Author Topic: Celebrations Thread  (Read 1648444 times)

arebelspy

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #550 on: April 29, 2014, 09:12:43 AM »
I think DH finally "gets" it! I've been talking about ER for a while now (found MMM about a year ago and had hoped to retire sooner than 'normal' for years) and I couldn't tell until last weekend if he was agreeing with me or doing the "smile-and-nod-and-slowly-back-away" you do with crazy people.
Last weekend we started talking about our retirement house and what we'd do when we retire and we're really on the same page. We're still a good 7 years from retiring but now that I know he's on board we can really start aggressively working towards ER.

On a different note: I did my first electrical repair this weekend. I rewired a bad light fixture and didn't zap myself and it even works!

Spouse on board is HUGE!  Awesome.  :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

prudence

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #551 on: May 01, 2014, 09:45:58 AM »
I finally hit the 50% mark on my stache. I'm halfway to retirement! I hope the second half builds faster with momentum :)

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First mini-milestone on my race to FI
« Reply #552 on: May 02, 2014, 08:40:03 PM »
In February of this year I discovered Mustachianism and made a spreadsheet I called "The Race to FI".  It's a 7 year plan. First widdle bitty baby step; pay off a $5600 high interest consumer loan as fast as possible. I eliminated $2000 of wasteful monthly spending in March and sold my useless possessions on ebay and craigslist. Today, May 2nd, just two months later the loan is PAID! This crazy stuff works! Today at work, for the first time in 13 years at this job, I set my 401k contribution to max me out for the year! In 7 years I am going to re-read this post and remember when it all began.

NinetyFour

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Re: First mini-milestone on my race to FI
« Reply #553 on: May 02, 2014, 08:45:51 PM »
In February of this year I discovered Mustachianism and made a spreadsheet I called "The Race to FI".  It's a 7 year plan. First widdle bitty baby step; pay off a $5600 high interest consumer loan as fast as possible. I eliminated $2000 of wasteful monthly spending in March and sold my useless possessions on ebay and craigslist. Today, May 2nd, just two months later the loan is PAID! This crazy stuff works! Today at work, for the first time in 13 years at this job, I set my 401k contribution to max me out for the year! In 7 years I am going to re-read this post and remember when it all began.

Nice work!  Welcome to mustache land!!

Jon_Snow

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #554 on: May 03, 2014, 02:31:51 PM »
The last time I posted here in the "celebrations" thread, I think we had just refinanced our mortgage to a 2.7%, one year term. Since then, we have paid it off in full and now we have really hit our saving/investing stride. We are now saving 85% of our income, which is in excess of 10k per month.
Monthly dividends are now rolling in to the tune of $4000 monthly. Our expenses total around 2k or so. So I think I am good to go. I have recently let my family know of my intentions give my employer notice this summer - with the intention of being ER'ed by the late Fall of this year. My family is quite surprised to say the least - but once I explained how I could do this (without getting into my exact financial numbers) they were very supportive - but still quite perplexed. :)

I have been working for this for the last ten years - long before I knew of MMM - and the fact that the plan is almost realized seems surreal.


happy

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #555 on: May 03, 2014, 07:30:21 PM »
Well done everyone and congratulations Jon_Snow - that is awesome news!

NinetyFour

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #556 on: May 03, 2014, 08:19:55 PM »
Congratulations, Jon_Snow!!  Very happy for you!

Wile E. Coyote

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #557 on: May 03, 2014, 08:46:01 PM »
Giant congratulations Jon_Snow!

Lukim

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #558 on: May 03, 2014, 08:55:15 PM »
We have been building 2 investment houses, was wondering whether or not we would be able to rent them and get good tenants.

Good news, houses just finished (actually not even finished but close to finished) and a corporate has agreed to rent both houses for 2 years.

That is a burden lifted!!

okonumiyaki

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #559 on: May 04, 2014, 10:11:51 PM »
Where abouts in Asia Lukim?

I've had a planning spreadsheet since 2006.  Interesting to look back. 

Net assets have increased 94%.  However, am 10% below where I expected to be.  Returns are below expectations (2008!) , but saving has been above expectations.

My wife is not yet fully on board, though she has tentatively agreed I can quit this year (she stopped part time work 2 years ago) - though she sees it more as a sabbatic than early retirement.

She has to be on board really - as I want to move to her home country (Indonesia).  Almost had an agreement last year (to quit and get involved with her family's business) but a last minute falling out between her & her father ended that!  So now would be looking to move to another part of Indonesia, and not be involved.

Punchingat50

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #560 on: May 05, 2014, 04:15:34 PM »
I now have a positive net worth after 8 months of toiling. This site gave me the tools.

Lukim

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #561 on: May 05, 2014, 05:36:56 PM »
Okonumiyaki - Which part of Indonesia are you looking to move to?

Lots of cheap places to live in Indonesia but Bali and Jakarta are probably not amongst them.

I am living and working in Asia as an expat but the 2 houses we just built are not in Asia.

okonumiyaki

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #562 on: May 05, 2014, 09:22:08 PM »
Well, I like East Java, my wife is from Malang.  But the alternative is Bali.  Actually, because of the property bubble on at the moment in Java, property prices (for freehold) in Malang are about the same as Bali... 

S0VERE1GN

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #563 on: May 06, 2014, 06:04:15 AM »
Just feeling exceptionally grateful today.

A few years ago my wife and I were having a baby, lived in a crummy railroad flat, had over 10 grand in Credit card debt, and we were both only working part time.

Now we both have excellent careers, only the student loan debt remains as our "bad" debt, and we're closing on what I think will be our forever house.

Not to mention we've dropped our expenses so much now that even though both of us work, we're essentially a one income household. Small victories build up to huge wins!

HairyUpperLip

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #564 on: May 06, 2014, 11:27:23 AM »
The last time I posted here in the "celebrations" thread, I think we had just refinanced our mortgage to a 2.7%, one year term. Since then, we have paid it off in full and now we have really hit our saving/investing stride. We are now saving 85% of our income, which is in excess of 10k per month.
Monthly dividends are now rolling in to the tune of $4000 monthly. Our expenses total around 2k or so. So I think I am good to go. I have recently let my family know of my intentions give my employer notice this summer - with the intention of being ER'ed by the late Fall of this year. My family is quite surprised to say the least - but once I explained how I could do this (without getting into my exact financial numbers) they were very supportive - but still quite perplexed. :)

I have been working for this for the last ten years - long before I knew of MMM - and the fact that the plan is almost realized seems surreal.

Lol - this deserves it's own thread. Place share about the story. Very good job man!


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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #565 on: May 06, 2014, 02:49:16 PM »
I don't think I've started my own thread in all my years of hangin' out on various forums. Perhaps I should, as I have a pretty cool story to tell. I intend to start a blog a some point, so I may wait until then. Thanks for the interest!

HairyUpperLip

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #566 on: May 06, 2014, 03:47:18 PM »
I don't think I've started my own thread in all my years of hangin' out on various forums. Perhaps I should, as I have a pretty cool story to tell. I intend to start a blog a some point, so I may wait until then. Thanks for the interest!

pm me the link when you create it!

Heather in Ottawa

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #567 on: May 08, 2014, 08:27:54 PM »
My 1 year anniversary on Mint! Now I know how much we spent (about $22,000), and we increased our net worth by $64,000. So we can lay claim to a 74% savings rate. Next year will be even better since we'll both work full time, and have really dialed in our expenses in the last couple months. How did I ever exist without Mint?

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #568 on: May 09, 2014, 02:04:58 PM »
I paid off my student loans!!! Since February 2012, I have paid off $48K (including interest on a variable rate loan), and I now have no debt. I also maxed out my Roth each year, contributed to the match in my 401K in 2012 (and every year since I started working), nearly maxed it out in 2013, and will max it out in 2014. It feels pretty friggin great!

HairyUpperLip

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #569 on: May 10, 2014, 05:35:15 PM »
great job nancy!

Nancy

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #570 on: May 11, 2014, 05:23:14 PM »
great job nancy!
Thanks! I'm pretty excited.

FrugalInTraining

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #571 on: May 12, 2014, 09:41:24 PM »
I paid off my student loans!!!

Congrats.  Me, too!  Your story is a bit more impressive, but I'm glad to cross that bill off my list.  Now to some CC debt currently snoozing at 0%. 

Onward!!

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #572 on: May 13, 2014, 08:56:17 AM »
I paid off my student loans!!!

Congrats.  Me, too!  Your story is a bit more impressive, but I'm glad to cross that bill off my list.  Now to some CC debt currently snoozing at 0%. 

Onward!!

Congratulations! Keep knocking them out!

CU Tiger

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #573 on: May 16, 2014, 07:13:14 PM »
Back in late February we paid off the mortgage. Our stated plan was to use at least half the money we used to direct to the mortgage into investments.

So tonight we got online and made the following changes:
Increased the amount that goes into short term emergency fund by $50 per month.
Increased the amount that goes into our two Roth IRAs by $190 per month (+50 per month in mine, +$140 per month is his, since he is now in his 50th year and can add the "catch up" amount)
Increased the amount into our after tax investments from $100 to $400 per month

A couple of months ago I also increased the amount that goes into my 401K to 25% of my salary. It didn't hurt...much.

None of these amounts is huge. We will do more later, but right now we are also saving for some important and much needed home repairs, including weatherproofing the house and repairing a leaking chimney. But it feels amazing to be saving this money to The Bank of Us, rather than sending it to The Bank of America!

FiveSigmas

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #574 on: May 16, 2014, 08:16:13 PM »
Biked to work today for the first time! Woo!

HairyUpperLip

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #575 on: May 19, 2014, 07:53:01 AM »
The last time I posted here in the "celebrations" thread, I think we had just refinanced our mortgage to a 2.7%, one year term. Since then, we have paid it off in full and now we have really hit our saving/investing stride. We are now saving 85% of our income, which is in excess of 10k per month.
Monthly dividends are now rolling in to the tune of $4000 monthly. Our expenses total around 2k or so. So I think I am good to go. I have recently let my family know of my intentions give my employer notice this summer - with the intention of being ER'ed by the late Fall of this year. My family is quite surprised to say the least - but once I explained how I could do this (without getting into my exact financial numbers) they were very supportive - but still quite perplexed. :)

I have been working for this for the last ten years - long before I knew of MMM - and the fact that the plan is almost realized seems surreal.

Man, I'm really waiting for you to post a full story. :)

aetherie

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #576 on: May 19, 2014, 12:46:52 PM »
I graduated from college yesterday!
And my full-time, high-paying, in-my-field job starts on June 2. I feel very lucky.

SunshineGirl

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #577 on: May 19, 2014, 01:18:39 PM »
I graduated from college yesterday!
And my full-time, high-paying, in-my-field job starts on June 2. I feel very lucky.

Congratulations!!!

plainjane

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #578 on: May 24, 2014, 03:09:57 PM »
In the past month I noticed that the household net worth has surpassed $1M on paper (this includes the house value, so I'm going by recent sales on the street).

And this morning I was playing with a retirement calculator and discovered that even with conservative assumptions around growth we don't need to save anything additional if we wanted to retire at 60.  We just need to cover our expenditures until then.  This means that any money added from now on is truly for ER.  Exceptionally motivating.

minimos

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #579 on: May 24, 2014, 03:14:42 PM »
Hit a positive net worth this month!

Reepekg

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #580 on: May 24, 2014, 09:28:54 PM »
Hit the following net worth today ($ks):

pjm-7

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #581 on: May 26, 2014, 06:35:32 PM »
I gave my notice to retire this past Friday.  Totally debt free (mortgage paid was paid off in March).  Plan to spend the summer tending my garden and taking care of animals. 

arebelspy

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #582 on: May 26, 2014, 11:40:18 PM »
I gave my notice to retire this past Friday.  Totally debt free (mortgage paid was paid off in March).  Plan to spend the summer tending my garden and taking care of animals.

Congrats!  That's worth celebrating.  :)
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

Emerald

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #583 on: May 27, 2014, 07:15:53 AM »
My only debt is my mortgage.  I just sold a vehicle, so I should be throwing another $5000 at the mortgage this month. 

mrfilthyrich

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #584 on: May 28, 2014, 06:26:13 PM »
I have 5k saved up for Emergency savings!  Now instead of doing $100 a week toward that I can start filtering that toward my student loans!

Snowwabbit

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #585 on: May 29, 2014, 01:47:28 AM »
A minor celebration for me... May was my first month of ynab and reading MMM.  Thought I'd do a comparison between spending in May '13 and May '14. At first glance spending the same, if not a little more - Instant disappointment! But hang on, look a little closer and I see my frivolous spending (coffee, lunch, whatevs) has dropped 70%! My spending is so high because I've paid off $2500 of debt, crazy stuff for me, so thanks MMM community :-)

hernandz

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #586 on: May 29, 2014, 10:31:45 AM »
A minor celebration for me... May was my first month of ynab and reading MMM.  Thought I'd do a comparison between spending in May '13 and May '14. At first glance spending the same, if not a little more - Instant disappointment! But hang on, look a little closer and I see my frivolous spending (coffee, lunch, whatevs) has dropped 70%! My spending is so high because I've paid off $2500 of debt, crazy stuff for me, so thanks MMM community :-)

I think that is worthy of a major celebration.  The first step is the hardest, after all.  Congrats on paying all that debt.

Jon_Snow

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #587 on: May 29, 2014, 08:10:08 PM »
I gave my notice to retire this past Friday.  Totally debt free (mortgage paid was paid off in March).  Plan to spend the summer tending my garden and taking care of animals.

Awesome! I hope to be giving my notice in July... want to get a massive garden started and perhaps get some animals of my own to take care of - I have been animal-less for too many years.

ER is so close now... and my wife seems just as excited as I am!
« Last Edit: May 29, 2014, 08:21:04 PM by Jon_Snow »

Credaholic

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #588 on: May 31, 2014, 08:41:30 AM »
Closed on our old house! We purchased two years ago in the dead of winter (offer was actually accepted on Christmas) when the market was in the absolute crapper. It wasn't perfect (small, on a busy street, totally destroyed inside Homepath home) but I figured close to $100k for an in-city single family home in Seattle was about as good as it was going to get. All told after remodel and closing costs we were into this house for about $170k. Received multiple offers (on my birthday no less!) and increased our net worth after paying off the mortgage by $167k. About $5k of that was from mortgage principal pay down over those two and bit years. Couldn't be happier, and sort of looking forward to the next real estate crash ;)

grantmeaname

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #589 on: May 31, 2014, 12:19:36 PM »
Wow, that's a sweet return! Way to go!

lark

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #590 on: May 31, 2014, 05:06:59 PM »
Finished paying off my student loans this week (90k in 18months!) and opened my first Vanguard account. Super excited to see my 'stache start taking off :)

NinetyFour

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #591 on: May 31, 2014, 05:07:49 PM »
Excellent work!!  Congrats!

catccc

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #592 on: June 01, 2014, 06:54:06 AM »
Finished paying off my student loans this week (90k in 18months!) and opened my first Vanguard account. Super excited to see my 'stache start taking off :)

90K in 18 months, that's awesome.  Think about how quickly your stash will grow diverting those payments to investments instead!!!  Congrats!

erae

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #593 on: June 03, 2014, 12:47:26 PM »
Our net worth broke 80K!  Shooting for 100K  by the end of the year.

MrSporty

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #594 on: June 04, 2014, 01:11:40 AM »
I just filed an application to reduce my position at work from 100% to 80% in order to get more spare time - and start preparing for a full FIRE-lifestyle (hopefully 5-10 years from now).

My boss called me in for a meeting and wondered if I had became ill, if there was any problem in my home, with my children, etc.

I just replied I wanted more spare time and said I was fully motivated to do a good job on the days I'm in the office. Also that my finances allowed it.

To say the least he was surprised - most of my coworkers still work full-time, and many of them are in their 50's and even 60's. I'm turning 40 next month. :-)

Worth mentioning is my boss' plans for the summer holiday - a luxury 2-week trip to Africa costing $40.000 (!!). Admittedly it will be a nice experience, but a damn expensive one!

ichangedmyname

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #595 on: June 04, 2014, 09:04:42 PM »
Congrats everyone! I love reading the great news.

I did a mid year review and I am celebrating the increase of my net worth. I like where the graph is going :D



anotherAlias

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Re: Celebrations Thread
« Reply #596 on: June 06, 2014, 06:32:10 PM »
Today my liquid net worth hit 250k.  I'm officially a quarter millionaire.

Jon_Snow

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Re: Celebrations Thread9-
« Reply #597 on: June 07, 2014, 03:48:05 PM »
My wife and I had a great discussion last night about my ER status. Up until now, the target date of my ER has been "sometime late in 2014". We have now agreed that after a nice July holiday on Vancouver Island, celebrating our anniversary, I will give my employer my official notice on my return to the city.

Early retirement will commence on October 1st, 2014, in my 42nd year. Haven't yet been able to convince my wife to join me. She is not convinced that we can both quit our jobs, despite the math saying otherwise. She does seem to love her job, I'll give her that - that not something I experienced in almost 25 years in my own career.

Daisy

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Re: Celebrations Thread9-
« Reply #598 on: June 09, 2014, 09:05:06 PM »
My wife and I had a great discussion last night about my ER status. Up until now, the target date of my ER has been "sometime late in 2014". We have now agreed that after a nice July holiday on Vancouver Island, celebrating our anniversary, I will give my employer my official notice on my return to the city.

Early retirement will commence on October 1st, 2014, in my 42nd year. Haven't yet been able to convince my wife to join me. She is not convinced that we can both quit our jobs, despite the math saying otherwise. She does seem to love her job, I'll give her that - that not something I experienced in almost 25 years in my own career.

That is awesome! You turned your OMY into an NMY (No More Years).

Sorry for the corny humor - that's all I could come up with on such short notice. :-)

HappierAtHome

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Re: Celebrations Thread9-
« Reply #599 on: June 09, 2014, 09:56:10 PM »
My wife and I had a great discussion last night about my ER status. Up until now, the target date of my ER has been "sometime late in 2014". We have now agreed that after a nice July holiday on Vancouver Island, celebrating our anniversary, I will give my employer my official notice on my return to the city.

Early retirement will commence on October 1st, 2014, in my 42nd year. Haven't yet been able to convince my wife to join me. She is not convinced that we can both quit our jobs, despite the math saying otherwise. She does seem to love her job, I'll give her that - that not something I experienced in almost 25 years in my own career.

Wow, ER is so close for you now!! Congratulations :-)

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!