We are in the situation that we might pull the plug and FIRE in 2019 or 2020. To do this in 2019, we should be able to sell our house for a good price in 2019. Our house needs to be sold during the summer half-year because of steep ice roads, so this is pretty near in time and we need to decide early 2019 to start selling in April/May.
My Norwegian FIRE calculations are done in my personal spreadsheet, not checked by any financial person. We count on being able to live on our officially saved pensions in pension funds from the age of 67.
Our challenge is that we don't have the absolute numbers of what we will receive in pension if we stop working next year. I don't get a number at all from my pension fund, but will probably receive some numbers in January 2019. DH can see his pension numbers, but they don't show much difference between stopping in 2019 or 2037, so he doesn't rely on the numbers being correct at stopping now.
I have contacted a Norwegian pension advisor, who will be able to calculate our pension numbers quite precisely, as this is his specialty. He thought the concept of FIRE at the age of 46/49 was an interesting case and wants to take the gig. We also want to use him for calculating what he thinks we need as a FIRE starting sum, to double check whether my calculations aren't way off. Especially DH wants to use such an advisor as a form of comfort before selling the house and quitting our jobs. I would also appreciate a good advise, but I think it is more expensive than I had expected. The advisor is charging 5000 Norwegian Crowns/625 USD per person, that is 1250 USD for advice for both of us.
At my job we are switching pension fund in 2019 and therefore we will get free individual pension counselling sometime during the first half of 2019. But as my employer isn't very specific yet, I think it comes too late for the decision to sell the house in April/May. I would very much like to use that free advisor for my part, maybe trying to sneak in my DH's pension as well.
So, is it a good investment to spend 1250 USD on individual pension advice to make sure we can FIRE. Or is it a bit of a waste of money? What is DH's state of mind worth.
Our rough numbers: we think we need a stash of 16 times our yearly spending level to FIRE, to cover 20-22 years of FIRE until our officially saved pensions hit in (DH's after 20 years and mine after 22 years). We have a mortgage free house. We also expect some inheritance that is not included in my FIRE calculations, that will just be a bonus some time in the future. Our yearly calculated spending level is quite a lot higher than our current spending level, so there is some margin for bigger purchases of for spending less. We can also choose to live in a house a lot cheaper than we what we have set of for a future house. DH thinks these numbers are pretty waterproof.
