Case Study: Am I done?

[2Birds1Stone]

Start enjoying life!! The golden handcuffs can be broken sir :)

[FIREby35]

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."

Take the leap. You"ll be great!

[shanesauce]

I am just going to throw this out there and don't take this the wrong way please.

Your assets are 16x what my proposed numbers are when I plan to FIRE. This blows my mind.

I do live in a LCOL area and I have a child but holy crap batman how you or your wife could continue to work full time is mind boggling. I plan on me or my spouse working part time through the year for "fun money" this could go to anything we wanted but will more than likely end up being travel/vacation money.
I promise if you are paying 14k for property taxes/insurance that you could move to a LCOL area and buy a mansion with the money you have in your current property.

Our plan doesn't include any extravagant vacation homes or fancy cars but for $8k a year we will have the necessities covered and then some, add in one of us working part time for some ridiculous cushion there.

You have reached financial independence brother, you should have pulled the trigger a long time ago. Pursue your passions, spend more time with your kids, enjoy the fruits of your labor. DO IT.

[Ladychips]

You are SO done.  Please keep us posted on your progress...we're rooting for you!!

[Jim2001]

Lazarus,

  The time you'll gain with your kids is priceless.  Don't hesitate any longer than absolutely necessary to be their primary care giver in the most important years of their lives!

Congratulations on a job well done.

[Exflyboy]

Hey Laz,

What you are going through is like when Neo was dragged out of the Matrix.. you eyes hurt cus you've never used them before!

We are so programmed to accumulate dough and strive to move upwards as society sees it. seeing that you don't actually need to do this crap anymore is a huge wake up call.
 I went thru these stages..

1) I read MMM and dismissed it
2) Read it again and thought "Maybe this guy Pete is onto something.. Wait a minute he's been retired for how long?
3) Ok in theory I have enough to retire (it was about $1.1M at the time).. But now way that caan't be enough.
4) I wrote to Pete and asked him if I had enough.. He said "You are DONE working my friend".... Still didn't believe it but I wanted to.
5) Got up the next day at 4:30am to make the 80 mil commute to work in miserable weather... Guess what I was dreaming about?
6) Spent another 6 months rehashing numbers and getting my expenses down, cell phone plans to $15 a month for two phones, car and house insurance (saved 60%) etc etc.
7)in three months my Liquid NW had risen to $1.3M and I started to engineer my layoff
8)Got laid off and drove 80 miles home.

Happiest day of my life!

I have been working part time for the last two years, not be cause I needed the money, but I really enjoyed the job and the Wife is still working for now.

This process took me about 4 or 5 months to realise I could retire.. This a life changing event and learning to be OK without a firehose of income... thats not trivial.

[PARedbeard]

Congratulations!

[tonysemail]

Congrats!

[Cycling Stache]

Congrats!  For whatever reason, this thread has really resonated with me more than most.  Glad to see a happy conclusion.

[FIREby35]

I know everyone doesn't want to write all the time, but you should feel free to share your musings on early retirement here. I, for one, would be interested in hearing about it.

Also - Congratulations!

[Ladychips]

So, so happy for you.  Please do share as you can.

[Bicycle_B]

I am now FIRE'd!  Spent the day doing very little except reading some books and watching a badass Japanese movie called Lady Snowblood... the race is run.  On to a new chapter...

Japanese movie, eh?  Naruhodo! 

Anyway, way to go, Lazarus.  Two thumbs up - one for fun screen name, the other for your new life.  Kudos also to supportive wife.

[PARedbeard]

Would love to hear what the other interests you plan to explore include!

[ooeei]

Just read through this thread, and when I read the first post I thought "Great, another person who's going to scare himself out of leaving his job."  I figured you'd think up 1,000,000 excuses and update the thread every year or two about why you were still waiting.  I'm so glad to be proven wrong!

[Rylito]

Many congrats, LL!  What a great time to retire, too.  Enjoy the rest of your summer with your kiddos.

[KCM5]

Congrats!

I loved reading this thread from the beginning. Here are my reactions

• Man, this guys got a lot of money
• They spend how much?
• Seriously, they spend HOW MUCH!?
• Just retire already!
• He did it? He did it!

Enjoy the rest of your life!

[Nick_Miller]

I just wanted to add my congratulations! I read about your story and I too was thrilled to see you actually pull the plug.

And you should totally put "poet" as your occupation on your income tax return, and perhaps change it every year. ("warrior poet" might be even cooler!)

Other titles could include: "rugged outdoorsman" or "philosopher/guru."

[honeybbq]

I am now FIRE'd!  Spent the day doing very little except reading some books and watching a badass Japanese movie called Lady Snowblood... the race is run.  On to a new chapter...

Congrats!!!! I am following with interest, my situation is similar to yours. High household income, high spend rate, and a large percentage of spending going to maintaining the status quo (day care, commuting, etc). It's hard to budget for FIRE when half the things will disappear (or should disappear) out of your spend column.

[Cycling Stache]

One thing I've noticed even over this first bit is that I need to give myself permission to enjoy life.  I think I've really gotten into an achievement or ambition mindset and that mindset might be good for some people but I think it has become corrosive for me.

I took a couple of mini vacations (one was 10 days) from work this summer that I enjoyed tremendously, and the key was telling myself that I didn't need to accomplish one thing during that time.  If I did something, great, but no shoulds.  No feeling that I should take advantage of the time, get things done, work on stuff around the house, etc.

I did do some of that stuff, but only if I felt like it.  It was great.

And I didn't think about work one bit after about the second day!  This is what I imagine the freedom of early retirement to be.

[starguru]

I am now FIRE'd!  Spent the day doing very little except reading some books and watching a badass Japanese movie called Lady Snowblood... the race is run.  On to a new chapter...

congrats!  How did it go down at work when you retired?

If you don't mind my asking,  what line of work were you in and what was the salary range?  Did you have strong savings your entire career or did it take a big bump at work to get you on the path to having $2M+ by 40? 

If you do mind my asking just ignore :).

My target is around what you have (maybe a bit more) and the last few years my salary has really ballooned,  which is good as it's the only way I'll make my target.  Probably hit it around 45.




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[BTH7117]

Congrats!  For whatever reason, this thread has really resonated with me more than most.  Glad to see a happy conclusion.

Same.  This has been an insightful discussion.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!