Louisville,
In my challenge, I'm attempting to pull in my FIRE day. In my case, and I imagine others, there are a number of obstacles to overcome in order to reach that goal.
While those obstacles can be overcome with appropriate financial health which can be simplified as a "FIRE number".
I find tracking a specific FIRE number not compelling, as it's a moving target. E.g. The number I need to retire at 50 is much different than the number I need at 60 for instance. In addition, tracking to Net Worth fluctuates greatly with the market variances, so personal monthly activities are often eclipsed by factors outside of my control.
I'm labelling all those obstacles, both financial and otherwise, tent poles propping up the tent that is my day job working for "the man". Without going into great detail: there's obligations to children at home, existing mortgages, other debt, healthcare replacement, access to retirement accounts, liquidity of assets, etc.
As an example: In my case, I've been moderately aggressive in taking on more responsibility with greater leverage to generate income vehicles outside of my day job. In this strategy, I've taken on what I consider good debt. As I'm older now and know my self-imposed fiscal responsibility to my child is six more years (I will help her through her first college degree, as my father did for me), I'm now changing my strategy from good leverage to a more conservative debt erasure philosophy.
Regardless of the obstacles each of us has, if they can be identified, we can focus on the longest tent pole that represents our concrete retirement date.
At the start of my challenge (my 50th birthday), I identified the following major tent poles: child responsibility = 6 years, access to retirement accounts = 10 years, healthcare plan replacement = UNK, primary home mortgage amortization = 11 years, Rental "A" mortgage amortization = 7 years, Rental "B" mortgage amortization = 15 years.
To give myself a clear objective, I'm focusing on that Rental "B" mortgage as a representation of my FIRE date. That isn't to the exclusion of maximizing retirement accounts or otherwise, but diverting funds that may otherwise have been spent without a watchful eye.
Date (MM-YYYY): 07-2020 Freedom Date (MM-YYYY): 02-2035 Freedom Age: 64.6
Date (MM-YYYY): 08-2020 Freedom Date (MM-YYYY): 05-2034 Freedom Age: 63.8
Date (MM-YYYY): 09-2020 Freedom Date (MM-YYYY): 04-2034 Freedom Age: 63.7
Date (MM-YYYY): 10-2020 Freedom Date (MM-YYYY): 01-2034 Freedom Age: 63.4
Date (MM-YYYY): 11-2020 Freedom Date (MM-YYYY): 12-2033 Freedom Age: 63.3
