Last Year, I found a blog by a fella who set a goal to retire in 1500 days. It was very inspirational, especially because at that time I was feeling pretty desperate to escape the daily corporate grind.
So back on Oct 1 2014, I decided to try that game and retire in 1000 days. I'm about 1/4 of the way into that thousand day plan and figured I would post an update on how it is going.
My Target:I set a target of around a quarter million dollars in my financial accounts. Im kind of spendy, and this would not be enough for me to raise a family on, but DH owns a small family business that provides a good income, and flexibility, kids are grown and mostly independent, so this is enough for my contribution - I could live on 4% SWR.
I had a fairly decent nest egg to start with, about $475K, but that had grown very slowly, over many years of working and saving about 10-15% of my income. I decided to make a sprint to the end.
TrackingI set several goals with milestones along the way. I took the difference between what I had and what I needed and divided it into 1000 days. I came up with a goal to grow my net worth by $254 per day. That was my average daily gain required. I plotted this out for 1000 days and set up online banking tools that allowed me to track all my investments and spending on one place. I check my balances, savings growth and spending at least weekly and adjust as needed to stay on track.
Progress so Far:
Date $ Actual $ Goal
10/1/2014 $478,188 Start
11/1/2014 $487,860 $486,366
12/1/2014 $505,977 $494,281
1/1/2015 $511,194 $502,459
2/1/2015 $505,169 $510,637
3/1/2015 $538,667 $518,024
4/1/2015 $515,580 $525,938
5/1/2015 $546,796 $533,852
6/1/2015 $547,558 $542,031 - 1/4 of the way in....on track!
Here are some thoughts from what I've learned so far.
1.
Investing vs. Savings: Frugality pays off big at the start of the journey, then not as much. Once I got to a certain amount in stocks, being in the right investments started to make a much bigger impact on net worth than scrimping and saving did. (Low cost index funds - Im 75% US Stock, 10% Fx Stock and the rest in TIPS and Cash)
2.
You can save more than you think you can. I was able to save much more than I thought possible. I never thought I could put over 50% of my income into savings. Since I have almost no willpower, the key for me was to lock away the money before I could get my hands on it. If I don't have the extra cash laying around I can figure out how to get by without it. I wish I had tried this 10 years ago...sigh....better late than never!
3.
Manage your own $. I thought I was fairly well versed in investing - I knew the basics for sure. But I learned an awful lot by spending time on the forums (bogleheads, MMM and ERE). Doing your own portfolio allocation plans and stock research pays off in lower fees and better, faster decisions.
4.
Success makes you influential. DH can be pretty stubborn about certain things, like pack-rat accumulation of tools and cars and investing only in his business and real estate. After seeing my stache grow, he's now starting to be open to making some changes and diversifying. He sold one of his cars and lots of unused business equipment. He even let me put a few thousand in a retirement account for him!
5.
Set small goals along the path to keep you on track. Having a concrete goal and a plan to get there really made a difference. In the past my goal was more general, like 'max out the 401k'. By having a specific target number to hit not only for the end but also for each month along the way, it forced me to make frequent adjustments and kept me on track.
*** the blog that inspired me originally is here:
http://www.1500days.com/
