Thanks for the replies everyone. I appreciate the critical looks at my situation. I've found it interesting how conservative most of the responses and critiques have been, given that my budget is similar to that of MMM, if you scale it to one person: e.g. ($25000/yr) / (2 income earners) = $12500/yr.
@lazarus_long:
The "car" heading doesn't cover all aspects of the car, due to idiosyncrasies with my cost-tracking software. However, yes, that budget does cover my car related expenses. We own one car, drive about 8k miles per year, and I perform all my own basic maintenance, so the costs are low.
Regarding your question about my posting this thread in two places, I wanted to gather opinions from post-fire'd people as well as the broader community, and I assumed that readers of one type might not check the threads of another section -- if that upsets the balance around here, I apologize.
@Fern_Free:
health insurance is included in this budget. Given my low income, it will be heavily subsidized by the ACA. With no subsidy, it's about $217/mo for a HDHP.
@Bicycle_B:
Regarding your questions about the mortgage, that is covered in earlier replies of this thread. 115k of the 415k is a cash reserve I may use to pay-off the mortgage, which leaves 25-30x expenses.
1) You file jointly but say your finances are separate. If you're married, isn't there some interaction with partner's finances? With the expense and income amounts low even by Mustache standards, in your shoes I'd want to account for that before declaring FI.
Yes, there is some interaction. I've addressed this in a previous post. My partner and I handle our finances in a manner similar to that of Jacob at ERE or Brandon at the MadFientist: we pay shares into a joint account to cover shared expenses.
2) Curious about car also. 139/yr is less than $12/month. Is that sustainable?
I've addressed that above, in my comment to lazarus_long
3) Ya'll ever gonna have kids? If a kid led you to return to work, would it be easy to get a new job?
Maybe, on the kids. Part-time work would fund the kid. A child is a variable in this whole financial equation, but it is one that can be solved for.
4) Do you both have health coverage?
Yes.
Despite these questions, clearly you have a lot of flexibility (lots of FU $). So it's still an emotional question to some extent. You've obviously been efficient up to now and put a lot of ducks in a row. My guess is you should go for it, but that's a guess without having a clue about your partner. Is he/she in fact financially responsible? Has he/she ventured an opinion?
Yes, my partner is financially responsible and debt-free beyond the mortgage. My partner's also saving to FIRE in the next few years: this is a joint project.
PS. Completely irrelevant, but what pet costs $14/mo ($168/year)?
A sick, dying cat (now dead), minus its groceries, which are included under the "food" for the household. Euthanizing a cat is absurdly expensive!
@ash7962:
Thanks for the encouragement. Generally, I share your optimism about part-time work and the ability to find full-time work if necessary.
@Cassie:
Fair enough -- could you elaborate?
@plainjane:
My partner is supportive and working on it too. As far as risk management is concerned, I treat relationship failure in the same manner as I treat contracting a terminal disease or a 100-year disaster occurring in my area: these are tail events. They're hard to plan for. Saving 50x my expenses simply to cover an unlikely divorce seems overly conservative.
The house maintenance budget is included. I can do most of the work myself. Houses are expensive, and amortizing large expenses is a useful way to manage that.
@FIRE Artist:
Fair enough.
@2Birds1Stone:
Fair enough. Firecalc and cfiresim analyses don't demonstrate my financial situation is that dire.
I have a budget for healthcare. To be fair, extreme health problems could ruin any employment or retirement scenario: I am not unique in this risk.
At this point, my income will cover my future projects, which may produce additional income.
As much as it is possible to look thirty to sixty years into the future, yes, I can see myself living on this budget.