what time of year did you pick to FIRE?

[mistymoney]

Been considering this more closely - and wondering what you all have or plan to do?

So - I do see that quite a few do after first quarter/mid-year to try to max retirements and do lower overall taxes that year. Take a vacation while still accruing benefits, that sort of thing.

End of year, I usually take the week of thxgiving, xmas, and new years off, some years up to 8 of those days are holiday from the company, but 6 of them is on the books as official. Work also slows around that time, so I feel like I am getting a 'good package', but then new year's comes with new PTO allotments, etc. new year for 401k, etc. You see where I'm going with this.

Considering 2022 or 2023 cohorts, maybe 2021 if someone looks at me crossways at the wrong time at work! I have a bare-bones workable strategy right now with a side hustle I could work to expand if necessary.

So - did you jump ship as soon as you hit your number? So - could be any time of year? Or did you strategize a time of year that worked best, and then took your number +/- wherever it landed at that time of year?

And did your number being various shades of barebones, lean, reg, or fat influence that?

[NotJen]

Been considering this more closely - and wondering what you all have or plan to do?

So - I do see that quite a few do after first quarter/mid-year to try to max retirements and do lower overall taxes that year. Take a vacation while still accruing benefits, that sort of thing.

I quit at the beginning of December.  This kept all my high income in 2019, so that for 2020 I could get the max subsidy on ACA insurance by using Roth conversions.  As long as I worked a certain number of months, I got my company profit sharing in my 401k in March, after I quit.  I technically still got my "Christmas" bonus after I quit, though it was a lot lower than it should have been, considering I worked for nearly the whole year.

I had no reasons to quit at another time, so this worked out well for me.

So - did you jump ship as soon as you hit your number? So - could be any time of year? Or did you strategize a time of year that worked best, and then took your number +/- wherever it landed at that time of year?

I decided to jump ship before I hit my number - was planning to do a coast-fire thing eventually.  But with market gains and my final paycheck, I ended the year right at my target FIRE number.  I will probably still work some in the future, but since the market has done so well, it is not necessary at all yet.

And did your number being various shades of barebones, lean, reg, or fat influence that?

I guess I considered my FIRE number to be "regular", but it was a big guess (mostly because I was unwilling to try to guess how much health insurance would cost me for the rest of my life).  The fact that I was close was enough to convince me to pull the trigger on quitting my job (I shared my intentions about 5 months early).  There was never going to be a perfect time, and I was "over" my job, so I went ahead and did it.

[Linea_Norway]

I quit at the first option where I could keep my last year's pension savings, that was introduced at the beginning of 2019. I quit per 1 of Jan 2020. We had not sold our clown house yet, which was a big asset in our FIRE stash. But we were confidant that it would sell for an acceptable price. We had tried to sell in autumn, but didn't get a good offer and we tried again in March when we succeeded. I had to give notice 3 whole kalender months in advance, so I had to decide before we knew what the house would sell for. But for my health (stress, high blood pressure), I didn't want to wait too long.

[iris lily]

April because it was gardening season. And I was rewarded with the most gorgeous spring weather the first week of retirement.

[goat_music_generator]

April because it was gardening season. And I was rewarded with the most gorgeous spring weather the first week of retirement.

Great strategy!

I quit in January after bonuses went out and my first stock vest of the year happened. I think if it had been the middle of the year when I realized I was over my number, I would have jumped ship then... but I hit my number in December, so it seemed like a good idea to stick it out just a bit longer for a proportionately large reward. I think if I'd calculated my effective extra salary from staying ~4 extra weeks for a bonus, it would have been at least 2x my normal compensation.

[shuffler]

Assuming you've already met your 'number', and you're just trying to logically maximize the value of your final partial-year of working without considering emotion/personal-preference, then ...

I calculated the cumulative delta to my net-worth for each day of the year.
    "If I work Jan1-Jan1, I'll increase my NW by $Y."
    "If I work Jan1-Jan2, I'll increase my NW by $Y+"
    " ... "
    "If I work Jan1-Dec31, I'll increase my NW by $Y++++"

For the income half of the equation, this requires knowing things like your base-salary, bonus amounts and dates, stock amounts and vest-dates,  vacation accrual-rates and payout-rates, 401k/mega-backdoor contribution rates and matching, employee-stock-purchase dates and rates, etc.  For the expense half of the equation it involves any planned lifestyle/spending changes, income tax approximations, and the cost of ACA/Cobra for the remainder of the year.

Lay all that out in a spreadsheet (or approximate it as much as you like), and you'll be able to say "if I work to X date, I'll increase my stash by Y dollars".  Of course Y is almost certainly the greatest if you work the whole year.  That's pretty obvious and we didn't need to do the spreadsheet/graph work to figure that out.

What we're actually solving for here is the derivative.  At what point(s) in the year is the rate-of-change of Y the greatest?  (NB: You could view this as a second derivative if you like, since Y is already a rate-of-change.)

This will probably lead you to the intuitive conclusion that it's most dollar-for-time efficient to retire after some bonus/stock event.  If you've modeled the ACA/Cobra- and lifestyle-costs well, then it'll have accounted for those aspects as well.

For me, I get the largest bonuses at end-of-Feb and mid-Sept.
End-of-Feb would be the maximal/most-efficient for me, since I'd pay relatively less in taxes, and I'd not have paid much of our employer-health-plan's deductible (switching health-plans mid-year restarts the deductible/co-pays unfortunately).

However, even armed with that knowledge ... I'm still human and I think I'm likely to 6-more-month it to mid-September.  Somehow, irrationally, going from an initial 3.0% WR to a 2.75% WR feels good.  Allowing more time for the pandemic to resolve without tanking the economy feels good.  Cobra'ing to the end of the year would be feasible.  Retiring into the fall/winter feels like a good way to quietly chill out and decompress.  The only part that doesn't feel good is the actual working.  ;^)

[norajean]

I was able to bail out in October due to a generous severance package which I could delay receiving until Jan, next tax year. Until then my plan was April to max stock grant values.

[bmjohnson35]

ACA drove my exit timing more than anything.  I left end of Feb.  I could have pushed it out another month, but I was ready to leave.

[ItsALongStory]

Similar to other responses I just looked at bonus/vesting scheduled primarily as well as a desirable time to move (we were moving to Europe) which resulted in a mid-September departure. I am essentially on an open ended sabbatical, the length will be determined by the market but it could be never ending. We're letting everything ride and are living off my wife's pension in a lower COL part of the world that we're simultaneously discovering in depth.

In general things I considered were:
- Opportunity to max 401k/Roth IRA/prorated HSA in final year
- Ensure bonus eligibility in final year
- Optimal time to move across, given flight expenses
- House had to sell first, which we wanted to do in spring/early summer

Ultimately I think it was the perfect time slot.

[SunniD]

Not FIRE'd yet but planning to do it this May/June. Like others have mentioned here, it's driven by the March bonus schedule and a determination to not spend another summer tied to the work computer (ever again!). I'm not quite at my number but content to coast there. Which despite the slow January start is now moving along faster than I would've thought.   

[asauer]

I chose Feb/March.  This is primarily b/c the largest percentage of my semi annual bonus is paid out Jan 31 (40% July 31 & 60% Jan 31).  Also, we don't travel much in winter, so may as well work through February.

[fuzzy math]

I'm aiming for the end of May (possibly 2022, possibly 2023 depending on how unappealing work is at that point).

I receive a bunch of incentives in January (extra vacation time - not an entire year's worth, but a small allotment based on my hire date), and I receive a HSA contribution then too.

My goal my last year of regular work is to fully fund my HSA, 403b and 457b with a goal of almost $0 net income for the year. It should take about through the end of May. That also coincides with my kids finishing out their school year and me starting out with a glorious summer off...

[ItsALongStory]

Just beware that hsa is prorated based your eligibility. If you aren't on a high deductible plan after let's say June, then your max for the year is cut in half.

[deborah]

I was accepted into a degree course and finished work the week before it started.

Being halfway through the tax year meant I got a lot of tax back that year. I also took all my leave at half pay so that I paid less tax. Since my award included leave loading, taking leave rather than getting it paid out gave me 17.5% more money. I didn’t know it, but taking leave at half pay (meaning I had twice the days of leave) also allowed twice the leave to build up during my leave as would have happened if I had taken it at full pay (it accumulates here with the number of days employed). It also meant that my DB pension was worth more, because I was on the books past my birthday. In all, I was still on the books for more than a year after I finished work (so I got more tax back the following tax year).

[MagneticNorth]

I haven't FIREd yet, but expect to hit my number toward the end of this year so have been thinking about this question a lot. I'm going with April for a few reasons:

FIRE activity - most of the things I'm excited about having more time for are outdoors - hiking, backpacking, and gardening. In April the weather will just be starting to get nice sometimes, and I anticipate really loving being able to seize every nice day in the spring, rather than watching the sun come and go from behind the blue glow of my computer screen.

Financial practicality - November/December are typically a little more slow and laid-back, with lots of paid holidays, so I might as well kick back and make the same amount of money for less work. Then I have a substantial stock vest in January, yearly bonus paid out in March, and another stock vest in April. So while I'll be working a real full-time load again at the start of the year, I'm still making more money per hour worked relative to the rest of the year, up through mid-April.

But we'll see! This is all more than a year out still.

[DeskJockey2028]

I'm not FIREd yet - still a fair ways away, but I've settled on June 1st as my fire date. I need to be 55 to qualify for one of my employer's retirement benefits which is paying the standard health care costs of someone currently employed by Harvard and receiving their full health insurance benefits until I hit 65.

So June 1, 2028 I'll be almost 56. By then I should have enough to retire on and that gives me half a year to try to bulk up my 403(b) if I want an extra cushion. Plus my 403(b) provider allows withdrawals starting at age 55 if I retire.

Add to that a massive road trip we're planning to take that July or August carrying us from coast to coast of the US and it seems like a perfect time to retire. Great weather, a few months to start getting acclimated and do some final planning and then travel for 2-3 months and a leisurely pace with only a rough map and schedule to guide us.

Other options are December of the year prior or December of that same year - either if I feel I've reached my number a bit earlier or want a bit more time to pad my accounts (or to see what the market is doing).

I may also go a year earlier, but that would have to be later in the summer when I'm 55.

[Greystache]

I started my retirement on Jan. 1st. six years ago. I hit my number in early November, but I stuck around to the end of the year to collect generous holiday pay at the end of the year.  Jan. 1 just seemed like a simple clean way to go. New year, new life. It minimized my income for the year so I could control my ACA subsidy.

[Linea_Norway]

I'm not FIREd yet - still a fair ways away, but I've settled on June 1st as my fire date. I need to be 55 to qualify for one of my employer's retirement benefits which is paying the standard health care costs of someone currently employed by Harvard and receiving their full health insurance benefits until I hit 65.

So June 1, 2028 I'll be almost 56. By then I should have enough to retire on and that gives me half a year to try to bulk up my 403(b) if I want an extra cushion. Plus my 403(b) provider allows withdrawals starting at age 55 if I retire.

Add to that a massive road trip we're planning to take that July or August carrying us from coast to coast of the US and it seems like a perfect time to retire. Great weather, a few months to start getting acclimated and do some final planning and then travel for 2-3 months and a leisurely pace with only a rough map and schedule to guide us.

Other options are December of the year prior or December of that same year - either if I feel I've reached my number a bit earlier or want a bit more time to pad my accounts (or to see what the market is doing).

I may also go a year earlier, but that would have to be later in the summer when I'm 55.

If you can afford it, see if you can take some extended leave in the years of to you are 55, without loosing your employment and the benefits. Would your employer mind if you took 6-8 weeks off in July/August?

[hooplady]

First Friday in June. After the 1st so I could get another month of health insurance, Friday just 'cause it seemed appropriate. June because I'd committed to teach some classes related to my volunteer work.

I'd been thinking about it for years, my 'stache had been big enough that I really could have gone a lot earlier. However our busiest time was December through April (year-end financials, tax filings, etc.) and I didn't want to dump it on my team. Ended up coming back as a consultant the next year too.

[Dreamer40]

My last day is in 2 weeks. I picked the date because I reached a point where I can’t do my job and keep my sanity any longer. So it was basically random. But I’m not sure the time of year matters to me very much. Had I quit a month earlier, I could have paid lower professional licensing fees for the year. But it doesn’t really matter in the long run.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

I was originally thinking of February (get my bonus paid out in January), but am now thinking March... I get more stock on a quarterly basis, and also the weather is not great in February, so it might be nicer to wait a bit closer to spring.

[Mike in NH]

June. After my bonus was paid. After the 401k match was made. And most importantly about 30 days after they pissed me off and I said no I'm not going to do that project for the first/last time :) 

[Trifle]

I picked 2/1 to FIRE so that my annual year end bonus could clear and I could get a month of health insurance before hopping over to the ACA on 3/1.  Working through January got me HSA funding for the year as well.