Me again. Thanks for the great advice last time about mortgage payments.
I'm 35 and am wondering if I can possibly FIRE within 10 years.
Here's my situation.
I realize it probably includes a lot of stupidity and little badassery:
A) dream job. Pays $46K plus any prizes I win. In my city,$46K goes a long way.
I'm in a research field with prizes, and I've gotten one $10K and a few $500-$2K. I get at least one a year. So I average about $48K.
I have publication royalties, but they're laughably nominal, but I'm not a scientist, so I have no lab/equipment/supplies costs and no assistants to pay.
I have $30K in savings. I will invest some with Vanguard this year. I also have two pensions: one with my current employer, and a state pension from another country, where I used to work. I can cash it out whenever, but only if I NEVER want to work there again or retire there. So I don't plan to until I am retired.
B) I also get a lot of free stuff - public transportation, interlibrary loan, books, movies, theatre, outreach lectures, my computer... my entertainment budget is an $80 yearly symphony subscription. No tv/cable/netflix.
- bought a condo. 15 year mortgage. Payments are less than my dilapidated grad school room in Expensive East Coast City. If I wanted to live like a grad student again - or I get one mid-size award per year - I can pay it off in 6 years.
- for financial purposes, I'm single. (Partner lives elsewhere, independent finances, works for us.)
C) No car. 1 bike, 1 Vespa.
D) No debt except the mortgage.
1) Can I achieve FIRE? (If I want to... not quite convinced. If I do, I'd try to keep teaching a few courses I like, and doing my research.) In 10 years?
2) I'm not sure I CAN and keep all the items in B). I've never heard of a 45-year-old emeritus professor.
C) I am still learning about investing, but I own about $5K worth of eighteenth century rare books (European history, mostly), and continue to plan to add to my collection. This is a hobby more than an investment strategy, because I plan to give them to my university when I'm no longer able to take care of them or if they won't fit in my home anymore. I don't think I can sell them for more than I paid, anyhow. (Although I got one for $20 because some idiots at a charity shop had no idea what it was, and had actually put it on the *floor& (!). I've got it appraised for $900.)
thanks