It's a fun thing to ponder! I have a spreadsheet that goes out twenty years and annually track savings/investments, social security and pension "if I take it now" amounts, annual expenses, what annual expenses I'm aiming for when our one-earner family stops work.
So much changes in life. What I would have said we'd do now twenty years ago is different than what we're actually doing. I have found that BEING FI is the goal more than quitting work is, but if and as the job becomes less satisfying, there are more options. Right now, we're spending more than I would have imagined twenty years ago but in ways we value - namely, mostly helping our kids launch without debt. This generation of young adults has it really rough in many ways. Their mental health is pretty bad, overall, and of course the economy and covid aren't helping matters. So we are choosing to help and support them however we can.
Once covid is over, we will be entering a period we've never experienced before of lowered expenses (kids launched) and all money goals basically achieved, so for the first time ever, money will CEASE to be an issue. The job could go, and we'd be fine with the decent "starter" pension we could access. But each year employed, we enjoy a high income, solid health care, and a pension that's building, plus our investments don't need to be touched and can hopefully accrue nicely. Until the job goes south (as jobs do), the intention is to start working on a bucket list while the paycheck's still rolling in. Take care of some needed house maintenance, get our house set for the next ten years. Upgrade our travel, host our kids if they want to join us, drink that $15 bottle of wine. Spend freely - after fifty-something years of reigning it in, I'm actually looking forward to this next phase as much as the one comes after. I feel when it's time to give up the job, we'll know. Or the job may give up on us. But we're about to enter what I'm realizing is a very sweet spot.
