I've been working and investing for 13 years, do I really have 15 more to go?

[Rockies]

I just wanted to ask this forum for some advice. I have been a fairly financially savvy person that followed most of the Mr. Money Mustache rules since I started in the workforce back in 2011. However I am now 13 years into working full time at my career, and my calculations show I still have about 15 more to go before I can FIRE. It seems like 28 years is a long time for someone who has followed the MMM principles mostly.

My Situation
38 years old. I've been working full time since I was 25. Before that I had various jobs but was mainly in school. I live in Canada.

Total retirement investments (RRSP's and non-registered): 400K
Total home equity: 313K (house is worth 500K and I have 187K mortgage remaining. I am only 6 years into a 25 year mortgage - I put a bunch of money down to reduce my mortgage payments which are now about 950$ per month)
Savings/Emergency fund: 10K (working on building this higher with my recently increased income, had to recently replace a bunch of appliances in the house which drained this down)
No cc debt ever
No car loan ever (I drive a 14 year old Prius and I ride my bike to work)
Total net worth (RRSP, non-registered funds, house equity): 713K

Total income: 110K annually.  Was previously around 100K.

I have been able to put away 18,000$ annually into RRSP's in the past few years, might be able to raise this a bit this year as I just got a 10% raise.

My job pays quite well for my field and location, and I don't see much of a way to significantly increase that income without moving to a super high stress managerial position in consulting, which I am not even sure I could land if I wanted to.

So running the numbers using the 4% rule on 67K annual spending it looks I will need 1.6 million to retire.  My calcs show that 400K compounding at 7% annually with $18,000 annual contributions (what I am able to do currently) will take 15 more years to reach 1.6 million.

 I feel like despite following the rules (frugal car, constant investing of 15-20% annually, no dumb debt, relatively normal spending), I am looking at a 28 year long career before FIRE, which might be just fine, but it seems like a long time. I also realize how grateful I should be to have a clear path to retirement at age 53, no stupid debt, etc. Its really not bad in the grand scheme of things, and I am truly blessed in life, but when I was in my 20's I thought if I hit things hard and consistently invested I should be done in my mid or early 40's.

To be frank I am slightly tired from working consistently hard without stopping for 13 years straight, and 15 years more of it seems like a long time to go, and hope I could cut that down to 5-10 more years.

Any advice for me or ideas to get me across the finish line earlier? The one peice of advice I'd give myself is to keep cutting expenses and budgeting, but I dont live an incredibly lavish life and its been hard to continue to cut expenses in the HCOL area I am in, especially when large ticket household items like appliances pop up. I've always struggled with cashflow outside of what I am able to put into my investment accounts each year.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

[lhamo]

Most of us who manage to FIRE after only 10-20 years in the workforce were saving/investing CONSIDERABLY more than 15-20% of income.  Dual incomes help a lot.  If you are single, do you really need that 500k house?  Especially since it seems to be what is preventing you from saving more (renters don't have to pay to replace appliances.  Could you house hack -- get a room mate or two? 

Hard to give useful advice without seeing what your expenses are.  I find it hard to understand how you can't save more on that salary, even in a HCOL area.  I'm still trying to get a handle on my expenses as a newly divorced Head of Household with a college age daughter at home part time, but with a paid off house I am probably looking at around $1500-2000 spending on basics/month.  Another 1-2k on luxuries, including travel but not including costs of renovating my house.  That I'm budgeting 150-200kish over the next 4-5 years.  I don't live extravagantly but I have a pretty great life.

[lucenzo11]

I agree with Ihamo that while you are doing a good job saving, you aren't saving at a rate that's going to support FIRE anytime soon. I attached an image of a table from JLCollins which shows the number of years to FIRE based on savings rate. This assumes 8% returns and 4% WR. At 20% savings rate, it shows 28.6 years to FIRE.

Can you share a little more of your spending or even your budget? Assuming we use your $100k previous salary and lop off 20% for taxes (please correct me if it should be higher or lower for your area), you are probably spending about $60k a year or $5,000 a month. That seems like a lot for one person especially when you don't have a car payment and mortgage is under $1,000 a month. If you haven't already, track your spending for a whole year and really see where the money is going. Without any other data, it seems like this is an area to look at more.

As you already know too, the other option is to increase income. Congrats on your recent raise, that will help. Keep looking for opportunities to make more money, both internally and externally.

[reeshau]

It's the shockingly simple math.  No magic about it, just deep thought and discipline.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

To echo what others have said, this deserves a two fold response.

First, congratulations! By avoiding debt and saving 15-20% of your salary, you are doing better than so many people and are on a great track!

Second, we don't have the information to help point out how for you to improve. We'd need spending data. There's good news and bad news that we can deduce from what you've said.

The good news is your salary is not *the* problem. A bigger salary could of course help, but you're not making peanuts. How quickly you get to a 4% WR is just math based on your savings rate and the market.

The "bad news" is that there's no magic bullet. The best advice you can get is to save a higher rate. The only way to do that is to increase your salary and avoid hedonistic adaptation or to cut your expenses. The ideal way is to cut your expenses because you will both save more and need less when you retire. It's the most effective way.

[curious_george]

If you could list a break down of what your expenses are that would help us to help you.

Thanks.

[Dee18]

Lucenzo11 thanks for posting the Collins chart. I had not thought of that for years, but will now show it to my 27 year old.  I was impressed that OP’s situation matches the chart, with a savings rate of 20% and a 28 year career.

Without seeing your current expenses I would suggest you look at money spent on food/drink/going out and on subscriptions—streaming services, phones, etc., anything that is a non-essential monthly charge. 

[theninthwall]

I’m assuming from your number that you want $55,000 a year in retirement. That seems high for a single person with a paid off home. I agree with other comments that seeing your costs could be helpful.

Could you rent out a room in your house? $800 a month at 7% is $134k over ten years which would get you into your 40s for retirement perhaps - and give you an income stream in retirement if you choose to keep tenants in a room.

Could you take a step to part time work in your 40s to a level you find enjoyable? This woukd delay retirement but might be  wetter for your work life balance.

Do you have an income stream for the gap between your retirement and being able to access your retirement accounts? I don’t know how Canadian retirement accounts work or at what age you can access them.

Also, it is important to remember that 53 is early. You’ve done very well to acquire the net worth you have!

[Rockies]

I agree with Ihamo that while you are doing a good job saving, you aren't saving at a rate that's going to support FIRE anytime soon. I attached an image of a table from JLCollins which shows the number of years to FIRE based on savings rate. This assumes 8% returns and 4% WR. At 20% savings rate, it shows 28.6 years to FIRE.

Thanks, I think this is the gut check I need. I see that I am actually doing fairly well for my savings rate, because my average annual returns over the past decade have been about 8%, instead of the 5% assumed in MMM's chart https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ . I feel like I lost out on a lot of stock returns over the past decade because I had 40% of my portfolio invested in international instead of US funds, but overall its been a pretty good decade. So yes the JL Collins chart is spot on.

Appreciate the other comments here, all good to hear. In terms of housing I live in a 2 bed older condo, and where I live 500K is the rock bottom of the condo market, could only get slightly cheaper if I moved into a shoebox studio apartment that is further away from work and forces me to drive everywhere.  And yes I could rent out the second room for about 900$ a month, though the condo only has 1 bathroom and would be a bit tight with two people its something I will strongly consider now.

Unfortunately I dont have a great breakdown of my expenses, which is clearly part of the reason why I fail to bring expenses down to save more. That is something I will attack more. I do know that my housing cost is about $2100 a month. This is mortgage, condo fees, utilities, insurance.

But yes, overall I am very grateful I am on the path to finish full time work in my early 50's. I know others that have no savings at my age, which is just a hole I am not sure how they plan to get out of. Working full time until 65 or 70 or beyond seems like it would be real tough.

[Rockies]

Most of us who manage to FIRE after only 10-20 years in the workforce were saving/investing CONSIDERABLY more than 15-20% of income. 

You are right now that I look into it. I had somehow gotten into my head that if you saved 20% you could likely FIRE in 20 years. Which is clearly wrong. The math is pretty simple.

Going to focus on better budgeting and managing expenses. I think a lot of my money escapes to silly thing that I dont keep track of.  And also when I come into extra money in my chequing account I have in the past decided that all the sudden I need a $2000 mountain bike, or a $2000 road bike, a new macbook, or various other things I don't really need.

[Rockies]

Assuming we use your $100k previous salary and lop off 20% for taxes (please correct me if it should be higher or lower for your area)

Actually you have to lop off about 33% for taxes where I am. Appreciate your comments, I don't have super detailed spending amounts for you right now other than I spend $2100 monthly on housing. Clearly this is one of my failings.

[Rockies]

Could you take a step to part time work in your 40s to a level you find enjoyable? This woukd delay retirement but might be  wetter for your work life balance.

Do you have an income stream for the gap between your retirement and being able to access your retirement accounts?

Yes - I am working on that, I can definitely probably find some part time contracting work in my field of expertise. I also have a dream of "retiring" by switching careers into construction from what I am doing right now (computer based work). I'd love to drive a dump truck for in town runs to the gravel pit or run an excavator for deep utility installs. Currently there is infinite work of that type in my community and I assume it will be the same in 10-15 years but who knows. Hard part with the construction industry is finding an employer that doesn't require you to work you 40-50 hours plus a week, but I am sure I can find some other low stress work in my 40s or 50s. It most likely will pay slightly less per hour, but I can have some income stream.

As far as the income stream goes before I can access my retirement accounts, I think so - about half my money is in non-registered accounts that I could pull out. Need to run the numbers on that.

[Rockies]

Also, it is important to remember that 53 is early. You’ve done very well to acquire the net worth you have!

Thanks for that - I think the internet has broken my brain, because I see so many people posting about how they FIRE'd at 30 or 35m, or make 200K USD after 10 years of their career, or have net worths of 1 million plus by the time they are 30. I need to get some perspective and realize that I am doing okay. Still can improve, but in the grand scheme of things I will be fine.

[reeshau]

The "bad news" is that there's no magic bullet. The best advice you can get is to save a higher rate. The only way to do that is to increase your salary and avoid hedonistic adaptation or to cut your expenses. The ideal way is to cut your expenses because you will both save more and need less when you retire. It's the most effective way.

Also, as you realize this is a marathon and not a sprint, you need to be true to yourself about what is achievable.  Impatient people fantasize about eating Ramen for a few years, living like a student, and all of a sudden they will have rock star wealth and can live it up.  That is magical thinking.  Continued discipline and living true to yourself, without spending "because you deserve it" or because friends, peers, or family spend that way, gives you control over your life.  That pays off not only as you save for retirement, but as you spend while retired, too.

[SunnyDays]

I’m also Canadian and retired at 55, because I held out for a provincial government pension.  It didn’t feel early to me because I was so burned out, but everyone else thought I was incredibly “lucky” to not have to work until 65 like they were.  I had a single salary all my working life, not married and no kids.

The reality is that Canadian salaries are generally quite a bit lower than American ones and expenses often the same or higher.  So you’re not doing badly by any means.  But I agree that you need to start tracking expenses closely.  You’ll likely be surprised by how much is just frittered away without improving your quality of life.

If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend the book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robinson (and the late Joe Dominguez).  It will really make you consider what you are spending and the value of what you are buying.  It made a world of difference to me, and I ended up being able to save 50% of my income with no trouble, on a salary ranging from mid50K to 80K at retirement.

Also, it might be a better idea to fill up your TFSA if you haven’t already, unless that’s what you mean by non-registered.  With higher incomes, They are more cost efficient than RRSPs, I believe.

[Rockies]

Continued discipline and living true to yourself, without spending "because you deserve it" or because friends, peers, or family spend that way, gives you control over your life.  That pays off not only as you save for retirement, but as you spend while retired, too.

This is true! For example, I lost the plot a few times during Covid and started thinking maybe I could buy a brand new Tesla Model 3. Turns out that wouldn't have been important, or have increased my life satisfaction. True life satisfaction comes from security and peace of mind.

[Rockies]

If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend the book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robinson (and the late Joe Dominguez).  It will really make you consider what you are spending and the value of what you are buying.  It made a world of difference to me, and I ended up being able to save 50% of my income with no trouble, on a salary ranging from mid50K to 80K at retirement.

Also, it might be a better idea to fill up your TFSA if you haven’t already, unless that’s what you mean by non-registered.  With higher incomes, They are more cost efficient than RRSPs, I believe.

Thanks, I will check it out!

I can't have a TFSA, unfortunately because I am a dual US citizen. And yes I have often have wondered how well I would have done if I stayed in the USA. Oddly enough I immigrated to canada back in 2012 because I couldnt find a single job in my field in the USA and the Canadian economy was better. Things have turned around I think since then. Or maybe the grass is greener on the other side. At least I am in the Canadian province with the highest wages. What I make here seems to be about 30% higher than if I was in any other province, so I am grateful for that.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

The "bad news" is that there's no magic bullet. The best advice you can get is to save a higher rate. The only way to do that is to increase your salary and avoid hedonistic adaptation or to cut your expenses. The ideal way is to cut your expenses because you will both save more and need less when you retire. It's the most effective way.

Also, as you realize this is a marathon and not a sprint, you need to be true to yourself about what is achievable.  Impatient people fantasize about eating Ramen for a few years, living like a student, and all of a sudden they will have rock star wealth and can live it up.  That is magical thinking.  Continued discipline and living true to yourself, without spending "because you deserve it" or because friends, peers, or family spend that way, gives you control over your life.  That pays off not only as you save for retirement, but as you spend while retired, too.

Not necessarily arguing against your point, but there is sometimes benefits to a period of intense detoxing. It has helped me prioritize what I'm really ok with living without - eating out much, expensive groceries, assorted subscription services, etc. - and those I do want - primarily travel

[reeshau]

The "bad news" is that there's no magic bullet. The best advice you can get is to save a higher rate. The only way to do that is to increase your salary and avoid hedonistic adaptation or to cut your expenses. The ideal way is to cut your expenses because you will both save more and need less when you retire. It's the most effective way.

Also, as you realize this is a marathon and not a sprint, you need to be true to yourself about what is achievable.  Impatient people fantasize about eating Ramen for a few years, living like a student, and all of a sudden they will have rock star wealth and can live it up.  That is magical thinking.  Continued discipline and living true to yourself, without spending "because you deserve it" or because friends, peers, or family spend that way, gives you control over your life.  That pays off not only as you save for retirement, but as you spend while retired, too.

Not necessarily arguing against your point, but there is sometimes benefits to a period of intense detoxing. It has helped me prioritize what I'm really ok with living without - eating out much, expensive groceries, assorted subscription services, etc. - and those I do want - primarily travel

Yes, I think that's fine when done intentionally, as a step in a whole plan.  The problem is when that is the whole plan, like someone going on a starvation diet or intense exercise regime, only to drop it quickly when it proves unsustainable.

I had something of the same, myself.  As a consequence of moving to Ireland, we spent 2 years in a 4 bed, 140 sq m house.  Which is fairly large for Dublin, but less than half our former house in the US.  Not only did we purge a lot of things before we left, but practice living in that space got us used to it, under the guise of an adventure living abroad.  Although our current house is larger than the Irish one, it's considerably smaller than the previous US one, and is plenty roomy.  Not to mention much cheaper to own and run.

[former player]

Yes - I am working on that, I can definitely probably find some part time contracting work in my field of expertise. I also have a dream of "retiring" by switching careers into construction from what I am doing right now (computer based work). I'd love to drive a dump truck for in town runs to the gravel pit or run an excavator for deep utility installs. Currently there is infinite work of that type in my community and I assume it will be the same in 10-15 years but who knows. Hard part with the construction industry is finding an employer that doesn't require you to work you 40-50 hours plus a week, but I am sure I can find some other low stress work in my 40s or 50s. It most likely will pay slightly less per hour, but I can have some income stream.

I think @slackmax is now retired but made a similar move from computers to truck driving.

One thing to remember is the concept of "barista fire": that once your investments reach a certain point they can be left to grow on their own while you earn just enough working part time or at a lower-paid job you love to cover expenses - you are not necessarily stuck at the same job into your 50s.

But I think it's clear that you need to track expenses closely for quite a while, I suspect that you may be reasonably frugal on the basics but it looks to me as though there could be a lot of "wants" and "treats" and "over-specified" in your spending, and that it's these irregular outgoings that are the main problem keeping your saving and investing rate down.  The problem is that this sort of spending is so irregular it doesn't show up over short periods of monitoring but can also get forgotten about over a longer look-back.  So I would suggest you set yourself a budget for "regular" spending and put any income over that into a temporary saving space which is then rolled over into long-term investments if not spent on those "extras" within a certain time limit.  That way it becomes clear that the choice is between your "extras" and your retirement.

[mistymoney]

The "bad news" is that there's no magic bullet. The best advice you can get is to save a higher rate. The only way to do that is to increase your salary and avoid hedonistic adaptation or to cut your expenses. The ideal way is to cut your expenses because you will both save more and need less when you retire. It's the most effective way.

Also, as you realize this is a marathon and not a sprint, you need to be true to yourself about what is achievable.  Impatient people fantasize about eating Ramen for a few years, living like a student, and all of a sudden they will have rock star wealth and can live it up.  That is magical thinking.  Continued discipline and living true to yourself, without spending "because you deserve it" or because friends, peers, or family spend that way, gives you control over your life.  That pays off not only as you save for retirement, but as you spend while retired, too.

Not necessarily arguing against your point, but there is sometimes benefits to a period of intense detoxing. It has helped me prioritize what I'm really ok with living without - eating out much, expensive groceries, assorted subscription services, etc. - and those I do want - primarily travel

Yes, I think that's fine when done intentionally, as a step in a whole plan.  The problem is when that is the whole plan, like someone going on a starvation diet or intense exercise regime, only to drop it quickly when it proves unsustainable.

with food, it is bad for your health and could cause organ damage, but I don't see a down side for finances of being super sparse for a limited period of time. save a lot over 3 months then go back to whatever.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

The "bad news" is that there's no magic bullet. The best advice you can get is to save a higher rate. The only way to do that is to increase your salary and avoid hedonistic adaptation or to cut your expenses. The ideal way is to cut your expenses because you will both save more and need less when you retire. It's the most effective way.

Also, as you realize this is a marathon and not a sprint, you need to be true to yourself about what is achievable.  Impatient people fantasize about eating Ramen for a few years, living like a student, and all of a sudden they will have rock star wealth and can live it up.  That is magical thinking.  Continued discipline and living true to yourself, without spending "because you deserve it" or because friends, peers, or family spend that way, gives you control over your life.  That pays off not only as you save for retirement, but as you spend while retired, too.

Not necessarily arguing against your point, but there is sometimes benefits to a period of intense detoxing. It has helped me prioritize what I'm really ok with living without - eating out much, expensive groceries, assorted subscription services, etc. - and those I do want - primarily travel

Yes, I think that's fine when done intentionally, as a step in a whole plan.  The problem is when that is the whole plan, like someone going on a starvation diet or intense exercise regime, only to drop it quickly when it proves unsustainable.

with food, it is bad for your health and could cause organ damage, but I don't see a down side for finances of being super sparse for a limited period of time. save a lot over 3 months then go back to whatever.

I see where you're going, and for some people you're right. I would say for many "average Americans," they can drop their food costs significantly and actually eat much better by reducing how much they eat out and by changing their grocery store patterns to be more whole foods and less ultra processed crap . That was the case for us. Eating cheap doesn't mean eating ramen every meal.

[reeshau]

The "bad news" is that there's no magic bullet. The best advice you can get is to save a higher rate. The only way to do that is to increase your salary and avoid hedonistic adaptation or to cut your expenses. The ideal way is to cut your expenses because you will both save more and need less when you retire. It's the most effective way.

Also, as you realize this is a marathon and not a sprint, you need to be true to yourself about what is achievable.  Impatient people fantasize about eating Ramen for a few years, living like a student, and all of a sudden they will have rock star wealth and can live it up.  That is magical thinking.  Continued discipline and living true to yourself, without spending "because you deserve it" or because friends, peers, or family spend that way, gives you control over your life.  That pays off not only as you save for retirement, but as you spend while retired, too.

Not necessarily arguing against your point, but there is sometimes benefits to a period of intense detoxing. It has helped me prioritize what I'm really ok with living without - eating out much, expensive groceries, assorted subscription services, etc. - and those I do want - primarily travel

Yes, I think that's fine when done intentionally, as a step in a whole plan.  The problem is when that is the whole plan, like someone going on a starvation diet or intense exercise regime, only to drop it quickly when it proves unsustainable.

with food, it is bad for your health and could cause organ damage, but I don't see a down side for finances of being super sparse for a limited period of time. save a lot over 3 months then go back to whatever.

The problem is if it discourages you, because you think that is how it's done/ your only shot at it.  Then, you give up and either go back to your old ways, or even the wrong direction because of the discouragement.  As a learning exercise or shock to the system, as part of a broader plan, it's fine.

[AccidentialMustache]

If someone didn't say it, you probably hurt your fire rate by the house. Yes you own a ton of it and that's great for a low monthly payment, but if you'd borrowed more but still had a 3% rate on it and could invest that difference at 7%, you'd see a lot more money in the investments doing the compounding thing.

If you're paying any extra on the house... stop. Minimum payment you can. Unless your rate is over 5%, in which case it could be up for debate.

Its okay. We did the same thing on our first house. It worked out for us in the end, but we should very much have sunk my bonuses/stock into the market, not into the mortgage.

[Laura33]

I think you're doing rather well in light of what you've spent and saved.  IMO, a house is more a consumption item than an investment (even though, if you're lucky, you will eventually make money on it).  So the reality is that you saved a bunch of money, and then took out a big chunk of that to buy a decent living situation.  Any time you take a big chunk of your investments and use it on something else, it's going to set back your FIRE date -- often quite significantly.

The good news is that in the long term, that decision will benefit you -- just not in your account balances.  Yes, you took money out of the market, and so very likely won't end up with as high a net worth as if you'd let it ride (housing doesn't typically keep up with the stock market over the long-term, and you'd need to sell to realize those gains anyway).  OTOH, you used that money to lock in lower housing costs for the next couple of decades, and to remove the risk of things like big increases in rent.  That means that you can now dedicate more of your monthy income to savings, and that you have better predictability of those long-term expenses.  So that money isn't gone, and it's not that it has no benefit to you whatsoever; it's just that it's been deployed for something other than market gains (lower risks, higher long-term cost certainty, etc.).

tl;dr:  there are many stupider things you could spend money on than locking in an affordable place to live that suits your lifestyle.  ;-)

[Rockies]

I 100% agree spending that much on the down payment for the condo reduced my investment opportunities. The investment in the home has only returned about 4.5% compounded annually, and I would have received 8-9% annually if I kept that money in the market.

At the same time:
-The place I bought was about as cheap of a condo I could find in the market. If I didnt buy it I'd be renting and rents have increased considerably since the purchase. They've increased about 6-7% compounded annually during that period. Now 6 years later I am paying significantly less than I would be to rent an equivalent place, which feels good.
-For the first 3-4 years I owned the place the mortgage payment was about how much I could afford. In-fact i found myself burning through cash and savings at the time. Putting less down and having a higher mortgage payment would have been very stressful.
-Most likely if I would have not purchase I would have been forced to move to a lower cost city due to high rents or just getting sick of not owning. That might have been okay in the long run, but I love my job here and have an incredible quality of life with no commute and lots of time in nature that would be harder to find in a lower cost of living place.

Overall, I am happy with my descision and lifestyle freedom I have gained from buying, but clearly it probably set me back a number of years from FIRE. I havnt yet acknowledged it yet to myself so I appreciate these comments that help me understand that.

[Rockies]

If you're paying any extra on the house... stop. Minimum payment you can. Unless your rate is over 5%, in which case it could be up for debate.

I've got a mortgage rate of 1.7% locked in until 2026 so yes I am paying only minimum payments. Lets hope I can get sub 5% when it comes to renewal time. Not too worried about rate increases since I have a relatively small loan, which I am also happy about.

I also realized that my mortgage gives me the option to skip 1 payment a year (it doesnt look like this will damage my credit). I am actually going to do that and invest the money.

[roomtempmayo]

Also, it is important to remember that 53 is early. You’ve done very well to acquire the net worth you have!

Thanks for that - I think the internet has broken my brain, because I see so many people posting about how they FIRE'd at 30 or 35m, or make 200K USD after 10 years of their career, or have net worths of 1 million plus by the time they are 30. I need to get some perspective and realize that I am doing okay. Still can improve, but in the grand scheme of things I will be fine.

FIRE is often presented as something you do by saving a significant percentage of your W2 income (taxable wages here in the US) and investing it in index funds that'll pay ~7%/yr.  And that will indeed get you there, eventually.

But FIRE with a seven figure net worth by the time you're 30?  It's not going to happen very often based only on saving wages and plugging them into index funds.  The math just doesn't work unless you have a massive salary.  If you start at zero and invest $50k/year for a decade at 7%, that only gets you to $690k.  It's really hard to get to a million in a decade without a windfall (inheritance, IPO), leverage (real estate or leveraged ETFs), or unusual market returns/luck.  I suspect one of the above is involved for many of the people who made it in a decade, even if it's unstated.  Keep in mind that what people reveal on the internet is rarely the whole story.

The good news is that if you lengthen the time out to 20 years, the math starts getting easy.  And being a millionaire in your 40s is still doing pretty darn well.

[AccidentialMustache]

I've got a mortgage rate of 1.7% locked in until 2026 so yes I am paying only minimum payments. Lets hope I can get sub 5% when it comes to renewal time. Not too worried about rate increases since I have a relatively small loan, which I am also happy about.

I also realized that my mortgage gives me the option to skip 1 payment a year (it doesnt look like this will damage my credit). I am actually going to do that and invest the money.

I wouldn't go that far unless you're really positively sure it won't impact the mortgage rate as well. But you're CA not USA so who knows?

[erp]

As a fellow Canadian, it looks like you're doing real well. Meaningfully better than I was at your age, if you're looking to win :D

A couple thoughts:

-an awful lot of the forum seem to be American and partnered. Some of these people can sometimes stack low cost of living with high dual incomes and get incredibly fast wealth growth. This is great for them, but I have often found that some of the rosier things south of the border are real hard in the Canadian system. I figure this is probably a fair trade, my ideal life would be much harder in the US - but it means FIRE will be a slower run.
-I found it to be a real wealth breakpoint pretty close to your invested assets. At this point, you can plausibly make 50k in a good year just in investment gains - that means your savings matter a lot less. I find this article to make the case pretty compellingly: https://www.joshuakennon.com/is-650000-the-magic-tipping-point-in-wealth-creation/
-I have had housemates for almost all of my life. That's mostly just a preference, rather than a financial choice, but it did allow me to save plenty when I was younger. In a lower interest environment, it might have been nice to have some of the real estate money invested instead. At current interest rates it's a toss up, and having a paid off house might be nice?
-maybe double check your tax assumptions. If you're in Alberta, then the average tax rate on 100k is ~ 23% (and that gets lower as you contribute to your RRSP). I use the EY tax calculator as a guide: https://www.eytaxcalculators.com/en/2024-personal-tax-calculator.html

At your level of wealth, the biggest lever you have is how much you spend. You get the double whammy of more savings *and* less invested assets required to FIRE. An extra 10k a year of spending is 10k you didn't save and means you need to save 250k more to retire. That's a lot.

[jeroly]

Most of us who manage to FIRE after only 10-20 years in the workforce were saving/investing CONSIDERABLY more than 15-20% of income. 

You are right now that I look into it. I had somehow gotten into my head that if you saved 20% you could likely FIRE in 20 years. Which is clearly wrong. The math is pretty simple.

Going to focus on better budgeting and managing expenses. I think a lot of my money escapes to silly thing that I dont keep track of.  And also when I come into extra money in my chequing account I have in the past decided that all the sudden I need a $2000 mountain bike, or a $2000 road bike, a new macbook, or various other things I don't really need.

The easiest way to boost your savings rate is to just bank your raises.  You just got a 10k raise yet you say you only might be able to increase your savings... take that 10k, let 2k of it hit your bank account to take care of inflation, then bank the rest (if you can put it into pretax accounts, all the better!).  There's another 8k of savings, boosting your rate by 7% or so.  Rinse and repeat with next year's raise!

[beee]

I want to second that having a working partner helps a lot. The whole 2nd income without 2x expenses.

I think you're doing really amazing for a single person. 500k condo means that you're not in Alberta but in Ontario, I think. Alberta real estate is not that expensive.

Now 6 years later I am paying significantly less than I would be to rent an equivalent place, which feels good.

Do you take into account all the costs associated with ownership? (condo fees, property taxes, mortgage interest, opportunity cost of having 313K stuck in the condo). I'm pretty sure that if you calculate the real cost of ownership, then it would be higher than renting an equivalent condo. I'm not saying that you need to change anything but it's worth doing the proper calculation for education purposes.

[vand]

I just wanted to ask this forum for some advice. I have been a fairly financially savvy person that followed most of the Mr. Money Mustache rules since I started in the workforce back in 2011. However I am now 13 years into working full time at my career, and my calculations show I still have about 15 more to go before I can FIRE. It seems like 28 years is a long time for someone who has followed the MMM principles mostly.

My Situation
38 years old. I've been working full time since I was 25. Before that I had various jobs but was mainly in school. I live in Canada.

Total retirement investments (RRSP's and non-registered): 400K
Total home equity: 313K (house is worth 500K and I have 187K mortgage remaining. I am only 6 years into a 25 year mortgage - I put a bunch of money down to reduce my mortgage payments which are now about 950$ per month)
Savings/Emergency fund: 10K (working on building this higher with my recently increased income, had to recently replace a bunch of appliances in the house which drained this down)
No cc debt ever
No car loan ever (I drive a 14 year old Prius and I ride my bike to work)
Total net worth (RRSP, non-registered funds, house equity): 713K

Total income: 110K annually.  Was previously around 100K.

I have been able to put away 18,000$ annually into RRSP's in the past few years, might be able to raise this a bit this year as I just got a 10% raise.

My job pays quite well for my field and location, and I don't see much of a way to significantly increase that income without moving to a super high stress managerial position in consulting, which I am not even sure I could land if I wanted to.

So running the numbers using the 4% rule on 67K annual spending it looks I will need 1.6 million to retire.  My calcs show that 400K compounding at 7% annually with $18,000 annual contributions (what I am able to do currently) will take 15 more years to reach 1.6 million.

 I feel like despite following the rules (frugal car, constant investing of 15-20% annually, no dumb debt, relatively normal spending), I am looking at a 28 year long career before FIRE, which might be just fine, but it seems like a long time. I also realize how grateful I should be to have a clear path to retirement at age 53, no stupid debt, etc. Its really not bad in the grand scheme of things, and I am truly blessed in life, but when I was in my 20's I thought if I hit things hard and consistently invested I should be done in my mid or early 40's.

To be frank I am slightly tired from working consistently hard without stopping for 13 years straight, and 15 years more of it seems like a long time to go, and hope I could cut that down to 5-10 more years.

Any advice for me or ideas to get me across the finish line earlier? The one peice of advice I'd give myself is to keep cutting expenses and budgeting, but I dont live an incredibly lavish life and its been hard to continue to cut expenses in the HCOL area I am in, especially when large ticket household items like appliances pop up. I've always struggled with cashflow outside of what I am able to put into my investment accounts each year.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day!

Well your numbers seem about right. It's roughly a 25yr accumulation timeframe if you can save 33%, or a 33yr accumulation if you can save 25% (I like how those 2 invert).

Your saving rate is not as high as you might think - many on these forums have a saving rate in the 40-65% range.

But you are unlikely to need as much money in retirement as you spend day to day, plus there is social security to factor in, and lastly you don't necessarily need to get to a 25x pot if you are prepared to be flexible and accept a little bit of extra risk (you will probably still be OK wit ha 5% WR, and even if you are not you can always just go back and work another year), so you could quite easily get 15yr runway down to 10, I'd say.

That said, you'd be surprised at how quickly 10-15yrs can pass.. I remember very well what I was doing in 2009 and it really doesn't seem that long ago.

[aloevera1]

Agree with other posters that if you want to shorten your runway you need to start saving more.

Maybe you could post a case study to see where you can find those additional savings? There are plenty of Canadians here who can comment on the relative level of expenses.

67k spending actually seems high to me for a person not supporting a whole family. I used to spend 30k to 40k in a similar situation in a much higher cost location. And I was not extremely frugal either.

I would personally probably not skip on the whole year of mortgage payments. If you renew at the higher rate, your principal payments will go down. How big of a mortgage do you want to carry at the higher rate?