apparently drove my staying in the traditional workplace. As soon as that mortgage was gone, work life was SO much more of a palpable drag. Some totally unforeseen thing like that may tell you when you're ready and help you leave. :-)

no need to apologize for sure! And kudos to you for being in such a great spot!

I've just been on a teeter totter for about a month or so.....if I figure it this way, I make it....if I figure it that way, I don't. Then I'm thinking no way I can do it.....but then I think - oh - forgot about SS kicking in eventually so I can make it.....then....forgot about taxes and the 10% withdrawal penalty, and I can't....but wait - if my 1099 income continues, or even grows...I make it...but pandemic, SORR could gut me, so I better not try right now....etc. etc....

I have a lot of vacation and holiday time in the next 2 months, so definitely going to push through to the new year. Maybe mix in a mental health day or two.

Then rethink in 2021....

[MudPuppy]

I actually do find my FT job rewarding, so I guess I'm doing that now? In noncovid times I work with chronically mentally ill persons, but I have been moved to covid response team by my org.


My spouse isn't sold on the idea of the RE part of FIRE, so in reality, once our house is paid off we can live on their paycheck and I could quit working FT and just work a few shifts a months to keep insurance. We expect the house to be paid off in 10-12 years at our current payment rate.

For both of us to stop working we would need to have about 900k in savings/investments. Universal healthcare would reduce that need to around 600k.

[ReadySetMillionaire]

Is it just me, or is this topic jumping up more often these days?

Stress and burnout is real. When you have FU money, semi-ER becomes a tempting option.

This is definitely my feelings, although I would say that you only need temporary FU money. I think if you have $100,000 in accessible cash, and you know how to make money on your own, you can likely CoastFIRE.

The interesting thing for me is that I somewhat explored CoastFIRE already, but didn't know it at the time. I was a solo attorney that was hustling making more than $100k/year, but life was still good. Having done it, and knowing I could get clients, I know I could "coast" and easily make enough income to cover my expenses (15/20 hours a week would likely be $40-50k/year).

Now I find myself doing my solo practice on the side while also working full time at the City Law Department.  Good base salary and amazing benefits here; but doing both is only temporary.

The plan is to save a mini-FU fund, pay off my student loans, and then probably coast with the solo practice.

[Sugaree]

Probably $1M.  $850k would buy an annuity that would give me $2500/month.  That is the magic number needed to get a residency visa in Honduras.  Another $150k to buy a house.  Then I can  work, or not, as a dive instructor or open a coffee shop or hot dog stand.

[ReadySetMillionaire]

I think this is basically my plan, to be able to go to part-time work in my same field (either negotiate for fewer hours or just move to a different job), or allow my husband to go part-time, or both of us go part time and not need to stash during that time as our stash grows on its own without additional contributions while also keeping our tax bracket lower.

I think somewhere between $500-$800k would do it, if we were able to not touch the stash. There are a lot of unknowns at this point. One thing that would help is if one of our jobs would cover medical for both of us--that would be worth a heck of a lot more than the actual paycheck.

I think this is my plan as well -- to go into PT work in my same field. And interestingly enough, and as I reflect on my seemingly always changing plan, the biggest reason I'm leaning towards CoastFIRE is because I've already dipped my toe into the water.

I left a law firm to start my own practice in early 2018.  I was going pedal to the metal with it, so it was a full time job and I was making $125,000 or so.  But I've already proven the concept to myself that I can hang a shingle and make it work. And I already know it would not be hard for me to get clients (the scariest part about going on your own), so I'm ready to do it.

Right now I work full time at the City Law Department ($66k/year plus amazing benefits) *and* my solo practice, which I do on Wednesdays and Sundays.  It's quite a bit, but the plan is to pay off my student loans, get retirement savings to about $350-400k (will be 35 at the time), get cash to $100k, and then go purely solo, 15 or so hours a week.

[kissthesky]

Is it just me, or is this topic jumping up more often these days?

Stress and burnout is real. When you have FU money, semi-ER becomes a tempting option.

Love this thread. Planning something similar - I'm at $1.3M and am just waiting until DH is done with his PhD (~1.5yrs). I never want to work again while he loves his field and wants to work forever. The plan will be to live off his salary and not touch the stash. I'm so burned out though I don't know if I can make it another 1.5 years. but I'm too afraid to quit in case something doesn't go well with him getting a job.