Long-time lurker here. I created an account just to post this as I can't talk about it with too many people.
The Good
I tallied the numbers today and I came up with $598.5k in our stash. With the saving at the end of the month, which are basically automatic, it will be $600k.
We also own a house worth ~$480-500k. We owe about $100k so there is $380-400k home equity. I am calculating that it is possible that we could sell our house, pay the realtor/lawyer fees, buy a modest townhouse in a different area of the country with our remaining equity and pocket about $150k. I don't feel that I am making a large sacrifice either, I am pretty confident I could find an area I love and buy a townhouse for the $200k range.
Put the two numbers together and I'm at $750k. So at 4%WDR, that is $30k per year. I think that for the two of us, this would be just the bare minimum to FIRE. So I think I am at a very basic, starter level of FI. For me this is huge.
The Reality
We have 1 child, 3 years old. This complicates things A LOT. We are not prepared to live off of the $30k at this age in our lives and actually retire. I know it is possible but not something that is worth it given a bunch of things. How young we are, that we don't hate our jobs, that we want to be near family while ours is little, college, and frankly that stuff can happen, hard to know what expenses will be with a kid.
So we are at this minimum level for ourselves right now, but we can't actually take advantage of it. I still find it very comforting to know that all we really *NEED* to do is cover our expenses until our kid grows up. It is very likely that even if we didn't save the stash would be 10-30% larger (or double), so I think we should have considerably more than a basic stash when the time comes.
The Plan
I think I will just continue to work full time until the stash is at $1M. Not because it is a round number but because the number just works well. At that level when we choose to retire we would be quite comfortable on a 4% WDR and could pull back to $30k indefinitely if needed. We also have government benefits at some point as a buffer/safety net. For me that is good enough.
Once/if I get to that magical round number, due to kid expenses/more expensive house I think we will continue to work but will cut back in order to just cover the bills and put away for college. I think that would mean both of us working half-time.
When ours hits 18, or maybe 1-2 years earlier we would fully retire.
So many, many variables between now and then but it feels good to have a plan at least. I will keep posted how it goes.