Author Topic: 2020 FIRE Cohort  (Read 539934 times)

Linea_Norway

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #400 on: February 26, 2018, 03:15:11 AM »
I have a feeling my FIRE plan is about to be accelerated!

Mrs. FL and I send our son (18 m.o.) to an in-home daycare in our neighborhood two or three days a week and trade off working from home on the other days. We just found out that the woman who runs the daycare is planning to retire and close the business in June.

We could look for another daycare, but this one was very affordable and super convenient. We're not likely to find another place that's such a good deal. Plus we both feel kind of bad about forcing our son to bond with a new caregiver.

We're not at the FIRE level yet, but we're definitely at the FU level. We're seriously considering whether, instead of looking for a new daycare, one or both of us should just go part-time and take care of him ourselves. It would lower our savings rate, but it wouldn't be a financial hardship.

And maybe you could combine this with looking after some other children as well (start you own in-house daycare)?

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #401 on: February 26, 2018, 07:28:35 PM »
Looks like the market gave us some of those gains back =)

I'm kinda bummed it happened so quickly. My company is raising our ability to contribute beyond 20% into 401k, therefor come June, I will be able to max it out 4 months into the year! Instead of barely at all. I will be dumping $14k in from June-August.

Lews Therin

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #402 on: February 26, 2018, 07:36:54 PM »
I'm okay with it, I already deployed all cash. Literally at 2000$ until next paycheck:D

FireLane

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #403 on: February 28, 2018, 08:00:38 AM »
I have a feeling my FIRE plan is about to be accelerated!

Mrs. FL and I send our son (18 m.o.) to an in-home daycare in our neighborhood two or three days a week and trade off working from home on the other days. We just found out that the woman who runs the daycare is planning to retire and close the business in June.

We could look for another daycare, but this one was very affordable and super convenient. We're not likely to find another place that's such a good deal. Plus we both feel kind of bad about forcing our son to bond with a new caregiver.

We're not at the FIRE level yet, but we're definitely at the FU level. We're seriously considering whether, instead of looking for a new daycare, one or both of us should just go part-time and take care of him ourselves. It would lower our savings rate, but it wouldn't be a financial hardship.

And maybe you could combine this with looking after some other children as well (start you own in-house daycare)?

Nothing but respect for the people who do that kind of work, but I don't think it's for me. I love my son to pieces, but I'm exhausted after a long day of chasing him around. I can't imagine putting in that much work to take care of someone else's kids too! I want to relax when I'm FIRE. :)

Rubyvroom

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #404 on: March 01, 2018, 07:51:01 AM »
Well that was a sad month for market gains but we're still net positive for the year at least. We've somehow managed to crank out nearly 75% savings rate both months, so that certainly helps to stand our ground when the market stumbles.

We didn't change course at all either. The only "market timing" decision we made was to take some excess cash we had on the side in our HSA and invest it. I had been thinking about doing that for a while but never pulled the trigger. The dip seemed like a good time to do it, not that I was able to call the bottom accurately... ha. Other than that, our investments have stayed within the 90/10 tolerance level we have in our IPS so we didn't even re-balance.

Hoping you all stayed strong through the month even with the volatility! It's a good test of what we can stomach, as we haven't had a down month in our portfolio since 2016, and the market swings back then on a smaller portfolio were kind of cute in comparison.

In other news, we have our eye on some land we really like. I may waste most of my work day spreadsheeting to arrive at the "land = X months of extra work" calculation so we can determine if its worth it. We've been hit pretty hard with spring fever, especially as we watch the housing market here heat up. Maybe we should just sit on our hands until April or so... stay strong 2020!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #405 on: March 01, 2018, 02:10:52 PM »
Ooof, looks like March is off to a rough start.

We pretty much broke even at the end of February, it was a higher than usual earning month for me, we invested about $10k and most of that was wiped out.

My hopes of switching to 2019 are not getting too high haha. 

Lews Therin

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #406 on: March 01, 2018, 02:27:02 PM »
Aha! Time to put most of my paycheck back in. Whoo for dips!

(I'm pretty close to even with at 90% SR for this month (I'm on a course, so all expenses covered))

Market gains have kept my NW close to even, but after a while this will be quite helpful. 2 Years is a long time away

Linea_Norway

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #407 on: March 02, 2018, 12:47:10 AM »
Hopefully sometime soon we will find out whether we can get a pot of money from the previous owner of our house, because he misinformed us about things that caused humidity in a cellar. We are running a case on it. We need this thing improved to make our house more attractive for sale, as we need to downsize to FIRE.

As I have written in a separate thread, my DH is reconsidering his job. He his postponing his decision until after the easter holiday. He he 2 options after that, that might pay reasonably well, but not as much as his current job. One option is to start for himself as a consultant, which he can continue as a side-hustle after FIRE. 

FIREby2021

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #408 on: March 02, 2018, 10:25:28 AM »
Feb-2018 highlights:

- Mostly unpacked and settled into our new rent-house; we downsized by ~1000 sq-ft (!!) so it's been a good opportunity to purge.  I'm thankful that we set up our garage to accommodate both cars, space for a gym, and a mini-shop/workbench.  We also installed a modest garden out in the side yard ... spring has sprung, with herbs, tomatoes, kale & greens all sprouting.  The property also has a fig & meyer lemon tree + two rose bushes that I pruned.  Pretty fun stuff, despite now being in a "less hipster" location, we are making it into a home for the next ~2 years or so :)

- Stress testing the portfolio!! We knew the constant market party-boat wouldn't last forever.  Energy holdings have been hit particularly hard (again).  Such is the game we play.  Thankful we sold our HCOL home when we did ... we have not yet deployed the cash proceeds now in hand, as we are evaluating how best to deploy in the coming month(s).

- WE HAVE RENTERS!!  The future "dream, M(L)COL home we purchased last quarter now is rented!  Above and beyond expectations, they signed up for an 18-month lease (paid in full), which we will deploy directly into the mortgage principle.  Awesome!

- Our countdown needs revamped.  Stretch goal would have been @ 14 months, but we now have at least 18 months due to the renters term.  No worries, as this was beginning to feel more and more unrealistic.  Going forward, I will only be tracking the more realistic countdown goal target which is now @ 25 months (Apr-2020)

EOY 2015: 56.2%
EOY 2016: 70.6%
EOY 2017: 78.6%

JAN 2018:  78.8%
FEB 2018:  77.3%

FIREby2021

Lance Hiruma

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #409 on: March 02, 2018, 10:42:21 AM »
Market up market down, numbers are not pretty recently but we still on target for 2020.

AO1FireTo

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #410 on: March 02, 2018, 02:17:56 PM »
Aha! Time to put most of my paycheck back in. Whoo for dips!

(I'm pretty close to even with at 90% SR for this month (I'm on a course, so all expenses covered))

Market gains have kept my NW close to even, but after a while this will be quite helpful. 2 Years is a long time away

Wow 90% SR that's amazing.  What is your average?  I assume house is paid for etc...  Be interested to see how you got it so low.

Lews Therin

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #411 on: March 02, 2018, 03:07:51 PM »
My house is in the 200k range, (2% mortgage, got really lucky and got a fixed at the lowest moment possible)
I have a single roommate

I'm usually around 70%.

Groceries is less than 100$ a month.

My hobbies are pretty cheap, so I could easily survive on 20k. (Right now I'm above that since I bought a new car, and it's worth exactly as much as I owe, and the same price as an older car, so no point in selling it)

I also make a pretty good income as an officer in the Canadian Forces.

Loren Ver

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #412 on: March 03, 2018, 12:11:20 PM »
Anyone scheming of ways to slide into the 2019 cohort? *raises hand*

What? Nooooo.... I mean, ok yeah definitely. I have spent a rather ridiculous amount of time lately watching home listings, with the naive hope that I'll find a nice-ish home with a lower mortgage that we can downgrade into, thus reducing our stash requirement and accelerating our timing. Now, have I done anything to get our current home ready to sell? Definitely not. But watching home listings sure is a fun way to pass the time...

More for DH than for me.  He would really like to be done sooner.  I would really like someone to upkeep the house.  Maybe we will make a deal :).

Maenad

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #413 on: March 14, 2018, 07:35:39 PM »
Had a bit of a freakout moment today, and only the FIRE community will understand. :-)  I've been meaning to re-run FIRECalc and cFIREsim with our numbers, just to make sure, and realized that DH had misheard me when I originally gave him the goal total - he overestimated by $160,000. It's enough of a difference to bring in our date significantly - it's still in 2020, but has moved up by months, and I just had one of those "this is really going to happen" hyperventilating moments. We've been planning it for 20 years, so to have the goal so close is scary/exhilarating.

Linea_Norway

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #414 on: March 15, 2018, 02:02:14 AM »
Hopefully sometime soon we will find out whether we can get a pot of money from the previous owner of our house, because he misinformed us about things that caused humidity in a cellar. We are running a case on it. We need this thing improved to make our house more attractive for sale, as we need to downsize to FIRE.

As I have written in a separate thread, my DH is reconsidering his job. He his postponing his decision until after the easter holiday. He he 2 options after that, that might pay reasonably well, but not as much as his current job. One option is to start for himself as a consultant, which he can continue as a side-hustle after FIRE.

We have agreed (legal agreement signed by both parties) on getting a pot of money from the previous owner. He still has some days left to put it on my bank account. It will not cover the whole sum, but something like 75% of the cost to have someone else improve the issue. We can choose to do more ourselves.

DH still has his job, but is getting more explicit on improving it. He hopes that his job will either become more interesting or that they will make him leave with a nice package.

My investments haven't grown since December. I have bought quite a pile of stock, but with the market dip and low Norwegian crown course, my stash is now about the same amount as it was in December. Not so motivating to not be able to update my pension sheet with a higher sum.

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #415 on: March 16, 2018, 04:22:44 AM »
@Maenad Congrats! Way to stick with it!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #416 on: March 17, 2018, 12:10:55 PM »
Has anyone here test driven their anticipated FIRE budget yet?

It's something I am going to try to work my way into over the coming 6-12 months.

Here is my progress since December 2014.

$ Available annually using 4% WR vs. 12 month spending as a rolling average.


Lews Therin

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #417 on: March 17, 2018, 01:46:43 PM »
I don't get the graph.

But I ''test'' out my budget every year. It's my budget. (I plan to spend the same amount, it'll just move to different areas when FIREd)

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #418 on: March 17, 2018, 07:25:27 PM »
I don't get the graph.

But I ''test'' out my budget every year. It's my budget. (I plan to spend the same amount, it'll just move to different areas when FIREd)

I was rushing this morning when I first created it and didn't label it properly.

Blue Line = Average annual spending (using a rolling 12 month average)
Red Line = Current Annual Budget assuming 4% of portfolio draw down

Linea_Norway

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #419 on: March 18, 2018, 06:01:15 AM »
Has anyone here test driven their anticipated FIRE budget yet?

It's something I am going to try to work my way into over the coming 6-12 months.

Here is my progress since December 2014.

$ Available annually using 4% WR vs. 12 month spending as a rolling average.

In 2017 we spent on 55% of our FIRE budget. I could move FIRE foreward a bit lowering the budget. But I think our current spending is extremely low, having a year with no investments in the house and having no repairs on a 7 year and 16 year old car. But I least I now know that our FIRE budget is enough.

The other thing is that we this morning had a look at what it costs to hire a house out in the country, in outdoorsy places, with a good view and not too far in the middle of nowhere. That was surprisingly low.

We were planning to downsize to a house costing 50% of our current house. But it looks like we can either rent for cheaper than that, or buy a house in such a region for even cheaper. This would give us even more money to invest, which would give a better passive income.

The plan is now to rent houses in such places until we find a place we would live to buy a house for the next many years. They say that in Norway buying a house normally pays off after 5-7 years, compared to renting a place.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2018, 09:58:31 AM by Linda_Norway »

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #420 on: March 27, 2018, 01:08:59 PM »
I'm going to cautiously move into the 2019 cohort.

The FI projection chart shows my blue and red line crossing in October of 2019, so I'll aim for November 1st.

This is all subject to change based on markets/income/job security, so I might be back here before the year is up lol.

Lews Therin

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #421 on: March 27, 2018, 02:23:08 PM »
Impressive with the loss of your S/O's income!

I keep hoping for a deployment; it's the only way I can push my date earlier with my high SR.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #422 on: March 27, 2018, 03:08:53 PM »
Impressive with the loss of your S/O's income!

I keep hoping for a deployment; it's the only way I can push my date earlier with my high SR.

This plan excludes her 0_o

We won't be tying the knot till 2020 most likely.

Lance Hiruma

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #423 on: March 31, 2018, 09:27:13 AM »

We won't be tying the knot till 2020 most likely.

Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter?

asauer

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #424 on: April 02, 2018, 06:16:15 AM »
Dang it.  I tried not to look, but I did.

April 1: 522,955k down from
March 1: 598,288k

Ugghhhh!!!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #425 on: April 02, 2018, 07:58:12 AM »

We won't be tying the knot till 2020 most likely.

Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter?

No idea! We are focused on FI/Sabbatical goal more than the wedding date at this point :)

FIREby2021

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #426 on: April 02, 2018, 11:11:52 AM »
March-2018 highlights:

- For the first time, the new rental house we moved into (after selling our YUGE HCOL home) is feeling more like "home".  Really starting to enjoy the space, and hosting friends over for dinner, etc.  Biking & walking through the surrounding neighborhoods has been nice, not as trendy as where we were before, but fine!  My commute has decreased by 5-10min, however wife's is 5-10min longer.  Current rent vs. prior cost of HCOL home ownership is saving us nearly $2k monthly (!!), and our "timing" of the housing market in general appears fortunate (ha).

- Stress testing the portfolio continues!!  We started to drip a small portion of HCOL home sale cash proceeds into Mr Market, and plan on a DCA approach over the coming months.  We will use a chunk of the proceeds to pay off the temporary mortgage taken out on our M(L)COL future dream location home.  The long term renters who moved into our future home last month seem to be pretty decent so far.

- Countdown goal / target is now @ 24 months (Apr-2020) ... two years!!!????!!!

EOY 2015: 56.2%
EOY 2016: 70.6%
EOY 2017: 78.6%

JAN 2018:  78.8%
FEB 2018:  77.3%
MAR 2018: 77.6%

FIREby2021

Linea_Norway

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #427 on: April 03, 2018, 01:33:15 AM »
Even though the return of my index funds is at an all time low, the total amount of what it is worth has actually risen since December. At December I had 750K NOK (Norwegian crowns) in my personal index fund. I have since pumped in a LOT of money, but still didn't see it grow at all. Today I noticed it has actually grown to almost 800K NOK. I probably put in twice the difference, but at least we are making a bit of progress towards or FIRE amount.

For the record, my DH also has his own funds, in addition to some cash and the rest is in our house. Our 2020 FIRE amount is 6,5 mil NOK in free assets, in addition to a paid off house that costs half of what we own now. We only need an additional 750K, which is about what we managed to save in 2017. But this is now the first time in 2018 that I notice I have managed to increase my savings instead of only pouring more money into the black hole that is my portfolio.

Maenad

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #428 on: April 03, 2018, 05:06:50 AM »
We did our end-of-month financial summit over the weekend.

DH: Well, our total went up $4000 in March.
Me: How much did we put in?
DH: $35,000.

D'oh.

C'est la vie. C'est le marché boursier.

Rubyvroom

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #429 on: April 03, 2018, 07:43:13 AM »
Dec 2016 - 25.0% (53% YTD savings rate)
Jan 2017 - 26.2% (56% savings rate)
Feb 2017 - 27.7% (60% savings rate)
Mar 2017 - 29.1% (77% savings rate)
65.4% Q1 Savings Rate
Apr 2017 - 30.7% (71% savings rate)
May 2017 - 31.8% (59% savings rate)
Jun 2017 - 33.0% (55% savings rate)
63.0% Q2 Savings Rate
Jul 2017 - 34.4% (60% savings rate)
Aug 2017 - 35.5% (61% savings rate)
Sep 2017 - 37.0% (60% savings rate)
60.6% Q3 Savings Rate
Oct 2017 - 38.6% (71% savings rate)
Nov 2017 - 40.5% (69% savings rate)
Dec 2017 - 41.6% (62% savings rate)
67.2% Q4 Savings Rate
63.8% 2017 YTD Savings Rate

Jan 2018 - 44.7% (75% savings rate)
Feb 2018 - 44.3% (74% savings rate)
Mar 2018 - 44.7% (70% savings rate)
72.9% Q1 Savings Rate

Yeah it's been a pretty underwhelming quarter, but this type of volatility is what we've all hopefully prepared ourselves mentally to weather, so I'm trying not to get too up in arms about it.

Also, this savings rate is not sustainable. I have removed our additional fed/state tax payments for the first six months to more effectively front-load our 401ks. It just didn't feel right to be giving the government additional tax payments at a time when no one knew wtf had just happened with taxes. Once I'm able to get a good handle on what our liability will be for the year, I'll settle us up in the second half, so our savings rate will definitely come down as a result.

One last note for this group... keep an eye on banking products in this rising interest rate environment. We ended up liquidating the part of our E-fund that was in a CD ladder and moved it to a savings account with a different bank that was earning TRIPLE what we earned on the CDs... Some banks are keeping their products marketable with current interest rates while others are pretending nothing has happened to rates. We had gotten lazy thinking we had everything on auto-pilot, but it seems we were able to eek out a higher rate of return with minimal effort. Just food for thought!

Lews Therin

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #430 on: April 24, 2018, 12:51:45 PM »
Sorry guys, I`m out!

Moving up to FIRE 2019 :D

(Canada put out a education training benefit for military members who have served for more than 12 years, so it will cover over 1/2 my FIRE expenses for 4 years. That`s easily enough to cut another year from my FIRE date) So 12 years means I'm out Aug 2019! Cheers!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #431 on: April 24, 2018, 06:30:02 PM »
Sorry guys, I`m out!

Moving up to FIRE 2019 :D

(Canada put out a education training benefit for military members who have served for more than 12 years, so it will cover over 1/2 my FIRE expenses for 4 years. That`s easily enough to cut another year from my FIRE date) So 12 years means I'm out Aug 2019! Cheers!

Congrats and welcome to the 2019 thread =)

I'm now targeting Sept 15th (the paycheck which will max out my 12% tax bracket for 2019).

Lance Hiruma

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #432 on: April 25, 2018, 09:52:33 PM »
Sorry guys, I`m out!

Moving up to FIRE 2019 :D

(Canada put out a education training benefit for military members who have served for more than 12 years, so it will cover over 1/2 my FIRE expenses for 4 years. That`s easily enough to cut another year from my FIRE date) So 12 years means I'm out Aug 2019! Cheers!
Congrats. You are always welcome back here :)

Lews Therin

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #433 on: April 26, 2018, 06:02:58 AM »

Congrats. You are always welcome back here :)
[/quote]

Why would you say that? That's so mean!

Lance Hiruma

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #434 on: April 26, 2018, 10:23:39 AM »

Congrats. You are always welcome back here :)

Why would you say that? That's so mean!
[/quote]
That was not my intention at all, sorry that if that came across that way. Maybe you want to save more to do more international travel, maybe helping out a nephew, etc? I enjoy your posts here and maybe I should have appended " to post" to my last sentence.

Lews Therin

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #435 on: April 26, 2018, 10:36:52 AM »
It was a joke!

(Though quite serious that I really don't want the OMY syndrome.)

FIREby2021

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #436 on: May 01, 2018, 10:05:30 AM »
April 2018 highlights:

- Had a wonderful vacation to our future FIRE location!  Gorgeous weather, hiking, biking, coffee / food / craft beer, saw good friends, and met some new folks.  This was the first time we'd seen our new town in the spring, and were shocked at the flowers & flowering trees - so beautiful!  We were also able to walk-through our home & take some measurements for future renovation project planning.

- Great month of savings, and directed another chunk toward paying down our new home's mortgage.  We will eliminate the 4.125% note before FIRE, and managing savings into Mr. Market vs. mortgage loan is a balance we're still monitoring closely.  Staying selective / patient with deploying monthly DCA investments from our prior HCOL home sale into the Market.  Energy holdings continue to be a relative drag.

- Countdown goal / target is now @ 23 months (Apr-2020) ... I think the toughest choice we'll have to make at the time will be stepping away from a cash-flow that enables aggressive NOW giving capability, versus more of a steady, but DEFERRED giving capability.


EOY 2015: 56.2%
EOY 2016: 70.6%
EOY 2017: 78.6%

JAN 2018:  78.8%
FEB 2018:  77.3%
MAR 2018: 77.6%
APR 2018:  80.3%

FIREby2021

Linea_Norway

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #437 on: May 02, 2018, 04:42:06 AM »
April 2018 highlights:

- Had a wonderful vacation to our future FIRE location!  Gorgeous weather, hiking, biking, coffee / food / craft beer, saw good friends, and met some new folks.  This was the first time we'd seen our new town in the spring, and were shocked at the flowers & flowering trees - so beautiful!  We were also able to walk-through our home & take some measurements for future renovation project planning.

- Great month of savings, and directed another chunk toward paying down our new home's mortgage.  We will eliminate the 4.125% note before FIRE, and managing savings into Mr. Market vs. mortgage loan is a balance we're still monitoring closely.  Staying selective / patient with deploying monthly DCA investments from our prior HCOL home sale into the Market.  Energy holdings continue to be a relative drag.

- Countdown goal / target is now @ 23 months (Apr-2020) ... I think the toughest choice we'll have to make at the time will be stepping away from a cash-flow that enables aggressive NOW giving capability, versus more of a steady, but DEFERRED giving capability.


EOY 2015: 56.2%
EOY 2016: 70.6%
EOY 2017: 78.6%

JAN 2018:  78.8%
FEB 2018:  77.3%
MAR 2018: 77.6%
APR 2018:  80.3%

FIREby2021

Good to hear you have chosen a great FIRE location. And you even have friends there, already.

Maybe when you are FIREd and have additional income sometimes, you would have something extra to give.

FIREby2021

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #438 on: May 02, 2018, 10:12:28 AM »

Good to hear you have chosen a great FIRE location. And you even have friends there, already.

Maybe when you are FIREd and have additional income sometimes, you would have something extra to give.

Thank you, yes we are really excited about our future home!  Our friends just moved there recently, and it's going to be fun to visit them.

You are right re: giving.  I suspect any side-gig work we might find will give us that flexibility.

Loren Ver

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #439 on: May 15, 2018, 12:20:56 PM »
It has been awfully quiet on here....

So DH and I have plans both leading up to and including 2020 so I went ahead and ordered calendars for 2019 and 2020 so we can start getting things more organized. 

Oh man, we are already in May.  Less than two years before DH checks out of work!

LV

rab-bit

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #440 on: May 15, 2018, 12:58:07 PM »
Yes, I was thinking the same thing, very quiet here...

DW and I have been seriously discussing going to part-time late this year or early next year. Working three days a week would be ideal and 60% of current pay would cover about 165% of our expenses. The big question is whether our employers will go for it.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2018, 01:02:38 PM by rab »

Linea_Norway

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #441 on: May 15, 2018, 01:58:56 PM »
I recently updated in the 2019 FIRE cohort, as I am between two camps.
We are currently pretty well on schedule to reach or FIRE in 2020 stash at the end of 2018. If we manage, 2019 only needs to provide enough income to cover for itself, so minimum 25% of our normal nett income.

I hope to be able to go part time in 2019. I want the month May off or workin part time, as I'm getting interested in foraging food and May is a very good time for that. And I want August and September off for my mushroom hobby. I think our employers can't really afford to let us go completely if we ask to work part time. It is rime consuming finding replacements and train them.

We also need to make more concrete plans for the future. We need to sell our house for the cash. But do we do that immediately, or do we wait until the year after? There is always a chance for a housing crash. A big crash would delay FIRE. But I have calculated for 10% drop in house value at sale.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #442 on: May 15, 2018, 03:13:44 PM »
It's quiet because everyone is contemplating OMY.

Bateaux

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #443 on: May 15, 2018, 04:53:32 PM »
It's quiet because everyone is contemplating OMY.

There is  talk of recession looming, interest rates are rising and inflation will likely follow the spike in oil prices.  I'd hoped it would come sooner but the tax bill probably pushed the downturn off a bit.  A recession late 2018 and 2019 with recovery in 2020 would be perfect for me. I'd like to be hiking the Appalachian Trail next year but will wait a year if the economy goes south to take advantage of lower costs funds and stocks.

Lews Therin

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #444 on: May 15, 2018, 05:04:35 PM »
OLY here. Even here I will be different!

Rubyvroom

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #445 on: May 15, 2018, 06:22:40 PM »
In other news, we have our eye on some land we really like. I may waste most of my work day spreadsheeting to arrive at the "land = X months of extra work" calculation so we can determine if its worth it.

I've been quiet both here and in my journal because we put an offer in on that land, it was accepted after minimal haggling, and we are in a 45 day holding pattern until closing. We close next Thursday. Suffice it to say, my spreadsheeting has been kind of thwarted because it's been such an odd 2 months worth of income and expenses. We're buying the land with cash so I reduced our 401K front-loading to minimize the amount of investments we'd have to pull to fund it. After the dust settles and we have a few months of normal paychecks and expenses, I'll be able to recast our FIRE date. No OMY here hopefully. We're still targeting 2020, it may just be fall versus spring now, because now all of a sudden we're talking about getting a tractor and drawing up plans for our pole barn and crap haha. This land is part of the end-game though, so we're pretty stoked.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #446 on: May 15, 2018, 08:03:44 PM »
A recession late 2018 and 2019 with recovery in 2020 would be perfect for me. I'd like to be hiking the Appalachian Trail next year but will wait a year if the economy goes south to take advantage of lower costs funds and stocks.

What if we have another 5-10 year period with negative/neutral returns? Will you keep putting off life after work?

Hiking the AT is really really cheap. Just saying.

Bateaux

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #447 on: May 15, 2018, 08:47:32 PM »
A recession late 2018 and 2019 with recovery in 2020 would be perfect for me. I'd like to be hiking the Appalachian Trail next year but will wait a year if the economy goes south to take advantage of lower costs funds and stocks.

What if we have another 5-10 year period with negative/neutral returns? Will you keep putting off life after work?

Hiking the AT is really really cheap. Just saying.

If I extend past 2020 then I may as well go on to 2023 at age 55, which is the official early retirement age with my employer.   There would be better benefits staying till 55 but that takes more healthy years from my retirement.   You're right that the AT is cheap, however we'd still have equal or greater expenses since my wife would be home.
Predictions on the next recession time or length is little more than a wild ass guess.  It will happen when it comes.   I'm 80\20 stocks\bond funds and will likely just keep that going forward.

DreamFIRE

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #448 on: May 15, 2018, 09:07:09 PM »

I'm looking to June 2019 for now, but if the economy starts to go to shit and my investments drop over the next year, I might have to join the 2020 cohorts.  I'm slowly moving to a more conservative AA, but I can only take so much of a hit before I will OMY, which is sometimes tempting even if the stash is doing well.  I'm still planning for 2019 for as long as I can - at least FIRE doesn't seem so far off that way.

Linea_Norway

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Re: 2020 FIRE Cohort
« Reply #449 on: May 16, 2018, 01:06:06 AM »

I'm looking to June 2019 for now, but if the economy starts to go to shit and my investments drop over the next year, I might have to join the 2020 cohorts.  I'm slowly moving to a more conservative AA, but I can only take so much of a hit before I will OMY, which is sometimes tempting even if the stash is doing well.  I'm still planning for 2019 for as long as I can - at least FIRE doesn't seem so far off that way.

How about doing OMY part time working?