Feeling emboldened about sticking to end of March 2018 as an end date. Planning this weekend to sit down with my wife and try and again address the financial facts around our situation and how the plan has a number of safety layers in it before we would really get into trouble. This exercise is as much for me as for her!
We have already approached this very sensibly, I think, in that we have 1) already moved to a LowerCOL area which freed up investment capital from our house 2) we already had sensible cars (yes it is still plural given my work commute) 3) we are always careful on any big purchases, including holidays - this year is was camping for two weeks in France by ferry. 4) We shop at Lidl not Waitrose. In no way a Mustachian idol but I think we have got the big things right.
There are also huge savings that are baked into stopping work - Tax and commuting costs. I have to trust the numbers more. First we are currently a single high income family so I am taxed heavily on much of my income. Simply being able to split our future income between us is a massive saving. Earning 90k as a couple is like me earning 130k alone just because of tax. I also have to trust how much of the cost of my working will, without question, fall away. Put all that commuting/living away from home cost together and it is 1.5k a month, 18k a year, or 30k a year pre-tax. So if we want 75k post tax to live after FIRE, the pre-tax salary I currently need to earn for the same post-tax income is getting towards 160k adjusted for the cost to work. I still find it hard to believe, but these are facts and arithmetic, rather than speculation about how we might live after FIRE. Furthermore, we have not been as disciplined as we might and I am confident that there are considerable other savings to be had when you have two people with way more time on their hands to optimise, particularly when one of them is me and I will make it a focus.
Then there is the sentiment from a great post from the escape artist (
https://theescapeartist.me/2017/04/23/the-inestimable-advantages-of-hardening-the-fuck-up/) which, to me at least, reminds you that there will be challenges, just different ones, and that you will deal with them.
As a complete aside, I was listening in to a young couple chatting on our overcrowded commuter train this morning. She was struggling to justify a £50 monthly gym membership and then had a eureka moment when she realised she spends £70 on her morning coffee a month! Nice to see people working out how small decisions can have bigger financial impacts. Hopefully she is one step from realising she doesn't need the gym either.
Very happy that this forum exists as it is so helpful to be able to get non judgemental views from people.