The Money Mustache Community
General Discussion => Welcome and General Discussion => Topic started by: TomTX on June 03, 2016, 05:41:06 PM
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Yeah, I'm way conservative - despite investments, despite house payoff in 2021, I'm planning on hanging around til I can get my (partial) pension and medical at age 53.
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Bueller?
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We need to start a support group for that affliction
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Around here, I'm going to be ancient at that retirement date. Insufficiently ambitious.
In the rest of the world, I'm going to be quite early.
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Well I'm marking this as my aggressive hopefully FIRE date with my wife. I'm 25 now and I am trying to fire by 35. By my calculations we should hopefully have together, 500k in our 401k, maybe another 140k in traditional IRA, Paid for 200k ish home. All extra money I still want to see about getting a rental house to cover some expenses and some after-tax investments.
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2027 is my semi-FIRE target. Also planning house pay off in 2021. Then will aggressively beef up index fund stache between 2021 and 2027.
I am looking forward to being able to estimate semi-FIRE in only 1 digit, 9 years or less!
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My house payoff is also 2021, but I've been thinking about taking out some equity and superstuffing 457/401k to get down well into EITC range.
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I am 34 now and my goal is to be FI in 10 years or less. (Now that I found MMM and all of you!)
Current net worth is about $31,000.
Assuming:
My wife starts working as an RN in June 2018 taking home $3K monthly. (High faith this will happen)
daycare cost for 2 kids until they start school full time $44K
using conservative savings numbers regarding my income.
Still would be renting so wouldn't own a home at this point.
Using conservative calculations we can have about $520,000 in 10 years using a 5% return.
Using 4% withdrawal rate would def. have a shortfall of about $1266 if expenses are $3K monthly. (Maybe my wife will want to keep working! :) )
Only time will tell but would definitely have plenty of FU money at this time even if a bunch were tied up in 401K or Roths. Have faith we could make that money liquid without unjust penalty for just being younger than 59 1/2.
Also, the idea f doing work I really enjoy to cover the shortfall may be the better way to live a happy and fulfilled life rather than the corporate meat grinder (although I like my job and am thankful so I wont complain) i have heard others describe it as. I just really like the idea of living life on my own terms and spending my time how I want :)
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I didn't know there was a thread for this year!
I actually have this year as my projected retirement date too. I will be 55 and (hopefully) can withdraw from my 403b then instead of 59.5, and not mess with conversion ladders, 72t substantially equal payments, etc. I haven't talked to my plan administrators to make sure I can do this.
I am being super conservative and only projecting 4% growth on my investments between now and then, and not factoring in new savings outside of maxing my 403b and Roth IRA. If the markets do well, I should be able to do so earlier, but I don't trust this, and also am concerned about how health insurance will price out.
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I didn't know there was a thread for this year!
I actually have this year as my projected retirement date too. I will be 55 and (hopefully) can withdraw from my 403b then instead of 59.5, and not mess with conversion ladders, 72t substantially equal payments, etc. I haven't talked to my plan administrators to make sure I can do this.
I am being super conservative and only projecting 4% growth on my investments between now and then, and not factoring in new savings outside of maxing my 403b and Roth IRA. If the markets do well, I should be able to do so earlier, but I don't trust this, and also am concerned about how health insurance will price out.
Welcome!
My pension comes with (fairly large OOP) health insurance - that's one of the big reasons for me to hang on until 2027 (age 53.5)
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Just popping in here to say hi! Most likely I'll go at 2029 or 2028. 2027 is the first year I'll qualify for my workplace paying a goodly chunk of my health insurance premiums though. So this year would be the earliest I'd most likely leave.
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Hi there!
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I will jump into the 2027 crew, I will be 53 then, same age as Tom. DW and I have two kids, at that point the youngest will be in college.
By my projections if we maintain current savings rate and get 5% real return on investment we should be right on edge of FI. However DW or I will probably also do something fun that generates at least a little income. It would be nice to leave the current high pressure corp environment then; I am managing ok now but in 10 years probably very ready to leave the rat race.
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I replied in the 2026 thread, but 2027 may be more realistic as that would give us both kids graduated from high school.
As always though, it depends on the status of health insurance at the time. In ten years I'll be 44, H 52, so we'll need private insurance for 2 decades.
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My planned (latest) FIRE date is a few months before my little one should start High School.
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Hi, everyone, this is when we are planning to retire. I'll be mid-40s. I can start receiving my military pension in 2027. We have a pretty big nest egg, thanks largely to my spouse's high income, to make up the difference between pension and expenses. Feel rather obligated to stick around for the pension since it is so good/health care, etc. So not much incentive to be more frugal in order to increase our savings rate (currently around 65%). But I am super impressed by those who can accelerate their path to FIRE by saving/working smarter. Cheers! 10 years to go!
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Throwing my hat in for 2027, this would be my FI year if all goes very well. Realistically I'll likely move to part time work either this year or in '28 or '29.
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I vacillate between 2025 and 2027, so I should probably follow this thread as well. I guess it will boil down to how finances look in 2025...the value of waiting two more years would be a substantial pension boost. But is that worth 2 years of my life? Time will tell...
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I'm planning on retiring in 2027. I'm 28 and recently got married. Hopefully, with both our incomes, we can just keep saving and be FIREd before I'm 40. One of the big concerns at the moment is that we are still renting an apartment and will want to get a house soon. If the mortgage payment is roughly the same as rent, then it should be alright.
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I'm planning on retiring in 2027. I'm 28 and recently got married. Hopefully, with both our incomes, we can just keep saving and be FIREd before I'm 40. One of the big concerns at the moment is that we are still renting an apartment and will want to get a house soon. If the mortgage payment is roughly the same as rent, then it should be alright.
Do some research here and elsewhere before buying a house. It is not a panacea, and locks you to a particular location - which limits your job prospects.
The typical "frictional cost" of a house purchase is maybe 8-12% - ie, you plunk down $200k on the table and by the time every realtor, lawyer, title company, finance company, inspector, etc has dipped their hand in the pile, the seller gets $180k. And then needs to pay off the mortgage.
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Jumping in on this! Current net worth is $320,000 but that is with the house and a separate unimproved lot. $83,000 in retirement savings, $2,000 in a brokerage. Home should be paid off in early 2019, and we have a small loan on the lot that will be paid off this year. DH is on board somewhat and our goal is $1,000,000 not including home equity. I will be 50 and he will be 61. Recent deaths in the family have played the main role in our decision to FIRE. We had a 75% savings rate up until we bought the lot, but we got a very sweet deal on it that we simply could not pass up. We have some potential job changes (me: possible promotion - same company, him: migrate from small company to very large due to takeover) coming up that may move the date into 2026. Mortgage is at 2.875 and we owe $67,000.
Planning on waiting until bonus and vacation $ are in my pocket before leaving.
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I'm jumping in on this cohort. I have my FIRE date set at November 23, 2027. Oddly specific, but it seems more real when I have an exact date set versus just saying "sometime in 2027."
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I'm jumping in on this cohort. I have my FIRE date set at November 23, 2027. Oddly specific, but it seems more real when I have an exact date set versus just saying "sometime in 2027."
Welcome!
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Hi all
I'm very new to this - first post!
I'd like to add my name to this cohort....makes it feel more real, somehow.
Only discovered the MMM blog and concept recently, and I'm hooked! Never even contemplated retiring early before. I'll be 53 in 2027, so not that early - wish I'd got started sooner - but, better 10 years away than 25!
Excited for the journey 😊
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Hello there and welcome!
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Hello there and welcome!
Hello back atcha and thanks 😊
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I think this is me. Or I hope this is me!
using MMM's post about how to calculate net worth I come out at about 300K. Of that just under 100K is in the house (still owe 250K), which we should have paid off by 2027 too. About 135K is in retirement investments (combo of 401K and IRAs), and about 50 K is in after tax investments with Vanguard. The rest is in a savings account.
I think we spend too much, but hopefully we can make it in 10 years!
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I think this is me. Or I hope this is me!
using MMM's post about how to calculate net worth I come out at about 300K. Of that just under 100K is in the house (still owe 250K), which we should have paid off by 2027 too. About 135K is in retirement investments (combo of 401K and IRAs), and about 50 K is in after tax investments with Vanguard. The rest is in a savings account.
I think we spend too much, but hopefully we can make it in 10 years!
Welcome to the club! Some days 2027 seems like so long...my specific date is 502 weeks away. Aaargh... Some days I say "I've gotta really make a push for 2025..."
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Sign me up for 2017!
By then we will have about 500k usd, very loosely converted. We currently spend 40k/year, but quitting work will bring that down to about 30k. Once we quit work we can sell our apartment, that should add another 100k.
30k from 600k is a 5% withdrawal, answer are hoping for a pretty high return (8%). However there is some other upsides. The numbers are all post taxes. The numbers from sale of the apartment is very conservative, we might look at 300k profit. So if we are lucky, we might see a huge profit from the apartment. If we are horrible unlucky, we will also add one or two inheritances.
We might travel for a year or two after RE. Living in cheap countries while the money from the apartment is invested would increase the stash enough to then let us buy a small house from the increase, leaving us the same size stash as after we sell our home AND have a home.
I love MMM. Even if I never FIRE, my life is better this way.
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I'm very new to FIRE, I hope to be FI at the latest 2017. We're saving £24k per year with 50k in savings and £100k equity in the house.
We should have around £350/£400k by 2027 in investment which should be enough for us to retire if we wish. I'll be 42 and my wife will be 38 I still struggle to believe this is possible.
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Jumping groups. I think I was in 2030 or 2032. A newer job has really catapulted my savings ability, and I'm putting away about $63k tax deferred a year. Current net worth about $140k. Hoping to get to $1mil in 10 years. Spouse will be working after finishing school in 2 years. We have 3 kids to get through college right around that 2027 timeframe and I'm not comfortable retiring on $600k even though I know as a couple we could live off withdrawals quite easily. My work offers college tuition $ and I can't see retiring any earlier even though we will be FI by hopefully 2024 or so.
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Some days I think I need to switch to the 2021 thread...
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Some days I think I need to switch to the 2021 thread...
Get me some universal healthcare and I might follow, at least a couple of rungs that direction.
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Some days I think I need to switch to the 2021 thread...
Get me some universal healthcare and I might follow, at least a couple of rungs that direction.
I hit my federal MRA that year, so under the current rules that would satisfy the health care piece. A lot depends on stock returns between now and then, in terms of my willingness to pull the plug then.
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Some days I think I need to switch to the 2021 thread...
Get me some universal healthcare and I might follow, at least a couple of rungs that direction.
I hit my federal MRA that year, so under the current rules that would satisfy the health care piece. A lot depends on stock returns between now and then, in terms of my willingness to pull the plug then.
Yep, as mentioned earlier in the thread - retiring in 2027 gets me not just the pension, but healthcare.
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Same as above. If I can stick it out until 2026 or 2027, I can get partial pension and healthcare benefits. I will be 57/58, but I can't figure out a way to get out earlier. I'm really thankful to have the pension, but in a way it has kept me from looking for other opportunities that might pay better. Does anybody else feel like the pension is a two-edged sword?
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Sign me up for 2017!
By then we will have about 500k usd, very loosely converted. We currently spend 40k/year, but quitting work will bring that down to about 30k. Once we quit work we can sell our apartment, that should add another 100k.
30k from 600k is a 5% withdrawal, answer are hoping for a pretty high return (8%). However there is some other upsides. The numbers are all post taxes. The numbers from sale of the apartment is very conservative, we might look at 300k profit. So if we are lucky, we might see a huge profit from the apartment. If we are horrible unlucky, we will also add one or two inheritances.
We might travel for a year or two after RE. Living in cheap countries while the money from the apartment is invested would increase the stash enough to then let us buy a small house from the increase, leaving us the same size stash as after we sell our home AND have a home.
I love MMM. Even if I never FIRE, my life is better this way.
I see I might have been a smidge optimistic.... I mean 2027 ofcourse.
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Same as above. If I can stick it out until 2026 or 2027, I can get partial pension and healthcare benefits. I will be 57/58, but I can't figure out a way to get out earlier. I'm really thankful to have the pension, but in a way it has kept me from looking for other opportunities that might pay better. Does anybody else feel like the pension is a two-edged sword?
I don't get pension from my work, but I know what you mean. I have other perks that probably have made me stay longer than i should have.
It should be easy to calculate from your point. If you apply for a job and get an offer you will know how much they would pay you. You could then calculate from there if the extra amount you are able to save would beat the pension and healthcare benefits.
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Same as above. If I can stick it out until 2026 or 2027, I can get partial pension and healthcare benefits. I will be 57/58, but I can't figure out a way to get out earlier. I'm really thankful to have the pension, but in a way it has kept me from looking for other opportunities that might pay better. Does anybody else feel like the pension is a two-edged sword?
Absolutely. I could get a higher salary elsewhere.
But I also feel that I am in too deep to jump now - and the work/life balance is good.
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I'm in. Optimistic plans make it possible at 2025 but 2027 or maybe even later is more likely.
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Same as above. If I can stick it out until 2026 or 2027, I can get partial pension and healthcare benefits. I will be 57/58, but I can't figure out a way to get out earlier. I'm really thankful to have the pension, but in a way it has kept me from looking for other opportunities that might pay better. Does anybody else feel like the pension is a two-edged sword?
I don't get pension from my work, but I know what you mean. I have other perks that probably have made me stay longer than i should have.
It should be easy to calculate from your point. If you apply for a job and get an offer you will know how much they would pay you. You could then calculate from there if the extra amount you are able to save would beat the pension and healthcare benefits.
I have thought of looking elsewhere for a higher salary and doing this calculation (my salary is not horrible, but much lower than most on this forum, and since I work for government, I'm not likely to get much in the way of raises). I think I'd have to make quite a lot more to be able to save enough to stop working sooner and cover healthcare if I retired earlier. I don't have credentials that make me sought after in the job world, and I'm not super ambitious either, so it's a trade off. It's easier to stay here than to make myself more hireable, if that makes sense. And, if I found a new job making 20-30k+ more, it would still take a few years for me to save enough. See, I've just talked myself into staying right where I am. The end is in sight! Sorta.
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Same as above. If I can stick it out until 2026 or 2027, I can get partial pension and healthcare benefits. I will be 57/58, but I can't figure out a way to get out earlier. I'm really thankful to have the pension, but in a way it has kept me from looking for other opportunities that might pay better. Does anybody else feel like the pension is a two-edged sword?
I don't get pension from my work, but I know what you mean. I have other perks that probably have made me stay longer than i should have.
It should be easy to calculate from your point. If you apply for a job and get an offer you will know how much they would pay you. You could then calculate from there if the extra amount you are able to save would beat the pension and healthcare benefits.
I have thought of looking elsewhere for a higher salary and doing this calculation (my salary is not horrible, but much lower than most on this forum, and since I work for government, I'm not likely to get much in the way of raises). I think I'd have to make quite a lot more to be able to save enough to stop working sooner and cover healthcare if I retired earlier. I don't have credentials that make me sought after in the job world, and I'm not super ambitious either, so it's a trade off. It's easier to stay here than to make myself more hireable, if that makes sense. And, if I found a new job making 20-30k+ more, it would still take a few years for me to save enough. See, I've just talked myself into staying right where I am. The end is in sight! Sorta.
It sounds like you have thought it trough and made the best choice for your situation.
The end in sight sure is a good thing!
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I'm in. Optimistic plans make it possible at 2025 but 2027 or maybe even later is more likely.
Welcome, and may you leave us earlier than predicted.
(Not a lot of circumstances you can say something like that without being rude!)
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I'm in. Optimistic plans make it possible at 2025 but 2027 or maybe even later is more likely.
Welcome, and may you leave us earlier than predicted.
(Not a lot of circumstances you can say something like that without being rude!)
GTFO of my thread!
...because you FIREd earlier than expected ;)
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I'm in. Optimistic plans make it possible at 2025 but 2027 or maybe even later is more likely.
Welcome, and may you leave us earlier than predicted.
(Not a lot of circumstances you can say something like that without being rude!)
I just hope you won't think less of me if I get out in 395 weeks instead of 499...not that I am counting...
GTFO of my thread!
...because you FIREd earlier than expected ;)
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End of 2027 is my goal, but I think I'll either come up a little short or still want to work when the time comes. I have a feeling it's going to be hard to walk away from a high salary while my 1+ mil in investments are sitting and growing. Who knows though, 10 years is a lot of time for good or bad things to happen. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
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I'm in. Optimistic plans make it possible at 2025 but 2027 or maybe even later is more likely.
Welcome, and may you leave us earlier than predicted.
(Not a lot of circumstances you can say something like that without being rude!)
GTFO of my thread!
...because you FIREd earlier than expected ;)
...but then I had to go back for another 10 years!
My subconscious clearly is very eager to retire. I had no idea I wrote 2017 in the first post, and when I tried to correct it I wrote 2017 again.
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Welp, I'm going to post here because 2027 is what my current (quite conservative) calculator says now. Health insurance is a factor naturally, and we don't know if we'll end up with a kid, so there are a lot of unknowns. But HI!
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Hi rockstache!
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Welp, I'm going to post here because 2027 is what my current (quite conservative) calculator says now. Health insurance is a factor naturally, and we don't know if we'll end up with a kid, so there are a lot of unknowns. But HI!
Welcome to the a-decade-away group!
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Looking at September 24th, 2027 for the big day... I'll be turning 40!
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Looking at September 24th, 2027 for the big day... I'll be turning 40!
Perfect day to do it!
Just make sure it's your first day of FIRE, not your last day at work ;)
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Welp, I'm going to post here because 2027 is what my current (quite conservative) calculator says now. Health insurance is a factor naturally, and we don't know if we'll end up with a kid, so there are a lot of unknowns. But HI!
Welcome to the a-decade-away group!
We need a more inspirational catch phrase! A decade sounds soooo long away. Only 2.5 more months til 9 yrs!
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Welp, I'm going to post here because 2027 is what my current (quite conservative) calculator says now. Health insurance is a factor naturally, and we don't know if we'll end up with a kid, so there are a lot of unknowns. But HI!
Welcome to the a-decade-away group!
We need a more inspirational catch phrase! A decade sounds soooo long away. Only 2.5 more months til 9 yrs!
Given your username I hoped for something more...creative!
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You guys are very high-energy, sign me up!
Age 37, $330,000 invested in my own retirement accounts.
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Joining in here as well. I'm in the 2030 group, but this is really my goal. Do you guys use a specific calculator to figure out your date? The retirement tracker on Personal Capital or maybe the calculator from Mad Fientist? Your own? My goal is by my 43rd bday in August of 2027. I'm aiming for a stash of 750k in accordance with MMM's rules with 25x 30k. It's more than I typically use a year, but no kids yet, and I love to travel, so figure a bit more flexibility is nice. I'd be down to work part-time as well, so I guess this leaves me some leeway. Right now I'm at 230k with almost all of it in investment accounts (401k, IRAs, HSA, taxable). I'm in Denver, so it's tempting to buy a house with my bf with the market so hot and so many people moving here every month, but we'll wait a bit, since we're hoping to spend at least 6 months working remotely internationally. Fingers crossed that works out. Thinking about staying with my current company that's not the greatest just because I've basically gotten to the point where I can work fully remotely since most of my team doesn't live here. I'm not really sure how the bf and I will figure out our expenses together as time goes on, but he just paid off the rest of his student loans, which is really exciting. So many things up in the air, but less than ten years till FIRE sounds doable. Can't come soon enough... I discovered MMM about a year ago, and I only wish I'd known about this way of life sooner!
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To answer how I figured out my retirement data, 2027 is so far away that I cannot be convinced a retirement calculator is useful for me.
But the MMM goal seems to be retirement in 10-years, so I figure that spending time on here will bring it closer. Starting from zero, this should be possible if you save about 60% of your income http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/).
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To answer how I figured out my retirement data, 2027 is so far away that I cannot be convinced a retirement calculator is useful for me.
But the MMM goal seems to be retirement in 10-years, so I figure that spending time on here will bring it closer. Starting from zero, this should be possible if you save about 60% of your income http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/ (http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/).
Sure. Though the timing of market corrections, etc will shift the actual date around a lot.
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I stuck my finger in the air to feel what way the wind is blowing, tossed some chicken bones on the ground, walked backwards in circles at an intersection in moonlight and then used the numbers from the license plate of the car that hit me in the dark.
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I've used a bunch of savings calculators and they all have been roughly this time frame. Downloaded an app a while back called Pretirement and finally opened it today. Without ant contribution from DH (student), were 11 years out. When he's finally working I hope to be under 10
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I stuck my finger in the air to feel what way the wind is blowing, tossed some chicken bones on the ground, walked backwards in circles at an intersection in moonlight and then used the numbers from the license plate of the car that hit me in the dark.
Hahaha I like the way you do things.
And good stuff. Yea, I want to have a bit more leeway than what I'm currently using, since I'll hopefully have a kid and want to have some extra cash for their activities and general existence, plus lots of travel. Personal Capital gives me about 10 years if I save around 36k, which is definitely doable. Mad Fientist's had me at a bit over 7 yrs. I'm hoping for the latter ;) 7 years sounds kinda ridiculous to me in the best way.
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Update: changed all my retirement account elections to aggressive. Sold about $10,000 in bonds, and moved them to stock funds (50% US; 50% international).
Having a horizon of ten years away means I can afford to take a little more risk.
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I'm officially joining this thread! I am excited that in a few weeks we'll only be 9 years away until retirement instead of a decade.
We are about 31% of the way to our target FIRE number. I'd love to have to eventually drop out and join a new cohort - 2027 is a bit conservative.
(I had another forum profile but started an anonymous blog last month, and I am paranoid so I started a new forum profile too. :P)
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Jumping into this thread. I'm about 1/3 of the way to my target. I'll be there in 2027 using very conservative assumptions about how much I can put in. It is likely that I'll be FI sooner, but would rather get there sooner than projected than the other way around.
Big question: how many of us will still be on the forums a decade from now? :)
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It's my understanding that the whole MMM brand is only about six years old. Based on reading the Nassim Taleb book ANTI-FRAGILE, you should assume things will live about as long as they are old now, which would indicate that, yes, it's probably more likely this community will die off before the 2027 group reaches retirement. kinda sad to have to do it without you guys!
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It's my understanding that the whole MMM brand is only about six years old. Based on reading the Nassim Taleb book ANTI-FRAGILE, you should assume things will live about as long as they are old now, which would indicate that, yes, it's probably more likely this community will die off before the 2027 group reaches retirement. kinda sad to have to do it without you guys!
Haven't you read the upbeat and positive attitude around here? The successes? The 114 year old people who are going to live another 114 years.... ;)
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If the MMM brand fizzles, perhaps it will be because we all saved/invested and retired and are out being badass and forget to check the website?
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It's my understanding that the whole MMM brand is only about six years old. Based on reading the Nassim Taleb book ANTI-FRAGILE, you should assume things will live about as long as they are old now, which would indicate that, yes, it's probably more likely this community will die off before the 2027 group reaches retirement. kinda sad to have to do it without you guys!
Does it make sense in the book? That seems so completely arbitrary.
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Property market is nosediving here. Ever the optimist, im hoping it will take me closer to FIRE!
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It's my understanding that the whole MMM brand is only about six years old. Based on reading the Nassim Taleb book ANTI-FRAGILE, you should assume things will live about as long as they are old now, which would indicate that, yes, it's probably more likely this community will die off before the 2027 group reaches retirement. kinda sad to have to do it without you guys!
Does it make sense in the book? That seems so completely arbitrary.
Wikipedia helped for me
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect
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Took this from the 2030 cohort group, but I crossed over 8x earlier this month, so starting it off there. It would be amazing to reach 10x my annual FIRE amount by the end of next year, but I guess it'll depend on how these markets hold up...Either way, happy new year everyone!
Stache at 1x
Stache at 2x
Stache at 3x
Stache at 4.5x
Stache at 6x
2017 - Stache at 8x
2018 - Stache at 10x
2019 - Stache at 12x
2020 - Stache at 14x
2021 - Stache at 16x
2022 - Stache at 18x
2023 - Stache at 20x
2024 - Stache at 22x
2025 - Stache at 25x
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Nice.
I'm curious at what age everyone would be if they retire in 2027.
I recall 3 of us will be 53, Mustachio is trying to not be 43... Lets go with 42. Retire the day BEFORE your birthday ;)
So, everyone in this thread: presuming you retire in 2027, how old will you be?
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This is my goal. I would’ve 42. I want to have the option to quit my good govt job at that point. Hoping to have 2 mil saved at that point but only need 40k for living expenses.
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At first I read "I will leave" as "I will live" for DC and I thought that was pretty comical (I used to live in the DC suburbs before moving to Denver). But yes, goal is before turning 43, which is in August of 2027.
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Woo hoo 9 years now!
I will be 45.
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I'm shooting for the end of 2027 when I turn 45 so I just crossed the 10 years to go mark.
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I am a little jealous of most people on here with stable jobs and pretty predictable career trajectories. Maybe that will happen for us one day. Best case scenario: SO's potential earnings are pretty close to mine, with extreme job security and great benefits. Unfortunately, SO is currently not there yet and despite ridiculous amounts of work, current earnings are very low and unpredictable, and sometimes non-existent. And it's not clear what we do if the dream job scenario for SO doesn't work out.
My own earnings can probably be predicted decently well if I can stick with the current very high stress job for the next 9 years. But I don't know if I can, and if I find a different job, in a different place how it will impact our NW or if I keep doing what I am doing, but venture on my own to alleviate some of the stress, etc, all things I have no idea how to account for in any kind of projection.
So my very conservative projection is that in 9 years at age 49 I retire no matter what. SO can do what SO likes, depending on how that career path turns out, but I have enough money for me to live off of. If in the meantime SO gets the dream jobs, I probably trade in for part time sometime before 9 years, or maybe it gives me the freedom to try to start my own business doing what I do now, just solo... If not, SO will have to make some sort of major shift in career....
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My forty-seventh birthday will happen in 2027. But i'd be an idiot to retire the day before my birthday, which is in February, because our busy season is in the winter!
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If we stick to 2027, we'll both be 42. 40 sounds better--and we're pushing hard to get there--but 42 is the cut off.
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This will be the first year that I'm retirement eligible in the military and I will be 42. My DW is a few years ahead of me (she would be part of 2023 cohort) but I think plans on sticking it out together with me depending on how things go the next few years. Our combined pensions are enough to cover expenses in my opinion, but over the next few years we need to figure out "the number."
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This will be the first year that I'm retirement eligible in the military and I will be 42. My DW is a few years ahead of me (she would be part of 2023 cohort) but I think plans on sticking it out together with me depending on how things go the next few years. Our combined pensions are enough to cover expenses in my opinion, but over the next few years we need to figure out "the number."
Nords is a military retiree who posts regularly (and has written a book!) on the subject.
Welcome to 2027 - I'm planning to be a .gov (not .mil) pensioner.
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Thanks for the tag, TomTX!
This will be the first year that I'm retirement eligible in the military and I will be 42. My DW is a few years ahead of me (she would be part of 2023 cohort) but I think plans on sticking it out together with me depending on how things go the next few years. Our combined pensions are enough to cover expenses in my opinion, but over the next few years we need to figure out "the number."
Let me know if you have questions figuring out the military part.
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I just turned 31 yesterday. My wife is 27. Over the last one to two years we've radically taken control of our finances which is how I found Mr. Money Mustache about 6 months ago. I did a little back of the napkin math at my birthday dinner and figured out that on our current path we'll be ready to FIRE by the time I turn 40 in 2027.
I found this thread and thought I'd put it in writing and have a place to document my progress.
Here's to day 1.
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How's everyone doing? We should do at least a twice yearly progress update.
I'm currently at 4.59X planned yearly expenses with 25X being the goal. The following is based off our current situation as a 1 income family. Hopefully with school ending for DH in a couple years we will be able to greatly outpace the estimate here, with me retiring on track and DH either continuing to work or having already made up the difference to > 25X. This is mainly for my record keeping to make sure I'm at least making the minimum required to be on track.
2018 yr end goal = 5.18X
2019 = 6.7X
2020 = 8.3X
2021 = 9.9X
2022 = 11.6X
2023 = 13.4X
2024 = 15.2X
2025 = 17.1X
2026 = 19.1X
2027 = 21.2X
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Hello, I'm still here. We are about 27% of the way there financially at this point. We are having a baby in December/January, so that may shift some things, but aside from childcare, I don't expect it to be too much. My husband finishes school at the end of August, and will be looking for a new job at that point. It would be ideal if it came with a higher salary, but I'm not counting my chickens on that. Taking maternity leave at the beginning of next year will slow our savings a bit, but I keep reminding myself that it's important, and those kind of things are exactly what the money is for.
Fuzzy math, I like the way you've laid out your multipliers, very convenient!
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I'm glad you posted here. I recently mentioned to my financial advisor this 10-year time table, and he freaked out. He's 53 (with a 14 yo son), so I think he's planning to retire in about 10 years, when son is done getting edu-macated. I'm 15 years younger.
I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't done a great job tracking expenses for the tall-texan household. I've actually been directing extra money toward paying down debt lately. (Our net worth passed $1 mm last year--maybe only $950,000 liquid--I thought it was silly to be that rich and still have some of these little debts, so I reduced my 401K contributions to try to stuff the debt by the end of 2018).
My wife has expressed an interest in moving to be in a better school district and have closer geography to her parents (this would mean moving about 8 miles North). Being in this group is a good reminder that we need to be cautious about how much house we buy in the next two years.
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Hello, I'm still here. We are about 27% of the way there financially at this point. We are having a baby in December/January, so that may shift some things, but aside from childcare, I don't expect it to be too much. My husband finishes school at the end of August, and will be looking for a new job at that point. It would be ideal if it came with a higher salary, but I'm not counting my chickens on that. Taking maternity leave at the beginning of next year will slow our savings a bit, but I keep reminding myself that it's important, and those kind of things are exactly what the money is for.
Fuzzy math, I like the way you've laid out your multipliers, very convenient!
I can’t take credit for it, saw it done in the 2030 thread! Liked it so much I copied
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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How much money are we all trying to have set aside on our special day in 2027? I’ll be getting a govt pension, if the govt still exists. I’ll also be leaving the DC suburbs for a lower COL area.
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Somewhere between 1-1.3MM. Realistic spending is $50k per year if neither of us ever earned another dollar after retiring which seems unlikely. The plan is I retire no matter what in 2027 and DH will continue working til either of us can’t take it any more.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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We have a lot of changes (new location, new baby, new job for DH), coming up in the next 5-10 years which could drastically shift the plan. But for now, my estimate is about $1.6M. I am starting to think that I will retire in about 6 years when kid hits school age (2024 ish), so the 2027 date is actually indicative of when I believe we could both retire. However, if DH likes his job at that point...he may choose not to.
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We're really spendy, and I think my wife loves working, so it's likely we'll be above $2,000,000 by 2027.
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Hello, I'm still here. We are about 27% of the way there financially at this point. We are having a baby in December/January, so that may shift some things, but aside from childcare, I don't expect it to be too much. My husband finishes school at the end of August, and will be looking for a new job at that point. It would be ideal if it came with a higher salary, but I'm not counting my chickens on that. Taking maternity leave at the beginning of next year will slow our savings a bit, but I keep reminding myself that it's important, and those kind of things are exactly what the money is for.
Fuzzy math, I like the way you've laid out your multipliers, very convenient!
I can’t take credit for it, saw it done in the 2030 thread! Liked it so much I copied
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It is a nice, tangible way to look at it. I'm at about 8.5x right now, and am planning on 2027 with allowance for another downturn between here and there and conservative estimate of how much I can put away over the next few years after expenses bumped up due to a change in life situation.
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In April, I upped my 401k contributions so I would max out by the end of the year. Also, we opened an IRA for my wife that we are contributing to as well. On the downside, we went on a weekend trip for our anniversary and a cruise that we have been planning for about a year. So, my Personal Capital account is pretty confused right now. After a few months, I should be able get a better estimate on my savings rate.
Currently, I'm at 2.2x my annual spending, so things are looking up. :)
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New to the forum, but not to MMM.
Right now 2027 is looking like my year to FIRE (conservatively), but I may be expediting that. I'll be 49-50 at that time.
Mortgage will be gone in approx 16-18 months.
I currently have ~210k invested, planing to add another 500k before FIRE
Wife currently has ~80k in her retirement account, and in addition, she is eligible for her pension when she turns 55, so she's sticking it out until then.
Current net worth (wife and I combined) is ~590k
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Optimistically jumping into this thread!
My DH and I are aiming for October 11th, 2027, our ten year anniversary. I'll be 48 and he'll be 60.
A lot of changes are afoot but once the dust settles in a few months I'm hoping to get us up to at least a 55% savings rate and then head to 60%. We're not looking to save as much as some of you- $700k should cover it currently. Granted we are also trying for a child (hi @rockstache !) and this will certainly throw everything for a loop but it's good to have a destination in the midst of all this change. Mortgage will be paid off this year and we will be a debt free family.
Feeling pumped to be here!
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Hi Vasilisa and welcome! Have you joined the Fertility, Baby, and Pregnancy chat thread? (If so and I don't remember, I'm very sorry). I highly recommend it, it's so wonderful and supportive. Just jump right in anywhere.
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Optimistically jumping into this thread!
My DH and I are aiming for October 11th, 2027, our ten year anniversary. I'll be 48 and he'll be 60.
A lot of changes are afoot but once the dust settles in a few months I'm hoping to get us up to at least a 55% savings rate and then head to 60%. We're not looking to save as much as some of you- $700k should cover it currently. Granted we are also trying for a child (hi @rockstache !) and this will certainly throw everything for a loop but it's good to have a destination in the midst of all this change. Mortgage will be paid off this year and we will be a debt free family.
Feeling pumped to be here!
Mortgage paid off in Santa Cruz sounds impressive. In what value of property do you live?
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@talltexan Not super impressive but it's home sweet home: a $200k manufactured home in an affordable housing mobile home park. Sounds like you have a very different situation. How much debt do you have left?
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Still around $215,000 total debt. Spouse and I have largely agreed that a move will make sense for our family in about two years, so I'm not hurrying to pay down the house piece, which is 85% of that.
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Still trying to move to the 2025 group - :)
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Haha me too. Of course I have no control over that, everything hinges on DH finishing his degree and becoming gainfully employed
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Hang in there, Fuzzy_math.
I was fortunate to have a spouse who believed in me through grad school. Hopefully my wife now appreciates how great an investment I was.
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Wife's been back to work this year and other than child care, we've kept the expenses down. In addition to the ~10% of my salary going into the pension, we will max out my 457 + both IRAs.
I'm officially moving from 2027 to 2025 as my "base" year for planned ER, and 2023 as my stretch goal.
Retiring 2 years sooner will push my pension/medical eligibility back by 4 years + 4 months, and (perhaps obviously) reduce the monthly payout for my pension.
So long, suckers! ;)
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Adios, TomTX don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya :p
This month's contributions have put me 25% of the way there! I feel like every day of the month kinda drags except payday. I wish I was paid biweekly like at my old job, would make contributions much more interesting and help overall to better dollar cost average.
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Market is dropping like a stone today; several more days like this, and TomTX might come back :-)
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@fuzzy math congrats! And I feel ya, these long term financial goals are rather boring in the sense that what you set things in motion, not much to do!
But thanks for pointing out how far you are towards FIRE! Made me do the math too and we are about 25% there as well. Good job us.
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Market is dropping like a stone today; several more days like this, and TomTX might come back :-)
Lol. Will we accept him back? Looks like it only dropped 300 points. Would have been nicer before my contribution went in at the higher price. Dear universe - the market is allowed to drop precipitously every month from the 29 - 31 and sometimes the 1st. thanks.
@Vasilisa good job too!!! It's the little mental tricks to partition things that make the journey more enjoyable.
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2027 is likely my target date depending on how the market does. I'll be an old man compared to most of you guys/gals here but younger than most of my coworkers.
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@jimmyshutter welcome! Hey, we get around to financial freedom when we do. As they say, we're all on separate journeys.
We're in it for the long term financial goals and to celebrate our milestones. A big milestone for me in 2018 will be maxing out my Roth IRA contribution for the first time (just opened it in 2017!). 2019 I want to work on maxing out my 401k contributions.
What's everybody else working on?
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Hi everyone, I've been a fairly silent group member checking back in. Still a ways to go for us all but glad everyone is making progress.
A goal for me now is to build up more after-tax savings. Right now I'm doing pretty well with pretax but maxing it out and it's 90+% of my investments.
So in addition to being the only way I can save more, I want to have more flexibility for withdrawals in early retirement stage (I'll be 53 in 2027).
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I ratched down my retirement contributions to a level sufficient for matching in order to knock out some short-term debt. I know it's not mathematically optimal, but it seems dumb to have these little debts and be in seven digits. I figure if there's a large market drop, I can increase the debt to re-enter then.
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What's everybody else working on?
I'm working on making a kid right now who will join us sometime in December/January. In taking off 5-6 months (unpaid) for maternity leave, paying for daycare the second half of the year, and dealing with whatever other costs happen to come up, my goal for next year is to max out all tax-advantage accounts, and maybe (stretch goal) still have something leftover for taxable. It kind of kills me to take such a huge hit in our accumulation years, but I want to get the kid thing started out right from the beginning. We're a little over 28% of the way there currently.
Good luck everyone! Sounds like some great progress is being made.
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Market is dropping like a stone today; several more days like this, and TomTX might come back :-)
Pfft. I need a bigger drop than that. And hopefully prolonged enough for my upcoming contributions to get into the market.
Come on 50% market crash!
I still love you guys, I'm just not gonna keep working that long. I hope.
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Hi all! Officially joining in on the cohort. I will be 55 in 2027, and the golden handcuffs will keep me in place until then. We are lean FI now, and I hope to downshift to part time in in the next few years, and coast to fatFIRE. DH will FIRE around the time I downshift.
We are simple people who are not planning to lifestyle inflate. Rather, going for extra budget padding due to unknown future expenses for healthcare and long term care (I have an expensive progressive chronic healthcare condition).
Looking forward to sharing the journey with you all.
Graph below is for 25x in equities, our standard FI number. We hope to hit that number by 2021.
(https://happinessgratis.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Percent-to-FI-target-2018-Q2.png)
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Hi all! Officially joining in on the cohort. I will be 55 in 2027, and the golden handcuffs will keep me in place until then. We are lean FI now, and I hope to downshift to part time in in the next few years, and coast to fatFIRE. DH will FIRE around the time I downshift.
We are simple people who are not planning to lifestyle inflate. Rather, going for extra budget padding due to unknown future expenses for healthcare and long term care (I have an expensive progressive chronic healthcare condition).
Looking forward to sharing the journey with you all.
Are you really, really sure you want to wait that long? This thread changed my mind about waiting for my pension in 2027:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/rich-broke-or-dead-visualizing-probabilities-of-outcomes-in-early-retirement/
You're ahead of me in the "outside assets" department, and I have recently jumped ship for the 2025 group with a stretch goal of 2023.
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Hi all! Officially joining in on the cohort. I will be 55 in 2027, and the golden handcuffs will keep me in place until then. We are lean FI now, and I hope to downshift to part time in in the next few years, and coast to fatFIRE. DH will FIRE around the time I downshift.
We are simple people who are not planning to lifestyle inflate. Rather, going for extra budget padding due to unknown future expenses for healthcare and long term care (I have an expensive progressive chronic healthcare condition).
Looking forward to sharing the journey with you all.
Are you really, really sure you want to wait that long? This thread changed my mind about waiting for my pension in 2027:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/rich-broke-or-dead-visualizing-probabilities-of-outcomes-in-early-retirement/
You're ahead of me in the "outside assets" department, and I have recently jumped ship for the 2025 group with a stretch goal of 2023.
Ha ha! You are so right, TomTx. I have crunched those Maizeman graphs. And cFIREsim with 100% probability of success at 2023. I fluctuate between pulling the lever in 2022 (the earliest I would be comfortable considering FIRE) vs going all the way to 2027 (2XFI).
What happens with healthcare is the unknown that I am closely following.
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What's everybody else working on?
I’m going to have surgery to greatly improve my physical health (that’s the plan anyway!) so gearing up for that in December. It should give me some much needed energy to finish up my remaining 9 years in the workforce with a better amount of energy and also some mental health improvement. I must say, work has really sucked lately and zapping the situation with my optimism gun has not been too fruitful.
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I, too, have started to worry that I've been on-top of things financially, but neglecting health.
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@LateToTheParty welcome! Looking forward to hearing everyone's progress as well.
@LorettaLynn good for you! Here's hoping for a successful surgery for you! Work has been pretty rough for me as well, and boy does that motivate me towards FIRE! I could see even dropping to part-time would improve things if I had the means to do so.
Oh man, @talltexan better take care of yourself! What are we going to do in retirement if we don't have our good health?
I put together a personal investment policy statement the other day to discuss with the DH and it felt so good to put together goals, numbers, info all into one place. Felt like I was putting energy into Us, LLC. Still quite a few things up in the air but hoping as the dust settles in the next few months we will have a strong plan in place to kick the savings percentage into high gear.
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Bump!
Exciting news today, I finally got up the courage to speak to my big manager about trying to achieve goals for a higher raise next year. My work (healthcare) has a standard on track raise, and a "role model" certification. I felt like a goober asking how I could be considered for it, and it turns out it's fairly easy but requires a lot of paperwork documenting beyond the norm work. So manager will assist me, and hopefully come next summer I'll get 5% instead of 2%.
Trying to get as many health related things seen in 2018 as we've maxed out our OOP for the year. Need to start planning to reset contributions for Jan 2019 so I can max out 2018 Roths for DH and I.
Now that the market is down a bit I sure wish I could contribute more but we keep things pretty slim round here 24/7.
We're getting awfully close to the 8 yr mark til 2027. cheers everyone
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2027 is looking like my year to FIRE! My wife and I will be 40, and our two kid will be 13 and 11.
Mortgage is paid off.
We currently have ~450k invested, Planning to end up with around $850k stash.
Current net worth: $850k @ 31 years old.
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@Tortoise Banker welcome! Congrats on having your mortgage paid off and a clear stash goal.
Feeling rather stalled out on my financial goals at the moment. Looking forward to maxing out Roth IRA this year and aiming to max out both Roth and 401(k) next year. House stuff is still a couple months out of settling. I have a few things on my "optimize" list I should tackle (cell phone; gifting car; adjusting contributions; reviewing spending).
How's everyone else doing? Any small or large goals completed or changes made you want to brag about?
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Lately I've focused more on debt-pay-down than 'stache-building. I checked mint yesterday, and finally got all debt below $200,000 (mortgage is slightly less than 90% of that total)
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I hope to join the 2027 cohort aged 47. We plan to retire when our son finishes high school in early Dec 2027 (end of NZ school year).
We hope to do 4 months travel/sabbatical in 2021 and drop down to part-time work after that but we'll see.
Currently we have a paid off house + about US$200K invested. Currently saving 50%, I'm at fulltime, wife at 60% FTE.
I get excited reading the 2018 & 2019 cohort threads.
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Congrats on your progress @Faramir! And reading the currently Fire-ing threads are so inspiring!
I have big news: WE PAID OFF OUR MORTGAGE this morning!! We are now a one house, one car, no debt family! It's such an amazing feeling! I'm so excited and just wish I could be yelling this at everyone today.
Will be blasting this in this office and adapting the lyrics to: ain't got no house note! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXXH4Fm9qh8
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Congratulations!
What will you be doing with that monthly flow that was going toward the mortgage?
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@talltexan maxing out Roth IRA, 401(k) and then moving onto a taxable account!
Haven't quite figured out the numbers yet, if I'm going to do a lump sum to Roth, or a percentage from each pay period. For 401(k) I just need to tell my boss to increase my contribution (oddly nervous about that judgement, are they going to shoot down a raise if I'm saving 30% to 401(k)??). I need to setup a taxable account and set up some automatic contributions- it's great to just have that money whisked away towards FIRE goals.
Is it odd that the extra savings has been harder to figure out for me than the debt repayment or budgeting? Maybe because those are more finite goals? How is everyone else dealing with throwing more money towards retirement?
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Is it odd that the extra savings has been harder to figure out for me than the debt repayment or budgeting? Maybe because those are more finite goals? How is everyone else dealing with throwing more money towards retirement?
Wow, congrats on the mortgage payoff! Nice work.
We max the IRAs, 401Ks and HSA (not necessarily in that order - I follow MDMs investment order post), and anything above that goes to taxable. So...it sounds like pretty much exactly what you're planning.
Is your boss directly involved with your 401k contribution? That does seem awkward. Ours is online and we adjust it ourselves, so HR does know what we contribute, but my boss doesn't.
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@rockstache thank you! And thanks for the response too. I forgot DH has his HSA he maxes out too. Do you calculate your savings rate or a set number to allocate towards your retirement buckets?
Yes, boss is directly involved with 401(k) contribution, no HR department- we're a tiny office and he deals with that change to payroll. Awkward.... I've tried logging in and I can't make the change.
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Do you calculate your savings rate or a set number to allocate towards your retirement buckets?
The HSA is a set amount, we just put in how much we want to contribute (for 2019 $7K I think), and they just divide it per paycheck. For the 401Ks we have to calculate the amount to max it out. So for 2019 $19,000, subtracted from gross salary to get the amount, and then divide it by the number of paychecks in the year (because if we max it out too early in the year, then we won't get the full company match).
But I'm not sure if that was what you were asking exactly? We just allocate everything beyond our necessities to 'retirement.' For now at least. So anything we make - anything we spend = retirement savings.
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@rockstache Thanks for your break down of info!
And sorry to be unclear, just trying to get my head around how best to max out our stash. Your equation of "anything we make - anything we spend = retirement savings" makes sense. That's how I tend to think of it but was also playing around with "anything we make - retirement savings= anything we spend (ie. needs, wants and vacations)".
I've tended to do well with a zero-based budget, everything allocated so the "wants" category doesn't inflate too much and lifestyle inflation of buying shredded cheese kicks in. Ha!
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@rockstache Thanks for your break down of info!
I've tended to do well with a zero-based budget, everything allocated so the "wants" category doesn't inflate too much and lifestyle inflation of buying shredded cheese kicks in. Ha!
Ah, yes I understand. I sort of....log in to my accounts at the beginning of the month and pay all the bills. Once that is done, if the amount to be left in checking/savings is going to be higher than what we typically need for spending the rest of the month, I sweep that amount into investments. So not really a zero based budget, but essentially the same sort of thing.
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2027 is my super optimistic goal to cut back to 20-hour part time in engineering. I will be 50 years old with a kid in high school.
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If 2027 turns out to be my "pull the ripcord year," my countdown clock tells me I have exactly 3000 days to go as of today.
But here's hoping that 2025 will work...
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Welcome to @SKL-HOU (love your user name!). Let's go for super optimistic- why not?? As we accomplish little goals on the way to FIRE it gets easier and easier, right?
Welcome to @frugalecon ugh... trying not to think of 3000 more days in my current job. Must. Find. Other work! If you need to jump ship to the 2025 thread we'll understand!
Had some great frugal "wins" this week of doing some meal planning and making a big batch of enchiladas for lunches and dinners as well as prepping salads to go with them. Also had a wonderful gardening session with my DH on Wednesday- we're working on a community garden project together and managed to get in an hour before it was dark. Just made me so happy to be outside in the dirt with him.
Any great moments this week for anyone else?
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Welcome, new folks!
...from the ghost of goals past....
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Maxed out 2019 Roth contribution today. Stoked to have been able to do it in one lump sum this year.
Only eight more years to go 2027 FIRE folks!
How are other people doing on their goals?
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I'm still waiting on income guidance for Tax Year 2018 before I finalize my Roth plans: I may have to convert those 2018 contributions into 2019 contributions. It's a nice problem to have.
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Now that it’s 2019, 2027 is sounding much closer!
This year I am going to focus on my mortgage and my retirement accounts. I’m doing the Frugalwoods Challenge and this is the area where I need to focus my efforts. I’ll be getting a govt pension (Lord willin’, haha) and my plan is to sell my suburban condo and move to Florida or Louisiana. Maybe sell Mickey pretzels at Disney, or volunteer at the WWII museum in NOLA.
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Welcome to the new joiners and congrats to all everyone's recent savings and payoff milestones!!
I'm anxiously awaiting the last couple forms to arrive so I can file my 2018 taxes and generate the $$ needed to fill out DH/my IRAs. Its always the tail wagging the dog I swear. Steal from this year's refund to fund last year's IRA.
Some exciting news (that was required for me to remain in 2027), my DH is now working after 11 yrs as a SAHD!!! Got himself a local govt job, and he's trying to maintain his schedule to finish his BA this year. His schooling is self paced and with the 50 hrs he's gone a week now (commute sucks) I fear he's going to fall behind and we'd have to pay for another semester. Its been an adjustment for everyone, but its fabulous and neither of us were honestly expecting that he'd find worthwhile enough work before graduating. So once a few full paychecks roll in, I'm going to cFiresim the heck out of our new status. Can't quite tell yet.
I'm still treading water at exactly 25% (5 yrs expenses) after the turmoil of the market the past few months. Looking forward to another dip now that we have 2 earners, then hopefully enough of a recovery to see that hard work pay off.
Lets make 2019 a truly memorable year towards our goals everyone!!!
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I updated my numbers--today is actually my birthday--and it's looking like I'm going to have to join 2029. My horribly extravagant lifestyle has gotten out of hand. You guys have been good to me, thank you!
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@talltexan don't let pesky projections get in the way of your dreams!! We're still so far out that I like to think that any setbacks (market, personal crisis, spending etc) will be fixed by outrageous optimism :D
As for me, I arbitrarily chose April 30 as my "can't take it any more" date for calculation purposes and it appears I have 1886 regular work days excluding any sick time I find reason to take. This also excludes any random days off that my schedule allows and any random call days (weekend and holidays) that I might have to do. I am pleased that although there are 3000 days until the end of April that in reality only ~62.8% of them are being dedicated to the man.
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Thanks for the encouragement. Mrs. TallTexan is considering a new job offer right now, we might be back in business soon.
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@talltexan don't let pesky projections get in the way of your dreams!! We're still so far out that I like to think that any setbacks (market, personal crisis, spending etc) will be fixed by outrageous optimism :D
This. My FI date shifts quite a bit based on what assumptions I feed into my plans. Do I buy a house here in a HCOL area? What do I want my post FI income to be? What if I go part time before FI? etc. Mostly the average date ends up around 2027, which is a long ways and many twists and turns from now.
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Thanks for the encouragement. Mrs. TallTexan is considering a new job offer right now, we might be back in business soon.
Woohoo!!!
I think mine is a pretty stretch goal to be in this group because I plan on potentially going down to 20-hour PT at this date (for a few years) instead of quitting. But too many unknowns at this point (son's college, healthcare, my actual savings, etc.). But I am going to stay in this group :)
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@talltexan don't let pesky projections get in the way of your dreams!! We're still so far out that I like to think that any setbacks (market, personal crisis, spending etc) will be fixed by outrageous optimism :D
This. My FI date shifts quite a bit based on what assumptions I feed into my plans. Do I buy a house here in a HCOL area? What do I want my post FI income to be? What if I go part time before FI? etc. Mostly the average date ends up around 2027, which is a long ways and many twists and turns from now.
My most cherry picked assumptions keep me in 2027, not the average ones... I figure moving at any point would force me to make housing decisions that wont derail me too much. I might favorite the fancy houses when idly searching for FIRE locations but Ive never bought any of them when faced with real move prospects.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I hope to join the 2027 cohort aged 47. We plan to retire when our son finishes high school in early Dec 2027 (end of NZ school year).
We hope to do 4 months travel/sabbatical in 2021 and drop down to part-time work after that but we'll see.
Currently we have a paid off house + about US$200K invested. Currently saving 50%, I'm at fulltime, wife at 60% FTE.
I get excited reading the 2018 & 2019 cohort threads.
Work have agreed to allow me 4 weeks' unpaid leave per year on top of my current 4 weeks' paid leave per year. This should make the next few years of work more bearable. I feel like this is the start of the long slow downshift. Combined savings rate will drop to about 45% from 50% but will be worth it for an increase in quality of life.
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Hi!
Throwing my hat in as well.
Our current plan is to FIRE in August 2027. Our child will have just graduated high school, our home will be paid off (worth conservatively ~$500k by then) and our stash goal is about $800k by then. We will likely both still dabble in PT work for another few years, but also will evaluate selling our house/downsizing and traveling.
Current net worth of $323k, not including equity is just over $100k (not including our emergency fund and cash we're sitting on to invest in RE).
We are planning to invest in real estate (rentals, duplexes) as part of accelerating our strategy. Thus, our stash might be smaller but balanced with rentals throwing off passive income that are back of the napkin equivalent to our stash/withdrawal goals.
Is anyone else in the 2027 cohort investing in RE? We've been sitting on the sidelines for a few years due to our local markets being ridiculously hot, but we're seeing things soften and have widened our search to other cities. Looking forward to pushing some cash in as markets are cooling.
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Hi Everyone!
November 2027 is my goal FIRE date. I will be 35 and DH will be 39. We need a stache of 425K (4% is 17K) and will rely on passive income of 33K/year (non-taxable income). We will start getting a pension of 17K/year in 2054 when I am age 62. DH and I will also be eligible for a pension medical plan in which the cost will be covered by the pension.
We have a fairly complicated FIRE plan... but consistently spend 50K with mortgage and 35K without mortgage annually. We are both willing to, and likely to work part time most years in FIRE.
Currently 21.2% of the way there!
401K - 10.5K
457b - 41.5K
IRA - 16.1
DH IRA - 8.8K
HSA - 9.1K
Savings - 4K
TOTAL: $90,000
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Welcome nonprofit and Firery!!
I wish I had a stronger composure for real estate. Not sure we will stay here forever and my FIRE locations are not ideal for Rentals.
Firery, where is your other $33k coming from? Doesn't appear to be listed.
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@fuzzy math My husband receives VA disability benefits for service connected disability. I actually debated mentioning it by name because I feel sort of strange about it. Yes, my husband has issues from his service and I feel he should be compensated but all the benefits of the payment baffle me and makes me feel sort of guilty. His issues will never get better so the payments are guaranteed for life. And the money is non-taxable income. Which is huge for our FIRE plans because the amount we plan to withdraw from various accounts (17K) keeps us in the 10% tax bracket and eligible for a bunch of other benefits (which we don't plan on taking).
That's part of the reason our FIRE plan is complicated. We rely on the disability but also have various accounts that we will pull from and let others grow and then switch. Starting with IRA, then to 457b, then back to IRA and then old 401K.
In case anyone is wondering, the disability is 100% my DH's. If he passes or we get divorced, it goes away for me. It is risky but he is my life-love partner (divorce unlikely) and we have a life insurance policy for him so hopefully I'm covered. But it would seriously alter my FIRE plans. Not to mention we want to FIRE together!
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@fuzzy math My husband receives VA disability benefits for service connected disability. I actually debated mentioning it by name because I feel sort of strange about it. Yes, my husband has issues from his service and I feel he should be compensated but all the benefits of the payment baffle me and makes me feel sort of guilty. His issues will never get better so the payments are guaranteed for life. And the money is non-taxable income. Which is huge for our FIRE plans because the amount we plan to withdraw from various accounts (17K) keeps us in the 10% tax bracket and eligible for a bunch of other benefits (which we don't plan on taking).
That's part of the reason our FIRE plan is complicated. We rely on the disability but also have various accounts that we will pull from and let others grow and then switch. Starting with IRA, then to 457b, then back to IRA and then old 401K.
In case anyone is wondering, the disability is 100% my DH's. If he passes or we get divorced, it goes away for me. It is risky but he is my life-love partner (divorce unlikely) and we have a life insurance policy for him so hopefully I'm covered. But it would seriously alter my FIRE plans. Not to mention we want to FIRE together!
I get it, it can be a contentious thing and definitely something that us non military peeps have a harder time comprehending. My in laws are all military people and have disability payments. My FIL gets one for his sleep apnea and other aging related conditions. I asked him how they could prove sleep apnea was military related (he was an officer, never saw combat) - he responded with "well how can they prove it isn't?" Considering my husband has sleep apnea too, I'm pretty sure he (my DH) didn't get it from living on base. But those are the rules, and they are well intentioned rules and one of the few redeeming things that can come from a lifetime of sacrifices.
Its a great situation for your family because it doesn't prevent your DH from working. I hope he is physically well enough not to be suffering too terribly from whatever. Use what you've got to your advantage! It will certainly help you achieve FIRE much faster and provide a lot of stability if the market goes wonky around your FIRE date.
Depending on the terms of your accounts (and since I'm in a similar position), it might be better to consider getting into your 457 first before the IRAs. I plan on heavily converting our IRAs to Roths once FIREd.
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Hey, checking in for class of 2027. I'll be 55 then, and like some others, a pension benefit is the big factor in choosing that age.
My personal savings rate is about 60% (but hasn't always been). Between the pension, 401k, and an after tax brokerage account, if my math is correct I'll have a nice cushion on my expected expenses then.
Setting a reminder to check back in here at least once a year to see if my plan is on track.
Fingers crossed!
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Welcome!
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Passed a birthday, which caused my counter app to roll over to 7 years, 11 months, and change. Seems almost doable. (Though I haven’t given up on the 2025 cohort.)
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I'm a newbie here, but have been following MMM for a Little while now.
I'm a 2027 ish guy.
Currently 46 years old, with $600,000 saved we currently save just over 50% of our take-home pay and live off of $50,000 a year.
We stay quite busy having fun, traveling etc but also save more than most people make in a year (or two). My philosophy is gotta live today like tomorrow may never come because to be honest it might not, but at the same time i so badly want to be FI and work because i want to not because i have to.
Good thing is i love my job and it's afford me lots of time off. So once i get to FI/FU I'll stop working overtime and give up the supervisor position to just work the line giving us even more time to enjoy life. (7 days on 7 days off with 4 weeks of vacation a year. 1 week of vacation equals 3 weeks off!)
Medical will be the big deciding factor if i quit all together or work a little.
I could probably stop sooner but the pessemist in me thinks i need more money just in case, once i quit i don't want to have to do the walk off shame back to work.
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I'm a newbie here, but have been following MMM for a Little while now.
I'm a 2027 ish guy.
Currently 46 years old, with $600,000 saved we currently save just over 50% of our take-home pay and live off of $50,000 a year.
We stay quite busy having fun, traveling etc but also save more than most people make in a year (or two). My philosophy is gotta live today like tomorrow may never come because to be honest it might not, but at the same time i so badly want to be FI and work because i want to not because i have to.
Good thing is i love my job and it's afford me lots of time off. So once i get to FI/FU I'll stop working overtime and give up the supervisor position to just work the line giving us even more time to enjoy life. (7 days on 7 days off with 4 weeks of vacation a year. 1 week of vacation equals 3 weeks off!)
Medical will be the big deciding factor if i quit all together or work a little.
I could probably stop sooner but the pessemist in me thinks i need more money just in case, once i quit i don't want to have to do the walk off shame back to work.
Welcome Mike! My spend and save rates are about the same as yours, but I'm 9 years younger and have saved half of what you save. By your retirement age, you will be within 15 years of social security. Are you anticipating a much higher annual spend than what you have now?
Go curry cracker just wrote a new article about the value of social security that I've been musing over a bunch. It seems relevant to your situation
https://www.gocurrycracker.com/spending-future-social-security-income-now/
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Passed a birthday, which caused my counter app to roll over to 7 years, 11 months, and change. Seems almost doable. (Though I haven’t given up on the 2025 cohort.)
After some reflection and analysis, I am officially decamping for the 2025 cohort. I won’t return to 2027 unless there really is a financial market meltdown. Best wishes to all!
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Congrats!
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Fuzzy math,
Thanks for sharing the article, I'll have to run the numbers of my own situation. Currently i do not use social security in my calculations. If i get ss it'll be bonus. Now i believe it'll be there although I'm worried about what Uncle Sam will do to it by the time i get there.
To answer your question.... I think my spending will be similar to what it is now. In our plan is to have our home paid off in full by 55 or so, so that will free up roughly 12k a year. If we continue to spend the same that's alot of extra cash to use for enjoyment.
My bigger concern is medical insurance. It's bad now, with no end in sight. There's no telling what the system will look like In 10, 15 or 20 years. We'll just have to decide once we get there, but worst case senario is I continue working a job i love for the medical. Hopefully not but only time will tell.
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I'm working to a 2027 timeframe. I'm halfway to my target now, and there plenty of variables that could change things one way or the other, but hopefully I won't have to go longer than this.
And who knows, perhaps my job will become massively more enjoyable and I'll want to stay longer. But like many of us, I so very badly want to know that I can say 'fuck you' whenever I want. You know, actually out loud while walking away instead of just in my head while I sit in my cubicle.
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I hit my first $100K! Even with the small drop on Friday, payday put us over the threshold. I have a much smaller FI number than most here (425K), so this 100K is big.
Currently 23.5% of the way there!
401K - 10.6K
457b - 45K
IRA - 17K
DH IRA - 13K
HSA - 9.1K
Savings - 5.3K
TOTAL: $100,000
Currently 21.2% of the way there!
401K - 10.5K
457b - 41.5K
IRA - 16.1
DH IRA - 8.8K
HSA - 9.1K
Savings - 4K
TOTAL: $90,000
I think I also mentioned this is the first year we are an actual double income household so I am looking to contribute 50K to our freedom this year. The goal is to hit 150K by the end of 2019 which would be 35% to the goal. I'll check in later this year but I thought the first 100K was worth the post! First 100k took 3.5 years, next 100k should take less than 2 years.
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Congrats on getting to 100k! It's a big number for anyone. My FU number is smaller than my RE number. Im fortunate enough to actually like my job and plan on continuing to work just not a supervisor and no overtime once i hit FU. Which i hope to hit in 5 years. (to me FU is enough to live on but not what i want to live on, plus zero debt, house will be paid off in 5 years)
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@FireryFIRE that is exciting! Congrats!
We've been on such a good track and now this year is looking like we're falling off the rails. We've had some huge medical bills for IVF and now, happily, we're looking at family leave this year. Trying to figure out the whole two full-time working parents thing, health insurance, and the fact I need to leave my good paying job due to the horrific working conditions. Have applied to other jobs that are a reduction in wages but increase in quality of life and actually have HR departments. Things are looking up as far as working towards goal of becoming a parent but feeling like in this transition FIRE goals seem farther and farther away.
How have others "stayed the course" during these times of life change?
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@FireryFIRE that is exciting! Congrats!
We've been on such a good track and now this year is looking like we're falling off the rails. We've had some huge medical bills for IVF and now, happily, we're looking at family leave this year. Trying to figure out the whole two full-time working parents thing, health insurance, and the fact I need to leave my good paying job due to the horrific working conditions. Have applied to other jobs that are a reduction in wages but increase in quality of life and actually have HR departments. Things are looking up as far as working towards goal of becoming a parent but feeling like in this transition FIRE goals seem farther and farther away.
How have others "stayed the course" during these times of life change?
Everyone's life has periods of changes in financial situation. I think the bolded part in your post is the important thing, and realizing that mindless consumption is not how to get there. I "stayed the course" during my own time of change a couple of years ago by remembering that the goal is improved quality of life, and that the short-term expenses associated with my situation were not a long-term planned expense (like buying a new $$$ Truck on credit would be, for example). While there is a lot of emphasis on net worth in these forums, I think the steps you are describing above don't necessarily represent a huge deviation from the course. And congrats on the move towards parenthood!!
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Congratulations on the family leave @Vasilisa ! I'm hoping that means IVF was successful.
Don't be discouraged by the lower paying jobs. Job hunting can be really fun! And do not be afraid to negotiate for more. The job I'm at now offered me 8.5% more than what I was making at the time. I acted like it was a super low offer (it was because I was hoping for more) and was able to negotiate a total of a 23.5% raise. It took some time and some back and forth (they wanted to see my old pay stubs and I said NO) but I ended up with more money, better benefits and less stress. You never know what is out there until you try. I bet you'll be back on track and even better than you though by the end of the year.
@FireryFIRE that is exciting! Congrats!
We've been on such a good track and now this year is looking like we're falling off the rails. We've had some huge medical bills for IVF and now, happily, we're looking at family leave this year. Trying to figure out the whole two full-time working parents thing, health insurance, and the fact I need to leave my good paying job due to the horrific working conditions. Have applied to other jobs that are a reduction in wages but increase in quality of life and actually have HR departments. Things are looking up as far as working towards goal of becoming a parent but feeling like in this transition FIRE goals seem farther and farther away.
How have others "stayed the course" during these times of life change?
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How have others "stayed the course" during these times of life change?
Whoops, forgot to answer your question. I definitely have some times where everything seems to be going wrong, but it helps me when I look back at how far I've come. In December 2015 I was 84K in debt (CC, Student loans, car loan) and no savings. In December 2018 I had 25K in debt and 75K in retirement/savings. That's a huge difference in only 3 years. The days go by slow but the years go by fast. Take a look at your past and see how far you've come in a realatively short time.
Another tip, the attitude of gratitude can help turn your day around. You have so many wonderful things in your life to be grateful for, say it out loud or write it down. Even thank your huge IVF medical bill because it has allowed you to grow your family. I'm so grateful people have this as an option.
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I hit my first $100K! Even with the small drop on Friday, payday put us over the threshold. I have a much smaller FI number than most here (425K), so this 100K is big.
Currently 23.5% of the way there!
401K - 10.6K
457b - 45K
IRA - 17K
DH IRA - 13K
HSA - 9.1K
Savings - 5.3K
TOTAL: $100,000
Currently 21.2% of the way there!
401K - 10.5K
457b - 41.5K
IRA - 16.1
DH IRA - 8.8K
HSA - 9.1K
Savings - 4K
TOTAL: $90,000
I think I also mentioned this is the first year we are an actual double income household so I am looking to contribute 50K to our freedom this year. The goal is to hit 150K by the end of 2019 which would be 35% to the goal. I'll check in later this year but I thought the first 100K was worth the post! First 100k took 3.5 years, next 100k should take less than 2 years.
woo hoo! If you can keep up $50k a year you will hit your goal 2-3 yrs earlier than 2027
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@FireryFIRE that is exciting! Congrats!
We've been on such a good track and now this year is looking like we're falling off the rails. We've had some huge medical bills for IVF and now, happily, we're looking at family leave this year. Trying to figure out the whole two full-time working parents thing, health insurance, and the fact I need to leave my good paying job due to the horrific working conditions. Have applied to other jobs that are a reduction in wages but increase in quality of life and actually have HR departments. Things are looking up as far as working towards goal of becoming a parent but feeling like in this transition FIRE goals seem farther and farther away.
How have others "stayed the course" during these times of life change?
Congrats!! You will find ways for parenthood not to be the huge $$ suck that everyone says it is. #! Tip is accept free stuff! If you are still job hunting try to find a situation that allows you to work a slightly different shift than your DH to cut down on daycare costs or merely just time the kiddo will spend in care. You pay less in taxes by having a kiddo so if you're resourceful you will hopefully come out close to even in the end (not that $$ is the measure of success for parenthood).
AS for me, I've been doing some calculations and if DH and I can save an additional $600 a month (totally doable after a couple debts are paid off) we will be on track to hit the double comma club possibly by April of 2026. It opens up a lot of options for us. We went on our big long overdue anniversary adults only vacation to Spain in March and it was amazing how relaxed I was away from work. It was also amazing and not surprising that I want to move there when I retire haha. I wish we were young enough to be able to do the globetrotter thing with kids, but as it stands my kids are 12, 9 and 7. They will be 20, 17 and 15 when we hopefully call it quits. Not exactly the right time to pull them out of US unless we were able to plant it somewhere or treat it like a semester or year of foreign exchange (which the kids would probably hate living with their parents). These next 8 years will tell us who they end up being and if they are open to that sort of thing.
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Thanks for all the positive responses, folks. Yes, looking at a November due date and feeling pretty thrilled about it. Definitely rereading the MMM blog posts on parenting and Frugalwoods has had some great frugal parent posts as well. As we've been telling people, the free stuff offers are coming in- hooray for hand me downs.
Still looking for other work in the midst of first trimester low energy and sickness.
Certainly practicing gratitude and reflection on how far we've come- good reminders when you're in the trenches.
@fuzzy math Sounds like a wonderful trip. I feel that sense of relaxation every weekend- love my non-work life and am thrilled at any time I'm not in the office. We have a great home life, many community garden projects and a great community. Living the dream 128 hours a week, ha!
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@fuzzy math Isn't it so weird how much your FIRE date can change? When I first started my BEST FIRE date was 2035 (20 years) and I thought that was awesome/super early! But over the years you learn to optimize more and more, plus your earnings usually go up. After paying off debt and upping my savings I'm at 2027 (12 years), although as others pointed out because I have continued to up my savings rate, I could FIRE as early as 2024 (9 years)
Not to mention all the different dates if you incorporate coastFI, leanFI, or BaristaFI. I've got multiple contingency plans..
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FireryFIRE
It would be awesome to be able to FIRE in half my estimated time!
Every year i seem to beat my expectations. I've essentially tripled my total investments every 3.5 years. Like you said, the older i get the more i make and the more i invest.
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This was a particularly brutal work week, but the knowledge that I can retire in November 2027 made it a little better. I’m also back to putting money into my TSP after taking out some money for surgery. It was money well spent but it also feels good to get that TSP match again.
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*bump* Where my 2027 peeps at??!
Its been a particularly fruitful past 3 months here in the fuzzy math household. DH and I received raises, totaling between us $36k. DH is also actively job hunting and if that pans out he will likely start out $15k higher than where he is now (with much better retirement account options too).
Using Personal Capital for a lazy person's estimation of funds, it appears we might be FI by 2025. The question at that point is how the market conditions look and whether I'd want to OMY (one more year) it. Back when 2027 was the minimum date to achieve FIRE I had promised myself I would quit no matter what our accounts looked like. Now it appears we have options. I don't want to be one of those people moaning about fat FIRE and OMY, but I just have no idea what life will look like then. I don't want to make myself any promises about FIREing earlier that I will later regret, because once uttered they're hard to take back.
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Still here. Still chugging along. We have one child now, so daycare is an expense, but we seem to have absorbed it pretty well. The real trouble will be if we decide to have a second kid. Things will get much tighter at that point, but I'm happy that we have a good chunk invested and that will keep working for us even if we go through a few years of not being able to invest as much. 2027 still seems like a good bet for now, if not earlier.
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Got a job in a different Division this month for $17k/year more. Same pension, but the "high 3 average" rule makes this a big deal. :D
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I've probably mentioned the project to make a within-city move in this thread before. My wife and I looked at some *Fabulous* new construction houses in North Charlotte last night. I thought they had everything she wanted. She thought they were too expensive.
Will keep the group posted, because I'm comprehending that this is a decision that could really move the needle wrt RE.
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*bump* Where my 2027 peeps at??!
I’m still here. I’m learning more now how groovy my HSA is and why it can be helpful flor lowering taxes and growing investment $. Wishing I had signed up a couple years ago instead of 2019. Oh well.
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I have no idea if I still belong here. I will give myself a few months to figure it out. I could have stayed the same very stressful course and probably moved up a couple of years sooner while leaving my SO floundering in his career. Instead, We just made a large overseas move where SO will be the main bread winner (making less than 1/2) of what I made and I will work part time or maybe completely switch careers, I have no idea. Not sure how our expenses or our income will be changed because of all this. But hoping for a lot less stress. We were just under $500k before we started bleeding money for the move. But it should be mostly reimbursed soon. Hopefully.
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Need advice cohorts!
I mentioned above how my FIRE date was changing with all the increased saving and increased income. If that market doesn't go wonky, the very earliest I could FIRE is May 2023. This is a huge jump up from my original November 2027 plan.
Now here's my "problem." We were able to cut the date because we bought an inexpensive house in a great neighborhood 4 years ago (spent 215K, instantly appraised for 235K). We made tons of upgrades including new roof (covered by insurance), new windows/doors (10K), new kitchen (10K) and new exterior paint. With the hot market here in AZ, we have 100K - 140K of untapped equity in our home. Even with all these upgrades, I still do not like our home. I dislike the layout and all the little issues associated. We are REALLY interested in getting a new home but are suffering from lifestyle inflation. We really want a nice home that we can spend the next 10 years in.
What should we do?
Option A. Buy a house in 400K price range that will make us happier and use equity as down payment. (Would raise mortgage about $500, pushes FIRE date back to ~2027)
Option B. Buy house in 315K price range that will be not as nice but better layout (Slow rehab. Mortgage does not increase)
Option C. Stay put, stay on track to FIRE early
Option D. ????
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I'll join in here. My retirement date is Aug. 4, 2028, but DH is July 25, 2017--that's the earliest we can reitre with our full pensions. I'll be 57 and DH will be 60. I like my job and also need to take my health ins into retirement. He hates his job so I'm letting him off a year before me.
Right now we have:
430K in 401K
7K in my Roth
10K in his Roth
So less than 450K
We have a bit over 100K in equity in house. I plan to sell at retirement and rent. Right now we pay 1000 monthly in tax and 400 in HOA fees so renting in another state for 1600 or 1700 for a similar place will be practically be free. I feel like we basically "rent" our house now.
We are managing to save 70K annually--just started MMM less than a year ago. I figure we should have 1.5m in investments, plus our pensions and SS. I haven't done all the math but it seems doable. Anyway, not working a minute longer than 8/4/28--it's a Friday and the end of a pay period. :)
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Welcome Denise!! I like that you are already scoping out Fridays for retirement.
@Valvore - your options remind me a whole lot of what people got caught up in from 2006-2008. Be very wary of assuming all of your instant equity is real and tangible and will continue to be so in the next few years. I think we are in for a hurt. Having a nice roof or exterior paint will not raise the appraisal on your home, but its something that come inspection time a person might discount or negotiate for lower if they weren't in good condition. I bought a home in 2008 with lots of equity, put money into it and walked on it in 2012 when I was underwater 100k (plus the other 60 of lost "real equity")
Honestly, if I didn't have kids I'd be looking to rent ( if you have your 2 years into the home so you don't pay gains on it) and wait for the market to cool off. Sell high, sit tight and wait for others to be distressed to find something else you want. $400k+ is a fairly large gamble considering what your FIRE budget is going to be. Obviously this mindset comes from a person scarred by 2008 and it may never repeat, but I'm hearing more and more people talk the way you're talking and it makes me think it could happen again.
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Did a little math. Out of 230K, we bring home 150K--taxes, health ins., life ins, union dues, FICA, Medicare, blah blah blah. Out of that we currently save 42%, or 62K (does no include 401K match of 7K) and spend 87K. Most savings are pretax and some after tax. We have 450K so far--just started super saving. We also have about 100K equity in house. Other than house, no debt. I figure we'll have 1.5M in 9 years when I retire at current savings rate. So we should be able to pull out 60K. We also won't have kids at home and college costs or mortgage since I want to sell and move to Lower COL area and rent for the costs of property taxes and HOA fees in NJ.
Our pensions though might be another 60K. Seems like we'll have way more than we'll need. Hmmm. . . What to do, what to do. . . Mustachian People Problems.
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I may have joined another cohort earlier, but 2027 is my target date now.
I will be the senior citizen of this group - I’ll be 60 then, wife 57.
Short-term goals are payoff mortgage in 2020 (c$36k balance today), payoff car loans in 2021. Then start saving for living expenses for years 2027-2031. Plan is not to start pensions and withdraw from retirement accounts until 2032.
I might actually just take a sabbatical for one year then go back to working again. I’m fortunate as I don’t mind my job (self-employed). Wife however will surely retire as she has a semi-stressful corporate job.
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I'd moved myself to 2029, but the numbers that people are sharing here seem more like the talltexan household (many people in 2029 have below $200,000 saved). I might be able to join you guys again!
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2027 is my "conservative" target year (no inheritances, no big raises, no big spending reductions). I'll turn 38 towards the end of that year. I'm single, with no kids, so there are a few big life changes that could change that date.
I don't plan to stop working completely, but I hope to re-align my career more around my well-being and my interests rather than around making money. I'm a lawyer, but I've always wanted to write books.
My big debate in the next year or so is when (or whether) to buy a condo. The real estate market here in Vancouver is completely insane - $500,000 minimum for a one-bedroom condo anywhere central, and $1 million+ for a single family home in almost the entire commutable region. The year I moved here, real estate prices increased 30% in a single year. A mortgage, even with the large down payment I have saved, would cost significantly more per month than my current rent (and that's before adding property taxes, condo fees, insurance, etc.). So for now I'm waiting it out and adding all that money I save to my stash.
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Targeting a fat FIRE in 2027.
DW and I will be mid 40s. Kids will be 14, 11 and 9.
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I am going to join in here as a goal! So many unknowns between now and 2027 but why not shoot for it!
Current age - 32, DH and I have two kids and plan to have 1-2 more
Found 2027 just by looking at 401k and IRA account projections just in case having more kids stagnates our savings (so not counting HSAs, taxable, or home equity). Also have some conservatism in our projected spending due to health care unknowns.
Right now looking for $1.4M as the goal and will be adjusting as expenses change.
Will be 40 in 2027 so that sounds fabulous. Current kids would be 12 & 10, future kids would be at most 7 & 5. Would potentially shoot for part time work while they are in school if finances/health care doesnt work out! Hoping by 2027 to be done working full time either way!
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Checking in! Aiming for my 40th birthday! SO will be 45. We're currently approximately 39% towards our (ever evolving) FIRE number.
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Welcome!
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I think I'm going to move to this cohort as well. We've been rather blessed since we started this journey with some big increases in income, a side gig that now pays an additional $20-$30k/yr among other things. My estimates have us closer to 2025 for our FIRE #, but that's assuming 6% real CAGR, which I don't think we can count on the next 5-6 years. Plus I doubt I'll actually pull the trigger in 2025 as the kids would be 9 and 7.
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We're sending a lot of cash flow toward fixing up/selling our old house. Hoping the market hangs on, as we have some debt against a taxable investment account, and I don't want to feel stupid for going that route instead of just cashing it out.
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Making a yearly check-in. I'm still on track for 2027, although we are considering making a move that would increase expenses considerably for the sake of the kids. Still waffling on the right course of action. Happy New Years!
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I'll join in here. My retirement date is Aug. 4, 2028, but DH is July 25, 2017--that's the earliest we can reitre with our full pensions. I'll be 57 and DH will be 60. I like my job and also need to take my health ins into retirement. He hates his job so I'm letting him off a year before me.
Right now we have:
430K in 401K
7K in my Roth
10K in his Roth
So less than 450K
We have a bit over 100K in equity in house. I plan to sell at retirement and rent. Right now we pay 1000 monthly in tax and 400 in HOA fees so renting in another state for 1600 or 1700 for a similar place will be practically be free. I feel like we basically "rent" our house now.
We are managing to save 70K annually--just started MMM less than a year ago. I figure we should have 1.5m in investments, plus our pensions and SS. I haven't done all the math but it seems doable. Anyway, not working a minute longer than 8/4/28--it's a Friday and the end of a pay period. :)
Since I wrote this in just Sept we are now over 500K! The market has just been amazing. We've saved 60K this year and spent just short of 100K and 85K went to taxes, ins, and other payroll deductions. I don't think we've saved more than 20K in any year ever. MMM has changed my life. Bracing myself for a market drop but also buying some years in dh's retirement system. Really looking forward to retirement but enjoyng every day.
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SP500 index fund in my 401K gained over 30% last year. Too bad I have positions in other indices that didn't do as well.
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I've decided to take a sabbatical no later than 2024, and move abroad with my kids (my oldest will be graduating high school then) so we can all experience another culture before they're completely raised and gone. At best it will be a semester, at worst it will be a summer. This will almost certainly require me quitting my job, there is no way they would actually grant me a sabbatical or more vacation time than 3 weeks. Hopefully my DH will be able to work remotely during that time. Depending on how long we are gone for, it might be possible for me to get my job back because it will likely take them forever to fill the position.
We won't be FIRE ready but we will hopefully be 80% + of the way there. If I return to no job, I can either work locums out of town part time, or take a coast FIRE job part time.
A friend's young adult kid died a month ago and it really got me thinking about taking control and seizing the day. I also read Tanja Hester's Work Optional book and there was a huge focus on designing your life around the things that are important to you. Life is too short to not do this with my kids because I'm too trapped at work. Once they're grown and gone I just can't imagine a time where we would all be able to do extended travel like this. I am so looking forward to this experience with them and I hope it primes them to be world nomads like we want to be when we FIRE.
This concept really helps break up what would otherwise be a number of monotonous work years. My mini milestones are as follows:
Jan 2020 - vesting in my 401k - celebrating with an expensive steak dinner in 3 weeks
Jan 2022 - vesting in my pension - celebrating TBD but this represents true FU status
Summer 2023 (possibly as soon as) - summer 2024 (no later than) - aforementioned sabbatical and live abroad experience
After all that FIRE will be icing on the cake :)
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I've decided to take a sabbatical no later than 2024, and move abroad with my kids (my oldest will be graduating high school then) so we can all experience another culture before they're completely raised and gone. At best it will be a semester, at worst it will be a summer. This will almost certainly require me quitting my job, there is no way they would actually grant me a sabbatical or more vacation time than 3 weeks. Hopefully my DH will be able to work remotely during that time. Depending on how long we are gone for, it might be possible for me to get my job back because it will likely take them forever to fill the position.
We won't be FIRE ready but we will hopefully be 80% + of the way there. If I return to no job, I can either work locums out of town part time, or take a coast FIRE job part time.
A friend's young adult kid died a month ago and it really got me thinking about taking control and seizing the day. I also read Tanja Hester's Work Optional book and there was a huge focus on designing your life around the things that are important to you. Life is too short to not do this with my kids because I'm too trapped at work. Once they're grown and gone I just can't imagine a time where we would all be able to do extended travel like this. I am so looking forward to this experience with them and I hope it primes them to be world nomads like we want to be when we FIRE.
This concept really helps break up what would otherwise be a number of monotonous work years. My mini milestones are as follows:
Jan 2020 - vesting in my 401k - celebrating with an expensive steak dinner in 3 weeks
Jan 2022 - vesting in my pension - celebrating TBD but this represents true FU status
Summer 2023 (possibly as soon as) - summer 2024 (no later than) - aforementioned sabbatical and live abroad experience
After all that FIRE will be icing on the cake :)
This sounds like a great plan. Thoughts on where to go abroad? A good friend is doing a version of this living in Guadalajara for a couple of years (also yielding a thoroughly bilingual kid).
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I've decided to take a sabbatical no later than 2024, and move abroad with my kids (my oldest will be graduating high school then) so we can all experience another culture before they're completely raised and gone. At best it will be a semester, at worst it will be a summer. This will almost certainly require me quitting my job, there is no way they would actually grant me a sabbatical or more vacation time than 3 weeks. Hopefully my DH will be able to work remotely during that time. Depending on how long we are gone for, it might be possible for me to get my job back because it will likely take them forever to fill the position.
We won't be FIRE ready but we will hopefully be 80% + of the way there. If I return to no job, I can either work locums out of town part time, or take a coast FIRE job part time.
A friend's young adult kid died a month ago and it really got me thinking about taking control and seizing the day. I also read Tanja Hester's Work Optional book and there was a huge focus on designing your life around the things that are important to you. Life is too short to not do this with my kids because I'm too trapped at work. Once they're grown and gone I just can't imagine a time where we would all be able to do extended travel like this. I am so looking forward to this experience with them and I hope it primes them to be world nomads like we want to be when we FIRE.
This concept really helps break up what would otherwise be a number of monotonous work years. My mini milestones are as follows:
Jan 2020 - vesting in my 401k - celebrating with an expensive steak dinner in 3 weeks
Jan 2022 - vesting in my pension - celebrating TBD but this represents true FU status
Summer 2023 (possibly as soon as) - summer 2024 (no later than) - aforementioned sabbatical and live abroad experience
After all that FIRE will be icing on the cake :)
This sounds like a great plan. Thoughts on where to go abroad? A good friend is doing a version of this living in Guadalajara for a couple of years (also yielding a thoroughly bilingual kid).
I speak some Spanish so I would prefer a Spanish speaking country. Spain, Panama, wherever is cheap and politically stable in 4 years! Kids have opinions already and no one seems that interested in Spanish, but they do want to go to Portugal (perhaps just to be contrarian). We will need a hard deadline for a language choice in the next couple years!
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Seven more years, 2027 cohort! How are those goals coming along?
2019 was a really rough year with a pregnancy loss and getting laid off from work but it was also positive in realizing we were in such a good place financially and also becoming pregnant again.
2020- have already maxed out Roth IRA and realized that I had hit the six figure net worth without realizing it- very exciting. Need to sit down and review new financial goals for the year but feel incredibly comfortable with where we're at currently- definitely coasting!
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Seven more years, 2027 cohort! How are those goals coming along?
2019 was the year I found the FI community, so we’ll call that a good year.
2020 should be the year I hit half of my FI goal number.
I also have a big non-financial goal this year: I plan to start submitting my novel manuscript to literary agents/publishers.
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Need advice cohorts!
I mentioned above how my FIRE date was changing with all the increased saving and increased income. If that market doesn't go wonky, the very earliest I could FIRE is May 2023. This is a huge jump up from my original November 2027 plan.
Now here's my "problem." We were able to cut the date because we bought an inexpensive house in a great neighborhood 4 years ago (spent 215K, instantly appraised for 235K). We made tons of upgrades including new roof (covered by insurance), new windows/doors (10K), new kitchen (10K) and new exterior paint. With the hot market here in AZ, we have 100K - 140K of untapped equity in our home. Even with all these upgrades, I still do not like our home. I dislike the layout and all the little issues associated. We are REALLY interested in getting a new home but are suffering from lifestyle inflation. We really want a nice home that we can spend the next 10 years in.
What should we do?
Option A. Buy a house in 400K price range that will make us happier and use equity as down payment. (Would raise mortgage about $500, pushes FIRE date back to ~2027)
Option B. Buy house in 315K price range that will be not as nice but better layout (Slow rehab. Mortgage does not increase)
Option C. Stay put, stay on track to FIRE early
Option D. ????
Why do you want a new house? Really. will spending more money on a different home make you happier? Once you retire early what will you do with your time? will you sit in the house all the time? lots of questions here and you don't need to answer each individually, at least not on here, but you should be asking yourself these questions and more.
I am in a similar situation. we purchased our home, it's nothing fancy, it's half paid for now. The layout is ok - not a dream home or anything, the neighborhood is just ok. louder than I like, some inconsiderate DB live here. Traffic is nightmare in this area due to rapid growth and no infrastructure. So I've often said we'd stay here until we hit FI then sell it and use the money to buy something we really want. Of course even with the money it's going to cost us more OR we keep this house and travel with the money we'd have other wise spent on a new home. Because what value will I get out of the newer home vs this one? Will that value really make any difference in my happiness? For the me answers are not much and probably not. I will gain more value out of having this humble home paid for and free to travel and visit any place and anyone I like when I want is more important to than where I live.
I used to own the home that I dream of now but had to sell and move due to a job loss and change. I wasn't happier in that home, it was better than this one but in the big picture probably not worth it.
so the point of my rambling is you need to ask yourself these questions and decide what has more value, what your plans are. If you are going to stay in the house, you have lots of family close by who you will entertain at that new place, then maybe it is worth it. For us, we have no family to speak of that ever comes here, nor ever will so if I were to buy the 5 acre lot with a 2000SF home and pool out back it would jsut be a waste of money for me and my wife to rattle around in when we aren't visiting out of town friends and traveling.
I'm not super frugal, not much of a mustachian in that respect but we save over 60% of our total income but we budget 15k per year on vacation/entertainment while trying to minimize other things. I would never suggest you don't buy something that has large value to you, your life style and your plans I would just suggest you really evaluate the value. Not always an easy task.
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Are we all still alive 2027ers??
I am hoping there is world travel still as a possibility after I FIRE. Still stacking those dollars. Nothing much to report other than that I am not currently set up to adequately home school my children, so world schooling is probably out too :p
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Still alive, still in the slow accumulation phase. This prompted me to rerun my numbers and see what the trajectory looks like given all of the recent ups and downs. Unless things go much worse, the timeline looks similar for me. I'm also starting to turn the corner towards the annual baseline change starting to outrun my annual contributions, which is a neat feeling. I like seeing those soldiers at work.
Honestly, given all that has been going on in the world, I also feel very fortunate (and privileged) to be in the position that I am. I have upped my charitable contributions this year with a shift towards more local and social justice type organizations (local food banks, NAACP, etc.) than prior years that have been more conservation focused.
I think the shift in workplace from office to home has also made me realize how much FIRE has to offer. I'm looking forward to it. I will likely continue some low level form of work, but certainly not as much as my career requires at present and focused towards more rewarding work than gotta-do work.
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Emotionally I'm a mess (it's the kids), but the last three months have shaved our biggest line item (Childcare) down to zero. Haven't had the courage to accurately measure this and put it all in the #stonkmarket. Turns out I would have made some money.
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Honestly, given all that has been going on in the world, I also feel very fortunate (and privileged) to be in the position that I am. I have upped my charitable contributions this year with a shift towards more local and social justice type organizations (local food banks, NAACP, etc.) than prior years that have been more conservation focused.
I think the shift in workplace from office to home has also made me realize how much FIRE has to offer. I'm looking forward to it.
+1 to all of this. My company is a very old school style place and working from home has never been an option until now. They have plans to begin returning people back to the office shortly, and will never allow working from home as a regular thing. I don't personally have to go back until September, but even though that is a few months away I am dreading it. Being home with my husband and kid has been a dream. Saving all the money on childcare hasn't hurt either, and all the savings that hasn't gone to charity has been dumped in the market.
Retirement still feels really far off though, so it's good to come here and get a little encouragement. Watching my coast age drop is pretty uplifting too.
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I can't help but feel like a lot of southeastern states are going through a dramatic wake-up call this week. Our employer keeps pushing back the timeline for when we will begin working on-site again.
My wife's employment looked doubtful for a while, but she's now a lot more secure again. Hopefully everyone here is making progress toward that 2027 date!
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I'm still employed, and still on track for FIRE in 2027 (or earlier)! All raises and bonuses this year have been cancelled, but I consider myself fortunate to still be employed full-time. My firm is starting to get busy again, so my employment is looking more secure. I'm also fortunate to live in a place that has been very successful at containing the virus.
My expenses have gone down slightly in the past few months, but not by that much. I didn't eat out much before COVID, I don't have kids, and I don't own a car or pay for a bus pass. I've donated some of the extra.
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I'm still on track to retire in 2027. Work has been something else and my friends and I joke about being passengers on the Titanic. I have been thankful for the steady paychecks, good health insurance, and overall a very stable job, which I know so many people lack right now. As for where to move to in 2027 upon my retirement, I think Florida is now out of the equation due to its wacky leadership.
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It's hard to think of a state that's really covering itself in glory.
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we are still here, still moving forward. as for jobs, both my wife and I are minimally affected (THANK GOODNESS!) so we are still just punching away at investing. alot can happen in 7 years so who knows but I'm hopefull that 2027 will be our year of FI
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Someone private-messaged me that Rhode Island is doing well. Good job, Little Rhodey!
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Hey, folks - just checking in with an update since I started the thread. May 2027 is still my "no later than" date as it's the date I can retire directly from service to pension + medical.
Some of you may have seen that I managed a pretty big promotion to another division a bit over a year ago. Due to how pension value is calculated based on the average of your highest 3 years of salary, that move also started a fairly rapid ramp in potential pension value through August of 2022.
If I walked out the door September 1, 2022, I would be eligible for a pretty decent pension with medical in August 2032 - thus only needing to bridge 10 years with investments. ($3,400/month fixed payout pension, no COLA)
It's pretty tempting. I'll see where things are by then. I'm really enjoying 100% work from home (and it will be even better when school is safe again) - I'll have to see how much WFH they're going to allow post-pandemic.
I'm really, really not looking forward to the early-2022 planned move to a new office which broke ground a few months ago. Much further from my house timewise, if not milewise. Current location is central Austin, new location is on the outskirts on the far side of Austin.
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Congrats, @TomTX
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Thanks!
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Well, I did a basic net worth spreadsheet update and plugged in assumptions to https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/ - looking like solidly FI in another 2 years (2022) presuming the market is at least flat. I'm sticking officially in the 2023 group for now for a variety of reasons.
What a difference 4 years makes - I started this thread not much over 4 years ago and have trimmed 4 years off my planned retire date. The big promotion (20%) a year ago is the biggest thing - not just stashing more, the value of the pension goes up (average high 3 years)
Anyone else have updates? Time to make some new projections?
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Congratulations @TomTX, 2 or 3 years doesn't seem too long.
I'm still on track for 2027 although it should be a bit fatter FIRE than planned. We were going to go down to part-time in a couple of years but will delay that as my job has gotten better; due to covid-19 my work realised I'm just as productive working from home so they have allowed me to go full-time work from home permanently despite covid-19 now being almost wiped out here. They also allow me to take 4 weeks unpaid leave on top of the 4 weeks paid vacation everyone gets, so I'm keen to hold onto the job fulltime longer than planned. Probably 5 years more fulltime plus 2 years part-time for me. My wife is already at 0.6 FTE (24 hours per week).
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The nice thing about COVID has been more bike-riding. I can bike to my in-laws, a coffee shop, a grocery store, and a post office. I biked to my kids' school when the time came to pick up instructional materials for them.
Our single biggest budget line item under business as usual was childcare. That's been zeroed out, but not without stress. Our new biggest line item--mortgage payments--will be reduced by about 10% when we refinance, hopefully next month.
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Jan 1, 2021. Time to check in!
I made some big restructuring to my assets this year and have moved forward towards 3027 and may actually be FI a few years earlier.... But counting chickens and all that. The bug change was selling a piece of underutilized property in the mountains. All in costs ended up being about the same as leaving in a money market account, which is a win compared to some money black hole scenarios.
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Jan 1, 2021. Time to check in!
I made some big restructuring to my assets this year and have moved forward towards 3027 and may actually be FI a few years earlier.... But counting chickens and all that. The bug change was selling a piece of underutilized property in the mountains. All in costs ended up being about the same as leaving in a money market account, which is a win compared to some money black hole scenarios.
That’s a long time to wait :)
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This is still my "home" cohort, but I have no idea what I'm doing as far as FIRE plans. First, it was work hard to get to 2027. Then it was coast FIRE abroad or a sabbatical with my kids before they grow up and leave. Now the ability to live abroad is threatened and my hatred for working in healthcare has me considering a lot of other things... gig FIRE, having DH continue to work etc. I am trying to get to my full vesting in Jan 2022 then will evaluate. My monthly countdown on Facebook until Jan 2022 started at 21 months, I just hit 13 months a week or so ago and now a few people know what it means, which makes it more enjoyable to post.
As far as progress, I saved somewhere in the $150k range and had total appreciation of $200k so I'm now 60% of the way there. I am not optimistic that 2021 will bring appreciation in the market, and if it doesn't it will at least provide some options to buy funds on sale. Happy to see inflated numbers when the market is up, happy to buy cheap when the market is down. I'd like to say I could have another $200k increase year, but we shall see.
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Jan 1, 2021. Time to check in!
I made some big restructuring to my assets this year and have moved forward towards 3027 and may actually be FI a few years earlier.... But counting chickens and all that. The bug change was selling a piece of underutilized property in the mountains. All in costs ended up being about the same as leaving in a money market account, which is a win compared to some money black hole scenarios.
That’s a long time to wait :)
It is a very long term strategy. Leaving the typo because it is funny. :)
Fuzzy: yes, this last year has brought a lot into relief as far as FIRE date, and adjustable plans. Working from home (mostly) has brought a sharper focus to the elements I really like about my career (getting to work with/for smart good people), and those that I don’t like. The last year has also been such an outlier that I am very hesitant to make decisions based on it. I think a reduced hours, soft FIRE or glide path is seeming much more appealing. I am also beginning to appreciate how many options open up with FIRE, and how much of a transition it will be. Planning for that transition and how to make it, no matter how good it is, seems almost as important as the financial elements (See also like half of the journals of people who have crossed the FIRE threshold).
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Honestly, given all that has been going on in the world, I also feel very fortunate (and privileged) to be in the position that I am. I have upped my charitable contributions this year with a shift towards more local and social justice type organizations (local food banks, NAACP, etc.) than prior years that have been more conservation focused.
I think the shift in workplace from office to home has also made me realize how much FIRE has to offer. I'm looking forward to it.
+1 to all of this. My company is a very old school style place and working from home has never been an option until now. They have plans to begin returning people back to the office shortly, and will never allow working from home as a regular thing. I don't personally have to go back until September, but even though that is a few months away I am dreading it. Being home with my husband and kid has been a dream. Saving all the money on childcare hasn't hurt either, and all the savings that hasn't gone to charity has been dumped in the market.
Retirement still feels really far off though, so it's good to come here and get a little encouragement. Watching my coast age drop is pretty uplifting too.
Well, going back to the office in September never happened, and we had some very unexpected financial wins in 2020 (none of which had to do with anyone dying, thank goodness). In light of these, DH and I have decided to take our remote jobs and move across the country, closer to family. We're getting ready for a second baby, and he may decide to stay home after the kid is born. That will affect my retirement date, but not by as much as we would have thought, so I am sticking around this cohort. It's really weird and awesome when your investments do all the heavy lifting and your savings hardly makes a dent.
Either I will continue to work full time until 2027, or else I will drop to part time before that and we'll coast. Glenstache's comment about gliding to FIRE, and easing the transition process really resonates with me, and part time work is looking more appealing to me as well.
I'm happy to read the updates from everyone. We're all getting that much closer!
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The year we've left behind was strange. It almost felt bizarro-mustachian to me. I drove a lot less and biked a lot more. Cancelling childcare and several trips meant our cash flow really improved, and the investments we had at the start of the year improved so much more than we would have expected.
But my wife and I also had a series of health annoyances (no single one rises to the level of challenge the way cancer or even COVID would). Work became more stressful, demanding more attention, and she has to put a lot of energy into managing her mother who is the main person responsible for schooling our children. It's not obvious that we're eating more healthy food to me, so I'm worried that we're moving backwards there, apart from the obvious financial progress. And relationships have become very difficult to manage...we are extremely isolated, which I imagine many of you are, as well.
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Could write a novel, but so as to not bore you I'll keep it short.
Picked mid-year 2027. We'll both be in our (very) late 40s. Have three kids, the middle child will graduate high school in 2027. We moved here to be near family and planned on staying until the oldest two finished high school. Figure that'll be a perfect time to pick up and start the next adventure, whatever it may be.
House worth around $200k, no mortgage. Have two newish vehicles in good shape, both paid for. Over $100k in investments (most in IRAs and 403b, but have did open a taxable brokerage account because we needed somewhere else to put investments). As for income, wife makes a bit over $80k/yr now and we're on track to save about $50k. Last few years have been hard to really pin down spending (bought a house, had extra expenses for that, bought a second vehicle, etc.), but $50k feels like it's a bit of a stretch. $40k is completely doable, but if we push for $50k and miss by $2k that's better than aiming for $40k and surpassing it by $2k.
I've crunched numbers and we could retire today in Mexico with the whole family. It wouldn't be very exciting, just normal boring stuff (wouldn't have lots of vacations, going out for various activities, etc.). That could slowly change as kids left the nest. Not something I'm planning on doing, but it's a form of lean FIRE I suppose. In six years the three of us (wife, myself, and youngest kid) can easily live on what I project to be a 2% withdrawal rate if we moved somewhere like Mexico (doesn't have to be there specifically). The semi-optimistic projections show that's possible without selling the house, so any "but we have to throw lots of money at the kids because reasons" can be countered with "sell the house and slowly dole out the money from that."
Wife hasn't fully bought into the idea of fully retiring, but she has expressed interest when it's framed as something that doesn't HAVE to be permanent. I.e. we can try it out for a year or two since it's the perfect time to (youngest won't be starting high school yet, middle child may want a gap year and travel with us, etc.).
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I am posting here to commit myself. I will turn 45 in the summer of 2027, that seems like a good time to RE. I think I am FI now, but too afraid to pull the plug on work. I have a 7 and 10 year old who depend on me. Mostly I am just too stressed to figure out if I really could RE sooner. Actually, I passed my FIRE number but then I get nervous. I am posting here to commit myself to a date.
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We will support you in that commitment.
My wife is chasing a promotion right now, meaning that I have to be on-call at home (our kids are nine and six years) more than was my custom.
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2453ish days last I checked. Lordy.
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Welcome NumberJohnny and chasing_FI ! NumberJohnny it sounds like you have an aggressive savings goal, that's great! Chasing_FI you'd better not still be here in 2027.
Loretta I prefer to look at actual working days. 270 a year for 5 days a week minus any holidays, vacation etc. Takes the number down about a thousand.
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Welcome NumberJohnny and chasing_FI ! NumberJohnny it sounds like you have an aggressive savings goal, that's great! Chasing_FI you'd better not still be here in 2027.
Loretta I prefer to look at actual working days. 270 a year for 5 days a week minus any holidays, vacation etc. Takes the number down about a thousand.
THANK YOU! That is brilliant math! Plus I accrue 8 hours of leave per pay period and 4 hours of sick leave, so that's even less actual working days.
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My hat’s in the ring for 9/30/27. My youngest child will be in college and enough of the year will have elapsed to permit fully funding various retirement accounts.
I love my job, and expect I still will in 2027, but the lure of the road and the wild is just too strong, and life too uncertain and short. So once all the kids are out, it will be time to go off the grid for a while.
The blog and this forum have helped a lot to keep me focused and inspired over the years, and I appreciate that. I had been reticent to join the 2027 group out of a sense of privacy, but concluded the energy of shared purpose was worth it. I’m in!
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Throwing my hat in this ring (cohort). I previously added our net worth and stuff to this post, but as a complete newcomer, I'll hold off on doing that for now.
9/1/2027 is our date. 6 years and 6 months - seems far when I look ahead, but when I look at things that happened 6 years in the past, it seems like they just happened yesterday.
Good luck fellow '27ers!
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Welcome, desertadapted and estuaryflow!
Its nice to see people joining in, its a sign that the time is approaching sooner and allowing for people's plans to materialize.
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Thanks fuzzy math!
We've got a form of golden handcuffs in a pension that makes it likely (even if painful) to hold the line on our date. I struggle with whether that's the right decision on an almost daily basis, but in the end it means we can draw a couple years earlier and at a rate $15k higher / year than if we left early. It's just incredibly difficult to walk away from that kind of bond-like surety.
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Thanks fuzzy math!
We've got a form of golden handcuffs in a pension that makes it likely (even if painful) to hold the line on our date. I struggle with whether that's the right decision on an almost daily basis, but in the end it means we can draw a couple years earlier and at a rate $15k higher / year than if we left early. It's just incredibly difficult to walk away from that kind of bond-like surety.
Sounds a lot like me when I started this thread nearly 5 years ago. There are some nice pension perks to hitting that retirement date and retiring directly from service. For example, unused sick leave will count toward my retirement - meaning a bigger check forever. Leave earlier and the sick leave just vanishes. For me, that magic date is 2027. If I keep working, I can retire from service in mid 2027.
The thing is, I ran the numbers and I really don't need the bigger check. I'm already vested. I'll get a pension with health insurance 8 years after my current planned retirement in 2023. 4 more years beyond 2027 before I will be able to draw.
But so what? We can bridge the gap with our investments. Above 4% WR, but again - it's only 8 years, not 30. Works out fine in my favorite FIRE calculator.
https://engaging-data.com/will-money-last-retire-early/
Now, admittedly I ran the numbers seriously after I got out of my comfortable rut* and got a promotion to another Division 18 months ago netting me a 20+% raise. Once I hit 36 months with the new position (okay 36.5 since I transferred mid month) - the retirement check will fully reflect the 20% boost.
*There's a lot more to that decision and the motivation behind it, but likely outside the scope here. I've written about it before.
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Two years since my last post. All of my projections have been conservative so far. So I'm still on track for 2027 for age 55, with a bigger buffer than anticipated.
I just updated a bunch of spread sheets that I haven't really looked at in these last two years, which was a pleasant surprise how good the projections were, and that I've been lucky enough to outperform them so far.
This is getting to the point where it is starting to seem real. Six years doesn't seem like some possibly dystopian future where things may look completely different than they do now. Fingers crossed!
Milestone: even though the primary enabler for retirement is my pension income, I did cross the $1M barrier between 401k and a brokerage account. Also crossed the $1M barrier in real estate holding equity.
It has been a hard, bizarre year, so I feel fortunate to be in the position I currently am. But this working from home thing has given me a taste of the future, and I like it. A lot.
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Throwing my hat in for Jan 2027, date tbd. I started off in the 2022 cohort, but life. Been getting back on track over the past 2y and based on calcs today, can make 2027 work while meeting all kid goals including buffer for kid with ASD who may need more support whether financial or in my presence local to them rather off in a third world country where I would rather be. I love the yearly check in concept and will try to update every 6 months. Good luck everyone!
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Joining the 2027 club!
My last possible retirement date is Jan 1, 2027 since I will be 54 years and 3 months and I can take unlimited withdrawals from retirement accounts the year I turn 55 (from what I understand). I am 48 years 10 months at the moment.
I will likely retire earlier than that, and could afford to retire now based on my current number. But... I want to have choices in retirement, maybe live a better lifestyle than I do today. I also think the stock market is temporarily inflated at the moment, so I take 20% off my number to be safe.
Current priorities are home repairs, more liquidity (non-retirement savings), and paying down mortgage principal -- thought I am comfortable retiring if I still have a mortgage payment.
I manage my own IRA and 401K, but may be looking for ideas on taking more risks on a portion of the balance. Are investment clubs still a thing? Social/informational only, no actual investing.
Greg
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So... I'm leaving the 2027 cohort for the 2022 cohort.
It's not you, it's me.
Due to an unexpected work windfall and strong market, I reached my leanFI amount this week. To be honest, it is a bit of a shock and I'm struggling to process it. I'm likely going to do a coast for a couple of years before pulling the plug to get to my full FI target, so nominally the end of 2022.
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Congrats! I already moved to 2023... but I keep tabs on 2022 as well.
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wow, nice job @Glenstache and @TomTX !
My retired aunt is visiting us this week, it's easy to see why the lifestyle is so appealing!
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wow, nice job @Glenstache and @TomTX !
My retired aunt is visiting us this week, it's easy to see why the lifestyle is so appealing!
From your other posts, it sounds like you don't really have to wait til 2027 either!
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@TomTX , you're kind.
I've done better at accumulating the acorns than I've done at selling the "early retirement" idea to the other squirrels in my nest.
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I'm gonna add my name to the list of 2027 grads. Here's a bit of backstory on me, and hopefully some inspiration as well.
In September 2011, I was 27 and $30K in debt (all student loans) when I discovered Dave Ramsey. It took me about 15 months to pay it off.
In 2012 or 2013, I found MMM and followed his blogs and forums avidly for several years while I and my new DH started accumulating.
In 2016, I got pregnant and "fell off the wagon" in that I stopped reading about personal finance and stopped tracking my expenses and savings rates and all that good stuff. We still kept our expenses well below our income, still maxed out his TSP (~401k) and both IRAs, and still had decent money habits. But I didn't have as much time for my spreadsheets or budgets when I was a SAHM with one, then two kids at home.
In June 2021 (last month), we sold our house that had been a rental for the past three years. I figured it was time to dust off the ole spreadsheets and see how we were doing. Well, knock me over with a feather! We had $1,070,000 in liquid assets!!! We still can't believe it.
Now, why am I joining the 2027 cohort? My husband is active duty Army, and that 20-year pension is just too good a deal to pass up when we're this close (<6 more years for lifelong pension plus healthcare). I don't have a solid FIRE number, since our expenses are drastically different every place we live and we haven't yet decided where to settle down. But I'm confident that the pension ($3-4K per month) plus SWR on $1mil+ will be more than enough. So, I don't know how active I'll be on this thread, but I'm here. :-)
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Hi, Jexy! Welcome!
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I joined this thread in 2017, figuring that retiring in ten years ought to fit in with a Mustache crowd. Now here we are, 40% of the way into that journey. I hope that all of you are seeing good progress toward your financial goals!
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Throwing my hat in for Jan 2027, date tbd. I started off in the 2022 cohort, but life. Been getting back on track over the past 2y and based on calcs today, can make 2027 work while meeting all kid goals including buffer for kid with ASD who may need more support whether financial or in my presence local to them rather off in a third world country where I would rather be. I love the yearly check in concept and will try to update every 6 months. Good luck everyone!
Thank you for sharing! It seems like gauntlet peeps are all moving to the left and I'm considering jumping from 2025 to 2027, so it's good to see I'm not the only person moving downstream.
I sold a rental property and the tax hit took me back a year. I also made some adjustments to my withdrawal assumptions that added another year. There are still some things I could do to salvage 2025, but I haven't decided if I'm willing to do them yet!
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I've not joined a cohort yet, and well this might be my year - perhaps! I really am bad with math and calculators
Here are hubs and I's stats:
Currently networth 815k (150k is a paid-off condo Zillow says it is worth 180k)
We earn about 96k a year pretax. Save a lot of it- I think we are at least 50% saved, not sure.
46f and 49m young
Would like to 1.5- 2million to retire- have not a clue really because, health insurance.
When retired I will continue being an artist but full-time, I 'should' have more sales since I will be making more art.
Husband will continue working, at least part-time- he also wants to write novels.
I made 30k in art sales in 2019, 8k for 2020, these sales are inconsistent but should ramp up when I don't have a full-time job teaching art. I didn't include these sales in the pretax earning above, because we think of it as 'extra' and they go straight into Vanguard stocks.
We want to move, sell the condo probably, and move to somewhere more arty- would like a house, garden and room for a lovely art studio.
That will cost a bunch in the city we are thinking of (Asheville NC)- but are fine with renting there for a bit to suss it out.
What do you guys think? :)
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@dandypandys , the people in Asheville are very happy (I live in Charlotte, but have visited). If you invest wisely and continue to save, getting your stash into the goal range by 2027 should be manageable.
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that is nice to hear :) feels pie in the sky at this point, but exciting!
I spent some time after posting updating my savings rate file- 2020 was a 65% savings rate. So far for 2021 we have stashed 45k into the stock market ... so should be similar. Hubs will get a proper job soon- he has 1.5 years of his Masters left (free school !) to complete which means he only does part-time student jobs at the moment.
our IPS (I need to remind myself to rebalance to this again!)
20-25 international
20-25 bonds stable asset fund/gold/
60-80% all stocks. VSTAX- 50-60%ish.
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April 2027 is the end of my target range, so I thought I should poke my head into this thread.
Retirement planning in my household has always been very 401k heavy. April 2027 is the month that all becomes accessible without penalty, as well as being perfect timing for harvesting one last bonus check.
Rule of 55 could conceivably come into play to go earlier than that, but at the moment full time work from home is going smoothly so I haven't looking into that closely yet.
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April 2027 is the end of my target range, so I thought I should poke my head into this thread.
Retirement planning in my household has always been very 401k heavy. April 2027 is the month that all becomes accessible without penalty, as well as being perfect timing for harvesting one last bonus check.
Rule of 55 could conceivably come into play to go earlier than that, but at the moment full time work from home is going smoothly so I haven't looking into that closely yet.
Remember, the Rule of 55 becomes applicable on January 1 of the year you will turn 55.
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April 2027 is the end of my target range, so I thought I should poke my head into this thread.
Retirement planning in my household has always been very 401k heavy. April 2027 is the month that all becomes accessible without penalty, as well as being perfect timing for harvesting one last bonus check.
Rule of 55 could conceivably come into play to go earlier than that, but at the moment full time work from home is going smoothly so I haven't looking into that closely yet.
Remember, the Rule of 55 becomes applicable on January 1 of the year you will turn 55.
True, but I haven't rolled any other retirement savings into the current employers plan and that only makes up about 15% of my total savings. I may leverage rule of 55 if I go OYL.
Major life event has thrown a spanner in the works and I'm still in the process of seeing where all the dust will settle on the financial side of things. The math problem aspects of that are helping to distract from the emotional side of things.
However, I'm definitely wanting to do at least one full year of financial tracking first. (Even before the recent inflation became an additional factor needing to be accounted for in the overall picture.)
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The newest CPI inflation numbers are due out soon, and hints from the WH are that it's going to be huge.
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Yeah, I wish those inflation numbers weren't so big.
Gas seems like it's coming back down, at least.
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https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/12/business/cpi-inflation-report
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Another year has gone by. 2027 is only 5 years out. It's starting to trouble me that I think about retirement frequently now. 5 years is still a long time, it's not time to coast.
The global inflation situation is obviously a worry. If inflation remains at 8-9% for the next 5 years, I'll be in trouble with my retirement plan. Hopefully, that starts abating soon.
I am still on track on all of my projections, but the cushion has shrunk a bit. The price of my primary home has inflated enormously, but this does nothing but make my tax expenses worse.
I'm thinking about a late stage career change to boost my earnings and maybe get me out of my current feelings of stagnation and waiting around to retire in 5 years, which isn't a great head space.
I hope everybody is doing well!
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Another year has gone by. 2027 is only 5 years out. It's starting to trouble me that I think about retirement frequently now. 5 years is still a long time, it's not time to coast.
Closing in on 4.5 years out.... ;)
The global inflation situation is obviously a worry. If inflation remains at 8-9% for the next 5 years, I'll be in trouble with my retirement plan. Hopefully, that starts abating soon.
I-bonds. Maxed out 2020. Maxed out 2021 + $5k (paper) from tax refund.
I hope everybody is doing well!
Quite well. Moved to "no later than 2023" - and depending how serious my grandboss is about "return to the office" next month - could be sooner. I'm at a high level of IDGAF. Don't get me wrong - I like my job, I like that I'm making a positive difference in the world through that job. But I'm not going to tolerate the stupid new commute to the stupid new campus location. My best 2 annual evaluations have been for the last 2 years, where I was largely or entirely remote. The new commute would be brutal, even 1 day a week. Maybe I could do 1 day a month if there was an actual reason to go (such as an inperson meeting of the Division).
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I have roughly 2050 days left but who’s counting :)
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I have roughly 2050 days left but who’s counting :)
1,913 for me, but yea who's counting? ;)
ETA: But I normally do my countdown in months -- 62.9 months seems much more manageable than 1,913 days for some reason.
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Inflation worries combined with a narrow time to retire sure makes the series I bonds sound more appealing.
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Buy I bonds this week and you are guaranteed 7+% for 6 months followed by 9+% for 6 months.
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Posting in here as my first attempt to predict my FIRE date. I'm feeling some nerves putting it down like this even anonymously with the plan even though I've been working on my spreadsheet and ideas about it for years. We'll see how how it goes.
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We’ve also picked this year to FIRE, though we may feel comfortable doing it sooner based on what inflation and the market does.
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Welcome!
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How is everyone doing? Five years is going to go fast! What sorts of things are you implementing now with FIRE just 5 years away? Our goals are:
-Fund our deferred accounts to the max (our combined max allowable is $82,000/yr)
-Fund our Roths (we have't been doing this consistently since we've been focussing on tax-deferred investing)
Stretch goals:
-buy I-bonds
-Put any extra $ into our Marcus savings account (the 1.2% rate is not great, but it's better than other options)
Our NW (not including our house) is hovering around 1.1 mil now with the market drops. But we will need more money than some since our FIRE plan includes moving from a LCOL to a MCOL/HCOL location. If we go leaner on our budget in the next 5 years we might be able to get closer to our stretch goals, but for now we are doing our best. What's been going on with you, what are your 5yr plans?
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Wow, amazing how the time has flown!
I've heard people talking a lot about these series I bonds...do you already have some? They seem as though they could be useful in protecting against the inflation risks during the fragile period when you set aside your labor-market earnings, but would they be useful in a period like 2008 when you have massive stock market falls together with deflation?
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Wow, amazing how the time has flown!
I've heard people talking a lot about these series I bonds...do you already have some? They seem as though they could be useful in protecting against the inflation risks during the fragile period when you set aside your labor-market earnings, but would they be useful in a period like 2008 when you have massive stock market falls together with deflation?
We don’t have them yet, but want to add them to our portfolio as part of our emergency fund. Right now they are at 9.62% for the first 6 months and I doubt they’ll go way down for the following 6. I-bonds look like a good place to park some cash right now given inflation. But I’m certainly no expert.
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How is everyone doing? Five years is going to go fast! What sorts of things are you implementing now with FIRE just 5 years away? Our goals are:
-Fund our deferred accounts to the max (our combined max allowable is $82,000/yr)
-Fund our Roths (we have't been doing this consistently since we've been focussing on tax-deferred investing)
Stretch goals:
-buy I-bonds
-Put any extra $ into our Marcus savings account (the 1.2% rate is not great, but it's better than other options)
Our NW (not including our house) is hovering around 1.1 mil now with the market drops. But we will need more money than some since our FIRE plan includes moving from a LCOL to a MCOL/HCOL location. If we go leaner on our budget in the next 5 years we might be able to get closer to our stretch goals, but for now we are doing our best. What's been going on with you, what are your 5yr plans?
July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
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July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
Oh that 5 years is coming right up for you! This sounds like us. Somehow we always earn extra unplanned money to cover anything outside our budget. I'm hoping it will also go the other way and we have a solid 5 years of squirreling away more money than planned. I'd love to hear about your trip itinerary. We don't have a celebratory trip in the works yet, but we should start thinking about it.
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July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
Oh that 5 years is coming right up for you! This sounds like us. Somehow we always earn extra unplanned money to cover anything outside our budget. I'm hoping it will also go the other way and we have a solid 5 years of squirreling away more money than planned. I'd love to hear about your trip itinerary. We don't have a celebratory trip in the works yet, but we should start thinking about it.
It's this! https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map (https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map)
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Wow, amazing how the time has flown!
I've heard people talking a lot about these series I bonds...do you already have some? They seem as though they could be useful in protecting against the inflation risks during the fragile period when you set aside your labor-market earnings, but would they be useful in a period like 2008 when you have massive stock market falls together with deflation?
Incredibly useful. The worst which can happen is a temporary period of zero interest - which means a real gain in a deflationary environment.
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How is everyone doing? Five years is going to go fast! What sorts of things are you implementing now with FIRE just 5 years away? Our goals are:
-Fund our deferred accounts to the max (our combined max allowable is $82,000/yr)
-Fund our Roths (we have't been doing this consistently since we've been focussing on tax-deferred investing)
Stretch goals:
-buy I-bonds
-Put any extra $ into our Marcus savings account (the 1.2% rate is not great, but it's better than other options)
Our NW (not including our house) is hovering around 1.1 mil now with the market drops. But we will need more money than some since our FIRE plan includes moving from a LCOL to a MCOL/HCOL location. If we go leaner on our budget in the next 5 years we might be able to get closer to our stretch goals, but for now we are doing our best. What's been going on with you, what are your 5yr plans?
July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
If you receive a refund when you file your federal income tax, there's a place where you can elect to have them send the refund as a series I Bond. So that's one way to acquire them. I realize tax season is a while away, still.
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July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
Oh that 5 years is coming right up for you! This sounds like us. Somehow we always earn extra unplanned money to cover anything outside our budget. I'm hoping it will also go the other way and we have a solid 5 years of squirreling away more money than planned. I'd love to hear about your trip itinerary. We don't have a celebratory trip in the works yet, but we should start thinking about it.
It's this! https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map (https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map)
Wow! You are traveling by yacht? Not going to lie, this seems like a really cool and unique thing to experience.
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How is everyone doing? Five years is going to go fast! What sorts of things are you implementing now with FIRE just 5 years away? Our goals are:
-Fund our deferred accounts to the max (our combined max allowable is $82,000/yr)
-Fund our Roths (we have't been doing this consistently since we've been focussing on tax-deferred investing)
Stretch goals:
-buy I-bonds
-Put any extra $ into our Marcus savings account (the 1.2% rate is not great, but it's better than other options)
Our NW (not including our house) is hovering around 1.1 mil now with the market drops. But we will need more money than some since our FIRE plan includes moving from a LCOL to a MCOL/HCOL location. If we go leaner on our budget in the next 5 years we might be able to get closer to our stretch goals, but for now we are doing our best. What's been going on with you, what are your 5yr plans?
July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
If you receive a refund when you file your federal income tax, there's a place where you can elect to have them send the refund as a series I Bond. So that's one way to acquire them. I realize tax season is a while away, still.
Just go to TreasuryDirect.gov, set up an account, link a bank account and buy up to $10k in I-bonds per SSN.
One way around the cap is you can get an additional $5k in (paper) I-bonds as a tax refund.
There's also a spouse "gift" workaround.
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Go to Treasury Direct. Accept that it looks like you entered a time warp. Remember your security questions. Link a bank account and make a purchase.
Where we struggle is fitting the purchase in with cash flow. This is in large part because we frontload 401k/MBR, but also just because neither of us have ever made a habit of budgeting. The first year is tight because you have effectively removed that amount from your control for the year.
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July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
Oh that 5 years is coming right up for you! This sounds like us. Somehow we always earn extra unplanned money to cover anything outside our budget. I'm hoping it will also go the other way and we have a solid 5 years of squirreling away more money than planned. I'd love to hear about your trip itinerary. We don't have a celebratory trip in the works yet, but we should start thinking about it.
It's this! https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map (https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map)
Wow! You are traveling by yacht? Not going to lie, this seems like a really cool and unique thing to experience.
That's the plan! Applications for '27 won't open until late '23 and, of course, a lot can happen between now and then.
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July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
Oh that 5 years is coming right up for you! This sounds like us. Somehow we always earn extra unplanned money to cover anything outside our budget. I'm hoping it will also go the other way and we have a solid 5 years of squirreling away more money than planned. I'd love to hear about your trip itinerary. We don't have a celebratory trip in the works yet, but we should start thinking about it.
It's this! https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map (https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map)
Wow! You are traveling by yacht? Not going to lie, this seems like a really cool and unique thing to experience.
That's the plan! Applications for '27 won't open until late '23 and, of course, a lot can happen between now and then.
I watched some of the videos of the people who have done it and it looks adrenaline inducing! You are ambitious and brave, how many legs are you doing? It made me want to plan something physical, though I have no aptitude for maritime activities so will likely stay on the ground. El Camino, Appalachian, etc might end up planning to do one of the many epic hikes. You’ve inspired me.
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July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
Oh that 5 years is coming right up for you! This sounds like us. Somehow we always earn extra unplanned money to cover anything outside our budget. I'm hoping it will also go the other way and we have a solid 5 years of squirreling away more money than planned. I'd love to hear about your trip itinerary. We don't have a celebratory trip in the works yet, but we should start thinking about it.
It's this! https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map (https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map)
Wow! You are traveling by yacht? Not going to lie, this seems like a really cool and unique thing to experience.
That's the plan! Applications for '27 won't open until late '23 and, of course, a lot can happen between now and then.
I watched some of the videos of the people who have done it and it looks adrenaline inducing! You are ambitious and brave, how many legs are you doing? It made me want to plan something physical, though I have no aptitude for maritime activities so will likely stay on the ground. El Camino, Appalachian, etc might end up planning to do one of the many epic hikes. You’ve inspired me.
*blushes* ;). I'm going to do the whole thing.
El Camino is on my list too! With the exception of the sailing trip, I plan to front-load my FIRE with the physically demanding and cheap adventures first.
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July 21 will be the five year mark for me and it's a milestone I'm very excited about. 60 months feels like the final glidepath.
I just posted over in the Investments sub about buying some GBP securities to fund an adventure trip in 2027.
Still working on budget and investment control. I'm still over budget most months for restaurants and travel, but I tend to square up to my annual savings goal with unplanned income and tax refunds.
The biggest challenge for me is to not quit my job or get fired! I've worked to set myself up for FIRE, so now I just need to not ruin the plan.
The only thing I'm really struggling with, seeing FIRE five years out, is whether and where to buy a house.
Oh that 5 years is coming right up for you! This sounds like us. Somehow we always earn extra unplanned money to cover anything outside our budget. I'm hoping it will also go the other way and we have a solid 5 years of squirreling away more money than planned. I'd love to hear about your trip itinerary. We don't have a celebratory trip in the works yet, but we should start thinking about it.
It's this! https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map (https://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/race/route-map)
Wow! You are traveling by yacht? Not going to lie, this seems like a really cool and unique thing to experience.
That's the plan! Applications for '27 won't open until late '23 and, of course, a lot can happen between now and then.
I watched some of the videos of the people who have done it and it looks adrenaline inducing! You are ambitious and brave, how many legs are you doing? It made me want to plan something physical, though I have no aptitude for maritime activities so will likely stay on the ground. El Camino, Appalachian, etc might end up planning to do one of the many epic hikes. You’ve inspired me.
*blushes* ;). I'm going to do the whole thing.
El Camino is on my list too! With the exception of the sailing trip, I plan to front-load my FIRE with the physically demanding and cheap adventures first.
The whole thing --you are a badass, wow! This is a smart way to live. Nobody wants to think about the reality of being physically unable to do some of these things in the future but if we're lucky enough to live that long it's probably going to happen. I had not heard of this race before looking it up. I hope you are able to share your experiences after it's over. Very inspiring.
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You know, I've been puzzling over this for awhile. I've been pushing off the "RE" despite being lean-FI and able to retire now, even with a bit of a buffer if I cut out some luxury spending like the fancy flagship phones we purchased early this year despite having perfectly functional 4 year old flagship smartphones.
For cohort date purposes, I realize that I've been over focused on the "RE" part and not the "FI" option.
Work is good, largely on my own terms (90% remote, lots of flexibility for most stuff). I feel appreciated and am having a noticeable positive impact on the world (within my niche anyway, but the results touch tens of millions of people directly and billions indirectly.) I've been effective at streamlining some processes and clearing out some cruft and my ability to do more of that just increased. My one personality conflict with a coworker appears to be resolved. My supervisor is literally the best one I've ever had.
Therefore, as of 10/1/2022 I declare myself a SWAMI and 5LY from the 2027 FIRE thread I started back in 2016. I've hit FI despite choosing to continue with my job.
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You know, I've been puzzling over this for awhile. I've been pushing off the "RE" despite being lean-FI and able to retire now, even with a bit of a buffer if I cut out some luxury spending like the fancy flagship phones we purchased early this year despite having perfectly functional 4 year old flagship smartphones.
For cohort date purposes, I realize that I've been over focused on the "RE" part and not the "FI" option.
Work is good, largely on my own terms (90% remote, lots of flexibility for most stuff). I feel appreciated and am having a noticeable positive impact on the world (within my niche anyway, but the results touch tens of millions of people directly and billions indirectly.) I've been effective at streamlining some processes and clearing out some cruft and my ability to do more of that just increased. My one personality conflict with a coworker appears to be resolved. My supervisor is literally the best one I've ever had.
Therefore, as of 10/1/2022 I declare myself a SWAMI and 5LY from the 2027 FIRE thread I started back in 2016. I've hit FI despite choosing to continue with my job.
This looks oddly familiar. ;)
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You know, I've been puzzling over this for awhile. I've been pushing off the "RE" despite being lean-FI and able to retire now, even with a bit of a buffer if I cut out some luxury spending like the fancy flagship phones we purchased early this year despite having perfectly functional 4 year old flagship smartphones.
For cohort date purposes, I realize that I've been over focused on the "RE" part and not the "FI" option.
Work is good, largely on my own terms (90% remote, lots of flexibility for most stuff). I feel appreciated and am having a noticeable positive impact on the world (within my niche anyway, but the results touch tens of millions of people directly and billions indirectly.) I've been effective at streamlining some processes and clearing out some cruft and my ability to do more of that just increased. My one personality conflict with a coworker appears to be resolved. My supervisor is literally the best one I've ever had.
Therefore, as of 10/1/2022 I declare myself a SWAMI and 5LY from the 2027 FIRE thread I started back in 2016. I've hit FI despite choosing to continue with my job.
This looks oddly familiar. ;)
Congratulations!
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It's looking more and more likely that to stay in this cohort, one (likely) or both (possibly) of DW or I would need to work part-time for a few years after this to feel comfortable pulling the trigger.
Don't know if this qualifies as part of the club or not.....
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It's looking more and more likely that to stay in this cohort, one (likely) or both (possibly) of DW or I would need to work part-time for a few years after this to feel comfortable pulling the trigger.
Don't know if this qualifies as part of the club or not.....
It's still a few years away, I vote that you stay until you know for sure. I'm not sure what year we'll leave either, just threw a dart and thought 2027 sounded about right but we may hop around too. I hate seeing the stock market go down and watching our numbers fall, but we have time still and we're still investing so hopefully it will work out for all of is here.
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You know, I've been puzzling over this for awhile. I've been pushing off the "RE" despite being lean-FI and able to retire now, even with a bit of a buffer if I cut out some luxury spending like the fancy flagship phones we purchased early this year despite having perfectly functional 4 year old flagship smartphones.
For cohort date purposes, I realize that I've been over focused on the "RE" part and not the "FI" option.
Work is good, largely on my own terms (90% remote, lots of flexibility for most stuff). I feel appreciated and am having a noticeable positive impact on the world (within my niche anyway, but the results touch tens of millions of people directly and billions indirectly.) I've been effective at streamlining some processes and clearing out some cruft and my ability to do more of that just increased. My one personality conflict with a coworker appears to be resolved. My supervisor is literally the best one I've ever had.
Therefore, as of 10/1/2022 I declare myself a SWAMI and 5LY from the 2027 FIRE thread I started back in 2016. I've hit FI despite choosing to continue with my job.
Good stuff. Congrats man!
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I am going to join in here as a goal! So many unknowns between now and 2027 but why not shoot for it!
Current age - 32, DH and I have two kids and plan to have 1-2 more
Found 2027 just by looking at 401k and IRA account projections just in case having more kids stagnates our savings (so not counting HSAs, taxable, or home equity). Also have some conservatism in our projected spending due to health care unknowns.
Right now looking for $1.4M as the goal and will be adjusting as expenses change.
Will be 40 in 2027 so that sounds fabulous. Current kids would be 12 & 10, future kids would be at most 7 & 5. Would potentially shoot for part time work while they are in school if finances/health care doesnt work out! Hoping by 2027 to be done working full time either way!
Update - Current age 35, now have three kids (and are done having any more). I am trying to go part time at my job now instead of waiting for full FI! 2027 is still on the radar but we will see the impacts of going part time on the $$ and the markets between then and now :)
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You know, I've been puzzling over this for awhile. I've been pushing off the "RE" despite being lean-FI and able to retire now, even with a bit of a buffer if I cut out some luxury spending like the fancy flagship phones we purchased early this year despite having perfectly functional 4 year old flagship smartphones.
For cohort date purposes, I realize that I've been over focused on the "RE" part and not the "FI" option.
Work is good, largely on my own terms (90% remote, lots of flexibility for most stuff). I feel appreciated and am having a noticeable positive impact on the world (within my niche anyway, but the results touch tens of millions of people directly and billions indirectly.) I've been effective at streamlining some processes and clearing out some cruft and my ability to do more of that just increased. My one personality conflict with a coworker appears to be resolved. My supervisor is literally the best one I've ever had.
Therefore, as of 10/1/2022 I declare myself a SWAMI and 5LY from the 2027 FIRE thread I started back in 2016. I've hit FI despite choosing to continue with my job.
This is fantastic! I feel like we are closing in on SWAMI territory too, i's a great feeling.
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You know, I've been puzzling over this for awhile. I've been pushing off the "RE" despite being lean-FI and able to retire now, even with a bit of a buffer if I cut out some luxury spending like the fancy flagship phones we purchased early this year despite having perfectly functional 4 year old flagship smartphones.
For cohort date purposes, I realize that I've been over focused on the "RE" part and not the "FI" option.
Work is good, largely on my own terms (90% remote, lots of flexibility for most stuff). I feel appreciated and am having a noticeable positive impact on the world (within my niche anyway, but the results touch tens of millions of people directly and billions indirectly.) I've been effective at streamlining some processes and clearing out some cruft and my ability to do more of that just increased. My one personality conflict with a coworker appears to be resolved. My supervisor is literally the best one I've ever had.
Therefore, as of 10/1/2022 I declare myself a SWAMI and 5LY from the 2027 FIRE thread I started back in 2016. I've hit FI despite choosing to continue with my job.
Good stuff. Congrats man!
This is fantastic! I feel like we are closing in on SWAMI territory too, i's a great feeling.
Thank you both!
I hope that this will encourage others to embrace the SWAMI designation for their cohort.
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I'm lost. What is SWAMI?
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I'm lost. What is SWAMI?
https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/04/30/weekend-edition-retire-in-your-mind-even-if-you-love-your-job/
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I've been holding off from posting since I joined this forum. But I've paid off all my debt and have had a very nice 2022; it looks like my plan will get me to Recreational Employment by the end of 2027.
So I'm throwing my hat into the 2027 FIRE ring. I've chosen Christmas Eve, 2027 as my Last Day of Professional Work.
Right now its just the chug to fill my accounts.
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Welcome!
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Thought I'd check in for the new year. The spreadsheets I made in 2019 to target 2027 and have updated monthly still work out, despite the ugly year in the S&P500, which did cause some pain. This year my wife has decided to pull back on her work before our kids are grown and gone from the house, so that's going to require us to dial back our expenses, which had been ballooning somewhat while she was having a couple great years with her business.
My biggest issue is that she is still really not on board so much for the idea of (my) retirement. She loves to travel, and I think her vision has always been us having lots of resources in retirement to have multiple homes, or to just travel around much of the year. I would like to do a little of that, but I'd be happy with far less, and the number required to do those things puts me out like 5-10 more years. I kind of feel like life is too uncertain to take that gamble. I'm starting to have friends my age come up with cancer, or heart problems, and so forth. Life is short, I'd rather take control of my time sooner with less money to play with, but more time. So I'm still working on closing that gap somehow.
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Thought I'd check in for the new year. The spreadsheets I made in 2019 to target 2027 and have updated monthly still work out, despite the ugly year in the S&P500, which did cause some pain. This year my wife has decided to pull back on her work before our kids are grown and gone from the house, so that's going to require us to dial back our expenses, which had been ballooning somewhat while she was having a couple great years with her business.
My biggest issue is that she is still really not on board so much for the idea of (my) retirement. She loves to travel, and I think her vision has always been us having lots of resources in retirement to have multiple homes, or to just travel around much of the year. I would like to do a little of that, but I'd be happy with far less, and the number required to do those things puts me out like 5-10 more years. I kind of feel like life is too uncertain to take that gamble. I'm starting to have friends my age come up with cancer, or heart problems, and so forth. Life is short, I'd rather take control of my time sooner with less money to play with, but more time. So I'm still working on closing that gap somehow.
Lean Fire vs Chubby Fire vs Fat Fire is such an individual decision. So is deciding where the line is between each of those descriptors - which sounds like you and your spouse may not fully agree on.
Lean Fire leaves me not as much safety net as I would like. So even though my numbers say I'm at Lean Fire, I'll be staying with the Coast Fire job for at least a couple more years. There are several home improvements which will increase quality of retired life which I intend to make between now and 2027. (This year's are to replace a couple of old doors which make the house drafty - also getting tax deduction for that one. Because I'm still working, I've also got 0% financing instead of using the money I'd earmarked for it. )
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I am going to join in here as a goal! So many unknowns between now and 2027 but why not shoot for it!
Current age - 32, DH and I have two kids and plan to have 1-2 more
Found 2027 just by looking at 401k and IRA account projections just in case having more kids stagnates our savings (so not counting HSAs, taxable, or home equity). Also have some conservatism in our projected spending due to health care unknowns.
Right now looking for $1.4M as the goal and will be adjusting as expenses change.
Will be 40 in 2027 so that sounds fabulous. Current kids would be 12 & 10, future kids would be at most 7 & 5. Would potentially shoot for part time work while they are in school if finances/health care doesnt work out! Hoping by 2027 to be done working full time either way!
Have a 3rd kid now and we are done having kids so we are a family of five. I'm moving to part time work in 2 weeks! So ahead of the goal for not working full time for me :-P Our savings are definitely healthy enough to coast more so we are doing it. Even with me dropping down to part time we should still be able to continue to add to our savings which is great since my calculations show that not much contributions are needed to be on track for 2027 for both of us being able to do what we want.
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Thought I'd check in for the new year. The spreadsheets I made in 2019 to target 2027 and have updated monthly still work out, despite the ugly year in the S&P500, which did cause some pain. This year my wife has decided to pull back on her work before our kids are grown and gone from the house, so that's going to require us to dial back our expenses, which had been ballooning somewhat while she was having a couple great years with her business.
My biggest issue is that she is still really not on board so much for the idea of (my) retirement. She loves to travel, and I think her vision has always been us having lots of resources in retirement to have multiple homes, or to just travel around much of the year. I would like to do a little of that, but I'd be happy with far less, and the number required to do those things puts me out like 5-10 more years. I kind of feel like life is too uncertain to take that gamble. I'm starting to have friends my age come up with cancer, or heart problems, and so forth. Life is short, I'd rather take control of my time sooner with less money to play with, but more time. So I'm still working on closing that gap somehow.
Lean Fire vs Chubby Fire vs Fat Fire is such an individual decision. So is deciding where the line is between each of those descriptors - which sounds like you and your spouse may not fully agree on.
Lean Fire leaves me not as much safety net as I would like. So even though my numbers say I'm at Lean Fire, I'll be staying with the Coast Fire job for at least a couple more years. There are several home improvements which will increase quality of retired life which I intend to make between now and 2027. (This year's are to replace a couple of old doors which make the house drafty - also getting tax deduction for that one. Because I'm still working, I've also got 0% financing instead of using the money I'd earmarked for it. )
Thanks for lending your thoughts. You're right, it is an individual thing.
Well, this is all anonymous, so I'm just going to go through some numbers because what the hell.
My family spends about $7k/mo all-in. This is with 2 teenagers still in the house. I plan around that number anyway to be conservative.
I am lucky to be in a generous pension system. My anticipated pension in 2027 is ~$11k/mo. I have an income property that generates ~$1k/mo free cash flow (this will go up in about 10 years when the mortgage is retired, but I try not to count that chicken yet). I have ~$1.1M in pre- and post-tax market investments. I hope to grow that to ~$1.5M by 2027.
With a 4% withdrawal rate, I get $11k+$1k+$5k=$17k per month, minus 25% for taxes is about $13k/mo., which is about 1.8x my anticipated expenses. Stuff can happen with the rental property. Stuff can happen with our residence. Stuff can happen with health. How much of a buffer do you reasonably need?
I'm not entirely sure if this is lean, fat, or what. Since this board focuses a lot on frugality I won't be surprised to take some heat for my high expense load. Fair enough, but I also live in a very HCOL area where our housing costs are $3.6k/mo out of the gate, and could be double that if we tried to keep up with the joneses.
I feel like this hangs together as a plan (? comments welcome), but only if we aren't thinking about buying vacation properties or having frequent overseas travel plans.
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I am lucky to be in a generous pension system. My anticipated pension in 2027 is ~$11k/mo. I have an income property that generates ~$1k/mo free cash flow (this will go up in about 10 years when the mortgage is retired, but I try not to count that chicken yet). I have ~$1.1M in pre- and post-tax market investments. I hope to grow that to ~$1.5M by 2027.
If you decided today to spend your accrued leave time and then stop working, what would that do to your pension?
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Thought I'd check in for the new year. The spreadsheets I made in 2019 to target 2027 and have updated monthly still work out, despite the ugly year in the S&P500, which did cause some pain. This year my wife has decided to pull back on her work before our kids are grown and gone from the house, so that's going to require us to dial back our expenses, which had been ballooning somewhat while she was having a couple great years with her business.
My biggest issue is that she is still really not on board so much for the idea of (my) retirement. She loves to travel, and I think her vision has always been us having lots of resources in retirement to have multiple homes, or to just travel around much of the year. I would like to do a little of that, but I'd be happy with far less, and the number required to do those things puts me out like 5-10 more years. I kind of feel like life is too uncertain to take that gamble. I'm starting to have friends my age come up with cancer, or heart problems, and so forth. Life is short, I'd rather take control of my time sooner with less money to play with, but more time. So I'm still working on closing that gap somehow.
Lean Fire vs Chubby Fire vs Fat Fire is such an individual decision. So is deciding where the line is between each of those descriptors - which sounds like you and your spouse may not fully agree on.
Lean Fire leaves me not as much safety net as I would like. So even though my numbers say I'm at Lean Fire, I'll be staying with the Coast Fire job for at least a couple more years. There are several home improvements which will increase quality of retired life which I intend to make between now and 2027. (This year's are to replace a couple of old doors which make the house drafty - also getting tax deduction for that one. Because I'm still working, I've also got 0% financing instead of using the money I'd earmarked for it. )
Thanks for lending your thoughts. You're right, it is an individual thing.
Well, this is all anonymous, so I'm just going to go through some numbers because what the hell.
My family spends about $7k/mo all-in. This is with 2 teenagers still in the house. I plan around that number anyway to be conservative.
I am lucky to be in a generous pension system. My anticipated pension in 2027 is ~$11k/mo. I have an income property that generates ~$1k/mo free cash flow (this will go up in about 10 years when the mortgage is retired, but I try not to count that chicken yet). I have ~$1.1M in pre- and post-tax market investments. I hope to grow that to ~$1.5M by 2027.
With a 4% withdrawal rate, I get $11k+$1k+$5k=$17k per month, minus 25% for taxes is about $13k/mo., which is about 1.8x my anticipated expenses. Stuff can happen with the rental property. Stuff can happen with our residence. Stuff can happen with health. How much of a buffer do you reasonably need?
I'm not entirely sure if this is lean, fat, or what. Since this board focuses a lot on frugality I won't be surprised to take some heat for my high expense load. Fair enough, but I also live in a very HCOL area where our housing costs are $3.6k/mo out of the gate, and could be double that if we tried to keep up with the joneses.
I feel like this hangs together as a plan (? comments welcome), but only if we aren't thinking about buying vacation properties or having frequent overseas travel plans.
Does your pension plan include access to reduced rate medical/dental insurance? That's the variable expense which I'm the most worried about, since I won't have anything but ACA.
Teens at home definitely add to the expenses. My kids are all in their 20's now, but the youngest is still on my insurance due to it being cheaper than through their work. Depending on how this year goes, that may not be the case for 2024.
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I am lucky to be in a generous pension system. My anticipated pension in 2027 is ~$11k/mo. I have an income property that generates ~$1k/mo free cash flow (this will go up in about 10 years when the mortgage is retired, but I try not to count that chicken yet). I have ~$1.1M in pre- and post-tax market investments. I hope to grow that to ~$1.5M by 2027.
If you decided today to spend your accrued leave time and then stop working, what would that do to your pension?
It would squash it to about $6k/mo. There's a steep age factor on it.
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Thought I'd check in for the new year. The spreadsheets I made in 2019 to target 2027 and have updated monthly still work out, despite the ugly year in the S&P500, which did cause some pain. This year my wife has decided to pull back on her work before our kids are grown and gone from the house, so that's going to require us to dial back our expenses, which had been ballooning somewhat while she was having a couple great years with her business.
My biggest issue is that she is still really not on board so much for the idea of (my) retirement. She loves to travel, and I think her vision has always been us having lots of resources in retirement to have multiple homes, or to just travel around much of the year. I would like to do a little of that, but I'd be happy with far less, and the number required to do those things puts me out like 5-10 more years. I kind of feel like life is too uncertain to take that gamble. I'm starting to have friends my age come up with cancer, or heart problems, and so forth. Life is short, I'd rather take control of my time sooner with less money to play with, but more time. So I'm still working on closing that gap somehow.
Lean Fire vs Chubby Fire vs Fat Fire is such an individual decision. So is deciding where the line is between each of those descriptors - which sounds like you and your spouse may not fully agree on.
Lean Fire leaves me not as much safety net as I would like. So even though my numbers say I'm at Lean Fire, I'll be staying with the Coast Fire job for at least a couple more years. There are several home improvements which will increase quality of retired life which I intend to make between now and 2027. (This year's are to replace a couple of old doors which make the house drafty - also getting tax deduction for that one. Because I'm still working, I've also got 0% financing instead of using the money I'd earmarked for it. )
Thanks for lending your thoughts. You're right, it is an individual thing.
Well, this is all anonymous, so I'm just going to go through some numbers because what the hell.
My family spends about $7k/mo all-in. This is with 2 teenagers still in the house. I plan around that number anyway to be conservative.
I am lucky to be in a generous pension system. My anticipated pension in 2027 is ~$11k/mo. I have an income property that generates ~$1k/mo free cash flow (this will go up in about 10 years when the mortgage is retired, but I try not to count that chicken yet). I have ~$1.1M in pre- and post-tax market investments. I hope to grow that to ~$1.5M by 2027.
With a 4% withdrawal rate, I get $11k+$1k+$5k=$17k per month, minus 25% for taxes is about $13k/mo., which is about 1.8x my anticipated expenses. Stuff can happen with the rental property. Stuff can happen with our residence. Stuff can happen with health. How much of a buffer do you reasonably need?
I'm not entirely sure if this is lean, fat, or what. Since this board focuses a lot on frugality I won't be surprised to take some heat for my high expense load. Fair enough, but I also live in a very HCOL area where our housing costs are $3.6k/mo out of the gate, and could be double that if we tried to keep up with the joneses.
I feel like this hangs together as a plan (? comments welcome), but only if we aren't thinking about buying vacation properties or having frequent overseas travel plans.
Does your pension plan include access to reduced rate medical/dental insurance? That's the variable expense which I'm the most worried about, since I won't have anything but ACA.
Teens at home definitely add to the expenses. My kids are all in their 20's now, but the youngest is still on my insurance due to it being cheaper than through their work. Depending on how this year goes, that may not be the case for 2024.
Yes, with my service credit it covers 100% of my medical plan, at least until medicare kicks in.
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I am lucky to be in a generous pension system. My anticipated pension in 2027 is ~$11k/mo. I have an income property that generates ~$1k/mo free cash flow (this will go up in about 10 years when the mortgage is retired, but I try not to count that chicken yet). I have ~$1.1M in pre- and post-tax market investments. I hope to grow that to ~$1.5M by 2027.
If you decided today to spend your accrued leave time and then stop working, what would that do to your pension?
It would squash it to about $6k/mo. There's a steep age factor on it.
$6k/mo which you could start drawing today? Sounds like you are already FI with the pension + income property meeting your $7k/mo spend, completely ignoring the $1.1M of investments and significant principal payments on the income property.
If you're enjoying working at your current job, celebrate your SWAMI status. If you're not enjoying working, why the fuck are you working at that job?
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I am lucky to be in a generous pension system. My anticipated pension in 2027 is ~$11k/mo. I have an income property that generates ~$1k/mo free cash flow (this will go up in about 10 years when the mortgage is retired, but I try not to count that chicken yet). I have ~$1.1M in pre- and post-tax market investments. I hope to grow that to ~$1.5M by 2027.
If you decided today to spend your accrued leave time and then stop working, what would that do to your pension?
It would squash it to about $6k/mo. There's a steep age factor on it.
$6k/mo which you could start drawing today? Sounds like you are already FI with the pension + income property meeting your $7k/mo spend, completely ignoring the $1.1M of investments and significant principal payments on the income property.
If you're enjoying working at your current job, celebrate your SWAMI status. If you're not enjoying working, why the fuck are you working at that job?
Yeah, there are some aspects of the job that I genuinely enjoy, and some that I dislike.
I guess the reason I'm not even considering bailing right now is the following calculation:
I could draw $6k right now, or I could work one more year and earn $290k in salary, and draw $7200/mo in pension starting next year.
If I put a cash value on the $1200/mo in extra pension income using the 4% rule, that's an additional $360k in compensation, meaning they're paying me $650k to work this year. I don't hate the job that much to turn that down. This is an earning power that just blows away what I had for most of my working years, so I guess I'm just satisfied with the value proposition for now. The golden handcuffs are real.
However, given this reasoning, I could never leave, because every year is going to have a similar effective compensation calculation. So I'm not exactly sure why I'm picking 55, other than the "rule of 55" and it means my kids should be out of the house by then.
But I appreciate the kick in the ass, and it gives me a little extra confidence to start pushing for doing more of the things I like, and less of the things I don't. Since I'm bargaining from a position of strength.
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My sister-in-law's boss is terrified of her leaving. It's amazing how much of the nonsense parts of her job have disappeared in his desperateness to keep her now that she's at the point where retirement is a possibility.
When the monetary golden handcuffs are optional, it definitely gives you a position of strength to advocate for improvements.
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However, given this reasoning, I could never leave, because every year is going to have a similar effective compensation calculation. So I'm not exactly sure why I'm picking 55, other than the "rule of 55" and it means my kids should be out of the house by then.
But I appreciate the kick in the ass, and it gives me a little extra confidence to start pushing for doing more of the things I like, and less of the things I don't. Since I'm bargaining from a position of strength.
Glad I could help stir the thinking. You are definitely bargaining from a position of strength - you're FI while still ignoring an additional $1M+ of investments.
On the Rule of 55 thing - remember that the IRS doesn't make you wait until the actual date of your birthday. Like IRA/401k catchup contributions at age 50, it's effective the first day of the year you will turn that age (in this case, 55). I'm not 50 til later in the year, but I'll already have 457 + catchup maxed out well before then, and working on the 401k.
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I am lucky to be in a generous pension system. My anticipated pension in 2027 is ~$11k/mo. I have an income property that generates ~$1k/mo free cash flow (this will go up in about 10 years when the mortgage is retired, but I try not to count that chicken yet). I have ~$1.1M in pre- and post-tax market investments. I hope to grow that to ~$1.5M by 2027.
If you decided today to spend your accrued leave time and then stop working, what would that do to your pension?
It would squash it to about $6k/mo. There's a steep age factor on it.
$6k/mo which you could start drawing today? Sounds like you are already FI with the pension + income property meeting your $7k/mo spend, completely ignoring the $1.1M of investments and significant principal payments on the income property.
If you're enjoying working at your current job, celebrate your SWAMI status. If you're not enjoying working, why the fuck are you working at that job?
Yeah, there are some aspects of the job that I genuinely enjoy, and some that I dislike.
I guess the reason I'm not even considering bailing right now is the following calculation:
I could draw $6k right now, or I could work one more year and earn $290k in salary, and draw $7200/mo in pension starting next year.
If I put a cash value on the $1200/mo in extra pension income using the 4% rule, that's an additional $360k in compensation, meaning they're paying me $650k to work this year. I don't hate the job that much to turn that down. This is an earning power that just blows away what I had for most of my working years, so I guess I'm just satisfied with the value proposition for now. The golden handcuffs are real.
However, given this reasoning, I could never leave, because every year is going to have a similar effective compensation calculation. So I'm not exactly sure why I'm picking 55, other than the "rule of 55" and it means my kids should be out of the house by then.
The longer you wait to pull the trigger, the fewer years remain in which you'll draw on the pension, so there is a theoretical peak somewhere.
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The longer you wait to pull the trigger, the fewer years remain in which you'll draw on the pension, so there is a theoretical peak somewhere.
Good point. They should be subtracting $72k from that "wait a year" calculation by foregoing the $6k/month pension for a year.
My own pension is basically structured where the optimum is usually "draw as soon as you can" - unless you had a REALLY significant raise within the past 3 years.
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The longer you wait to pull the trigger, the fewer years remain in which you'll draw on the pension, so there is a theoretical peak somewhere.
Good point. They should be subtracting $72k from that "wait a year" calculation by foregoing the $6k/month pension for a year.
My own pension is basically structured where the optimum is usually "draw as soon as you can" - unless you had a REALLY significant raise within the past 3 years.
That's the math that I did on Social Security options which led to the conclusion that starting at 60 maximizes the total received. It's less per month, but the total amount for between 60-70 is highest that way.
Not a position I wanted to be in, but it is what it is. My own SSA at 70 will be more, and I'll switch over then for the raise in monthly amount.
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The longer you wait to pull the trigger, the fewer years remain in which you'll draw on the pension, so there is a theoretical peak somewhere.
Good point.
I did the calculation for "total payout" over different life expectancies. Unless I plan on kicking off in just a few more years (knock on wood), the max for total payouts are all at 59+.
But I really don't intend to stay that long. That calculation of course doesn't factor in the value of your time.
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After meeting with a Financial Planner and running a Monte Carlo on all my numbers while trying to break things, it's looking pretty likely that I will go one year less, into mid 2026 instead.
3 years, 3 months, and 3 weeks to go. :-)
The end is in sight.
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After meeting with a Financial Planner and running a Monte Carlo on all my numbers while trying to break things, it's looking pretty likely that I will go one year less, into mid 2026 instead.
3 years, 3 months, and 3 weeks to go. :-)
The end is in sight.
Congratulations! Would you recommend meeting with a financial planner? Did you find it worthwhile?
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After meeting with a Financial Planner and running a Monte Carlo on all my numbers while trying to break things, it's looking pretty likely that I will go one year less, into mid 2026 instead.
3 years, 3 months, and 3 weeks to go. :-)
The end is in sight.
congrats that's amazing!
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Ok so as I've been refining my retirement projections over the last year, I feel like I must be missing something. And what I'm missing is: why do none of my co-workers seem to ever retire? I know many of them have similar economic circumstances, at least roughly, as I do.
I can think of *one* of my co-workers who just up and retired at an age less than 60 in the last 20 years. He was a single guy, no children, had very strong earnings, and it made total sense that he could do it around the age of 50. Probably could have done it well before then.
The rest of them? They're all pushing past 65 and seemingly still trying to climb the ladder. I don't get it at all. For what?
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After meeting with a Financial Planner and running a Monte Carlo on all my numbers while trying to break things, it's looking pretty likely that I will go one year less, into mid 2026 instead.
3 years, 3 months, and 3 weeks to go. :-)
The end is in sight.
Congratulations! Would you recommend meeting with a financial planner? Did you find it worthwhile?
I found it worth my time, but I'm not sure I would have found it to be worth my money if I'd been paying for it.
The software tool he was using was basically a fancier front end for the Rich, Broke, Dead tool. Good for walking people through who really had no idea, but not necessarily needed for anyone who has done MMM level research for themselves.
He did give me some rule of thumb amounts that they standardly use for healthcare prior to Medicare (12K) and average annual set aside for home repairs (3K)
The other thing he told me which I wasn't aware of is that HSA can be used to pay for COBRA. May or may not use that option to finish out the calendar year that I retire.
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@Turtle - for the healthcare estimates, I'd look at healthcare.gov to estimate your costs, as it can vary widely, depending on if your state expanded Medicaid or not. Folks in the midwest that I know are spending nearly $30k per year for them as a couple.
And the HSA can also be used for Medicare premiums, once eligible. You can't pay premiums with it while employed, but you can pay Medicare premiums with it once retired, if that matters.
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I'll join. Shooting for Dec 2027.
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I'll join. Shooting for Dec 2027.
Welcome to the under 5 years left crew!
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Our plan is end of March, 2027. I will be 51 and my wife will be 49.
Working towards this for 8 years now. Last of our 4 kids will be out of college by then and hopefully beginning their own lives.
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Our plan is end of March, 2027. I will be 51 and my wife will be 49.
Working towards this for 8 years now. Last of our 4 kids will be out of college by then and hopefully beginning their own lives.
Sounds like you're ready... to fire.
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One Three More Years
Way back in ~2016, just as my spouse and I were buying a house together for the first time, I looked at expenses at that time, and projected a potential FIRE date of 2024. However, we spent a decent amount on home ownership - stuff, maintenance, upgrades. We also adopted our late, beloved Mastiff near the end of 2016, and spent lavishly on her comfort and joy (and health).
Expenses
Our trailing twelve month expenses rose from $41k in April of 2016 to a high of $74k in November 2019. Our home ownership low was $53k in March 2021 (pandemic levels of spending!), and is currently a lofty but sub-peak $63k. Housing and food are the biggest items, while my spouse would like to reduce eating out costs, and I fight my battles with spending on electronics. Travel will remain a significant but valued line item.
Investment Income
On the flip side, 4% of investments was $6.6k after putting money down for a house in April 2016 and peaked at $35.4k in February 2021, though we just might hit a new high once market adjustments are logged at the end of this quarter. Our "barebones" expenses peaked in 2018 at $37k, but are typically in the $32-35k range, so those, at least, would be covered. But of course we plan to expand our nest egg to cover "lifestyle" expenses as well - again the biggest of these being travel, eating out, transportation and electronics. We have plans to pare down to a single car household, and I can quite reasonably expect to spend very little on electronics going forward, as we have very capable, modern computers and smart phones (and an extraordinary $90 Garmin Venu watch.)
The Future
With our current projections, we expect to be able to fully cover expenses based on 4% of our invested liquid assets sometime in 2027. March actually looks good with the assumption we pay off our mortgage, reducing monthly expenses. With the full mortgage payment, expenses are higher, and that pushes us back to October but that P+I payment would end in 2050, so I just use that date/calculation as a sort of sanity check. To be clear, we do not plan on paying off (or even extra) towards our current 2.99% fixed rate mortgage. (But there is a chance we'll move before retirement, and depending on rates, we could approach things differently.)
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Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.
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Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.
Yes, definitely. Especially since my company is talking about mandatory return to office in October.
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Same and the workplace keeps growing more and more disheartening. Hang in there everybody!
Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.
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Same and the workplace keeps growing more and more disheartening. Hang in there everybody!
Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.
Yep, hang in there. I have pretty much decamped for the 2025 cohort, but I still read the messages in this one, because it was the one I originally thought I would be in. So I am now at…88 weeks.
But in my last four years of the journey, I have thought about it like my time in college, which seemed to go by fast. Completed my freshman year, then my sophomore year, and now I am halfway through my junior year, almost. I had a TON of fun in my senior year of college, so maybe something similar will happen in my last year of W-2 work?
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Sounds like a good mental approach!
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Same and the workplace keeps growing more and more disheartening. Hang in there everybody!
Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.
Yep, hang in there. I have pretty much decamped for the 2025 cohort, but I still read the messages in this one, because it was the one I originally thought I would be in. So I am now at…88 weeks.
But in my last four years of the journey, I have thought about it like my time in college, which seemed to go by fast. Completed my freshman year, then my sophomore year, and now I am halfway through my junior year, almost. I had a TON of fun in my senior year of college, so maybe something similar will happen in my last year of W-2 work?
In this picture, I'm halfway through my freshman year, which is a little early for my current level of senioritis.
My work situation has deteriorated significantly under new leadership, so I'm really struggling with keeping my spirits up. However, I'm consoling myself by keeping an eye on my pension ramp, which is pretty significant at this phase of my career. If you look at the lifetime income increment by sticking out one more year, and put a 4% (fictitious) cash value on that - I can't complain about my "effective compensation" when put into those terms. So one more year... one day at time.
You said your "last year of W-2 work" which is a phrase I am immediately adopting with my partner. Do you have specific plans for a new type of work after? I've got a list of ideas but nothing that seems like "the one" yet.
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Same and the workplace keeps growing more and more disheartening. Hang in there everybody!
Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.
Yep, hang in there. I have pretty much decamped for the 2025 cohort, but I still read the messages in this one, because it was the one I originally thought I would be in. So I am now at…88 weeks.
But in my last four years of the journey, I have thought about it like my time in college, which seemed to go by fast. Completed my freshman year, then my sophomore year, and now I am halfway through my junior year, almost. I had a TON of fun in my senior year of college, so maybe something similar will happen in my last year of W-2 work?
In this picture, I'm halfway through my freshman year, which is a little early for my current level of senioritis.
My work situation has deteriorated significantly under new leadership, so I'm really struggling with keeping my spirits up. However, I'm consoling myself by keeping an eye on my pension ramp, which is pretty significant at this phase of my career. If you look at the lifetime income increment by sticking out one more year, and put a 4% (fictitious) cash value on that - I can't complain about my "effective compensation" when put into those terms. So one more year... one day at time.
You said your "last year of W-2 work" which is a phrase I am immediately adopting with my partner. Do you have specific plans for a new type of work after? I've got a list of ideas but nothing that seems like "the one" yet.
I don’t have anything specific in mind as a way I might earn some cash after I transition to the next phase of life, but it is certainly possible that I might earn some, just doing something I enjoy. One possibility is teaching a class…several years ago I taught a night class is a master’s program, and enjoyed it a lot. It was just too much to layer onto my day job. Maybe I will try that again. (Coincidentally one of my students is the best friend of a current young colleague I work with, and he told me that his friend had told him that my class was his favorite ever! That was nice feedback to receive.)
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I don’t have anything specific in mind as a way I might earn some cash after I transition to the next phase of life, but it is certainly possible that I might earn some, just doing something I enjoy. One possibility is teaching a class…several years ago I taught a night class is a master’s program, and enjoyed it a lot. It was just too much to layer onto my day job. Maybe I will try that again. (Coincidentally one of my students is the best friend of a current young colleague I work with, and he told me that his friend had told him that my class was his favorite ever! That was nice feedback to receive.)
I originally got an advanced degree to be a teacher, but then my career took a different direction - so trying some kind of teaching is near or at the top of my list. Tutoring, teaching a CC class, setting up an online class, educational software are all things I've thought about doing.
Will I have the drive to follow through on any of those if I don't "have to"? I don't know.
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Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.
Yes, definitely. Especially since my company is talking about mandatory return to office in October.
Weird update on this one -- company is selling my local site and giving blanket WFH approval for everyone located in my area. Fine by me. Seems like there might be an increased possibility of packages for the folks who don't fade away naturally, because they've already said that any new hires need to be 100% in the office for their first 6 months. That means they are unlikely to hire new folks anywhere but the remaining physical locations. Might get lucky with a retirement present on my way out the door!
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Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.
Yes, definitely. Especially since my company is talking about mandatory return to office in October.
Weird update on this one -- company is selling my local site and giving blanket WFH approval for everyone located in my area. Fine by me. Seems like there might be an increased possibility of packages for the folks who don't fade away naturally, because they've already said that any new hires need to be 100% in the office for their first 6 months. That means they are unlikely to hire new folks anywhere but the remaining physical locations. Might get lucky with a retirement present on my way out the door!
Take what the game gives you, @Turtle!
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Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.
Yes, definitely. Especially since my company is talking about mandatory return to office in October.
Weird update on this one -- company is selling my local site and giving blanket WFH approval for everyone located in my area. Fine by me. Seems like there might be an increased possibility of packages for the folks who don't fade away naturally, because they've already said that any new hires need to be 100% in the office for their first 6 months. That means they are unlikely to hire new folks anywhere but the remaining physical locations. Might get lucky with a retirement present on my way out the door!
It just really sucks to onboard new hires WFH.
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Ok so as I've been refining my retirement projections over the last year, I feel like I must be missing something. And what I'm missing is: why do none of my co-workers seem to ever retire? I know many of them have similar economic circumstances, at least roughly, as I do.
I can think of *one* of my co-workers who just up and retired at an age less than 60 in the last 20 years. He was a single guy, no children, had very strong earnings, and it made total sense that he could do it around the age of 50. Probably could have done it well before then.
The rest of them? They're all pushing past 65 and seemingly still trying to climb the ladder. I don't get it at all. For what?
I blame working out of habit, sense of security, and fear. I've also been really surprised at how otherwise smart people manage to have very high expenses for stupid and worthless things. The opposite of optimized. Then there's the things we can't possibly know about like they are sending money away to family members or have a bad gambling habit.
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Ok so as I've been refining my retirement projections over the last year, I feel like I must be missing something. And what I'm missing is: why do none of my co-workers seem to ever retire? I know many of them have similar economic circumstances, at least roughly, as I do.
I can think of *one* of my co-workers who just up and retired at an age less than 60 in the last 20 years. He was a single guy, no children, had very strong earnings, and it made total sense that he could do it around the age of 50. Probably could have done it well before then.
The rest of them? They're all pushing past 65 and seemingly still trying to climb the ladder. I don't get it at all. For what?
I blame working out of habit, sense of security, and fear. I've also been really surprised at how otherwise smart people manage to have very high expenses for stupid and worthless things. The opposite of optimized. Then there's the things we can't possibly know about like they are sending money away to family members or have a bad gambling habit.
Yeah, it's clear a lot of people just don't know what to do with themselves outside of work, too. I've seen quite a lot of people retire, then come back 6-18 months later.
This will *not* be an issue for me.
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Ok so as I've been refining my retirement projections over the last year, I feel like I must be missing something. And what I'm missing is: why do none of my co-workers seem to ever retire? I know many of them have similar economic circumstances, at least roughly, as I do.
I can think of *one* of my co-workers who just up and retired at an age less than 60 in the last 20 years. He was a single guy, no children, had very strong earnings, and it made total sense that he could do it around the age of 50. Probably could have done it well before then.
The rest of them? They're all pushing past 65 and seemingly still trying to climb the ladder. I don't get it at all. For what?
I blame working out of habit, sense of security, and fear. I've also been really surprised at how otherwise smart people manage to have very high expenses for stupid and worthless things. The opposite of optimized. Then there's the things we can't possibly know about like they are sending money away to family members or have a bad gambling habit.
Yeah, it's clear a lot of people just don't know what to do with themselves outside of work, too. I've seen quite a lot of people retire, then come back 6-18 months later.
This will *not* be an issue for me.
I had lunch recently with a friend at my organization who is 76 years old. He and his wife both make good salaries, probably combined household income of nearly $400,000. (She is a little younger, maybe late 60s.) They are not lavish spenders at all, and in particular spend very little on travel. Two kids, the daughter is married to a hedge fund type; they are rolling in money. The son has a more modest situation with his family, but certainly middle class with his family. My friend said he is considering retiring in the next 18 months, but his wife challenged him and said "what would you do? you'd be bored? I don't plan to ever retire!"
I really don't get it. They are clearly rich materially, but there is a certain degree of poverty of imagination to think there is nothing else a person could do.
That said, he has a really cushy job with tons of autonomy and no real stress. It is kind of the opposite of my job, which is extremely high pressure and mentally fatiguing. Maybe that's the secret. Find a low-pressure sinecure that pays really well.
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Happy to join this group! I’ve been a follower of MMM for over 10 years now and have made great progress! In 2021 I dabbled with FIRE but after a few months off work I was offered a great job with a nice salary so I rejoined the workplace and was happy to do so (my FIRE was pretty lean and with the market going down and inflation going up I decided it was too lean for my peace of mind).
Last year I moved from a townhouse in a great school district to a small recently renovated house just outside the school district as my daughter is now in college so I wasn’t tied to it anymore. I love my house and have spent quite a bit of money on landscaping and a few upgrades but it is my dream home where I can see myself retiring (I was starting to go a bit stir crazy in the townhouse, especially during the TX summer.)
With all these changes behind me it’s time to focus on FIRE so I am back on the forum! I figure 2027 gets my daughter through college and I have some nice long term incentive plans which start vesting next year. I know this forum is about frugality but I need a little fatter FIRE as once I retire I don’t want to go back to work again.
I look forward to being on this journey with you all and cheering you on!
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Checking in w/ my cohorts.
We're still eyeing September of '27. Like others, it has turned into a bit of a grind. I don't much enjoy work but I need to hit that 30-year mark for a permanent pension. We've got very low 7 figures in investment accounts, both pre-tax and after-tax, US house is paid off, and 3 years mortgage to go on foreign property. Currently wavering on whether to keep the US place at all (Long Island) or sell it before we retire and resettle elsewhere in the US. Ideally, somewhere w/ a good international airport, but that kind of limits us to Atlanta and Dallas since we'd like to be somewhere warm (consider Raleigh- Durham?). We wouldn't have to buy back in right away, either. We could see how things go w/ the foreign place first.
For some reason, I enrolled in a master's program, so that's taking some of my time. For the life of me, I could not tell you what I expected to get out of it. I won't be in the workplace long enough to really utilize it, so hopefully, other benefits become obvious. It is a challenge, and I enjoy it, but "What the hell?" is the question I most often ask myself about it.
It's just a lot of unknowns and if-then, which sometimes makes it easier to put the decision off and keep plodding. The problem is that I'm not getting younger, and the places I'd like to see and our thirst for the world is only growing. Guess I should start working on a mock agenda for what to do when the plug is pulled.
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Checking in w/ my cohorts.
We're still eyeing September of '27. Like others, it has turned into a bit of a grind. I don't much enjoy work but I need to hit that 30-year mark for a permanent pension. We've got very low 7 figures in investment accounts, both pre-tax and after-tax, US house is paid off, and 3 years mortgage to go on foreign property. Currently wavering on whether to keep the US place at all (Long Island) or sell it before we retire and resettle elsewhere in the US. Ideally, somewhere w/ a good international airport, but that kind of limits us to Atlanta and Dallas since we'd like to be somewhere warm (consider Raleigh- Durham?). We wouldn't have to buy back in right away, either. We could see how things go w/ the foreign place first.
For some reason, I enrolled in a master's program, so that's taking some of my time. For the life of me, I could not tell you what I expected to get out of it. I won't be in the workplace long enough to really utilize it, so hopefully, other benefits become obvious. It is a challenge, and I enjoy it, but "What the hell?" is the question I most often ask myself about it.
It's just a lot of unknowns and if-then, which sometimes makes it easier to put the decision off and keep plodding. The problem is that I'm not getting younger, and the places I'd like to see and our thirst for the world is only growing. Guess I should start working on a mock agenda for what to do when the plug is pulled.
The grind, yes I totally feel you on this! As far as the master's program, I would really consider its usefulness (future consulting?) because that is a lot of work and time (I'm guessing employe is paying for it) on a task with an unknown goal. You could take that time and work a side gig to get closer to your financial goals. Anyway, welcome.
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Well, it's looking like 2027 is becoming more likely for me.
Originally my goal was 2025 - age 40 - but the Mad Fientist Lab is showing me 3 years 6 months - which puts me squarely into mid 2027. Of course a bad month in the market could shift it further back into 2028, or, if the market does really well, maybe it reels it in further to late 2026.
For my expense number for the 25x calculation, I basically just use the Mad fientist calculation of past 12 months of actual, but this does not include income taxes, and stuff that comes out pre-tax like health insurance. I wonder if I should realistically add a buffer in my monthly numbers to account for those types of expenses - even though it seems doubtful that I'd never again generate earned income at all after reaching FIRE.
The biggest wrinkle in all my calculations is that I'd highly prefer to have a lifelong partner aka be married and I have no idea how that would effect or not effect my finances - it seems unlikely that it would not effect them. I really don't want to be some early retired loner and spend the rest of my life extremely independent and alone.....but I also don't want to work longer than necessary.
Priorities...I guess I might need to decide. :D
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[snip]
For my expense number for the 25x calculation, I basically just use the Mad fientist calculation of past 12 months of actual, but this does not include income taxes, and stuff that comes out pre-tax like health insurance. I wonder if I should realistically add a buffer in my monthly numbers to account for those types of expenses - even though it seems doubtful that I'd never again generate earned income at all after reaching FIRE.
I think you should account for taxes and healthcare costs in your retirement planning. You probably don't need to account for earned income because if that does happen, the tax will come out of the extra earnings. But what about taxes for Roth conversions, dividends, and capital gains? Depending on when I retire I plan for an effective income tax rate between 16% and 20% (mostly from Roth ladder conversions) which is a pretty big cost.
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[snip]
For my expense number for the 25x calculation, I basically just use the Mad fientist calculation of past 12 months of actual, but this does not include income taxes, and stuff that comes out pre-tax like health insurance. I wonder if I should realistically add a buffer in my monthly numbers to account for those types of expenses - even though it seems doubtful that I'd never again generate earned income at all after reaching FIRE.
I think you should account for taxes and healthcare costs in your retirement planning. You probably don't need to account for earned income because if that does happen, the tax will come out of the extra earnings. But what about taxes for Roth conversions, dividends, and capital gains? Depending on when I retire I plan for an effective income tax rate between 16% and 20% (mostly from Roth ladder conversions) which is a pretty big cost.
I anticipate that dividends and capital gains should fall into the 0% bracket unless tax laws change. I will have to choose/balance between realizing gains and Roth conversions. But adding a % for future taxes does make sense.
At most 20% ish of my stash is in traditional right now vs Roth/taxable/HSA, so I'm not sure how heavily a role conversions will play, depending on how long I work and how much the traditional account continues to grow. I could probably convert everything over the course of a number of years, but then the question is do I have enough Roth basis, conversion and taxable to make it to 60 before the Roth growth is retrievable tax free. Possibly. I'm not sure.
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Well, it's looking like 2027 is becoming more likely for me.
Originally my goal was 2025 - age 40 - but the Mad Fientist Lab is showing me 3 years 6 months - which puts me squarely into mid 2027. Of course a bad month in the market could shift it further back into 2028, or, if the market does really well, maybe it reels it in further to late 2026.
For my expense number for the 25x calculation, I basically just use the Mad fientist calculation of past 12 months of actual, but this does not include income taxes, and stuff that comes out pre-tax like health insurance. I wonder if I should realistically add a buffer in my monthly numbers to account for those types of expenses - even though it seems doubtful that I'd never again generate earned income at all after reaching FIRE.
The biggest wrinkle in all my calculations is that I'd highly prefer to have a lifelong partner aka be married and I have no idea how that would effect or not effect my finances - it seems unlikely that it would not effect them. I really don't want to be some early retired loner and spend the rest of my life extremely independent and alone.....but I also don't want to work longer than necessary.
Priorities...I guess I might need to decide. :D
You have a big unknown- future expenses. I would be very conservative with your "number". Mine doubled with wife and kids. In other words, keep your options open and stay flexible. Not many potential spouses want to live on a FIRE budget, at least not until they decide together to go that route.
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Joining up with this cohort today! We were previously looking at 2026, and then 2029, but have settled on 2027 as a reasonable compromise for the financials.
I am (hopefully) about to take a promotion that will increase my eventual pension payout to a really comfortable number, and our investments are likely going to cross into 7 figures in the next few months. I think 3 years in the new position will be enough scratch my itch to find out what working in admin at my organization is like, but not so much that I get too entangled to leave.
Husband and I live in a very high cost of living area, so we are probably looking at moving once we pull the plug.
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I think this might be my new target. I had originally been looking at 2022 and then 2024, but our expenses have more than doubled so a few extra years seems prudent...
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I think this might be my new target. I had originally been looking at 2022 and then 2024, but our expenses have more than doubled so a few extra years seems prudent...
Ditto, mostly. Of course after we buy and sell houses this year... maybe we'll adjust targets again...