So yesterday was my 4 year anniversary of being Fire'd and It would not of been able to do it without so many of the people on here in so many different ways. I thank those that have taken the time via PM to help me with new things I was struggling with as well as all those that have just shared there ideas, opinions and experiences. While for me in someways its a celebration I felt more I wanted to just write a few things to help some new people perhaps get answers just be my writing about my last 4 years.
I am not sure how long I have been a member of MMM but based on my retirement being 4 years it was at least a year to a year and a half since I stumbled across MMM. After a whole lot of reading and asking sometimes the same question numerous times I decided for many reasons I wanted to retire as my Job was killing me. I took small steps as I knew my DW would be skeptical with her and about a year and a half I walked into my company and said I am closing the doors and it was the best decision I have ever made.
The retirement transition for me was not as easy as for others and the statement its better to retire to something then not is so true. For me I was retiring from something. And I am still not 100% there but because of the freedom I have and time I can spend with my family the idea of working is just not an option at least now. What I struggled with the most and at times still do was I was very respected in my business and a lot of my friendships were through my business. I miss the calls of people asking me how to do things or to help them as well as when I walked away I did not look back and all those friendships are gone. My company sucked the life out of of me and because of my work I walked away from all my other friendships as well so I basically retired alone as I have no family outside my immediate family as well but that's all I need most of the time. I wasn't a person that went to college and grew up as many in a very unstable house, poor and broken home. So of the stuff that is written here I found difficult to understand and still do so a lot of things I have to read numerous times. College was never even talked about when I was growing up. I had a full time Job at 15 and went in the Navy at 17. My success in business basically came from Hard work and taking better care of my customers than other people would. Add to that just a lot of street smarts and common sense.
I am not one that can say I have no regrets but am more thankful for where I am at. I made a lot of mistakes and probably should of retired with 4-5 xs as much as I did but even though I was never comfortable with it got caught up with being like the Jones's and another old saying that proves well is stick with what you know. I was an Entrepreneur and loved starting new things but got caught a few times holding onto things to long that cost me millions of dollars. Fortunately my strength, which I think came from growing up poor was that i was always afraid of debt. The debate I often had with myself is could I have had a lot more if i would of taken on debt but I never ever liked owing anyone a dime. A couple years before I pulled the plug on my business I could of sold it for triple of what I walked a way with but didn't think mentally things for me would decline as fast as they had. I just had to get out.
The good news is I was conservative enough to still pull it off and we live a pretty damn good life and I feel like I have gained things in retirement way more than have given up. My pool of friends is rebuilding as I go to the gym or workout 6 out of 7 days a week and have met several people there. In the first 3 months of being fired I lost 60lbs and have kept it off.
Since retirement I have had 2 kids go off to College and still have two at home. The two in college are at out of state top notch universities and 1 is on a 100% full ride with a stipend and the other about 70% BUT i have also learned that there are so many other costs associated with college that if you want to be involved in your kids lives and enjoy those times with them like we do, you better save a little more than you planned. Also that if your fortunate enough to get scholarships for your kids its really just a reimbursement for all the money and chasing around you did over the years playing select sports and other perhaps more important things you gave up to do so. While in fairness with our two that are still at home we support and they play select sports but our approach is a lot different on things.
Another major thing I did to be Fire'd was downsize out paid for house and sold our unused cabin and all its toys. Between the two that added about 700k to our portfolio and our house I estimate now at 300k which realistically is 10% under probably its true value.
We do live die hard by a budget even four years in which I came up with that is though slightly inflated by about 5% so I have the opportunity to do things on occasion out of the norm but mostly so I can feel good about beating it every month.
Our portfolio is basically a 60/40 Stocks of invested monies and aside from that we are holding about 15% in cash in CD's, VMMXX etc..I do buy the bigger dips.
I do use a Vanguard Advisor but I interviewed a couple before I chose the one i did. No matter how much I read about what everyone posts I still struggle with somethings so I feel more comfortable paying the small fee and I slowly pull more and more away from my advisor.
I think the biggest thing is that the math, system etc...does work. I have more than I did 4 years ago when I fire'd and for the first 3 years did a 5% withdrawal because I had work to do on the house we downsized in and bought our first toy a new boat. I would be lying if i didn't say I miss my cabin but we would never be able to use it.
I spend about 80% of my time here and the only other site I truly like is Bogleheads.
I am one of the few conservatives at least admittedly around here but there are so many things on the left that I agree with that I just hate the labels to be honest so for the most part try and stay away from the politics.
When I first came here I almost got banned once for something I posted which to this day I have no idea why but Arebelspy was pretty tough on me :-) but he is one of the many that has been a big inspiration on here and found the heart to forgive me! lol I think the worst beating I took on here was in the kids forum when I posted why I didn't like Snap-chat. Wow did I take a brow beating and for the most part admittedly was wrong on that one BUT for the new people don't get discouraged and go running off if something you say or post isn't 100% the way you meant it.
Another thing I started in the last year was CC and Bank Account Churning and its really worked out well and couple people on here again were so good about helping me I thank you!
I did experiment taking a job delivering pizzas of all things for about 2 weeks but while I actually enjoyed it and the tips in my area are very good , I found myself thinking more about the changes that need to be made to the model of the business and how there losing money because of some stupid things they were doing. Well they asked me to keep working more so about 2 weeks in I said i was done. Every once in awhile i get an itch to try something but it goes away after a few hours.
Lastly the one thing we did do is My DW and I fire'd together and paid way more to be on Cobra to stay on my business insurance than to go on ACA. We did get scared around election time and our Cobra was coming to an end and I just didnt like where ACA was with our withdrawal rate and all so after 2 years my DW did get a phenomenal opportunity actually for a benefits company where she pretty much works when she wants and though the pay sucks since we dont need it we do get good healthcare coverage there and the money earned or 90% plus goes into 401k with a 5% match , HSA and contributes the rest still funding our youger two 529's. We agreed to 3 years so she has one year left and shes done.
We did get rid of or recycle all our cars and have gas saving Toyotas and a Kia Soul. And we did cut costs on things like Groceries (that was a huge savings we spend a 1/3 of what we use to) reduced or cable to basically less than half its the damn wifi that kills us here and Cut my phone bill with 6 people on it in half.
One note on retiring when I did it at about 50 1/2 alot more people were surprised but now being closer to 55 its not really a thing anymore. And on that note I found that just being honest if people asked my what i do was the best. I just would simply say I am burnt out and retired. Going see how it goes for awhile. Now it never comes up unless I am introduced to someone completely new. And if they turn there backs and say something about me afterword I don't really give a shit. But most people I think I leave wondering how or why in there minds i really did it and I like being mysterious. Don't over explain. Keep it short and change the subject.
Our retirement and withdrawal is at 94% success rate base on my DW who is 4.5 years younger than me living to 100.
My favorite books were the simple ones. The millionaire next door, Your money or your life and the overspent American.
And that's pretty much it.
I don't know if I really helped anyone with this post but again I want to thank all of those that have helped me. I am going to keep asking questions so bare with me and hopefully help others as well if and when I can! I will add some things as I think of them.
