Dear Mustachians,
My husband and I are facing a FI cross-roads and would like to call upon the infinite wisdom and financial badassity of this forum to help us make our next move.
We are in our early thirties and have been mustachians for some time now. We have been aggressively paying down our mortgage and saving up a stache in order to take a step back from the grind. Since we had our first child, I’ve been able to transition from full-time work to consulting. I enjoy what I do, I can do it from home, and largely when I please. So this is something I’ll likely continue in the future.
As for my other half, he is not so enraptured with his job. We are currently living abroad, and were planning to wrap things up and head to Australia mid next year. However, life has thrown a spanner in the works. The spanner is a potentially very cool job for my husband, in a field he loves. BUT – it would mean relocating to another country. The pros, aside from the good job bit, is the cash. We could potentially stash another 250-300k per year. Say we do two years, that’s a lot of extra safety net in the bag.
My biggest issue is – do we really need to do it? Great job or not, it’s still a job. And one that can be pretty consuming at times. When we were planning to leap gleefully into semi-retirement, it’s mentally kind of tough to recalibrate to take on two more years.
So, to help you help us, here are the numbers.
Plan A – pull the pin mid 2014
Assets
- Property 1 (primary residence) – 750k
- Property 2 – 870k
- Property 3 – 320k
- Shares – 140k
- Cash – 300k
Liabilities
- Property 2 – 540k
- Student loan – 32k
Ongoing Revenue Streams
- Rent Property 2 – 31k per annum
- Rent property 3 – 6k per annum
- Consulting – 100k per annum*
- Interest on cash/shares – 11k per annum
Expenses
- Rental property maintenance etc – 8k
- Estimated living expenses – 25k (no mortgage, no car)**
- Travel budget – 8k (we plan to travel every year for a month or so to see family o/s)
*While this is ongoing, it is not permanent and is not something we can count on forever
** If anyone can chip in on average cost of living in Sunshine coast area in Australia we’d be grateful
Plan B – suck it up for two more years
Our ongoing revenue and expenses would be the same as above. The only line item that really changes is the cash.
Assets
- Property 1 (main residence) – 750k
- Property 2 – 870k
- Property 3 – 320k
- Shares – 140k
- Cash – 760k
So there it is. Obviously it’s very top line, but hopefully it’s enough detail to enable you to provide us with some advice. We don't know whether to punch ourselves in the face and just leave. Or punch ourselves in the face and take on another two years.
Huge thanks in advance for your help!