I just bought 2 days per year of free life, indefinitely. 363 to go.

[BeautifulDay]

Looks like it’s been about a year since I posted here.  I’m now at 38 days, but I’m basing my number on $50k per year rather than $40k. Last month I was at 40 days, darn market correction.

6 day increase (sept 17 to sept 18) in a year isn’t good. Even worse 4 day increase from sept 17 to oct 18.  Good thing I’m in it for the long haul.

Ive increased my saving rate this last couple months.  So it will get better.

Keep in mind the day 'gains' are exponential.  I'm sure we could determine the formula for how hard the first day is compared to how easy the last day is, but they are not equal by any means.

The last day comes on top of a stash that can already sustain you 364 days. Basically, that last day is a rounding error or a move in the market of less than 0,3% ...

Good perspective.  We are in the hard uphill battle right now.  Can’t wait to see more of the compounding action.

[Jaayse]

2017
April 14 - 66.9
July 24 - 72.32
October 1 - 85.18
November 1 - 89.49
December 1 - 91.60

2018
January 1 - 94.16
February 1 - 99.53
March 1 - 98.25
April 1 - 99.81
May 1 - 129.12
June 1 - 133.36
July 1 - 138.76
August 1 - 143.95
September 1 - 148.73
October 1 - 151.87
November 1 - 146.53
December 1 - 150.11

A bit of a recovery, working hard to hold on.

[haypug16]

April 13th 2018 = 23 days
July 30th 2018 = 25 days
January 31st 2019 = 28 days

Almost one month down.

[TinyAcorn]

At end of January 2019 I've made it into a new month - May 1st! (121/365)

[2Birds1Stone]

170 down, 195 to go!

How the tides have turned!

195 down, 170 to go!

210 down, 155 to go!

223 down, 142 to go :)

228 Down, 137 to go!

270 down, 95 to go!

275 down, 90 to go!

365 Days Down, 0 to go!

Anticlimactic!

[haypug16]

365 Days Down, 0 to go!

Anticlimactic!

Nice! Congrats!

[2Birds1Stone]

@haypug16, thanks.

It's amazing what lowering your spending 30%+ can do!

[zeli2033]

365 Days Down, 0 to go!

Anticlimactic!

Nice! Congrats!

Wow, congratulations!! That's awesome to see someone reach the goal!

[zeli2033]

1/2018: January 13
4/2018: January 18
7/2018: January 22
9/2018: January 27
10/2018: January 29
1/2019: January 31

Finally, one month down!

[Slow&Steady]

Seems like it was flat in Sept, the only increase I can see is my contributions, and so far October is sending me backwards.

I have avoided posting since the beginning of Oct because I did NOT want to see the days go backwards (Dec got pretty low).  Looks like we are close to being back at Sept numbers (29 days), the end of 2018 was a bummer, I was really hoping to get into Feb before the end of the year but that did not happen.  I have bumped up my 401k contributions but we won't start contributing to the IRA again until March.

At $60k/year and only looking a 401k/IRA. 

Jan-17 = 17 days
Dec-17 = 23.71 days
Jan-18 = 25 days
Dec-18 = 26 days
Jan-19 = 28 days

[DadJokes]

This is a way more fun way to calculate this than the "Race to ..." threads.

Aug 18: 6.06
Sep 18: 6.38
Oct 18: 6.04
Nov 18: 6.12
Dec 18: 5.62
Jan 19: 6.5

It's also a little more depressing when I look at the numbers that way.

[Jaayse]

2017
April 14 - 66.9
July 24 - 72.32
October 1 - 85.18
November 1 - 89.49
December 1 - 91.60

2018
January 1 - 94.16
February 1 - 99.53
March 1 - 98.25
April 1 - 99.81
May 1 - 129.12
June 1 - 133.36
July 1 - 138.76
August 1 - 143.95
September 1 - 148.73
October 1 - 151.87
November 1 - 146.53
December 1 - 150.11

2019
January 1 - 144.60
February 1 - 155.47

Moving in the right direction again, but I wouldn't mind a sale at this point.  I'm in June (4th), and reaching for the halfway point!

[Imma]

I jumped to 4.17 days this month! From 3.83 last month. Should hit 5 in by the end of summer!

Reached 5 today! Will hopefully reach 6 before the end of the year.

Am at 6.1 right now. Should hit 7 by summer. Progress is slow but steady.

[2Birds1Stone]

Thanks @zeli2033, it was a long time coming! Dropping expenses has the biggest impact once your net worth gets to a certain size.

[WhiteTrashCash]

I am up to 181 days. This past month we jumped by 15 days. Very good month for investing after a couple of really terrible months.

[diapasoun]

At January 14, which is a 7-day improvement so far this year from last year. Slow and steady, slow and steady. I've at least guaranteed myself two weeks of vacation for life. ;)

To January 15.

My spreadsheet now quotes me to January 25. This will go down, as I calculate my "spending per day" on a yearly basis and so far 2019 has been very, verrrry cheap -- it will not stay this cheap, and so my calculations will move back. However, it's nice to see the leap, even if I know it's false. ;)

[OtherJen]

This method makes my brain happy. At our current level of spending, we have ~15 days in my accounts alone. I really need to get my hands on husband’s paperwork. It’s a long way to go, but it’s so much easier for me to think of this in “daily” increments.

[katscratch]

I currently have about 7% of my target invested, and am able to contribute about 1% of target per year right now. So a long way to go if I stick with current pattern. BUT that 1% is THREE days which feels pretty good. This is the first time I've run FI numbers and actually felt like I'm accomplishing a tangible goal.

ETA: I forgot my employer match adds about 2 days per year for me :)

[Slow&Steady]

6 days/year or 0.5 days/month is what I have been averaging (or was before the Oct).  I also am not happy with this number, I am hoping to increase my savings rate considerably in 2019.

So I did a little calculating because 6 days/year means a long working career ahead.  I assumed a 7% return for the previous year as a starting point to calculate days gained for each following year, below. 

Year ----- 7% ----- 15% ----- 20%      
2019 ----- 07d ----- 08d ----- 11d       
2020 ----- 11d ----- 15d ----- 17d       
2021 ----- 15d ----- 19d ----- 22d      
2022 ----- 18d ----- 23d ----- 27d   
2023 ----- 19d ----- 27d ----- 31d   
2024 ----- 22d ----- 31d ----- 37d   
2025 ----- 24d ----- 35d ----- 41d

On the 1 hand this makes me feel better, my plan doesn't mean that I will only gain 6 days per year every year (assuming my stash returns at least 7%). On the other hand this shows that by the end of 2025 (6 YEARS from now!!) I will still have more than half the year to go. :(

My current plan will take 11 more years to reach FI if my stash returns an average of 7% per year over that time frame.  If we have a "glass half full" look, I will still in my 40's when we reach FI and that is several years before we plan to FIRE but I waffle between the "glass is half full" and the "glass is half empty" mentality so that is still 11 YEARS from now!!

PS- 10% average yearly returns only knocks off 1 year.  A return of 7% is what MY stash has averaged over the last 3 years.  I have end of year numbers for 6 years but contributions for only 3 of those, so I can't calculate what MY stash (not the market in general) yearly return was prior to 2016.

[fuzzy math]

Made it to April fools!!

April 4 now

Weird. When I recalculate this, I get March 30 from my original post. Not sure what I changed to cheat a couple extra days! I had to go back and figure out why 5 months later I'd only earned a couple days despite lots of deposits.

[DadJokes]

Made it to April fools!!

April 4 now

Weird. When I recalculate this, I get March 30 from my original post. Not sure what I changed to cheat a couple extra days! I had to go back and figure out why 5 months later I'd only earned a couple days despite lots of deposits.

Perhaps your numbers were playing an April fools joke on you...

I'll see myself out.

[diapasoun]

Made it to April fools!!

April 4 now

Weird. When I recalculate this, I get March 30 from my original post. Not sure what I changed to cheat a couple extra days! I had to go back and figure out why 5 months later I'd only earned a couple days despite lots of deposits.

Perhaps your numbers were playing an April fools joke on you...

I'll see myself out.

DadJokes living up to their name. ;)

fuzzy math, would you want to share the formula/numbers you're using? Sometimes it helps to have a few sets of eyes looking at things.

[fuzzy math]

Made it to April fools!!

April 4 now

Weird. When I recalculate this, I get March 30 from my original post. Not sure what I changed to cheat a couple extra days! I had to go back and figure out why 5 months later I'd only earned a couple days despite lots of deposits.

Perhaps your numbers were playing an April fools joke on you...

I'll see myself out.

DadJokes living up to their name. ;)

fuzzy math, would you want to share the formula/numbers you're using? Sometimes it helps to have a few sets of eyes looking at things.

I used CCCA's chart. I must have increased my withdrawal rate to make my date look better

[happyuk]

I strongly agree that this a great way to look at things.

Sure, many disagree with the original 7% figure being used, including me, but simply replace it with a figure you deem more appropriate / realistic and you've got quite a powerful psychological incentive to encourage you in your quest for financial independence.

Coupled with the power of compounding (the 8th wonder of the world) and dollar/pound cost averaging, these days per year figures are likely to go up exponentially are they not?

I've been playing around with a few figures myself.  If I didn't still have a large-ish mortgage I would actually nearing FI given my current outgoings for non-mortgage things like food, utilities, car ownership etc.

This raises another question, for which I have seen discussed on a different thread.  Am I better off not attempting to pay off my mortgage early, given that the interest on it is pretty derisory anyway (~ 2%) and let it continue to wither away and deflate of its own accord, and concentrate my surplus on buying index funds and keeping a well-maintained rainy-day fund.  I'm pretty sure MMM is in the pay-it-off-now camp, but it has got me thinking.

Updated : meant to say around 2%, it may even be less, but definitely less than 3%.  Still pretty low

[Dicey]

I strongly agree that this a great way to look at things.

Sure, many disagree with the original 7% figure being used, including me, but simply replace it with a figure you deem more appropriate / realistic and you've got quite a powerful psychological incentive to encourage you in your quest for financial independence.

Coupled with the power of compounding (the 8th wonder of the world) and dollar/pound cost averaging, these days per year figures are likely to go up exponentially are they not?

I've been playing around with a few figures myself.  If I didn't still have a large-ish mortgage I would actually nearing FI given my current outgoings for non-mortgage things like food, utilities, car ownership etc.

This raises another question, for which I have seen discussed on a different thread.  Am I better off not attempting to pay off my mortgage early, given that the interest on it is pretty derisory anyway (< 2%) and let it continue to wither away and deflate of its own accord, and concentrate my surplus on buying index funds and keeping a well-maintained rainy-day fund.  I'm pretty sure MMM is not necessarily* in the pay-it-off-now camp, but it has got me thinking.

Start here: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/investment-order/

There's a lot of food for thought on the thread linked below, with the caveat that is is very US-centric. It's still useful to help you think through your decision.

https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/dont-payoff-your-mortgage-club/

*IIRC, Pete is pretty neutral on the subject. Don't forget that he was FIRE before he started this blog, so his decisions are based on different circumstances.

[Bird In Hand]

Am I better off not attempting to pay off my mortgage early, given that the interest on it is pretty derisory anyway (< 2%) and let it continue to wither away and deflate of its own accord, and concentrate my surplus on buying index funds and keeping a well-maintained rainy-day fund.  I'm pretty sure MMM is in the pay-it-off-now camp, but it has got me thinking.

I don't think I'd even pay off a car loan early at < 2%  :o  Heck, my regular online savings account earns > 2% interest.

[BeautifulDay]

Jul 18 - 31 days
Sep 18 - 34 days
Nov 18 - 38 days
Feb 19 - 42 days

[Bird In Hand]

We've bought about 1.5 days so far this year, but our portfolio has bought us an additional ~20 days.  We're almost back to where we were last September.  :D

[Arbitrage]

We've bought about 1.5 days so far this year, but our portfolio has bought us an additional ~20 days.  We're almost back to where we were last September.  :D

Nice.  Just calculated that for myself, and we've contributed 4.2 days, with portfolio growth giving another 19.1 days.  We're into late August! 

[DadJokes]

Aug '18: 6.06
Sep '18: 6.38
Oct '18: 6.04
Nov '18: 6.12
Dec '18: 5.62
Jan '19: 6.5
Feb '19: 8.25

It looks like a bigger jump than it actually is. I transferred some cash into my HSA to max it for 2018. I count my HSA investments towards the calculation, but not cash. Without that transfer, I only would have gone up half a day.

Nonetheless, one week down, 51 to go!

[Bird In Hand]

Oct 2017: 234 days (through August 22nd each year)
Jan 2018: 258 days (through Sep 15th each year)
Aug 2018: 273 days (through Sep 30th each year)
Feb 2019: 273 days (through Sep 30th each year)

Well, we're back to where we were almost exactly 6 months ago.  If we could drop our FIRE spending by 25%, we'd be done!  Or work a few more years for something closer to a FAT-FIRE.

[urover]

My current expenses are 36000/year (high because of city living). But, assuming same expenses post-FIRE and 7% ROI, I need 1650$ per freedom-day. So far:

59 days down.
306 days to go.

68 days down.
297 days to go.

70 days down.
295 days to go.

72 days down.
293 days to go.

91 days down.
274 days to go.

106 days down
259 days to go. Feeling like there still is a mountain to climb. Made some shitty progress.

[happyuk]

Just for my own record.  Assuming no mortgage and 7% returns per annum (and these are pretty big assumptions for me).

Being pretty frugal already, my annual expenses are £20K maximum per annum.  In all likelihood substantially less, but I will err on the side of conservatism.

This works out at £20K / 365 = 20000 / 365 = £54.79 per day.

So 7% of my own net worth (index funds, pensions etc) £125K = £8750 per annum average.

This equates to  8750 / 54.79 = 159 days of freedom, is that "correct"?

At 4% returns pa this works out at (4/100 * 125K) / 54.79 = 5000 / 54.79 = 91 days of freedom, the figure I prefer.

[haypug16]

April 13th 2018 = 23 days
July 30th 2018 = 25 days
January 31st 2019 = 28 days
February 27th 2019 = 30 days (335 to go)

Got myself a couple days this month. In all of 2018 I increased by 4 days and in just the first two months of 2019 I've done the same. I hope this trend continues and I end the year near the end of February.

[Jaayse]

2017
April 14 - 66.9
July 24 - 72.32
October 1 - 85.18
November 1 - 89.49
December 1 - 91.60

2018
January 1 - 94.16
February 1 - 99.53
March 1 - 98.25
April 1 - 99.81
May 1 - 129.12
June 1 - 133.36
July 1 - 138.76
August 1 - 143.95
September 1 - 148.73
October 1 - 151.87
November 1 - 146.53
December 1 - 150.11

2019
January 1 - 144.60
February 1 - 155.47
March 1 - 160.02

I'm up to June 10th!  20 more days until halfway!

[K-ice]

2019
March 1 - 84 days = March 26th


I used this calculator for the day conversion.
https://www.convertunits.com/dates/daysfromdate/

[WhiteTrashCash]

This month, we made it up to 191 days, so we are currently at July 10th. We had an excellent past two months where we leaped by 25 days.

[Bird In Hand]

I used this calculator for the day conversion.
https://www.convertunits.com/dates/daysfromdate/

YMMV, but it's probably easier to do it all in one step here: https://engaging-data.com/freedom-calculator/

[aceyou]

73 Days bought assuming 60k/year spending.

I'm FI through March 14

[londonbanker]

As of the end of Feb, assuming a £70k spend a year, I am FI though August 3rd... that’s 245 days of FI! Success!

[Slow road to freedom]

Pleasantly surprised; at £40k pa target, I find I’m 238 days free (roughly two-thirds).

Hurrah!

Maybe a part time gig might work ... :-)

[Arbitrage]

Ooh, I used another method and it made me feel better.  Rather than just focusing upon my liquid NW and assuming a paid off house, I added our house equity, but increased our expenses by an imputed rent of 4% * expected future house price (after selling the current house and moving).

Took me from mid-August to early October!  Still ignoring college savings. 

[Slow&Steady]

Middle-ish of the month update since I didn't update at the end of Feb/beginning of March.

At $60k/year and only looking a 401k/IRA. 

Jan-17 = 17 days
Dec-17 = 23.71 days
Jan-18 = 25 days
Dec-18 = 26 days
Jan-19 = 28 days
Mar-19 = 30 days

4 days in Q1 is great, compared to what I have been doing!  I will be very happy with that progress if that continues. I did increase my 401k contributions in March and we should start funneling money into an IRA in April, I guess we will have to wait and see what the market does with those dollars.

6 days/year or 0.5 days/month is what I have been averaging (or was before the Oct).  I also am not happy with this number, I am hoping to increase my savings rate considerably in 2019.

So I did a little calculating because 6 days/year means a long working career ahead.  I assumed a 7% return for the previous year as a starting point to calculate days gained for each following year, below. 

Year ----- 7% ----- 15% ----- 20%      
2019 ----- 07d ----- 08d ----- 11d       
2020 ----- 11d ----- 15d ----- 17d       
2021 ----- 15d ----- 19d ----- 22d      
2022 ----- 18d ----- 23d ----- 27d   
2023 ----- 19d ----- 27d ----- 31d   
2024 ----- 22d ----- 31d ----- 37d   
2025 ----- 24d ----- 35d ----- 41d

On the 1 hand this makes me feel better, my plan doesn't mean that I will only gain 6 days per year every year (assuming my stash returns at least 7%). On the other hand this shows that by the end of 2025 (6 YEARS from now!!) I will still have more than half the year to go. :(

My current plan will take 11 more years to reach FI if my stash returns an average of 7% per year over that time frame.  If we have a "glass half full" look, I will still in my 40's when we reach FI and that is several years before we plan to FIRE but I waffle between the "glass is half full" and the "glass is half empty" mentality so that is still 11 YEARS from now!!

PS- 10% average yearly returns only knocks off 1 year.  A return of 7% is what MY stash has averaged over the last 3 years.  I have end of year numbers for 6 years but contributions for only 3 of those, so I can't calculate what MY stash (not the market in general) yearly return was prior to 2016.

[LeftA]

Bases on invested assets only, we are 117 days /April 27th.

Doesn’t seem to bad, considering the plan is for me to work almost another decade.

[Jaayse]

2017
April 14 - 66.9
July 24 - 72.32
October 1 - 85.18
November 1 - 89.49
December 1 - 91.60

2018
January 1 - 94.16
February 1 - 99.53
March 1 - 98.25
April 1 - 99.81
May 1 - 129.12
June 1 - 133.36
July 1 - 138.76
August 1 - 143.95
September 1 - 148.73
October 1 - 151.87
November 1 - 146.53
December 1 - 150.11

2019
January 1 - 144.60
February 1 - 155.47
March 1 - 160.02
April 1 - 163.63

I'm up to June 13th!  Only 17 more days until halfway!

[arebelspy]

Arebelspy had suggested I add a calendar view to the freedomcalculator and your picture inspired me to do it

Nice! I love it, and the gauge view, too. :D

You can just screenshot the calendar part (so you can't see the saving or spending text boxes).  I will also look into how to make a screenshot button on the calculator so it's easier to share.

Yeah, it'd be neat if you could hit "export calendar as image" and it popped up a download dialogue that was your current calendar (or gauge) in .png format.

I really like the tool, CCCA. You've added some great contributions to the forum/FIRE community, between this and Maizeman's death calculator that I saw you had featured on GCC. I enjoyed a few other things on your site (Rubik's Cube times), and will have to poke around there more to see everything! :)

I attached our own path to FIRE, using my historical net worth numbers, and arbitrarily picking our net worth at the time we FIRE'd as our final number (we weren't shooting for a particular number, due to rental property stuff, and actually FIREd earlier than planned, so it's hard to say what our number would have been in a traditional scenario; that seems close enough).

Of course, in the subsequent years while FIRE'd, we've funded through about June of the following year, so picking a number, or date, or whatever, was all an exercise in fun anyways. ;)

[WhiteTrashCash]

This month was another good month for our investments and we are now up to July 20th. Feels pretty good.

[DadJokes]

6/30/18: 5.57
8/31/18: 6.06
9/30/18: 6.38
10/31/18: 6.04
11/30/18: 6.12
12/31/18: 5.62

1/31/19: 6.5
2/28/19: 8.25
3/31/19: 10.52

We decided to shift some savings over and fund a Roth for the 2018 deadline. That was good for 1.6 days on its own.

[haypug16]

April 13th 2018 = 23 days
July 30th 2018 = 25 days
January 31st 2019 = 28 days
February 27th 2019 = 30 days
March 31st 2019 = 31 days

Bought myself another day this month :) Hoping to end the year in Mid February

[Slow&Steady]

At $60k/year and only looking a 401k/IRA. 

Jan-17 = 17 days
Dec-17 = 23.71 days
Jan-18 = 25 days
Dec-18 = 26 days
Jan-19 = 28 days
Mar-19 = 30 days

Did not change from the mid-month update but I wanted to make sure I posted an end of the month number.

6 days/year or 0.5 days/month is what I have been averaging (or was before the Oct).  I also am not happy with this number, I am hoping to increase my savings rate considerably in 2019.

So I did a little calculating because 6 days/year means a long working career ahead.  I assumed a 7% return for the previous year as a starting point to calculate days gained for each following year, below. 

Year ----- 7% ----- 15% ----- 20%      
2019 ----- 07d ----- 08d ----- 11d       
2020 ----- 11d ----- 15d ----- 17d       
2021 ----- 15d ----- 19d ----- 22d      
2022 ----- 18d ----- 23d ----- 27d   
2023 ----- 19d ----- 27d ----- 31d   
2024 ----- 22d ----- 31d ----- 37d   
2025 ----- 24d ----- 35d ----- 41d

On the 1 hand this makes me feel better, my plan doesn't mean that I will only gain 6 days per year every year (assuming my stash returns at least 7%). On the other hand this shows that by the end of 2025 (6 YEARS from now!!) I will still have more than half the year to go. :(

My current plan will take 11 more years to reach FI if my stash returns an average of 7% per year over that time frame.  If we have a "glass half full" look, I will still in my 40's when we reach FI and that is several years before we plan to FIRE but I waffle between the "glass is half full" and the "glass is half empty" mentality so that is still 11 YEARS from now!!

PS- 10% average yearly returns only knocks off 1 year.  A return of 7% is what MY stash has averaged over the last 3 years.  I have end of year numbers for 6 years but contributions for only 3 of those, so I can't calculate what MY stash (not the market in general) yearly return was prior to 2016.