Hi there,
I'm going to present a quick background into my financial world and then ask for all the mustachian's out there to share their opinions of which way I should go....
I'm 36 years old. My working life did not begin until I was 31 secondary to 13 years of education and training to begin work. From age 18-22, I made circa $6000/year. From 22-26 I made no money, and from 26-31 I made about $6.83/hour. I have always lived my life very simply, I went through 4 years of college on full scholarship, and 4 years of post grad education with only $80,000 debt, when my friends were going into debt $250,000. I drove a 40 year old car for 14 years during all of this. My household income growing up was very low, I was aware of that, and worked hard to ensure my income was more solid than when I was growing up because I saw the tension it created in my home.
Ok on to my current financial situation. My girlfriend now wife sold her first house at the peak of the last bubble in 2006 and made $200,000. We sat on that until the fallout of the housing bubble crash, and bought a 3321 sq foot house for $746K in 3/12. We made improvements on that place and sold for $1.2 Mil. I live in Orange County in Komifornia where crazy stuff like this happens apparently more frequently than other parts of the country. We parlayed that profit into the worst house in the best neighborhood in 9/13, totally renovated it, and our house currently is appraised for $2.2 million. Our mortgage is currently $750K.
I max out my solo 401K each year and we have retirement savings of $300,000 in Vanguard total stock market index fund, and cash because bonds scare me right now. Plus I recently acquired two rental properties in another state that cash flow approx $320/month each. Our cash savings that we don't have invested, I keep fairly low and have it in a chase checking account.
We have no debt other than my student loan payment that I consolidated in 2005 @ 1.9% over 30 years which is $350/month and the aforementioned mortgage. Last year we saved $160,000 between tax deferred and cash savings. This year should be on track for the same.
My mustachian ways have always been deep rooted in my soul secondary to my up bringing, but only recently have I really put the screws to enacting more of it. I drive a 2006 Honda civic that I bought for $8000 with 80,000 miles on it, our electricity bill is $70/month, etc etc. I've controlled much of what I can. The wife isn't exactly on board with everything I want to do (cancel cable tv, get rid of her X5, etc), but she humors me most of the time. We drive my car on the weekends and keep her pig in the garage as much as possible.
So now for some help. I have this terrible urge to sell our house, free up circa $1,450,000, pay cash for a house for maybe $600-700K and take the $700,000 and invest it. I don't despise working, but I would definitely not choose to do it if I FIRE'd, that's for sure. If I stayed in the house, my plan would be to have it paid off in 9-10 years, putting $60-70K toward that per year, while saving $100,000 to tax deferred and taxable investments per year. If we sold I could cut back on work now and probably be retired in 5 years instead of 10 depending on what the stock market has done/what my investment properties are doing. If we moved out of Komifornia which I have been lobbying for for a long time, I could probably fire even sooner.
Any input would be appreciated, pros, cons, or otherwise. Thanks so much.