2027 FIRE Cohort

[imperfect]

Ok so as I've been refining my retirement projections over the last year, I feel like I must be missing something. And what I'm missing is: why do none of my co-workers seem to ever retire? I know many of them have similar economic circumstances, at least roughly, as I do.

I can think of *one* of my co-workers who just up and retired at an age less than 60 in the last 20 years. He was a single guy, no children, had very strong earnings, and it made total sense that he could do it around the age of 50. Probably could have done it well before then.

The rest of them? They're all pushing past 65 and seemingly still trying to climb the ladder. I don't get it at all. For what?

[Turtle]

After meeting with a Financial Planner and running a Monte Carlo on all my numbers while trying to break things, it's looking pretty likely that I will go one year less, into mid 2026 instead.

3 years, 3 months, and 3 weeks to go.  :-)

The end is in sight.

Congratulations! Would you recommend meeting with a financial planner? Did you find it worthwhile?

I found it worth my time, but I'm not sure I would have found it to be worth my money if I'd been paying for it.

The software tool he was using was basically a fancier front end for the Rich, Broke, Dead tool.  Good for walking people through who really had no idea, but not necessarily needed for anyone who has done MMM level research for themselves.

He did give me some rule of thumb amounts that they standardly use for healthcare prior to Medicare (12K) and average annual set aside for home repairs (3K) 

The other thing he told me which I wasn't aware of is that HSA can be used to pay for COBRA.  May or may not use that option to finish out the calendar year that I retire.

[Sandi_k]

@Turtle  - for the healthcare estimates, I'd look at healthcare.gov to estimate your costs, as it can vary widely, depending on if your state expanded Medicaid or not. Folks in the midwest that I know are spending nearly $30k per year for them as a couple.

And the HSA can also be used for Medicare premiums, once eligible. You can't pay premiums with it while employed, but you can pay Medicare premiums with it once retired, if that matters.

[solon]

I'll join. Shooting for Dec 2027.

[Turtle]

I'll join. Shooting for Dec 2027.

Welcome to the under 5 years left crew! 

[fireready]

Our plan is end of March, 2027.  I will be 51 and my wife will be 49. 

Working towards this for 8 years now.  Last of our 4 kids will be out of college by then and hopefully beginning their own lives.

[solon]

Our plan is end of March, 2027.  I will be 51 and my wife will be 49. 

Working towards this for 8 years now.  Last of our 4 kids will be out of college by then and hopefully beginning their own lives.

Sounds like you're ready... to fire.

[neo von retorch]

One Three More Years
Way back in ~2016, just as my spouse and I were buying a house together for the first time, I looked at expenses at that time, and projected a potential FIRE date of 2024. However, we spent a decent amount on home ownership - stuff, maintenance, upgrades. We also adopted our late, beloved Mastiff near the end of 2016, and spent lavishly on her comfort and joy (and health).

Expenses
Our trailing twelve month expenses rose from $41k in April of 2016 to a high of $74k in November 2019. Our home ownership low was $53k in March 2021 (pandemic levels of spending!), and is currently a lofty but sub-peak $63k. Housing and food are the biggest items, while my spouse would like to reduce eating out costs, and I fight my battles with spending on electronics. Travel will remain a significant but valued line item.

Investment Income
On the flip side, 4% of investments was $6.6k after putting money down for a house in April 2016 and peaked at $35.4k in February 2021, though we just might hit a new high once market adjustments are logged at the end of this quarter. Our "barebones" expenses peaked in 2018 at $37k, but are typically in the $32-35k range, so those, at least, would be covered. But of course we plan to expand our nest egg to cover "lifestyle" expenses as well - again the biggest of these being travel, eating out, transportation and electronics. We have plans to pare down to a single car household, and I can quite reasonably expect to spend very little on electronics going forward, as we have very capable, modern computers and smart phones (and an extraordinary $90 Garmin Venu watch.)

The Future
With our current projections, we expect to be able to fully cover expenses based on 4% of our invested liquid assets sometime in 2027. March actually looks good with the assumption we pay off our mortgage, reducing monthly expenses. With the full mortgage payment, expenses are higher, and that pushes us back to October but that P+I payment would end in 2050, so I just use that date/calculation as a sort of sanity check. To be clear, we do not plan on paying off (or even extra) towards our current 2.99% fixed rate mortgage. (But there is a chance we'll move before retirement, and depending on rates, we could approach things differently.)

[imperfect]

Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.

[Turtle]

Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.

Yes, definitely.  Especially since my company is talking about mandatory return to office in October.

[Loretta]

Same and the workplace keeps growing more and more disheartening.  Hang in there everybody! 

Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.

[frugalecon]

Same and the workplace keeps growing more and more disheartening.  Hang in there everybody! 

Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.

Yep, hang in there. I have pretty much decamped for the 2025 cohort, but I still read the messages in this one, because it was the one I originally thought I would be in. So I am now at…88 weeks.

But in my last four years of the journey, I have thought about it like my time in college, which seemed to go by fast. Completed my freshman year, then my sophomore year, and now I am halfway through my junior year, almost. I had a TON of fun in my senior year of college, so maybe something similar will happen in my last year of W-2 work?

[Loretta]

Sounds like a good mental approach!

[imperfect]

Same and the workplace keeps growing more and more disheartening.  Hang in there everybody! 

Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.

Yep, hang in there. I have pretty much decamped for the 2025 cohort, but I still read the messages in this one, because it was the one I originally thought I would be in. So I am now at…88 weeks.

But in my last four years of the journey, I have thought about it like my time in college, which seemed to go by fast. Completed my freshman year, then my sophomore year, and now I am halfway through my junior year, almost. I had a TON of fun in my senior year of college, so maybe something similar will happen in my last year of W-2 work?

In this picture, I'm halfway through my freshman year, which is a little early for my current level of senioritis.

My work situation has deteriorated significantly under new leadership, so I'm really struggling with keeping my spirits up. However, I'm consoling myself by keeping an eye on my pension ramp, which is pretty significant at this phase of my career. If you look at the lifetime income increment by sticking out one more year, and put a 4% (fictitious) cash value on that - I can't complain about my "effective compensation" when put into those terms. So one more year... one day at time.

You said your "last year of W-2 work" which is a phrase I am immediately adopting with my partner. Do you have specific plans for a new type of work after? I've got a list of ideas but nothing that seems like "the one" yet.

[frugalecon]

Same and the workplace keeps growing more and more disheartening.  Hang in there everybody! 

Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.

Yep, hang in there. I have pretty much decamped for the 2025 cohort, but I still read the messages in this one, because it was the one I originally thought I would be in. So I am now at…88 weeks.

But in my last four years of the journey, I have thought about it like my time in college, which seemed to go by fast. Completed my freshman year, then my sophomore year, and now I am halfway through my junior year, almost. I had a TON of fun in my senior year of college, so maybe something similar will happen in my last year of W-2 work?

In this picture, I'm halfway through my freshman year, which is a little early for my current level of senioritis.

My work situation has deteriorated significantly under new leadership, so I'm really struggling with keeping my spirits up. However, I'm consoling myself by keeping an eye on my pension ramp, which is pretty significant at this phase of my career. If you look at the lifetime income increment by sticking out one more year, and put a 4% (fictitious) cash value on that - I can't complain about my "effective compensation" when put into those terms. So one more year... one day at time.

You said your "last year of W-2 work" which is a phrase I am immediately adopting with my partner. Do you have specific plans for a new type of work after? I've got a list of ideas but nothing that seems like "the one" yet.

I don’t have anything specific in mind as a way I might earn some cash after I transition to the next phase of life, but it is certainly possible that I might earn some, just doing something I enjoy. One possibility is teaching a class…several years ago I taught a night class is a master’s program, and enjoyed it a lot. It was just too much to layer onto my day job. Maybe I will try that again. (Coincidentally one of my students is the best friend of a current young colleague I work with, and he told me that his friend had told him that my class was his favorite ever! That was nice feedback to receive.)

[imperfect]

I don’t have anything specific in mind as a way I might earn some cash after I transition to the next phase of life, but it is certainly possible that I might earn some, just doing something I enjoy. One possibility is teaching a class…several years ago I taught a night class is a master’s program, and enjoyed it a lot. It was just too much to layer onto my day job. Maybe I will try that again. (Coincidentally one of my students is the best friend of a current young colleague I work with, and he told me that his friend had told him that my class was his favorite ever! That was nice feedback to receive.)

I originally got an advanced degree to be a teacher, but then my career took a different direction - so trying some kind of teaching is near or at the top of my list. Tutoring, teaching a CC class, setting up an online class, educational software are all things I've thought about doing.

Will I have the drive to follow through on any of those if I don't "have to"? I don't know.

[Turtle]

Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.

Yes, definitely.  Especially since my company is talking about mandatory return to office in October.

Weird update on this one -- company is selling my local site and giving blanket WFH approval for everyone located in my area.  Fine by me.  Seems like there might be an increased possibility of packages for the folks who don't fade away naturally, because they've already said that any new hires need to be 100% in the office for their first 6 months.  That means they are unlikely to hire new folks anywhere but the remaining physical locations.  Might get lucky with a retirement present on my way out the door!

[frugalecon]

Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.

Yes, definitely.  Especially since my company is talking about mandatory return to office in October.

Weird update on this one -- company is selling my local site and giving blanket WFH approval for everyone located in my area.  Fine by me.  Seems like there might be an increased possibility of packages for the folks who don't fade away naturally, because they've already said that any new hires need to be 100% in the office for their first 6 months.  That means they are unlikely to hire new folks anywhere but the remaining physical locations.  Might get lucky with a retirement present on my way out the door!

Take what the game gives you, @Turtle!

[Highbeam]

Anybody else getting that 3 year itch? Man, I'm restless, and monitoring my financials *way too much*.

Yes, definitely.  Especially since my company is talking about mandatory return to office in October.

Weird update on this one -- company is selling my local site and giving blanket WFH approval for everyone located in my area.  Fine by me.  Seems like there might be an increased possibility of packages for the folks who don't fade away naturally, because they've already said that any new hires need to be 100% in the office for their first 6 months.  That means they are unlikely to hire new folks anywhere but the remaining physical locations.  Might get lucky with a retirement present on my way out the door!

It just really sucks to onboard new hires WFH.

[Highbeam]

Ok so as I've been refining my retirement projections over the last year, I feel like I must be missing something. And what I'm missing is: why do none of my co-workers seem to ever retire? I know many of them have similar economic circumstances, at least roughly, as I do.

I can think of *one* of my co-workers who just up and retired at an age less than 60 in the last 20 years. He was a single guy, no children, had very strong earnings, and it made total sense that he could do it around the age of 50. Probably could have done it well before then.

The rest of them? They're all pushing past 65 and seemingly still trying to climb the ladder. I don't get it at all. For what?

I blame working out of habit, sense of security, and fear. I've also been really surprised at how otherwise smart people manage to have very high expenses for stupid and worthless things. The opposite of optimized. Then there's the things we can't possibly know about like they are sending money away to family members or have a bad gambling habit.

[imperfect]

Ok so as I've been refining my retirement projections over the last year, I feel like I must be missing something. And what I'm missing is: why do none of my co-workers seem to ever retire? I know many of them have similar economic circumstances, at least roughly, as I do.

I can think of *one* of my co-workers who just up and retired at an age less than 60 in the last 20 years. He was a single guy, no children, had very strong earnings, and it made total sense that he could do it around the age of 50. Probably could have done it well before then.

The rest of them? They're all pushing past 65 and seemingly still trying to climb the ladder. I don't get it at all. For what?

I blame working out of habit, sense of security, and fear. I've also been really surprised at how otherwise smart people manage to have very high expenses for stupid and worthless things. The opposite of optimized. Then there's the things we can't possibly know about like they are sending money away to family members or have a bad gambling habit.

Yeah, it's clear a lot of people just don't know what to do with themselves outside of work, too. I've seen quite a lot of people retire, then come back 6-18 months later.

This will *not* be an issue for me.

[frugalecon]

Ok so as I've been refining my retirement projections over the last year, I feel like I must be missing something. And what I'm missing is: why do none of my co-workers seem to ever retire? I know many of them have similar economic circumstances, at least roughly, as I do.

I can think of *one* of my co-workers who just up and retired at an age less than 60 in the last 20 years. He was a single guy, no children, had very strong earnings, and it made total sense that he could do it around the age of 50. Probably could have done it well before then.

The rest of them? They're all pushing past 65 and seemingly still trying to climb the ladder. I don't get it at all. For what?

I blame working out of habit, sense of security, and fear. I've also been really surprised at how otherwise smart people manage to have very high expenses for stupid and worthless things. The opposite of optimized. Then there's the things we can't possibly know about like they are sending money away to family members or have a bad gambling habit.

Yeah, it's clear a lot of people just don't know what to do with themselves outside of work, too. I've seen quite a lot of people retire, then come back 6-18 months later.

This will *not* be an issue for me.

I had lunch recently with a friend at my organization who is 76 years old. He and his wife both make good salaries, probably combined household income of nearly $400,000. (She is a little younger, maybe late 60s.) They are not lavish spenders at all, and in particular spend very little on travel. Two kids, the daughter is married to a hedge fund type; they are rolling in money. The son has a more modest situation with his family, but certainly middle class with his family. My friend said he is considering retiring in the next 18 months, but his wife challenged him and said "what would you do? you'd be bored? I don't plan to ever retire!"

I really don't get it. They are clearly rich materially, but there is a certain degree of poverty of imagination to think there is nothing else a person could do.

That said, he has a really cushy job with tons of autonomy and no real stress. It is kind of the opposite of my job, which is extremely high pressure and mentally fatiguing. Maybe that's the secret. Find a low-pressure sinecure that pays really well.

[Eurotexan]

Happy to join this group! I’ve been a follower of MMM for over 10 years now and have made great progress! In  2021 I dabbled with FIRE but after a few months off work I was offered a great job with a nice salary so I rejoined the workplace and was happy to do so (my FIRE was pretty lean and with the market going down and inflation going up I decided it was too lean for my peace of mind).

Last year I moved from a townhouse in a great school district to a small recently renovated house just outside the school district as my daughter is now in college so I wasn’t tied to it anymore. I love my house and have spent quite a bit of money on landscaping and a few upgrades but it is my dream home where I can see myself retiring (I was starting to go a bit stir crazy in the townhouse, especially during the TX summer.)

With all these changes behind me it’s time to focus on FIRE so I am back on the forum! I figure 2027 gets my daughter through college and I have some nice long term incentive plans which start vesting next year. I know this forum is about frugality but I need a little fatter FIRE as once I retire I don’t want to go back to work again.

I look forward to being on this journey with you all and cheering you on!

[estuaryflow]

Checking in w/ my cohorts.

We're still eyeing September of '27. Like others, it has turned into a bit of a grind. I don't much enjoy work but I need to hit that 30-year mark for a permanent pension. We've got very low 7 figures in investment accounts, both pre-tax and after-tax, US house is paid off, and 3 years mortgage to go on foreign property. Currently wavering on whether to keep the US place at all (Long Island) or sell it before we retire and resettle elsewhere in the US. Ideally, somewhere w/ a good international airport, but that kind of limits us to Atlanta and Dallas since we'd like to be somewhere warm (consider Raleigh- Durham?). We wouldn't have to buy back in right away, either. We could see how things go w/ the foreign place first.

For some reason, I enrolled in a master's program, so that's taking some of my time. For the life of me, I could not tell you what I expected to get out of it. I won't be in the workplace long enough to really utilize it, so hopefully, other benefits become obvious. It is a challenge, and I enjoy it, but "What the hell?" is the question I most often ask myself about it.

It's just a lot of unknowns and if-then, which sometimes makes it easier to put the decision off and keep plodding. The problem is that I'm not getting younger, and the places I'd like to see and our thirst for the world is only growing. Guess I should start working on a mock agenda for what to do when the plug is pulled.

[JupiterGreen]

Checking in w/ my cohorts.

We're still eyeing September of '27. Like others, it has turned into a bit of a grind. I don't much enjoy work but I need to hit that 30-year mark for a permanent pension. We've got very low 7 figures in investment accounts, both pre-tax and after-tax, US house is paid off, and 3 years mortgage to go on foreign property. Currently wavering on whether to keep the US place at all (Long Island) or sell it before we retire and resettle elsewhere in the US. Ideally, somewhere w/ a good international airport, but that kind of limits us to Atlanta and Dallas since we'd like to be somewhere warm (consider Raleigh- Durham?). We wouldn't have to buy back in right away, either. We could see how things go w/ the foreign place first.

For some reason, I enrolled in a master's program, so that's taking some of my time. For the life of me, I could not tell you what I expected to get out of it. I won't be in the workplace long enough to really utilize it, so hopefully, other benefits become obvious. It is a challenge, and I enjoy it, but "What the hell?" is the question I most often ask myself about it.

It's just a lot of unknowns and if-then, which sometimes makes it easier to put the decision off and keep plodding. The problem is that I'm not getting younger, and the places I'd like to see and our thirst for the world is only growing. Guess I should start working on a mock agenda for what to do when the plug is pulled.

The grind, yes I totally feel you on this! As far as the master's program, I would really consider its usefulness (future consulting?) because that is a lot of work and time (I'm guessing employe is paying for it) on a task with an unknown goal. You could take that time and work a side gig to get closer to your financial goals. Anyway, welcome.

[tj]

Well, it's looking like 2027 is becoming more likely for me.

Originally my goal was 2025 - age 40 - but the Mad Fientist Lab is showing me 3 years 6 months  - which puts me squarely into mid 2027.  Of course a bad month in the market could shift it further back into 2028, or, if the market does really well, maybe it reels it in further to late 2026.


For my expense number for the 25x calculation, I basically just use the Mad fientist calculation of past 12 months of actual, but this does not include income taxes, and stuff that comes out pre-tax like health insurance. I wonder if I should realistically add a buffer in my monthly numbers to account for those types of expenses - even though it seems doubtful that I'd never again generate earned income at all after reaching FIRE.


The biggest wrinkle in all my calculations is that I'd highly prefer to have a lifelong partner aka be married and I have no idea how that would effect or not effect my finances - it seems unlikely that it would not effect them. I really don't want to be some early retired loner and spend the rest of my life extremely independent and alone.....but I also don't want to work longer than necessary.

Priorities...I guess I might need to decide. :D

[LightStache]

[snip]

For my expense number for the 25x calculation, I basically just use the Mad fientist calculation of past 12 months of actual, but this does not include income taxes, and stuff that comes out pre-tax like health insurance. I wonder if I should realistically add a buffer in my monthly numbers to account for those types of expenses - even though it seems doubtful that I'd never again generate earned income at all after reaching FIRE.

I think you should account for taxes and healthcare costs in your retirement planning. You probably don't need to account for earned income because if that does happen, the tax will come out of the extra earnings. But what about taxes for Roth conversions, dividends, and capital gains? Depending on when I retire I plan for an effective income tax rate between 16% and 20% (mostly from Roth ladder conversions) which is a pretty big  cost.

[tj]

[snip]

For my expense number for the 25x calculation, I basically just use the Mad fientist calculation of past 12 months of actual, but this does not include income taxes, and stuff that comes out pre-tax like health insurance. I wonder if I should realistically add a buffer in my monthly numbers to account for those types of expenses - even though it seems doubtful that I'd never again generate earned income at all after reaching FIRE.

I think you should account for taxes and healthcare costs in your retirement planning. You probably don't need to account for earned income because if that does happen, the tax will come out of the extra earnings. But what about taxes for Roth conversions, dividends, and capital gains? Depending on when I retire I plan for an effective income tax rate between 16% and 20% (mostly from Roth ladder conversions) which is a pretty big  cost.

I anticipate that dividends and capital gains should fall into the 0% bracket unless tax laws change. I will have to choose/balance between realizing gains and Roth conversions. But adding a % for future taxes does make sense.

At most 20% ish of my stash is in traditional right now vs Roth/taxable/HSA, so I'm not sure how heavily a role conversions will play, depending on how long I work and how much the traditional account continues to grow. I could probably convert everything over the course of a number of years, but then the question is do I have enough Roth basis, conversion and taxable to make it to 60 before the Roth growth is retrievable tax free. Possibly. I'm not sure.

[wageslave23]

Well, it's looking like 2027 is becoming more likely for me.

Originally my goal was 2025 - age 40 - but the Mad Fientist Lab is showing me 3 years 6 months  - which puts me squarely into mid 2027.  Of course a bad month in the market could shift it further back into 2028, or, if the market does really well, maybe it reels it in further to late 2026.


For my expense number for the 25x calculation, I basically just use the Mad fientist calculation of past 12 months of actual, but this does not include income taxes, and stuff that comes out pre-tax like health insurance. I wonder if I should realistically add a buffer in my monthly numbers to account for those types of expenses - even though it seems doubtful that I'd never again generate earned income at all after reaching FIRE.


The biggest wrinkle in all my calculations is that I'd highly prefer to have a lifelong partner aka be married and I have no idea how that would effect or not effect my finances - it seems unlikely that it would not effect them. I really don't want to be some early retired loner and spend the rest of my life extremely independent and alone.....but I also don't want to work longer than necessary.

Priorities...I guess I might need to decide. :D

You have a big unknown- future expenses.  I would be very conservative with your "number". Mine doubled with wife and kids. In other words, keep your options open and stay flexible.  Not many potential spouses want to live on a FIRE budget, at least not until they decide together to go that route.

[ABK]

Joining up with this cohort today! We were previously looking at 2026, and then 2029, but have settled on 2027 as a reasonable compromise for the financials.

I am (hopefully) about to take a promotion that will increase my eventual pension payout to a really comfortable number, and our investments are likely going to cross into 7 figures in the next few months. I think 3 years in the new position will be enough scratch my itch to find out what working in admin at my organization is like, but not so much that I get too entangled to leave.

Husband and I live in a very high cost of living area, so we are probably looking at moving once we pull the plug.

[RWD]

I think this might be my new target. I had originally been looking at 2022 and then 2024, but our expenses have more than doubled so a few extra years seems prudent...

[neo von retorch]

I think this might be my new target. I had originally been looking at 2022 and then 2024, but our expenses have more than doubled so a few extra years seems prudent...

Ditto, mostly. Of course after we buy and sell houses this year... maybe we'll adjust targets again...

[Sailor Sam]

Hi everyone. I'm joining this cohort. I was originally in the 2026 cohort, but I realized I'm actually just bad at math and my pension vests in 2027. I'm active duty military, and I'll hit 20 years of service on 9MAR2027. I'll be 46.

I'm sitting at $1.3M of investments, split 50/50 between retirement accounts and after tax investments. Current expenses are around $50k/year. No house, no kids, no current dog. I will have a small fleet of dogs about 10 seconds after I retire, and I shall be the Commodore.

[tj]

Hi everyone. I'm joining this cohort. I was originally in the 2026 cohort, but I realized I'm actually just bad at math and my pension vests in 2027. I'm active duty military, and I'll hit 20 years of service on 9MAR2027. I'll be 46.

I'm sitting at $1.3M of investments, split 50/50 between retirement accounts and after tax investments. Current expenses are around $50k/year. No house, no kids, no current dog. I will have a small fleet of dogs about 10 seconds after I retire, and I shall be the Commodore.

I'm assuming you've read @Nords stuff?

Sounds like you're in good shape, with an inflation adjusted pension starting immediately at FIRE plus over $1M.

[Nords]

Hi everyone. I'm joining this cohort. I was originally in the 2026 cohort, but I realized I'm actually just bad at math and my pension vests in 2027. I'm active duty military, and I'll hit 20 years of service on 9MAR2027. I'll be 46.

I'm sitting at $1.3M of investments, split 50/50 between retirement accounts and after tax investments. Current expenses are around $50k/year. No house, no kids, no current dog. I will have a small fleet of dogs about 10 seconds after I retire, and I shall be the Commodore.

I'm assuming you've read @Nords stuff?

I'm pretty sure Sam has a handle on the issues but I'll post this for the rest of the military families.

"Stay on active duty as long as it's challenging & fulfilling", but:

The sneaky part of vesting the 20-year pension is ensuring that you have three years' time in grade... especially if you're selected for promotion during the next couple of years.

It's not so much the ego-enhancing higher rank in the retirement shadow box.  It's the seductive math of "Hmmm... a couple more years of pay, a couple more years of 2.5% multiplier, and a higher pay base formula for the rest of my life" that turns a mild case of burnout into a charred & crispy critter.

[partgypsy]

joining the '27 cohort. I thought I would need to work until 62 in order to qualify for social security and no (major) hits to gov pension, but learned recently about the bridge Fers that could start in age 60 (gov employees look up fers special retirement supplement) That is, if I can stay in the same job and nothing substantial changes. I am slightly superstitious so I almost don't want to jinx it by announcing something. But putting her to give myself some motivation. I would have to research about ideal date to retire but thinking oct 1 or dec 1 27 or even Jan 1 28 depending on what I learn.

[Chester Allen Arthur]

I've been doing some math, and I think I belong here?  It gives me 3 more years of high earnings but I can still retire before I'm 40 so I can say "I retired before I was 40" at parties.  I've been working towards FIRE almost since I started working and discovered MMM, sometime around 2013 or 2014.  I've saved, invested, bought a house, and most importantly changes my relationship with material goods.  I'm close.
Good luck to the rest of the class of 2027!

[Sailor Sam]

Hi everybody. Tomorrow is my 44th birthday, which seems like a good time to submit an update.

Last I checked was at $1.3M, though I heard there was some market fuckery last week. I’m sure the total has gone up-down-around. At this point, as long as the US remains a solvent country, I’ve made my number. Which means I have plenty of duty cycles to commit to the squishy stuff.

What the everlovingfuck am I going to do with my retired life? I love ships, but I’ve been putting off a lot of other life things—dogs, giant workshop, drugs—by going to sea.

But I’ve got a good chance of being promoted to Captain next year, and I’d need to stay to late 2028 retain the rank.

But I haven’t lived in one place longer than 36 months since I was 18 years old, and maybe I will like being stationary, but maybe I will hate it.

OMG, feeeeeeelings.

[Glenstache]

Hi everybody. Tomorrow is my 44th birthday, which seems like a good time to submit an update.

Last I checked was at $1.3M, though I heard there was some market fuckery last week. I’m sure the total has gone up-down-around. At this point, as long as the US remains a solvent country, I’ve made my number. Which means I have plenty of duty cycles to commit to the squishy stuff.

What the everlovingfuck am I going to do with my retired life? I love ships, but I’ve been putting off a lot of other life things—dogs, giant workshop, drugs—by going to sea.

But I’ve got a good chance of being promoted to Captain next year, and I’d need to stay to late 2028 retain the rank.

But I haven’t lived in one place longer than 36 months since I was 18 years old, and maybe I will like being stationary, but maybe I will hate it.

OMG, feeeeeeelings.

Pre-emptive happy birthday. May your birthday hat have a shark on it.

The transition from FI to FIRE is a big mental adjustment. Luckily, you have time to contemplate it and plan. Good news is, that you have the ability to change that plan if you want to. You can get to 28 months in the same place and decide that you want to change things up if you don't like it. Is there an equivalent to travel nurse for boating? Can you be a travel tug operator who works part time (not for the money, just to show people how good you are are parking boats)?

It's also possible to have a stable home base that you leave for extended periods and come back to.

I ended up switching from the 2027 to the 2024 cohort. After all I have seen of people making the leap, my plan was limited to just making very few big plans or changes for the first six months to let my neurons catch up with a new parameter set. I'm finding that every couple of weeks I can look back and recognize that my perspective has shifted and I'm still adapting to this whole FIRE thing. Just like a boat, just because you turn the rudder hard doesn't mean that your course changes instantly.

[Turtle]

Hi everybody. Tomorrow is my 44th birthday, which seems like a good time to submit an update.

Last I checked was at $1.3M, though I heard there was some market fuckery last week. I’m sure the total has gone up-down-around. At this point, as long as the US remains a solvent country, I’ve made my number. Which means I have plenty of duty cycles to commit to the squishy stuff.

What the everlovingfuck am I going to do with my retired life? I love ships, but I’ve been putting off a lot of other life things—dogs, giant workshop, drugs—by going to sea.

But I’ve got a good chance of being promoted to Captain next year, and I’d need to stay to late 2028 retain the rank.

But I haven’t lived in one place longer than 36 months since I was 18 years old, and maybe I will like being stationary, but maybe I will hate it.

OMG, feeeeeeelings.

The rank of Captain could lead to interesting duty assignments, but it would be up to you to decide whether or not they are interesting enough to make it worth it.  Having the FU money to be able to walk away if they give you a crappy assignment potentially gives you leverage, and definitely gives you options.

Belated Happy Birthday to you!

[neo von retorch]

I think this might be my new target. I had originally been looking at 2022 and then 2024, but our expenses have more than doubled so a few extra years seems prudent...

Ditto, mostly. Of course after we buy and sell houses this year... maybe we'll adjust targets again...

Oof yeah 2024 came and went. While our buy and sell added a lot of money to our investments, we have a larger mortgage, at 5.95% (up from our last mortgage which was 2.99%). Overall I'm tentatively hoping that over the next 24 months, our spending levels out, while investments continue to grow, and we just might be where we need to be.

How is everyone else doing with their best laid plans of wombats and women?

[RWD]

2027 is only a year and a half away now, oh geez... Due to the, well, everything I'm not feeling particularly stable. Considering I originally posted in the 2022 cohort thread I'm already kinda 5MY. But lately I've been kind of assuming I'll work through the end of 2028.

[Missy B]

Ok so as I've been refining my retirement projections over the last year, I feel like I must be missing something. And what I'm missing is: why do none of my co-workers seem to ever retire? I know many of them have similar economic circumstances, at least roughly, as I do.

I can think of *one* of my co-workers who just up and retired at an age less than 60 in the last 20 years. He was a single guy, no children, had very strong earnings, and it made total sense that he could do it around the age of 50. Probably could have done it well before then.

The rest of them? They're all pushing past 65 and seemingly still trying to climb the ladder. I don't get it at all. For what?

I think that's an interesting question to ask them. I think some people who could afford to - don't have secret debt or spendy spouses or unrealistic $$$$$ retirement plans - are perhaps uncomfortable with the unknown, losing their work connections/friends, their identity. Its change, change is scary to many.

[imperfect]

Hey, wanted to share something. Recently my spouse has started complaining about where we live, and sending me real estate listings from an extremely expensive town about an hour away. Granted, that area has a lot to offer, and our area - not so much. But what it does offer is a fixed rate mortgage that was locked in at 2.5% almost 20 years ago now. So our housing payment on a nice SFH home is cheaper than a 1-br apt in the area now. Keeping housing costs low is a key to the retirement plan.

Upgrading to the type of home she's wanting would just kill the FIRE plans dead. We're talking at least tripling our housing costs. I'd be stuck working for another decade, probably at least. I recently got wind of 2nd hand complaints about "my" plan to retire early. Which I thought was "our" plan to retire early. It's not like I've not included her in the benefits of an early retirement - I budgeted quite a lot for the two of us to travel extensively, something I thought she wanted and was looking forward to that was getting close.

So, I'm of course feeling quite uneasy now. Yes, we need to discuss it. And I will continue to, but just getting some of my anxiety out to write this down, I guess. Things can change, sometimes people change. We'll see where this goes.

[LightStache]

Hey, wanted to share something. Recently my spouse has started complaining about where we live, and sending me real estate listings from an extremely expensive town about an hour away. Granted, that area has a lot to offer, and our area - not so much. But what it does offer is a fixed rate mortgage that was locked in at 2.5% almost 20 years ago now. So our housing payment on a nice SFH home is cheaper than a 1-br apt in the area now. Keeping housing costs low is a key to the retirement plan.

Upgrading to the type of home she's wanting would just kill the FIRE plans dead. We're talking at least tripling our housing costs. I'd be stuck working for another decade, probably at least. I recently got wind of 2nd hand complaints about "my" plan to retire early. Which I thought was "our" plan to retire early. It's not like I've not included her in the benefits of an early retirement - I budgeted quite a lot for the two of us to travel extensively, something I thought she wanted and was looking forward to that was getting close.

So, I'm of course feeling quite uneasy now. Yes, we need to discuss it. And I will continue to, but just getting some of my anxiety out to write this down, I guess. Things can change, sometimes people change. We'll see where this goes.

A couple questions come to mind:

Is the burden shared, meaning is DW also going to have to work 10 more years? Could she take on more of this additional cost?

Have you done the no-BS math? In my corporate earning years going from $1K to $3K in housing costs would only have moved my FI date a year or two. Moving from $3K to $9K would have been a real kick in the nuts.

[RWD]

Upgrading to the type of home she's wanting would just kill the FIRE plans dead. We're talking at least tripling our housing costs. I'd be stuck working for another decade, probably at least.

Oof, this is definitely a relationship/communication problem and not a math/finance one. Anecdotally we were effectively FI and then moved, tripling our mortgage payment. But we only did this after discussing the trade-offs and my spouse agreeing they were planning on working another decade to make it work.

Best of luck reconciling your goals together.

[imperfect]

Hey, wanted to share something. Recently my spouse has started complaining about where we live, and sending me real estate listings from an extremely expensive town about an hour away. Granted, that area has a lot to offer, and our area - not so much. But what it does offer is a fixed rate mortgage that was locked in at 2.5% almost 20 years ago now. So our housing payment on a nice SFH home is cheaper than a 1-br apt in the area now. Keeping housing costs low is a key to the retirement plan.

Upgrading to the type of home she's wanting would just kill the FIRE plans dead. We're talking at least tripling our housing costs. I'd be stuck working for another decade, probably at least. I recently got wind of 2nd hand complaints about "my" plan to retire early. Which I thought was "our" plan to retire early. It's not like I've not included her in the benefits of an early retirement - I budgeted quite a lot for the two of us to travel extensively, something I thought she wanted and was looking forward to that was getting close.

So, I'm of course feeling quite uneasy now. Yes, we need to discuss it. And I will continue to, but just getting some of my anxiety out to write this down, I guess. Things can change, sometimes people change. We'll see where this goes.

A couple questions come to mind:

Is the burden shared, meaning is DW also going to have to work 10 more years? Could she take on more of this additional cost?

Have you done the no-BS math? In my corporate earning years going from $1K to $3K in housing costs would only have moved my FI date a year or two. Moving from $3K to $9K would have been a real kick in the nuts.

DW is self-employed. Her income was for most of our marriage and child rearing years just an optional bonus. I have been the main income generator for 20+ years. Recently, she has increased her earnings, and has had a couple good years where her income was 1/3 of mine (which is a lot more than it used to be.) She had flexibility to try different things, pursue work that was meaningful to her even though it did not pay a lot, and make changes because she was fully supported by my earnings. She could shut the business down for a few months at a time to do other things, travel, etc. She does not plan to stop her business at my "retirement" point.

My plan is that my "retirement" will look more like what she's always had - pursue things more meaningful to me, less driven by earnings, controlling my own time, etc. This means having fewer means than if I were to stay the course in my prime earning years. If I were to just milk my current career, admittedly we could afford the much more expensive house. But my view is that being in control of my time is more important than that. I guess that she views it differently.

The housing cost difference is more like $2.5k to $10k. It would be crushing.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

Hey, wanted to share something. Recently my spouse has started complaining about where we live, and sending me real estate listings from an extremely expensive town about an hour away. Granted, that area has a lot to offer, and our area - not so much. But what it does offer is a fixed rate mortgage that was locked in at 2.5% almost 20 years ago now. So our housing payment on a nice SFH home is cheaper than a 1-br apt in the area now. Keeping housing costs low is a key to the retirement plan.

Upgrading to the type of home she's wanting would just kill the FIRE plans dead. We're talking at least tripling our housing costs. I'd be stuck working for another decade, probably at least. I recently got wind of 2nd hand complaints about "my" plan to retire early. Which I thought was "our" plan to retire early. It's not like I've not included her in the benefits of an early retirement - I budgeted quite a lot for the two of us to travel extensively, something I thought she wanted and was looking forward to that was getting close.

So, I'm of course feeling quite uneasy now. Yes, we need to discuss it. And I will continue to, but just getting some of my anxiety out to write this down, I guess. Things can change, sometimes people change. We'll see where this goes.

A couple questions come to mind:

Is the burden shared, meaning is DW also going to have to work 10 more years? Could she take on more of this additional cost?

Have you done the no-BS math? In my corporate earning years going from $1K to $3K in housing costs would only have moved my FI date a year or two. Moving from $3K to $9K would have been a real kick in the nuts.

DW is self-employed. Her income was for most of our marriage and child rearing years just an optional bonus. I have been the main income generator for 20+ years. Recently, she has increased her earnings, and has had a couple good years where her income was 1/3 of mine (which is a lot more than it used to be.) She had flexibility to try different things, pursue work that was meaningful to her even though it did not pay a lot, and make changes because she was fully supported by my earnings. She could shut the business down for a few months at a time to do other things, travel, etc. She does not plan to stop her business at my "retirement" point.

My plan is that my "retirement" will look more like what she's always had - pursue things more meaningful to me, less driven by earnings, controlling my own time, etc. This means having fewer means than if I were to stay the course in my prime earning years. If I were to just milk my current career, admittedly we could afford the much more expensive house. But my view is that being in control of my time is more important than that. I guess that she views it differently.

The housing cost difference is more like $2.5k to $10k. It would be crushing.

As someone else said, this is largely a communication issue. Your spouse's feelings matter, but so do yours. I would have a serious conversation about priorities. Their priority seems to be a house in this new area. Yours is the freedom of time. Try to find a compromise. If you had conversations prior to this and your early retirement was agreed upon, the burden is a little more on them. If you'd just discussed it some and you mentioned it was your plan, this wouldn't really apply.

Either way, communication is key. Why does your spouse like this particular area? What specifically draws them to it? Can this be replicated anywhere else? Can you significantly downsize your house to make up some of the difference in cost? Is this going to be to be a more permanent location, or would your spouse be satisfied with renting short term then moving elsewhere, which could be less expensive even in the short term and certainly better in the long term. Keep exploring. Find something that satisfies their goals whole not extending your working life by a decade. Just my 2c.

[imperfect]

Hey, wanted to share something. Recently my spouse has started complaining about where we live, and sending me real estate listings from an extremely expensive town about an hour away. Granted, that area has a lot to offer, and our area - not so much. But what it does offer is a fixed rate mortgage that was locked in at 2.5% almost 20 years ago now. So our housing payment on a nice SFH home is cheaper than a 1-br apt in the area now. Keeping housing costs low is a key to the retirement plan.

Upgrading to the type of home she's wanting would just kill the FIRE plans dead. We're talking at least tripling our housing costs. I'd be stuck working for another decade, probably at least. I recently got wind of 2nd hand complaints about "my" plan to retire early. Which I thought was "our" plan to retire early. It's not like I've not included her in the benefits of an early retirement - I budgeted quite a lot for the two of us to travel extensively, something I thought she wanted and was looking forward to that was getting close.

So, I'm of course feeling quite uneasy now. Yes, we need to discuss it. And I will continue to, but just getting some of my anxiety out to write this down, I guess. Things can change, sometimes people change. We'll see where this goes.

A couple questions come to mind:

Is the burden shared, meaning is DW also going to have to work 10 more years? Could she take on more of this additional cost?

Have you done the no-BS math? In my corporate earning years going from $1K to $3K in housing costs would only have moved my FI date a year or two. Moving from $3K to $9K would have been a real kick in the nuts.

DW is self-employed. Her income was for most of our marriage and child rearing years just an optional bonus. I have been the main income generator for 20+ years. Recently, she has increased her earnings, and has had a couple good years where her income was 1/3 of mine (which is a lot more than it used to be.) She had flexibility to try different things, pursue work that was meaningful to her even though it did not pay a lot, and make changes because she was fully supported by my earnings. She could shut the business down for a few months at a time to do other things, travel, etc. She does not plan to stop her business at my "retirement" point.

My plan is that my "retirement" will look more like what she's always had - pursue things more meaningful to me, less driven by earnings, controlling my own time, etc. This means having fewer means than if I were to stay the course in my prime earning years. If I were to just milk my current career, admittedly we could afford the much more expensive house. But my view is that being in control of my time is more important than that. I guess that she views it differently.

The housing cost difference is more like $2.5k to $10k. It would be crushing.

As someone else said, this is largely a communication issue. Your spouse's feelings matter, but so do yours. I would have a serious conversation about priorities. Their priority seems to be a house in this new area. Yours is the freedom of time. Try to find a compromise. If you had conversations prior to this and your early retirement was agreed upon, the burden is a little more on them. If you'd just discussed it some and you mentioned it was your plan, this wouldn't really apply.

Either way, communication is key. Why does your spouse like this particular area? What specifically draws them to it? Can this be replicated anywhere else? Can you significantly downsize your house to make up some of the difference in cost? Is this going to be to be a more permanent location, or would your spouse be satisfied with renting short term then moving elsewhere, which could be less expensive even in the short term and certainly better in the long term. Keep exploring. Find something that satisfies their goals whole not extending your working life by a decade. Just my 2c.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I addressed it explicitly today. I mentioned that we'd been talking about this plan for years, but I realized that while it seemed she was ok with it and never spoke up against it, I can't recall her ever explicitly saying this was what she wanted too. So I asked her to be open with her feelings, and that I'd much rather she spoke her mind now than have some point in the future come when she feels like we didn't maximize our potential in some way. There was a lot of long pauses. Obviously she had feelings that she felt hesitant to share. She acknowledged that it wasn't fair for her to want me to work indefinitely in a job I didn't like to satisfy her desire to live in a place with a lot of amenities, even though she did have feelings that this is something she wanted, and that it could be accessible to us if I would just continue doing what I'm already doing. She acknowledged maybe this was just a dream and most people don't get to achieve their dreams.

From my side, I said I am open to considering a move, but I think there's lots of interesting places with nice amenities around the US that aren't the most expensive in the entire country. I wanted to take time to explore options, travel, do some short term rentals to feel out different types of places first. That this could be a fun adventure on its own before jumping into a relocation.

I shared more financials with her (again), and as is the usual she just said "ok" and did not really engage with it or ask questions. She says she trusts me to make the financial decisions and doesn't feel the need to dive into the numbers.

At the end she said "as long as you're not just going to be kicking your feet up for 40 years, I don't think that would be healthy for you". Which was an interesting comment which probably cuts to the heart of the matter that she feels like I would be "giving up" or slacking or whatever negative stereotypes you can put on retirement. I do not intend to kick my feet up for 40 years, I intend to try to live an intentional and meaningful life. I may pursue business ideas or I may pursue activities that aren't business oriented. The truth is I don't really know for sure.

In any case I think the conversation was useful, but not the end of working through the issue.

[Wolfpack Mustachian]

Hey, wanted to share something. Recently my spouse has started complaining about where we live, and sending me real estate listings from an extremely expensive town about an hour away. Granted, that area has a lot to offer, and our area - not so much. But what it does offer is a fixed rate mortgage that was locked in at 2.5% almost 20 years ago now. So our housing payment on a nice SFH home is cheaper than a 1-br apt in the area now. Keeping housing costs low is a key to the retirement plan.

Upgrading to the type of home she's wanting would just kill the FIRE plans dead. We're talking at least tripling our housing costs. I'd be stuck working for another decade, probably at least. I recently got wind of 2nd hand complaints about "my" plan to retire early. Which I thought was "our" plan to retire early. It's not like I've not included her in the benefits of an early retirement - I budgeted quite a lot for the two of us to travel extensively, something I thought she wanted and was looking forward to that was getting close.

So, I'm of course feeling quite uneasy now. Yes, we need to discuss it. And I will continue to, but just getting some of my anxiety out to write this down, I guess. Things can change, sometimes people change. We'll see where this goes.

A couple questions come to mind:

Is the burden shared, meaning is DW also going to have to work 10 more years? Could she take on more of this additional cost?

Have you done the no-BS math? In my corporate earning years going from $1K to $3K in housing costs would only have moved my FI date a year or two. Moving from $3K to $9K would have been a real kick in the nuts.

DW is self-employed. Her income was for most of our marriage and child rearing years just an optional bonus. I have been the main income generator for 20+ years. Recently, she has increased her earnings, and has had a couple good years where her income was 1/3 of mine (which is a lot more than it used to be.) She had flexibility to try different things, pursue work that was meaningful to her even though it did not pay a lot, and make changes because she was fully supported by my earnings. She could shut the business down for a few months at a time to do other things, travel, etc. She does not plan to stop her business at my "retirement" point.

My plan is that my "retirement" will look more like what she's always had - pursue things more meaningful to me, less driven by earnings, controlling my own time, etc. This means having fewer means than if I were to stay the course in my prime earning years. If I were to just milk my current career, admittedly we could afford the much more expensive house. But my view is that being in control of my time is more important than that. I guess that she views it differently.

The housing cost difference is more like $2.5k to $10k. It would be crushing.

As someone else said, this is largely a communication issue. Your spouse's feelings matter, but so do yours. I would have a serious conversation about priorities. Their priority seems to be a house in this new area. Yours is the freedom of time. Try to find a compromise. If you had conversations prior to this and your early retirement was agreed upon, the burden is a little more on them. If you'd just discussed it some and you mentioned it was your plan, this wouldn't really apply.

Either way, communication is key. Why does your spouse like this particular area? What specifically draws them to it? Can this be replicated anywhere else? Can you significantly downsize your house to make up some of the difference in cost? Is this going to be to be a more permanent location, or would your spouse be satisfied with renting short term then moving elsewhere, which could be less expensive even in the short term and certainly better in the long term. Keep exploring. Find something that satisfies their goals whole not extending your working life by a decade. Just my 2c.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I addressed it explicitly today. I mentioned that we'd been talking about this plan for years, but I realized that while it seemed she was ok with it and never spoke up against it, I can't recall her ever explicitly saying this was what she wanted too. So I asked her to be open with her feelings, and that I'd much rather she spoke her mind now than have some point in the future come when she feels like we didn't maximize our potential in some way. There was a lot of long pauses. Obviously she had feelings that she felt hesitant to share. She acknowledged that it wasn't fair for her to want me to work indefinitely in a job I didn't like to satisfy her desire to live in a place with a lot of amenities, even though she did have feelings that this is something she wanted, and that it could be accessible to us if I would just continue doing what I'm already doing. She acknowledged maybe this was just a dream and most people don't get to achieve their dreams.

From my side, I said I am open to considering a move, but I think there's lots of interesting places with nice amenities around the US that aren't the most expensive in the entire country. I wanted to take time to explore options, travel, do some short term rentals to feel out different types of places first. That this could be a fun adventure on its own before jumping into a relocation.

I shared more financials with her (again), and as is the usual she just said "ok" and did not really engage with it or ask questions. She says she trusts me to make the financial decisions and doesn't feel the need to dive into the numbers.

At the end she said "as long as you're not just going to be kicking your feet up for 40 years, I don't think that would be healthy for you". Which was an interesting comment which probably cuts to the heart of the matter that she feels like I would be "giving up" or slacking or whatever negative stereotypes you can put on retirement. I do not intend to kick my feet up for 40 years, I intend to try to live an intentional and meaningful life. I may pursue business ideas or I may pursue activities that aren't business oriented. The truth is I don't really know for sure.

In any case I think the conversation was useful, but not the end of working through the issue.

That's awesome. Sounds like you're on your way to figuring things out. Best of luck!