Early FI Focus to Coasting

[Kem]

Early FI Focus to Coasting

38-year-old father of a few here.  Last year I voluntarily left an insanely high stress job and took nearly 4 months off:  to spend more time playing with the kids, pulling barbells, going on long walks, and increase reading consumption.

Originally, I planned to FI within 5 more years, however the mini-retirement made me realize that a low stress job solving unique problems is a darned good fit.  I’ve since returned to an industry working a fraction of the hours I once did and only taking on enjoyable projects where my thought process adds insane levels of value.

The ~6 years prior I evolved from a heavily indebted typical US consumer with oodles carried on credit cards, insane student loans, mega revolving car loans, and way too much house loan… to a financially optimized lifestyle – only purchasing and keeping items that bring true value to our life.

Now I’m coasting.  Assuming VTI market returns of 3% below average I’ll hit full FI (using 4% SWR) by 65.  This ignores social security (should it survive).  With average market returns full FI will be reached in my mid 50s.  Without investing another outside penny! 

Monies earned above cost of living will only accelerate this – but they are no longer the focus.  Helping to craft unique business, setting my (and others’) children up on the FI path, rolling into some REI, and generally enjoying the path are.

Salud

[Assetup]

Good for you Kem!  Hopefully it'll be 12 years or less for you to be FI

Sent from my moto g(6) plus using Tapatalk

[Kem]

Cheers Assetup.   

Learning to live efficiently – that was hard. 
Moving from badly broke to broke even - that was hard.
The first 100K invested – that was hard. 
Taking full accountability for my own path and viewpoints – that too was hard.

Not needing to invest another penny and know that retirement is sorted – what mental freedom!

12K/year invested puts us at 12 years to FI (age 50).  This is easily hit when expenses are low.  Really, with an approach of earning income where I only add value to problems where my time is most efficiently applied and my skills most efficiently leveraged --- the time to FI will likely be far less.

[Life in Balance]

Kudos to you for doing the hard work (the prior 6 years) and now recognizing that you've won the game and stepping back from what seems like a high-stress job.

[rockstache]

Great post and really timely for me. It sounds like our situations are very closely aligned.

My husband and I are around the same age as you with one small child. We have recently been recognizing that we will be FI in 14 years without adding another dollar. At this point, time with the baby plus the desire to keep her home from daycare during Covid is starting to push us into coast FI. We don’t know yet how it’s going to look but we’re hoping to leverage one of our jobs into part time or maybe both. Relatively low expenses and a good investing head start make it possible and it’s so freeing to know that we have options.

Congratulations on setting yourself up to make the choices you have!

[LWYRUP]

Sounds like me.  We pushed hard younger and built up a great base.  Since then I escaped a high stress job and my wife is currently SAHM.  We'll be FIRE sometime in the next 5-10 years depending on savings and market conditions and I'm not that hot and bothered by exactly when as long as we're happy with the process and making reasonable forward progress.

Honestly if we hit FIRE early I'll probably just save a bit more anyways for kids weddings, nice family vacations, etc.  Then retire after I've run out of things I care to save for.

We are still saving but we are fine with like 35% and not obsessed with cracking 50%+.  It's hard to keep 50%+ up with kids because the jobs that pay a lot also take a lot of time and stress and so costs rise. 

If you are happy with the process and progress this sounds good to me!

[Kem]

Congrats as well Rockstache & LWYRUP
Thank you kindly Life In Balance

No desire to RE, but the work activity and focus has certainly skewed.

[Simpli-Fi]

I've recently downshifted from Loads of international travel to a normal 40 hour per week gig.  It feels great so far and it's much lower stress.

You have a neat way to look at reaching FI, I need to run the math and determine if I should coast sooner than I planned.

[Metalcat]

It's very true that the hardest part is being accountable to yourself for what you want your life to look like.

Also, yeah, this whole thing is like being on "easy mode" when you are the kind of person who really thrives on doing some degree of work. When time can do the bulk of the heavy lifting for you in terms of accumulation, the amount you actually need to save is so small.

[Gin1984]

We are close to coasting as well.  Basically if we get our match we will be FI by 58. Neither my husband or I can give up free money so we'll be doing so.  And 58 is with the fact that my husband's employer cut his match for this year. 

[Kem]

this whole thing is like being on "easy mode" when you are the kind of person who really thrives on doing some degree of work.
When time can do the bulk of the heavy lifting for you in terms of accumulation, the amount you actually need to save is so small.

Exactly so!

Once you've leaned heavily on all the FI levers for a bit, why keep leaning on all of them hard if you still plan on doing some kind of work along the path.  Time does so much of the work after a tipping point is reached.   

Perhaps ironically, cutting back on the pace has actually has led to (lower-stress) earning opportunities popping up that will very likely result in achieving FI sooner than having stuck to the old grind.

[Metalcat]

this whole thing is like being on "easy mode" when you are the kind of person who really thrives on doing some degree of work.
When time can do the bulk of the heavy lifting for you in terms of accumulation, the amount you actually need to save is so small.

Exactly so!

Once you've leaned heavily on all the FI levers for a bit, why keep leaning on all of them hard if you still plan on doing some kind of work along the path.  Time does so much of the work after a tipping point is reached.   

Perhaps ironically, cutting back on the pace has actually has led to (lower-stress) earning opportunities popping up that will very likely result in achieving FI sooner than having stuck to the old grind.

Same here. Taking my foot off the FIRE gas freed me up to do a much higher caliber of work. I worked part time for a few years, and then through that, through being much more available and having more energy, I generated countless more profitable opportunities than I could have sticking with the grind until the end.

I totally get the folks who really want to be 100% free of work, but for someone who isn't, bailing on grinding sooner rather than later can be a MUCH better plan than working to full FI and *then* deciding what to work on.

[Kem]

Always the sage @Malcat
It's a lovelier path to travel when able to enjoy the scenery along the way

[FLBiker]

Thanks for sharing and can totally relate.  About two years ago, we were 5-6 years from FIRE and realized that another way of looking at it was that we could basically just break even for a while and let our investments grow accordingly.  That freed us up (mentally) to make a big move (Florida to Nova Scotia) even though the earning / savings might be lower.  Getting Canadian permanent residency was a long, complicated process, and moving was further complicated by COVID-19, but we bought a house and moved last month.  Without the peace of mind we had from realizing that we'd already done much of the heavy lifting (in terms of saving for retirement) I don't think we would have been comfortable doing this, particularly with all the additional uncertainty that coronavirus brings (particularly in my field - international education).

We're in a small town about an hour outside of Halifax, and we absolutely love it!

[Metalcat]

Thanks for sharing and can totally relate.  About two years ago, we were 5-6 years from FIRE and realized that another way of looking at it was that we could basically just break even for a while and let our investments grow accordingly.  That freed us up (mentally) to make a big move (Florida to Nova Scotia) even though the earning / savings might be lower.  Getting Canadian permanent residency was a long, complicated process, and moving was further complicated by COVID-19, but we bought a house and moved last month.  Without the peace of mind we had from realizing that we'd already done much of the heavy lifting (in terms of saving for retirement) I don't think we would have been comfortable doing this, particularly with all the additional uncertainty that coronavirus brings (particularly in my field - international education).

We're in a small town about an hour outside of Halifax, and we absolutely love it!

Niiiice choice of area. Halifax region is somewhere I've often thought I would like to move to later in life.

[Padonak]

Can someone give me specific examples of career paths where you can "coast"? Coast as in either work part time, do short term or seasonal work, or maybe work remotely full time but spend only 1-2 hours a day doing actual work? Office work, not trades or customer service, definitely not working with the general public.

[Metalcat]

Can someone give me specific examples of career paths where you can "coast"? Coast as in either work part time, do short term or seasonal work, or maybe work remotely full time but spend only 1-2 hours a day doing actual work? Office work, not trades or customer service, definitely not working with the general public.

A lot of us do consulting, run a small business of some sort, have a trade that can be done part time, do temp work in a industry where people need to be covered, work on specific projects that have a beginning and an end, or do seasonal work.

As for specifics, that really depends on your industry and your skill set. At one point I had multiple side hustles and a day job, all of which were part time. It's not hard to find the opportunities, just look for the kind of work that would be valuable, but where it doesn't make sense to create a full time, salaried position for it.

[Kem]

Thanks for sharing and can totally relate.  About two years ago, we were 5-6 years from FIRE and realized that another way of looking at it was that we could basically just break even for a while and let our investments grow accordingly.  That freed us up (mentally)

Most excellent!

Can someone give me specific examples of career paths where you can "coast"?

Since backing out of the insanity that my old career had evolved into to, I've been approached by multiple firms/folks despite not putting myself out.

 I'm now working about 2/3 the daily hours, with zero of the old career's selling pressures, zero politics, oodles of earmarked no-contact vacation, whatever personal time is needed, from home (onto a secure remote machine) , no expectations of travel, in a high ethics and high moral environment.  Contracted minimum rate and minimum distribution. 

Mostly I'm creating auditing datasets and auditing reports to pick apart regulations & ensure the programs are problem free (to the highest statistical degree) .  This combines methodical OCD data viewpoints, programing (mostly python and sql these days), and (to keep folks happy), excel. 

I also act as a sounding board for opinions on mathematics efficiency of suggested algos.

In addition, I'm proofing documentation for technical accuracy.   

Outside of this a number of firms have offered me very lucrative gigs, however it would be back to high hours and high stress.

Painting I can pick back up anytime, and this too will pay all the bills - but at the cost of minimal mental use and a full work week.   

(pecking on phone, probably some typos)