500 days to go!
36 paychecks!
Does anyone else find this final year extra tough? It's like time drags on more slowly now or something.
We've had a week or two of nice weather in my area and it is killing me! I work alone in a big room out on a dusty production factory environment, about 7 stories up. I have the rare luxury of a window. Looking out on the bright sunshine, the greening landscape and mild weather I want to walk out and not ever come back.
I'm FI now, and it is going to take all of my self control to hang in there for the next nine months.
Agreed. I'm not sure I have the self control to last. I keep trying to figure out ways to get out sooner. It may happen depending on housing market here. Things are looking up economically (in my uneducated and mostly uniformed and often overly optimistic opinion) and I think it'll be better within a year.
The two reasons for my OMY are extra contingency money and I really want to have a garage built when I FIRE. I expect it will be about $22,000 including extending the existing driveway.
Last Sunday I spent an hour or so crunching numbers and considering the strategy of a July 2016 retirement.
Pros:
Three months left instead of nine.
Get enrolled in Obamacare while I have an income that may not trip troublesome flags.
Cons:
Would pay $130 monthly (2015 rates, I checked them in December 2014) for Obamacare silver plan health insurance.
Won't top out 401k for 2016 (but would come close).
Stash will be reduced (compared to working until January 3) by about $18,000.
Last year profit sharing came at end of July (for the previous calendar year). It was about $900, into my 401k. So I'd miss that this year by a month. Previous 12 years we got profit sharing in March (in years when there was any to be had), so that's just one more annoying thing about my work.
If I worked until January 3rd, I'd get 18 more paid days (15 days vacation, two personal days, and New Year's Day paid holiday. Plus the day I worked, making it 19 days pay, just for working one day in 2017. To explain, on my job, the vacation is a contractual right, guaranteed to be paid in the case of job separation, even if discharged. Plus I got zero vacation the first 365 days of employment, so the vacation is earned, not granted.
The garage. I'd have to DIY it or else use stash money that had been earmarked for other contingencies (such as increased medical cost as I reach old age). Or just continue to do without a garage.
Conclusion:
I am eager to retire and eager to be rid of my employer. But there are good reasons to grind away another nine months.
That said, If I were to get completely fed up before January 3, I think I could end up making a post in the “epic FU money stories” thread.