Happy New Year everyone! After all our planning, hoping, dreaming, and talking -- 2019 is here.
Waiting to hear from @Bingeworker. We may have our first FIRE-ee of the year already?
Thanks everyone for the welcome! Yes, I am FIREd. Today was my first day of not working for a living any more.
My story in a nutshell: I never really planned on FI, as I was someone who realized within 3 years of finishing university that full-time work was not for me. I took two stabs at being a normal person with a full-time job within that span. One lasted 4.5 months, the other lasted 3 months. I'd had part-time jobs in there too, and realized that I was not a big spender, and my middle-class income level (I am a nurse) was enough to support my modest lifestyle.
Back then (1989), working minimalist like I did was not really a thing, and many warned me against it, saying that those were my most important earning years, and that I would get behind and never catch up. While I am not a math person, I am pretty good with big-picture financial estimations, and I knew I was on the right track, despite swimming completely against the flow. I also just LOATHED working full-time and not having my freedom, and I was very frugal naturally, and was unwilling to trade my life for money. My brother actually was planning to retire early though, and I read a book that he had read, Charles Long's "How to Survive Without a Salary", 1992, which gave me the reassurance that part-time work by design might be unconventional, but would work just fine.
What I didn't expect, is that I would gradually reach FI anyway. I had just assumed I would work part-time forever as that would be the trade-off for not being a conventional full-time employee. I'm not sure when exactly I became FI, but I noticed it last year, when I was concerned my 40% part-time job was going to end, and I examined my finances to see how much less I could work if I had to look for a new job. I did the math and was surprised to find that the answer was that I really did not have to work at all. That's when I came back to this forum and read some threads and looked at the links to the various FI calculators, and added up what I would get for CPP and OAS (I am Canadian), and no matter what scenario I fed it, I was getting 100% success rates if I quit immediately.
Well, this of course increased my job dissatisfaction, and I eventually resigned from my part-time gig, effective end of November. However, during my one-month's notice, a 10% part-time job in a different unit of the same department of my employer was posted. I applied, not expecting to get it as I really did only want to work the 10% and they usually want someone desperate for work who will pick up extra work, but I did get it. This led to a very weird retirement transition scenario, where 3 days after my old job ended, I had to immediately start full-time at the new one for a month, to get oriented to the new position.
So that ended yesterday, and now I am free! I will work one day every two weeks, which keeps my husband from getting nervous, and me too actually, as we are pathologically cautious and responsible with money. It's not for the actual money, I don't need it and I know it, it's rather a way to preserve my ability to earn an income, as a hedge against any future rampant inflation events. I know it's unlikely to occur, but in these early years of retirement at least, it puts the last duck in a row for total security, or as close as anyone can ever get.
Even though I have been part-time all my working life, it still feels AMAZING to be free. Even 40% was just eating up so much of my time! Work consumes mental energy and seeps into free time. My tiny remaining gig should not do so too much, it's a "show up once every 14 days, work 8-12 hours, and go away again" type of job, the one I had before that was a little more involved.
I am really looking forward to watching the rest of you meet your 2019 exit dates! Whoohoo! Let the freedom begin!!!