I've only recently discovered this whole subculture of FIRE having stumbled upon MMM via his Tim Ferriss podcast interview. I've been kind of obsessively running my numbers for a few weeks now to see if I'm potentially able to FIRE in the not-too-distant future and... I think I just might be!
I recently took the time to change my investment mix, moving out of some actively managed funds and into index funds. I invested some idle cash. I ramped up funding of a Roth IRA.
Now 2022 is looking like it could be my year. My struggle is going to be reducing my spending. I've done a pretty good job (by normal standards, not by Mustachian standards) in the savings category and so I now have a 'stache of around 800K + ~140K home equity (remaining mortgage of 120K). I have a savings rate of around 36% (low by Mustachian standards, I know). My spending is about 50% discretionary (restaurants, mostly) but it will be a hard habit to break.
I live in a LCOL area (TN) so my expenses could be pretty low. I'd love to have my home paid off in 5 years to reduce my spending needs.
I'm single w/no kids so I only have to support one person (so long as my mom's $ lasts for her retirement, which it probably will, fingers crossed).
My spending goal for post-FIRE is around 47K/yr so I'm hoping to have my 'stache at the 1.2M level by 2022. That seems to be where things are headed assuming average returns over the next 5 years (7%). There's also a lot of fluff built into that 47K figure, so plenty of room to adjust if needed.
If everything falls into place and I pull the trigger in 2022 at 52 years of age, I should have around 260K in taxable accounts to draw from and 950K or so in retirement accounts. Some reading over at the Mad Fientist site enlightens regarding the access to retirement account funds to bridge the post-FIRE to 59.5yr gap, so I think that would be doable.
Like so many of us here seem to be, I am a software engineer. I realize how fortunate I've been in having such a cushy job. I don't even work that hard, to be honest. I'm very effective at my job, don't get me wrong, but for the past couple of years I've been pretty good at keeping it at the 40 hour limit. But I'm getting burnt out on it after 23 years. The job has also changed so much in the past 5 years here at my company (Fortune 500 company). The whole culture is now quite different due to all of the outsourced development and support. It is a constant source of frustration (and a teensy bit of angst).
My recent research into the world of FIRE has clued me in on the fact that financial freedom is at my fingertips. That makes my job both less frustrating and more frustrating. Less so because I don't have to think so long term anymore regarding my career. I don't need another promotion. I don't have to play the political game. I can be more honest and open about issues. But also more frustrating because I can see the end, so close... yet not quite here.