Gross Salary/Wages: $200K combined
Individual amounts of each Pre-tax deductions: $42K to 401k, HSA, zero to FSA, zero to IRA
Other Ordinary Income: None
Qualified Dividends & Long Term Capital Gains: doubtful
Rental Income, Actual Expenses, and Depreciation: no
Adjusted Gross Income: couldn’t figure out how to calculate
Taxes: $25K fed, 8K fica ($125k income is medicare only, no FICA) No state tax
Current expenses: Rent 1295. Everything else was hard to categorize because we did a lot of cash buying, and BOA website doesn’t break down non-BOA credit cards unless you link to them. If you do link, it counts those credit card expenses twice, once per transaction, and again when you pay the bill. Anyway, total expenses over the last 18 months was $9K per month. This included quite a few large one-time events like college tuition, cars, and a sailboat. Spouse gives a lot of money to charity. I get a lot of student/school massages for my aching skeleton. Lots of takeout food, maid service, car repair by others, etc. due to both of us working long hours professional careers.
Cars: 2008 Xterra, bought new. 2008 BMW Z4 coupe (rare non-convertible & stick) bought for $17K with 40K on the clock from the original owner. 1991 BMW 325i convertible with factory 5-speed, bought for $6400 with 60K on the clock. 2012 Mazda 3 (stick) bought new. 1969 Cal 24 Sailboat in a marina slip. This one has to go despite my deep love for it. The boat is worth $1500 on a good day, however the slip is $262 a month. As much as I love sailing, the monthly vig is too much. The mazda now belongs to offspring, and I will buy an auction ex-cop car or similar for the other offspring @ graduation. Both BMWs are worth more than I paid for them. Next year, both kids will drop off my car insurance.
Expected ER expenses: Thisis where I need to invest a lot of research and put together some solid numbers. The kids will be off the payroll in a year. I want to buy a small house in a LCOL area for a base to store my stuff and sleep when I’m in the USA, and spend some time in the third world eating street food, fishing, and decompressing from 35 years of career stress and unemployment stress. I plan to carry the kids on my health insurance until they are 26 or I quit my job. I have chronic back pain; my choices are to have access to monthly doctor visits and an Rx, or live in SEA where you can get opiates over the counter.
Assets: $722K in mostly tax-deferred accounts. 2 pensions: #1 would be $2500/mo if I took early draw today, $5500/mo if I work for another 5 years to 60, or $3300/mo if I stop working now but wait until 60 to start drawing. Spouse Pension #2 (currently dormant) would pay $1100/mo starting in 2028. My SS at age 62 would be $950/mo, Spouse SS in 2030 would be maybe $800/mo Note that the $722K is now earning 2% and not exposed to the stock market. We were single income and low paid most of our lives – the big paychecks are a very recent change.
Liabilities: No debt of any kind. Also, I’m not on the hook for paying lifestyle expenses for dysfunctional relatives. My kids are well set to take care of themselves starting next year. I will need to spend some time in the USA to take care of my aging parents. They are currently independent, but getting up there pretty seriously, 85 and 82. They have no money, but their $1M house should cover nursing care. Unless Mom dies first; then Dad would sell the house and give the money to charity.
Specific Question(s):
A lovely couple very close to me just Re’d from a salary of $10K/mo to a pension of $1,300/mo and the income from a couple rental houses that comprise most of his NW. I don’t think he’s put pencil to paper once to see if it all is going to work, and they spend like the $10K is still coming in. I don’t want to follow the same path. What I need from you guys is:
1. Tools to track income and spending. I didn’t like Mint due the massive amount of spam. BOA might work as long as I don’t have any non-BOA cc’s. I am trying to set up one-sheet-to-rule-them-all but my ADHD is making that tricky. Might prefer something less granular.
2. Our pensions depend on a state PERS fund that is under-funded and will likely become more so after the next stock/RE crash. Not sure how to depict that in a spreadsheet. Most state PERS beneficiaries will be receiving a haircut at some point.
3. Is there a better tool than firecalc.com to test drawdown scenarios?
4. Clearly putting in another 5 years to age 60 would solidify my position considerably. Being honest though, I’m frequently unsure if I’m going to make it to end of shift today. I’m toying with the idea of Reing to southeast Asia and living on my early draw pension. Leave assets alone until next recession/crash then dive into stocks and RE, move back to USA.
5. Regarding stocks and RE, 2018 feels to me a lot like 2000 and 2008. I know market timing is forbidden in the FIRE community, but my nerves can’t take a 75% drawdown like what happened after those peaks. Do any other FIRE people feel the same?
6. The leanfire folks would totally RE at my numbers. My wife is loyal as a golden lab puppy and would follow me anywhere. Plus her job is no cakewalk either, she could be done whenever I am. Should I just freaking do it and figure out the details later?
7. What am I not asking that I should be? What would you do in my position?