I did. He looked at our assets and asked if I could live with 50k less a year since he thought that was what we needed to make FIRE work at our age. Since 50k is 1%, which by coincidence was his charged, I FIRE’d him. Oh wait, I fired him. We’ve been fine ever since.
To be fair, I also interviewed four other advisors. They all have the same thing to say. US Large cap Equities, US Small cap equities, foreign equities, emerging markets, and bonds. The ratios varied, but they are the usual percentages that you can find on the Net. One even confided in me that the #1 thing advisors do is tell you is not to sell when all appears to be lost. I didn’t sell when Trump was elected, even though he is the dumbest man in America. I continue not to sell now (minus a little to get through the next few months, albeit less than I normally would since I’ve reduced my spend a bit ...I’m just living luxuriously now, as opposed to in orgiastic decadence).
We have about the same that we had when we went into it as of Friday. We’ve also lived very well during the interim years, drawing down more than 4% in part because we have been renovating our house.
I’ve gotten rid of most of the low-rent interventions by the previous owner, I put in a new kitchen with a 29’ Krion counter and it’s looking just great now! With the virus dancing around us, everyone is walking on our suburban NJ street because it’s so beautiful (it’s one of the best in town, THE best if you want a modern house with lots of light and air) and only a complete lunatic will want to continue living in Brooklyn after so many weeks cooped up in their apartment (lyrics to the Big Black song Kerosone come to mind... Nothing to do, sit around at home/Sit around at home, stare at the walls/Stare at each other and wait till we die), so I’m pretty sure our investment has paid off handsomely.