I think that we hit FI when I wasn't looking...

[bluecollarmusician]

Because of the nature of my job, I am committed for the next 1.5 years, and because I love it, not sure if I would consider leaving or not... but just realized we probably have hit FI when I wasn't looking.  It is an exciting prospect, and wanted to share it with like minded folks- also, feel free to point any flaws in my math-.


Currently 36-
Assets:  Home: 250k
        flip (AFV): 75k  (currently finishing it up)
place in Mexico: 125k
              rental: 65k
    Note at 10%: 48k
Etrade/LendingCl: $250k


Debt: :) nada
Total assets come in around 800k
I should add, that while we love our home, we have only been in it a year- had to move for my job.

Our total spending for a year is anywhere between 24-30k.  It is a little hard to judge, as many of our large expenses create net value.  We spent about 36k last year, but a large sum of that was capital improvements on our last home which we sold for twice what we paid for it.  I think that we could live very comfortably on 27k a year.

So this is pretty exciting.  The only problem is figuring out how to best cash flow our assets if we did want to ER.  The simple thing would be to rent our current house and go to Mexico- costs of maintaining that place are super cheap- but not sure if that is the long term plan.  Anyway- was just excited to discover this and realize we are sort of "there"  now just have to figure what we really want to do next!

Also very proud that this has been the result of long term responsibility.  No giant pay checks or bonus... I bought the first condo when I was 22, and have never earned more than about 40k per year- but with smart decisions, and a little luck we live very comfortable and with no debt!!  :)

[matchewed]

Unless your houses are generating income for you I'd be cautious about pulling the FIRE trigger. The value of the house itself makes you exactly $0 unless you are renting them out or have realized a sale. But congratulations on the hard work you've put in to make it this far.

[AJ]

Unless your houses are generating income for you I'd be cautious about pulling the FIRE trigger. The value of the house itself makes you exactly $0 unless you are renting them out or have realized a sale. But congratulations on the hard work you've put in to make it this far.

Yeah, but if he moves to the house in Mexico like he's contemplating then counting the home makes sense. He can either rent it out or sell it and move the proceeds elsewhere.

Meoates - I'm interested to hear how you decide to structure everything for FIRE cash flow. Will you update us when you decide? Oh, and congrats! :)

[bluecollarmusician]

Unless your houses are generating income for you I'd be cautious about pulling the FIRE trigger. The value of the house itself makes you exactly $0 unless you are renting them out or have realized a sale. But congratulations on the hard work you've put in to make it this far.

I agree with you here- unless we rent/sell our primary we are not there yet.  And we really love the house- but are only tied to this area because of my job.  I guess it just dawned on me that if we rented it now, we would have 2000 or so a month in rental income alone- not counting money from any of our other assets (which would be earning 15-20k a year)  In Mexico, our cost of living would easily stay under 1500/month because our cost of housing would only be about 300/month- that is the cost of taxes/hoa/cable/bills, etc.  1200/month would leave ample for health insurance for us, as well as some play money, etc.

If we want to stay in the house here, I think we def need a few more years saving/accumulating.  However... this is an exciting time.


AJ- not sure exactly about how to structure cash flow.  I will update as we go, but I have always had in mind to use the income approach as opposed to the SWD approach (I think I just saw a post talking about this.)  I have for a long time wanted to structure a 3 legged approach- 33/33/33  with money coming from traditional investment vehicles (like stocks and bonds)/rental property/ and nontraditional stuff (like lending club/personal loans, etc.

At the moment, I am not doing the best job in turning our investments into cash each month, but we are doing ok :)

Now if only we could tame our wine/beer budget  ;)