Following!
This thread may be of use: http://forum.earlyretirementextreme.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7870
Thanks for the link! I only check in with the ERE forums time to time, and didn't bother with a thread of that title, but it was nice reading the through update from Jacob--I wasn't aware he was back to retired (from trading) as of about a year ago now.
I personally think 400k is a little low. Not that one can't live on 4% of that... 16k a year is plenty. But the problem is that there's very little buffer for major unexpected stuff. A single major heathcare issue that costs you 50k, for example (say, ambulance ride and emergency surgery for an accident), cuts out too big of a chunk of your stache.. you're now down to 350k, and your 16k withdrawal is now a 4.6% WR. Still possible, but getting scarier. A few issues like that, and you're in trouble.
The same issues can happen when you have 1MM, but they're a smaller percent of your stache.
There's also the problem that a lot of times a lower budget (say 10, 15k, whatever) has the fat trimmed out, whereas a higher one (30, 40k) may have stuff more easily cut--vacations, for example. So if something does go wrong, there's more wiggle room for the higher budget.
Are those things worth working longer for? Not necessarily. Can it be done on 400k? Absolutely.
I just think it's a little tight for me, personally, even if I was only spending 3% of that (12k/yr). It's not the budget that's infeasible for me, it's the wiggle room/unexpected stuff that I'd worry about at that level.