I think I'm ready to join and start counting down. I'm a single dad of two teens (full custody), and my oldest will be graduating high school in 2022. The younger one is a year behind.
My plan is to quit in the Spring (date TBD). The financial reasoning behind that is I can max out 401k contributions, and by making it to late-spring, I'd be eligible for a company dividend the following year (company is privately held). I need to make 1000 hours of service (I think), and accumulated vacation counts (of which we can carry forward 500 hours annually, and I will have 500). So that puts me April-Mayish. My regular income is over the limit for the American opportunity tax credit for college, so want to make sure I stay under that limit for the full $2k credit.
For healthcare, I plan to use Obamacare, and will need some income for the year. So just staying at the job for the first part of the year makes the most sense. That will give me time to settle in and prepare my income strategy for 2023.
I am currently looking to buy a 4 bed split-level house now(3 up, 1 down); I rent now. These are pretty popular in my area. The plan is to rent out the bottom level once both kids are gone. This way, they'd each still have their own room when they come home, but I can still get some income to help with the mortgage. I also wouldn't mind having someone else around when they both are gone. With renting out the room, I think I can get my monthly cost down to around 1500. This is the biggest unknown and the biggest risk to my budget.
The kids will go in-state and I have about 2.25 years saved for each in 529s right now. That will increase with the market improvement and future contributions the next few years. I was 50% bonds for them, but switched to 100% equities at the bottom. I timed it incredibly well (pure luck).
I think my plan will be to just hang out with the kids and decompress for the summer. Maybe take a nice long trip as a final trio before the oldest goes off.
I was/am a software engineer, so am thinking that after a few months, I'll teach myself how to code Android/iPhone apps. It will serve as something to do for a few hours a day, and give me a marketable skill in case my plan blows up. I do not plan to continue coding part-time for retirement income. I plan to exercise and cook more, maybe doing something with my hands. Maybe work on classic cars, or home improvement stuff (neither of which I am good at right now). Maybe pick up another rental or two. No solid plans yet.
Current NW = 1.3MM. Allocation is about 50% equities, 20% art, 10% private loan, 10% company stock/vacation, 5% BTC, 5% RE. I have cash in there somewhere, but threw a lot at the market the past few months. So, will build my cash reserves back up a bit the next two years. I was waiting for a market drop/recession to come before starting my countdown, so that I could plan for when it was over. And here we are with that.
I'll be 40 in 2022. I'd love to be able to get out before my birthday in Feb just to say "retired before 40," but don't think I'll make it that early in the year for reasons outlined above.
That was longer than I thought it would be when I started :)