What did those last few years before FIRE look like for you?

[MrsStubble]

Hi everyone.

We are just a few years away from FIRE (less than 5).  I’ve read through the checklists and prep work, but i am wondering what it felt like for all of you in those last few years.  Were you extra motivated and excited?  Were you just powering through each day just waiting until you quit?  Did it not matter at all because you had the financial independence covered and your focus was elsewhere?   

My husband and I find we have completely different mindsets about this stage (FI but not FIRE’d yet) ehich makes for interesting conversations about what we should be planning to do the next few years. 

[ysette9]

(*@*#^#%^%&*#$*@#*!!

I had blathered on with a long reply that TapaTalk ate by crashing. What a crappy program. I wish this forum would get upgraded to support a mobile-friendly version.

Anyway..

I feel exhausted by life and like I am near the end of running a marathon. The knowledge that FIRE is one, maybe two years away is all that is keeping me from losing my shit right now.  We are balancing (trying to balance) two careers and two little kids, and then life threw a surprise pregnancy at us. I have a history of preterm birth and this one will likely be another preemie, likely around the same time that my youngest turns 2 and my oldest starts kindergarten. Why not do it all at once? :)

My calculations estimate that we should be darned close to The Number by the time we have both finished our parental leaves. That is going to be a natural break point for us to re-evaluate and make decisions about how we are handling life in general and what path we want to take. Being this close to FI has been a huge relief for me because I've decided that I just can't handle two full-time jobs and three kids, so I won't. I'm going to request part-time and if they can't do that and I can't find another group internally that will, then I will quit. It would suck to walk away from the stock and frankly I'd like a little more time in the workforce for my own personal reasons, but not enough to make the personal sacrifices to make a full-time job work. My husband is starting to toy with the idea of part time as well. He isn't as confident in the calculations as I am, so he needs more time to run his own numbers. If he needs another year or work or some part-time work to pad the stash and be comfortable, that is fine also. The important thing will be adding back more personal time and making our lives more enjoyable and less a constant feeling of behind behind.

What are the mindsets of you and your husband at this point?

[AccidentialMustache]

I don't know how far we are from fire. We're in the realm of under 5 years, although there is still that looming healthcare question. We are successfully downshifting right now though. DW gave up the half of her job she hates and is now at 50% time. I'm about to be at 80% -- or so goes the experiment. We'll see if that holds up, but in any case her being 50% has been great for the stress/etc around the household.

[happy]

I retired last year.
In the last few years prior its true to say my emotions were not static but I recall I went through periods of:
- excitement that the plan was working and I was making progress and could see the end in sight and projections were being met or exceeded.
- impatience, sometimes it just seems to be taking so long
- boredom with the plan: a kind of greyness: the same plan, rinse repeat each month, with the same increment of progress. I would try to dream up ways of shaking it all up and seeing if I could conjure up a rabbit out of a hat, but usually came up with  nothing new that I cared to do.
- relief when admin came up with some more ridiculous and impractical ideas that I wouldn't have to deal with the fallout in the future. Sometimes I got super excited when I realised that I would be gone before implementation and I didn't have to worry about whatever
- the best parts of my job became more precious
- I cared less about drinking the kool-aid, and more outspoken and was known to mutter "so what are they going to do, sack me?"
- it was fun to put something aside or finish a task and think "I'll never have to do that again".

Although I've retired, I've been using up all my unused leave since last year and am getting towards the end of it. So the firehose of cash will dry up soon, and I admit to some feelings of trepidation about this, but not enough for me to change my mind.

[MrsStubble]

(*@*#^#%^%&*#$*@#*!!

What are the mindsets of you and your husband at this point?

We’re in 2 different places. 

I’m moved from a sort of blah state of monotony to sort of a relieved, joyous bliss that the end of bs work is in sight and all i need to do now is keep the eye on the prize and ignore distractions to my time/effort. 

 My husband on the other hand hates working in the office, hates his commute, and is mentally face-punching every boss every day.   He just went back to work in Jan after a 3-year mini retirement and i’ve already had to set up some rules to get him to stop talking about work at home after the first hour because he just obsesses on the misery of it all.  (His job is really not that bad, he just hates office woek.).  He is giving too many F’s at work, more than his bosses do, and its stressing him out but we’re too close now for him to walk away, so hoping he can learn to change his mindset.

[Mr. Green]

The last two years before FIRE I was completely consumed by researching and planning for my thru-hike attempt of the Appalachian Trail, which commenced immediately after FIRE. I'm glad I had that to focus on because I probably would have been miserable otherwise. I disliked my job enough that there would have been many days where my primary focus was not handing in my resignation right then

[FInding_peace]

I'm about 8.5 months out from hitting my FIRE goal number right now, and honestly I feel like I've been floating on air this whole year so far.

I've been considering myself to be "fuzzy FI", meaning that I'm more or less there.  Basically, I'm so close to the goal that I'd be happy and comfortable living on what I already have right now, even if I didn't make it all the way to the official goal.  I'd like a little more discretionary spending money than I have locked in right now, but in the grand scheme of things, it probably wouldn't matter much if I quit right now vs. in 8 months.   

That knowledge, that I can walk away anytime I feel like it, has just made me feel so much lighter and happier emotionally.  I've always gotten easily overwhelmed and burnt out under stress, and I used to often be really anxious about possible stress or overwork looming in the future (a deadline coming up at work that might be stressful to meet, for example, or just the possibility of slow burn-out over multiple years).  I'd be anxious and trying to protect myself from the possible future overwhelm by getting more stuff done in the present.  I felt like I could never fully relax.  Now I'm so close, I don't really worry about that anymore, and it feels okay to just let go and enjoy life. 

I'm finding myself using some of that extra bandwidth to start building the life I want after FIRE: I wanted to get back in shape, build stronger friendships, etc. in FIRE, so I'm starting to do those things now, with some dividends paying off already. 

I'm also subtly downshifting in the last year.  I'm taking extra vacations since I had some accrued PTO to spend, and I'm taking Friday afternoons off this summer.  I've also given myself permission to put off some household chores/projects, errands, and to-do-list items until FIRE and that means I'm able to spend more of my time now just relaxing and enjoying these glorious summer weekends instead of catching up on things.  It's been awesome.   

So overall, the last year so far has felt like a victory lap of sorts, an enjoyable downhill coast to the finish line.  (Admittedly though, 2-3 years out from FIRE was a very different story and really felt like gritting my teeth and grinding it out.  I think it was when I hit about 1 year to go that things really felt like they shifted.)

[John Galt incarnate!]

Hi everyone.

We are just a few years away from FIRE (less than 5).  I’ve read through the checklists and prep work, but i am wondering what it felt like for all of you in those last few years.

Did it not matter at all because you had the financial independence covered and your focus was elsewhere?   


 Were you extra motivated and excited? 

As I approached FIREtirement  I was able to save lots of $$$ because I rented an inexpensive apartment.

I was lucky that it was very nice AND located in a rural town.

As  FIREtirement neared I knew that FI was secure so I was indeed  VERY EXCITED AND HAPPY  because as soon as I FIREd I planned to  purchase my dream home.

What actually happened was  that I purchased it ~6 months before I FIREd.

[Greystache]

I retired Jan. 1 2015 at the age of 55.  Although I had planned to retire at 55, it still snuck up on me because we took a big hit when the market crashed in 2007-2008. I assumed I would have to work a few years longer to get my portfolio healthy again. I was surprised at how fast we recovered. Also, I discovered MMM about a year before retiring and it helped me realize that we were in better shape to retire than I thought we were. It took a little work to convince my wife that we were ready to go. She liked her job much more than I liked mine. I gave 6 months notice and stuck around to train my replacements and finish off a project. I do recall becoming much less tolerant of corporate bullshit towards the end. I stopped travelling for work and stopped going to meetings that I thought were unproductive. I had to give myself a little pep talk to go into work every day. I did enjoy doing tasks that I despised "for the last time ever". I do recall enjoying crossing off each day on the big calendar on the wall. My last day in the office was right before Christmas and it was like Christmas was when you were a kid. New Years Eve was special because at the stroke of midnight, I was officially unemployed for the first time since I was 12 years old. It was an awesome feeling.

[SwordGuy]

More and more boredom and less and less willingness to put up with bullshit.

[redbird]

We originally were planning to work a few more years than we actually did. We didn't need to, by any means. We were already past our target amount. We're just risk adverse people and thought that it wouldn't hurt to fire hose even more money into the accounts for a bit longer.

But a toxic workplace and the mental health issues it caused made us quit. It was especially bad for me. I spent a large part of the last year or year and a half very angry and upset all of the time. I slept poorly and occasionally had suicidal thoughts. There was just so much office politicking, managers constantly trying to kiss the higher ups' butts while treating their employees terribly, some of the non-supervisory employees who were trying to climb the ladder and get into the supervisory chain flat out doing workplace bullying to others, etc. The fact that I was incredibly bored did not help things either.

My DH would probably have put up with working there for another year or two himself if he hadn't of worried about me so much (we worked at the same workplace, different departments). Our plan was always to simultaneously FIRE, so he did too.

I have no regrets. I actually felt like a 50 ton weight was lifted off of my shoulders the moment we walked out the door for the final time and I've been feeling pretty great ever since. I never enjoyed my career. Sure, there were parts of it that were helpful. I got to meet the man who became my DH, I got to travel around the world a bit, and after working my tail off for a long time I did make pretty good money by the end. But I didn't enjoy the actual work and never did. I have always been a person who genuinely could not tell you what I "wanted to be when I grew up", nor did I ever find anything that I would enjoy doing for money. When passions of mine start feeling like work, I no longer enjoy it. To be completely honest, working was always only for getting money to survive, later to try to earn FI and then RE.

[Home Stretch]

The last two years, I was really frustrated with my job/workplace. However, I was stuck there due to some deferred compensation that is an integral part of our FIRE plan.

Honestly, those years didn't look great. Lots of long weeks and late nights. I was in such a not-great place mentally that I stopped taking care of myself physically. Gained weight, drank too much to offset the stress, etc...

Looking back, I do wish I had been more mature about it. It probably would have been worthwhile to speak to a therapist and focus on compartmentalizing my work life away from my personal life. In the end, though, the deferred compensation paid off and now I can take an indeterminate amount of time off to focus on my health and well-being. (still toying with the idea of doing some work, just on my terms)

[FIRE 20/20]

For most of my career, I was in technical leadership with Megacorp.  I generally led teams of 5-40 engineers, but very rarely had any personnel management or program management responsibilities.  For the last year and a half, I intentionally moved to lead a very small team - about 6 FTE - doing research and development.  I knew from prior experience that this was a role that would have much lower stress than dealing with government customers and regulations, and it was at a nicer facility.  It was also a job that was normally staffed with someone 1-2 levels below my grade, but I wasn't concerned about that.  As a result, I was able to coast for the last 18 months.  I think I did a good job, but because it was such a smaller role than I had been used to it was almost trivially easy.  I used up hundreds of hours of vacation time to give myself Fridays off or shorter work days; I probably averaged 35 hours a week most of that time and that doesn't count a few 1-2 week vacations I took.  Despite that I still got stellar reviews and a significant raise just 2 months before I left.  My partner did something similar.  She moved to a different team that was a better fit and had less responsibility, and as part of the move she transitioned to part time (30 hours per week). 

One thing that made this particularly easy was that we hit 25x expenses roughly 6 months into our new roles so our OMY was completely on our own terms.  We both knew we could walk at any point, but for a variety of reasons (inability to return once we left, high salaries for trivially easy work, concerns about health care and SoRR, etc.) we wanted to work one year beyond the 25x point.

I don't recommend the OMY part of our plan to most people.  We are in an industry with a very high barrier of entry (and re-entry) and we don't have any skills outside this industry.  We also have family members who rely on us financially for whom failure of our plan would mean they could be out on the street.  For those and other reasons we didn't feel that 25x was enough for us, but for many people it's probably plenty or even excessive.  Each person's situation is different, and the 4% rule of thumb needs to be adjusted for each case.

What I do recommend is trying to figure out a way to reduce your stress and hours during the last few years before FIRE.  My last 18 months were the best of my professional life, in large part due to the reduced stress and reduced hours.  I took a lot of vacations and was able to completely leave work behind when I was out of the office.  If I got my work done at 2:00 on a Tuesday, I left.  I definitely tried to do a good job at work but I didn't over do it or worry about professional growth, politics, or perceptions any more than the bare minimum required.  My work/life balance was as good as is possible with a full-time job and a team that relied on me.  Not everyone will be able to maneuver into a similar situation as I did, but I highly recommend trying to find something - part time, work from home, leaving management - something - that allows you to downshift towards the end.  At that point your 'stache should be doing the heavy lifting, you shouldn't need to worry too much about professional development, and you generally should be able to use that position of strength to make your life as great as possible as you approach the finish line.  The result for me was to have a really good life for 1.5 years before FIRE while also having a super low withdrawal rate (3.1-3.3%) that keeps my stress levels low post FIRE. 

[herbgeek]

I retired 3 weeks ago, so this is very fresh in my memory.  The last 6 months particularly were a slog.  About 2 years ago, they did a reorg of sorts and many of my responsibilities (and many of the things I enjoyed) were moved to other people.  I still got the same salary, but I was bored bored bored so volunteered for extra projects.  This made me look like a go-getter, while on the inside I was a complete slacker.  My co workers however were even better slackers, so I looked like an over achiever.  Since January, I had a daily countdown which in retrospect was likely a mistake because it made it seem so far away.

My boss asked me not to announce until my last week, I caught a lot of people off guard, and I wasn't there long enough to really have any chats with folks about how it was possible for me to hang it up early (although not that early, I'm 58). I'd already been full time working from home, so there were no parties or anything.  Kind of a bummer, to not have that final closure. 

[EndlessJourney]

We decided to quit work because we wanted to travel full-time. We made the decision less than a year before we left, so the entire time was filled with planning, disposing of all our assets and selling the home.

It was a pleasant distraction from the typical BS of work. My wife left her job a bit earlier to take on the lions share of shedding our old lives, while I worked till a month before we left.

So if I could make a suggestion to relieve the last weeks, months, years of work, is to prepare for your life after and hit retirement running (or sleeping, or whatever...) :)

[Linea_Norway]

I will probably FIRE in half a year, January 2020. And give my notice 3 whole calendar months before that (because I have to).

In the past few years, I developed my own FIRE excel sheet to calculate how much stash we needed, including detailed Norwegian tax rules. This sheet was so complicated that my DH didn't really understand it and therefore didn't spend enough time with it. Originally I thought we could FIRE halfway 2019. Our FIRE included selling our home and I think that would not be smart to do while we still work, for commuting reasons.
In 2018 we started to prepare, talked to a few brokers about selling the house in spring 2019. But we also had some issues with the house, a case with the previous owner, which was not ready to be wrapped up. We also had some other things to worry about. It really didn't feel write to start preparing to sell the house at that time.
At some point, I started to make a more simple retirement spreadsheet. This was obviously a success, because DH started to play with it. Based on that, he had a feeling that my FIRE plan was very lean. And he wanted to wait another for year. As I agreed on the plan being very lean, I agreed to keep working for another year. We both changed to 80%, to make life a bit more bearable in that extra year.
Now we are a year further. We have decided to start preparations for selling our home at the end of September. Now the time feel right for it. I have gotten a new bronze handcuff at work: because we switched to a new pension system, I won't receive the pension that I built up in 2019 if I quit in 2019. So I need to wait in 2020, otherwise I fell cheated. We are now mentally preparing for the change. This summer vacation we will visit 2 areas that we consider for moving to and we will look around there with different eyes than a tourist would do. We have also sold some stuff in our home. We have painted some of the walls and doors in our home that didn't look neat.

By putting in an extra year of earnings and dropping a year of taking out living expenses from our FIRE budget, we have built up a stash that I am now very convinced about. We even don't need to sell the home for a higher price than what we bought it for, to be able to FIRE. And we have a backup asset that we can sell as well (our cabin). And I still think our home could sell for a lot more (like 1 or 2 years of expenses more) than what I planned for in my spreadsheet. So I think we're good to FIRE next year. If we can't sell it in the winter as we plan, we can try again in early spring. And I no longer think we need to plan it so that we move out at the same time that we quite our jobs. I would feel confident to stop working first and then focus on the sales activities. Only downside is that I then cannot borrow the free hanger from work when we move. But that alone isn't a good enough argument to keep working.

DH is preparing to leave his job by leaving his function first. From the first of September someone else will take over his management role. This gives the company the option work work in the new person while DH is still there, so it won't be as much of a shock.

I am trying to not have to do so much more at work then I am currently doing. I hope I won't be put onto testing the Next Gen software project in my remaining half year. For the moment I have enough to do with the current release, and I still work 80%. I will need to deliver my notice at the end of September (to quit per 1rst of Jan) or October (to quit per 1rst of Feb. This is shockingly soon. I guess there is no point putting me into a new project after handing in my notice. And before that we have a long summer vacation...

DH wants to keep all options open. So he won't be saying that he will FIRE, but will be taking a year off, to travel a bit and to relax, maybe write a book. I have been telling a few of my co-workers that I am planning to FIRE before I hit 50 (now 46). So I think they will ask me if this is my final end of working in a job. I will tell those people when they ask me personally. To my boss I will say the same as my husband, taking a year off. I think most people won't understand that I can afford to never work again. That is sort of silly when you think of it.

At work: I do what is required, but I cruise the rest of the time. I have optimised our spendings, so there is not much to do on that front, other than buying some stock every month. I spend of lot of time reading this forum. But the year before I came hear, I had another subject I was very interested in and read up on. I hate some aspects of my job: the open office space I have to work in (constant disruptions drive me nuts), scrum meeting (detailed management), the long reports to write about a new release, with long prosa text in it. But the short commute is making up for a lot. And I have half an hour shorter working time a day than most other jobs (7,5 instead of 8). So I will hold our for another half year.

I started on meditation and mindful yoga in the hope to reduce my stress levels that I think are partly cause by working. Partly also because of my own brain which is something I hope I can improve.

[6-Saturdays]

We are 5 months out from RE, and have been FI for awhile now. I have some work commitments that won't wrap up until early December. Honestly it's been a bit of a slog for the DW and I. We live in a part of the U.S. where being outside during the summer months is not very appealing, you basically scamper from one AC area to another. For me the biggest issue is the lack of motivation at work. There's pretty much nothing I'm going to be able to accomplish or want to accomplish in the time I have left so I mostly sit in my office incredibly bored. We plan to move to Mexico as part of our retirement plan, we have a house purchased and ready to move into. Basically it feels like there is a 5 month gulf between my current life and the life I'm ready to start living. In my experience this last year has easily been the hardest to get through. When we were even a little over a year out it didn't seem quite as real so I could distract myself from work, but now not so much. Time to go attend another pointless meeting. Good luck to the rest of you :)

[sisto]

@6-Saturdays Congratulations on being so close. I imagine I will be feeling the same when I'm that close. Curious where in Mexico you are planning to move? I'm seriously thinking about Mexico too. It would definitely free up money to be able to travel more.

[soccerluvof4]

For me I was excited and also had some concerns/worries I had to work through BUT mostly Excited and once I made the decision I was all in and wanted to get it done asap. Spent as much time as I could running numbers, being here on the forum asking questions and probably overthinking things. Its been 4 Years 3 months and has proven to be the right decision.

[Body Surfer]

I'm about 8.5 months out from hitting my FIRE goal number right now, and honestly I feel like I've been floating on air this whole year so far.

I've been considering myself to be "fuzzy FI", meaning that I'm more or less there.  Basically, I'm so close to the goal that I'd be happy and comfortable living on what I already have right now, even if I didn't make it all the way to the official goal.  I'd like a little more discretionary spending money than I have locked in right now, but in the grand scheme of things, it probably wouldn't matter much if I quit right now vs. in 8 months.   

That knowledge, that I can walk away anytime I feel like it, has just made me feel so much lighter and happier emotionally.  I've always gotten easily overwhelmed and burnt out under stress, and I used to often be really anxious about possible stress or overwork looming in the future (a deadline coming up at work that might be stressful to meet, for example, or just the possibility of slow burn-out over multiple years).  I'd be anxious and trying to protect myself from the possible future overwhelm by getting more stuff done in the present.  I felt like I could never fully relax.  Now I'm so close, I don't really worry about that anymore, and it feels okay to just let go and enjoy life. 

I'm finding myself using some of that extra bandwidth to start building the life I want after FIRE: I wanted to get back in shape, build stronger friendships, etc. in FIRE, so I'm starting to do those things now, with some dividends paying off already. 

I'm also subtly downshifting in the last year.  I'm taking extra vacations since I had some accrued PTO to spend, and I'm taking Friday afternoons off this summer.  I've also given myself permission to put off some household chores/projects, errands, and to-do-list items until FIRE and that means I'm able to spend more of my time now just relaxing and enjoying these glorious summer weekends instead of catching up on things.  It's been awesome.   

So overall, the last year so far has felt like a victory lap of sorts, an enjoyable downhill coast to the finish line.  (Admittedly though, 2-3 years out from FIRE was a very different story and really felt like gritting my teeth and grinding it out.  I think it was when I hit about 1 year to go that things really felt like they shifted.)

Awesome post. I feel the same way...less than 1 year to FIRE

[Greenback Reproduction Specialist]

I retired last year.
In the last few years prior its true to say my emotions were not static but I recall I went through periods of:
- excitement that the plan was working and I was making progress and could see the end in sight and projections were being met or exceeded.
- impatience, sometimes it just seems to be taking so long
- boredom with the plan: a kind of greyness: the same plan, rinse repeat each month, with the same increment of progress. I would try to dream up ways of shaking it all up and seeing if I could conjure up a rabbit out of a hat, but usually came up with  nothing new that I cared to do.

These made me laugh, especially the trying to pull a new rabbit out of a hat... Lol I was doing that just today, and frustratingly I ended up back with the same plan.

[Linea_Norway]

I retired last year.
In the last few years prior its true to say my emotions were not static but I recall I went through periods of:
- excitement that the plan was working and I was making progress and could see the end in sight and projections were being met or exceeded.
- impatience, sometimes it just seems to be taking so long
- boredom with the plan: a kind of greyness: the same plan, rinse repeat each month, with the same increment of progress. I would try to dream up ways of shaking it all up and seeing if I could conjure up a rabbit out of a hat, but usually came up with  nothing new that I cared to do.

This is where I am now with 7 months to go. I am getting very excited, but also a bit scared, because we are diving into the unknown.

I have been impatient for a long time, since I started on this site, in 2015 or 2016. But now, even more so. It is also strange that some of these next 7 months are self-defined golden handcuffs. But at least, I won't stay longer than that.

And the boredom, yes it feels like a waiting period. We don't improve more on the house than we have to, because we will sell it later this year. This year we also haven't had the energy to go on as many short trips as we have done on some other years. There were also some medical issues with DH. I think we both think about keeping stress levels down this year and we know we can do a lot more in the coming years.

There is no point in wanting to join new, big projects at work, as I'm leaving soon. I am currently just doing an improvement that I have more or less control of and that will save us time, technical hassle and potentially money (the latter depends on a management person changing his opinion and cancelling some licenses). It will also improve our workflow a lot. It will be nice to leave the company having done a thing that my direct co-workers will appreciate. One of my co-workers gave notice recently and he has also just made a technical improvement that gives the team a better workflow.

[Model96]

I hit the FIRE button about 3 months ago, but about 2 years after I knew I was FI. Why?
Because I had to convince myself that my new job would be maintaining my FI investments. This made resigning from my job not only easy, but enjoyable!

[Evgenia]

We've been FIRE for four years (as of five days ago, actually). For the two years before that, where the end was really in sight, we were intensely motivated and focused. We'd both lived frugally our entire adult lives, each not owning cars for 10 years and stuff like that, but the two years pre-FIRE were a race to the finish line. We were socking away 75-90% of our income, paying extra on the mortgage (and then, after a lot of math and thinking, decided to pay the house off a few months before FIRE).

Emotionally, we were both quite scared and anxious about what FIRE would be like (due to lifelong capitalist/productivity/industrialist brainwashing), but we were also *exhausted* and highly motivated by getting out of Silicon Valley tech jobs in that "I don't know what's coming, but as long as it's not this, we're good" way. By the time we hit our last few months pre-FIRE, we just wanted to sleep for a few months, due to crazy work hours and travel demands. Related to the anxiety, I spent a lot of time on FIRE research: what our health insurance would be, did we really have enough money for the 1000th time, etc.

It's funny. Looking back on journals I kept during that pre-FIRE time, I thought we spent time planning house projects, the garden, stuff like that, all the things we'd wanted to have more time for and hadn't. But we didn't: I'm sure I looked forward to them in a vague sense, but we basically spent the first few FIRE months just recovering from overwork and sleeping a LOT, going to the beach, walking outside, etc. and did not even get serious about house projects and such until about six months later.

The last month of work was AGONY for both of us. We had serious senioritis, could not WAIT to be out of offices and never have another job interview again. The greater the distance we got on it, the more sick and twisted certain corporate cultures seemed. We noticed more of it, I think, as we became less attached, and it thus became less tolerant and more egregious, which pushed us out the door even more, in a sort of feedback loop.

[Parizade]

I haven't replied to this yet because I've been pondering what to say, but I saw this post from @Greenback Reproduction Specialist in the MPP thread and thought s/he summed it up pretty well:

Anxiety over having serious FU money and just hitting a bare bones minimum FIRE threshold, but wanting to get to our real FIRE goal, but realizing we could just stop now, but if we did then we couldnt get the house we really want in the areas we really want to live or have to sacrifice the income, but we are only getting older each year and sailing around the world is totally doable, but would we really enjoy sailing enough to make the full circumnavigation and if not we wouldnt have enough to full FIRE when we got back but we would still be FI, but really..... we dont need all that fancy stuff we could just go live back in the mountains and rent the house out, but we would really like all that fancy stuff and whats a few more years in the grand schem of things, but I'm not even sure my job is secure here for a few more years, but I've been saying that since I took the position 3 yrs ago..... Its so close!!!

Of course my details were a little different, I really just wanted more money to be able to travel post-fire, but the ping-pong-brain effect was the same.

[Greenback Reproduction Specialist]

I haven't replied to this yet because I've been pondering what to say, but I saw this post from @Greenback Reproduction Specialist in the MPP thread and thought s/he summed it up pretty well:

Anxiety over having serious FU money and just hitting a bare bones minimum FIRE threshold, but wanting to get to our real FIRE goal, but realizing we could just stop now, but if we did then we couldnt get the house we really want in the areas we really want to live or have to sacrifice the income, but we are only getting older each year and sailing around the world is totally doable, but would we really enjoy sailing enough to make the full circumnavigation and if not we wouldnt have enough to full FIRE when we got back but we would still be FI, but really..... we dont need all that fancy stuff we could just go live back in the mountains and rent the house out, but we would really like all that fancy stuff and whats a few more years in the grand schem of things, but I'm not even sure my job is secure here for a few more years, but I've been saying that since I took the position 3 yrs ago..... Its so close!!!

Of course my details were a little different, I really just wanted more money to be able to travel post-fire, but the ping-pong-brain effect was the same.

Glad I'm not the only one..... I like the "ping pong brain effect" way of describing it  : )

[Trifle]

I FIREd earlier this year.  For me the 2-3 years leading up to it was a mixture of (1) gutting out the days at work when I soooo did not want to be there, (2) a sense of happy purpose about marching toward the goal, and then (3) (at the end) a bit of absolute exhilarated terror mixed in.  Similar to what -- I imagine -- it would feel like to march slowly up a giant mountain, step up to the edge of the huge cliff up there, and jump off.   

[Greenback Reproduction Specialist]

I FIREd earlier this year.  For me the 2-3 years leading up to it was a mixture of (1) gutting out the days at work when I soooo did not want to be there, (2) a sense of happy purpose about marching toward the goal, and then (3) (at the end) a bit of absolute exhilarated terror mixed in.  Similar to what -- I imagine -- it would feel like to march slowly up a giant mountain, step up to the edge of the huge cliff up there, and jump off.   

Well.... I'm not looking forward to step 3 as you described

[pecunia]

It's amazing how stressed out people are about their work.  I had considered going into programming years ago.  I don't even think they had coined the term Information Technology then as computer memory was still ferrite cores.  Reading these entries, I am certainly glad I didn't go the computer route.  I don't think I've ever read any posts where job satisfaction was expressed.

Is it just the nature of the business or are employers doing something wrong?  Publications show such free work environments with people setting their own hours, working from home and being able to exercise their creativity.

I've also seen very few regrets expressed by people who retired.  People whom I've spoken with in person often say, "I should have gone sooner."

I've got about a half year if I make it.  I don't see any reason not to look forward to it.

[Trifle]

I FIREd earlier this year.  For me the 2-3 years leading up to it was a mixture of (1) gutting out the days at work when I soooo did not want to be there, (2) a sense of happy purpose about marching toward the goal, and then (3) (at the end) a bit of absolute exhilarated terror mixed in.  Similar to what -- I imagine -- it would feel like to march slowly up a giant mountain, step up to the edge of the huge cliff up there, and jump off.   

Well.... I'm not looking forward to step 3 as you described

Haha -- I meant like hang gliding or bungee jumping . . . Freedom! 

[sherr]

It's amazing how stressed out people are about their work.  I had considered going into programming years ago.  I don't even think they had coined the term Information Technology then as computer memory was still ferrite cores.  Reading these entries, I am certainly glad I didn't go the computer route.  I don't think I've ever read any posts where job satisfaction was expressed.

Is it just the nature of the business or are employers doing something wrong?  Publications show such free work environments with people setting their own hours, working from home and being able to exercise their creativity.

Well as with any sort of review system, the people that are really unhappy are the ones who are most motivated to comment on it. I'm a Software Engineer and it's really not bad as far as careers go. I'm still looking forward to FIRE purely from a freedom standpoint, but if I had to work somewhere there's nothing else I'd rather be doing.

[markus]

I finally feel like I have something worthwhile to contribute here as I'm in my own last few years before leaving my career. Currently about two years out, and planning to give a pretty long notice because of how tied in I am to many processes at work. I like and respect my boss and colleagues and would like to smooth that transition as much as is reasonable. This will all conveniently line up with the completion of a very large and complex project, so it will be a good time to depart.

Keeping up my motivation is something I think about all the time. The pinned 'pre-FIRE checklist' in this forum has been a great starting point, and I set up my own version of that list in a spreadsheet, then organized it into phases of a sort. In my case it comes out like this:

1 - research/planning ... this involved tracking my budget as carefully as possible for one full year (highly recommended!), setting up a master spreadsheet that incorporates all of those numbers and further estimates and goals, running numbers in every calculator out there, etc, etc. Lots of items in this phase but I was able to tackle them very quickly other than the one-year budget tracking.

2 - changes/preparation ... my current phase, and a fairly long one. Here I'm putting into motion the plan from phase 1, primarily adjusting my automatic savings and investment contributions in order to adjust my asset allocation over time to my target AA at my FIRE date (basically a 'bond tent' strategy based on info from this forum, Michael Kitces, and the excellent 'Living Off Your Money' by Michael McClung). Also lots of personal items such as several visits with a therapist specializing in occupational therapy and career changes (also recommended ... this really made me feel good about my plan and my thinking, and whether I was properly considering what will come next), getting a will in order, making sure all of my net worth goal numbers from phase 1 are being met and so forth. Still to go here is a meeting with a tax attorney to properly consider some situations unique to me, as well as having a call with a Vanguard rep and another independent advisor. Also a lot of reading through books like What Color Is Your Parachute, Lead Yourself First, How to Retire Wild, Happy and Free and things like that. Lots of great stuff to read and think about during my long commutes. Also, working on hiring at megacorp during this time, though my training of these new hires involves a lot of spreading my institutional knowledge around. Selling off stuff I don't need and decluttering at home. Diverting a portion of my automatic investment contributions into a money market in order to build up a downpayment should I decide to purchase a home (any mortgage or rent costs are already part of my expenses and future estimates).

3 - finalizing ... this will be the last couple of months before giving notice. Key is that I can still turn back at this point if I wish, but if I'm still feeling sure then it's time to proceed with maxing out all medical and dental options while still insured through megacorp: replacing older dental fillings that will need to be replaced in the next few years anyway, full physical and skin exam, getting my CV properly updated and in order, backing up professional contacts and other important details from work, making sure my retirement account contributions for that year are front-loaded and maxed out (I do this each year as it is ... megacorp thankfully offers a 'true-up' match), and so forth. Documenting as much as possible at work so this stuff will be ready for my colleagues. Writing a resignation letter. Last in this stage is setting my withdrawal plans into motion so that this income is flowing.

4 - give notice ... shortest phase of the bunch with a length of one day. :) No going back after this as I figure even if megacorp made me some ludicrously generous offer, I'd still be colored as someone whose heart is elsewhere at that point. In short, if I give notice then I intend to follow through.

5 - finish ... several months long unless megacorp wishes to show me the door right away which they well might as it's their prerogative. I expect to be very busy finishing this final project, and this might be the most difficult phase of the bunch. I expect a feeling of cold feet and second-guessing myself, and it might be difficult to stay motivated and work hard, all at a time when we'll be very busy at work in this last project. Time to put up or shut up. When the project is done, I'll walk.

6 - afterward ... move retirement account into IRA, start Roth conversions, etc. Take a long time off from all work. Further clean up my CV and consider my many interests and passions and what I might do next, albeit for much less or no money. I've no shortage of interests and hobbies and things I wish to do, and I can't wait to get to it all.

And so, having these phases above has been enjoyable way to keep my eye on the prize. I think about it all a lot, both just to work through any details I might be missing and also as a source of support when work is particularly stressful. I'm beginning to pass certain points at work which are the first of the "lasts", that is the realization that some upcoming work travel is very likely the last time that I'll have to travel to X, or that as we pass certain project milestones that this was the last milestone Y for me, and things like that. Those kinds of checkpoints give me a burst of energy, and I really need each one of them as I'm very, very over my line of work at this point. In my phone on a little note pad I have the words "prepare / replace / work hard", i.e. prepare and stick to the plan, replace yourself (with hiring and training and documenting), and of course the last part is self-explanatory. There's a long way to go, and all of this above is the structure I climb up and lean against for support.

[kei te pai]

I had a quite different experience, more like being pushed off the cliff rather than hangliding! I had reduced working hours in a situation where it was not possible to reduce workload and anticipated another 3 or 4 years at least of employment.
However the terminal illness of a parent, and subsequent death precipitated FIRE. It was accompanied by some family dysfunction. So my last year was full of uncertainty, grief and loss. Happy to realise that any future paid work was optional, unhappy about the way it happened.

[dcunitedfan]

I'm entering this phase myself.  In some ways the stress is lessening a little as I remind myself that with every passing paycheck, my position is getting stronger.  I probably am FI already, just not as solidly as I'd like (might be somewhat dependent on social security)  The remaining time is mostly dedicated to building up some reserves for things like home repair and entertainment, so that big ticket expenses don't eat into the stash that's dedicated to producing living expenses income.  I used to get a lot more anxious when everything was still a few years away, and I do sometimes still get impatient.

[markus]

2 - changes/preparation ...

A few more thoughts worth adding in my 'phase 2' mentioned above: I try and make sure that I'm spending a little more money on the things that make me and my wife happy, for example getting much needed sports massages on a more regular basis rather than as a birthday treat just once a year. Like a lot of people here we spend a ton of time with our bodies in one position at work, whether sitting or standing, and staring at a monitor. It takes a toll, and with age our incidents of injury and morning pains have noticeably ticked up. We're both naturally frugal and are averse to spending too much on ourselves, and so I'm trying to make a point to go and enjoy things like this. These people and their services are there to help you, even if it's pricey, and the muscle knots and stiffness they relieve is worth it.

I had the same realization after the first visit with the therapist mentioned above. Initially I was frustrated at the price because I'd never gone to someone like that before, and I felt defensive about why anyone would need to pay someone else to listen to their problems, but the benefits of feeling better afterward and feeling that much more confident about my plans were well worth it. I realized this person has the training, experience and perspective to justify their price, and this was a very necessary bit of self-maintenance that I needed to do.

To summarize, throughout this long 'phase 2', I'm telling myself, "You're working hard, and there's a good while still to go, so take care of yourself!" Also things like making sure to take a day off when I can, take trips with my wife, say 'yes' to things that I'm initially reluctant to do because I can trust that the experience will be worthwhile. It comes very naturally to me to keep my nose to the grindstone and just disappear into routine, and I'm afraid of just blasting through these next couple of years, making it to my goal and just being two years older with very few memories outside of working.

Kei Te Pai,

... like being pushed off the cliff rather than hangliding!

My hat is off to you for making it through, and thank goodness you were in a position to forego any further paid work. It sounds like harrowing way to have to finish. I think a lot about the rapidly changing value of time vs money, and one of my fears is losing a parent before I have a chance to wrap my career and be able to spend more time with them.

[pecunia]

Yeh - Markus from your picture you look like you've been at it a good while.  You deserve to get out and do right for you and others.

[EricL]

Five years out - even one year out - I hadn’t fully conceived it was possible.  Only after reading Early Retirement Extreme and posting an inquiry here did the full probability for success dawn on me.

At the time I posted asking my ‘stache was ~$650k and plus a $40k annual military pension once I retired.  So far the ‘stache is over $1 million and I trim it for luxuries, charities, and political contributions while the pension pays for all the basics. I expect an economic downturn before too long but I’ll either get a part time job to pay for luxuries or bunker down to more disciplined spending.

[Threshkin]

My mindset changed significantly in the last few years before I finally pulled the RE trigger on FIRE.
When I determined I had reached frugal FI my work motivation ebbed significantly.  I turned down several request to move back to the CA Bay Area (very HCOL) which would have advanced my career.  I was content to stay where I was and focus on quality of life.  Career advancement was simply uninteresting when I knew I could walk away any time.  I also stopped putting in the crazy hours I used to when I was focused on growing my career.  I still got all my work done but I didn't kill myself doing it.

This change in mindset allowed me to lift my head and look more closely at the other aspects of my life.  In particular I recognized the need and was able to spend my time caring for my mother who was declining mentally.  She didn't realize it and before my mindset change neither did I.  I started going with her to all her doctor appointments and spending significantly more time just being with her.  This literally saved her life at one point and significantly improved the last 4+ years before she died.  She never knew I had FIREd a full year before she passed.  Caring for her in those last years was tough, I will not deny it, but it was also fulfilling and put my soul in a good place.