Common Cents: Any luck? No need to reply if, to make a decent story, you would have to share too much personal detail - but the follow-up on actual "case study" results can be more educational than the original speculation.
Hi MDM,
Not very much of an update yet. We ended up incredibly busy for a time (going away on our very belated honeymoon, buying a house in late Dec, fixing up the condo to sell, holidays, a big event I was working on with my nonprofit, etc). When he transferred money to his checking account for the downpayment, all of the sudden the bank became *very* interested in him, upgrading his account (available to those over $50K in account, although we've since dropped below it) and reaching out to him to set up a financial planning session for free.
We agreed to go see this guy, but then DH couldn't get back in touch with him. He went in last week and discovered the guy may have left the bank, but the bank is now setting us up with someone else. Due to work travel and other constraints I'm guessing it won't happen for another week or two. We have low expectations of quality, but figure this is a "step 1" scenario, and we can go find a better/diff person later if we think it worthwhile. We are prepared for them to try to sell us on products.
Once we sell the condo (btw, got WAAAY more than expected for offers this Monday, accepting one that was $15K more than our "best case" scenario - which helps his pessimism brighten a touch), we're planning to sit down and figure out more concretely a plan for our finances and budget.
In late Nov/Dec I did show him a spreadsheet showing a rough calculation of when we could be FI, without access to my pension (could get a teeny one at 10 years, max out 32 years, been here 2) or SS (he doesn't trust it, and due to my pension I can't get it, losing out on putting 10-15 years into SS already). He said it would be very awesome if true, but was skeptical, although less so than before.
My plan is to:
1) See the free financial planner
2) Collect up 6-12 mos worth of bills in the new house, to get a baseline of spending
3) Do up more spreadsheets/calculations/budget etc to present to him
I think I can't get away from the fact that he will want to overestimate our expenses, and underestimate the investment gains, but I am hopeful that as the stash really takes off in terms of dollars working for himself, he will relax and decide it just maybe is possible to retire early, even if we have kids (mid to late 30s, so right tight on time).