... Can you help give me an idea of what I would need to retire if we stay at this level of spending?
That's a relatively easy one. Basic rule of thumb is to take your annual expenses and multiply them by 25. That will give you the "magic number" you need to declare yourself financially independent and pull the retirement trigger.
Thanks for the response. I've read the MMM blog posts etc on this but I'm still having trouble working out what is spending and what is saving. And, yes, I feel like an idiot. I know that house value is added into net worth but this feels wrong - I'll always need somewhere to live and I can't buy food with my house value. So by that token, none of my mortgage payments are helping me gain the liquid assets I need to be able to live. By the same token none of the pensions which pay out only at age 60 or 65 help me live if I FIRE at 50.
So what am I aiming for? 25x my annual spending without accounting for those items (so that I'm good to retire at 50 but will get a windfall 15 years later)? Or with accounting for those items but have a very lean 15 years going over the SWR until the pensions come through?
Expenses (minus mortgage, pensions and savings and insurances which will be dropped with RE) ~50K/year *25 = 1.26 million
Net worth with house and all pensions except for government and DH work (which I can't work out how to add because all I have is the information on the expected monthly payout at age 65) = 471K
Net worth without house and late payout pensions ~ 90K
What's the right way to do this?
Gah, sorry for being such an idiot newbie!