Case study - when to FIRE

[Goanywhere]

My wife and in our mid-30’s and we have a 1 year old.  I know that normally people outline in great detail their income, expenses, assets and liabilities, and then look for feedback on what they can do to improve their time to FIRE.
 
I’m not going to take that approach because I feel we have that aspect relatively under control with our saving rate sitting at >80%.
Our saving rate is mostly driven by our income as opposed to being extremely frugal.  We have always been good savers, however we live is a HCOL city and we certainly don’t skimp on things that we really enjoy. 

My wife is currently the primary carer however will easily find a new job should she want to return to the workforce.  My job is mostly enjoyable, very highly paid, but requires long hours and can be stressful.

In terms of financial position.  We own our home and have no debt/mortgage.  At the end of each month we stash everything into a low cost index fund.  My wife monitors our expenses each month.

Using the freely available calculators and based on our current portfolio and saving rate they estimate we can FIRE in 3.3 years.

Our aspiration is that once we have do “retire” that we move out of our current city to somewhere with better weather and a slightly slower pace.  We both intend on doing some part-time work
but haven’t factored that into our plan at all.

Where our dilemma lies is when to throw in the towel. Our mind-set/thinking is currently more about making the most of the situation we find ourselves in rather that calling it quits.   This is probably due to us both growing up in loving but relatively poor households.  This isn’t a concern about running out of money once we retire, it is more about the risk of squandering the fortunate position we find ourselves in. 

Working say 2-5 extra years would give us the ability to do things such as supporting family members financially, seeing more of the world, and generally being a little more “loose” with our lifestyle etc.

I’m sure others would have been through a similar thought pattern as they approach fire ?

[ysette9]

Only you can answer that question, right? I can’t tell you what is more important to you. I’ll say that we just reached our number and my desire to keep at it has dropped dramatically, but then I also just had our third and last baby, so energy is short at the moment. If I were at a job I enjoyed then the draw of extra things I could do with excess funds would be greater. I think my husband does want another year for various reasons but his own thoughts there have shifted over time.

So I can only recommend checking in frequently with your heart to see what matters to you.

[Chrissy]

We are 8-10 years away, but we've already discussed lean FIRE vs. fat FIRE.  Really, it's going to be an ongoing evaluation.  First, we'll hit the lean FIRE number, and then we might choose to work an extra year for more travel money; or two years for X goal; or maybe he'll quit his high-pressure job, and I'll continue to let our stash grow for more margin; or I'll work, and he'll work part-time... etc.

Just stay flexible, and discuss once you get there.

[kei te pai]

Are you planning more children? If so, thats a good time to look at down scaling the work.
If no more kids, maybe your wife might like to put in a few more years of career, while you take over stay at home parenting.
You are in a fortunate position, enjoy these years and dont put too much pressure on yourselves.

[aristophanes]

So I can only recommend checking in frequently with your heart to see what matters to you.

I think this is the right advice.  You stipulated that you've got the finances covered so won't touch that.  At that point the question becomes what do you want to do with your life?  On that I would be sure you are running towards something and not away from something.  If you've been working a stressful job for many years I will also say going from 80mp to 20mph is a shock to the system.  So is going from working with adults mostly to spending more time with kids.  Each person will handle those differently.  Ultimately you have to decide what you want to spend your life doing.  Without more details it is hard to get more specific than that.  For instance, from your post I can't tell whether you are planning to live on $30k, $130k, of $300k per year just as an example.  Those are of course very different situations.  But it sounds like you are in a great spot to do whatever you want!     

[Goanywhere]

So I can only recommend checking in frequently with your heart to see what matters to you.

Good advice thank you. We will stay the course and see where the next few years take us. 

[Goanywhere]

So I can only recommend checking in frequently with your heart to see what matters to you.

I think this is the right advice.  You stipulated that you've got the finances covered so won't touch that.  At that point the question becomes what do you want to do with your life?  On that I would be sure you are running towards something and not away from something.  If you've been working a stressful job for many years I will also say going from 80mp to 20mph is a shock to the system.  So is going from working with adults mostly to spending more time with kids.  Each person will handle those differently.  Ultimately you have to decide what you want to spend your life doing.  Without more details it is hard to get more specific than that.  For instance, from your post I can't tell whether you are planning to live on $30k, $130k, of $300k per year just as an example.  Those are of course very different situations.  But it sounds like you are in a great spot to do whatever you want!   

Appreciate the thoughts thank you. i think my wife and I need to talk more about what we want to do longer term to work out what we are aiming for.  We've focussed more on the financial side of things
, which having now run the numbers, will come together relatively easily over the coming years.   

In terms of expenses, we are looking at $75k per annum excluding taxes.