I do 1-3 of
@spartana's buffer. My job is currently of the firehose-of-cash variety, and once I leave it will be very difficult to get back in, and I don't want to be in a position of having to work again. I have also done a couple of extra things:
1. Because we are late to the retire-before-65 party, we find ourselves in a position where many of the unknowns are knowns or mostly-knowns. Kids will be in or through college, so those expenses will be known and covered. Medical is an issue, but we will have only @7-10 years before becoming eligible for Medicare. Because we have worked so long, we have good SS payouts coming, plus a pension we never expected DH to qualify for, which are great financial backstops. And just through luck, our mortgage payoff date aligns with our anticipated retirement date. So just through coincidence, we will have lower expenses as soon as we retire, and a guaranteed income only a few years down the road. We will also do what we can to reduce pending unknowns before we cut the cord, i.e., make sure to cover any pending big expenses (cars, home repairs) while we still have high cash flow.
2. All of our plans anticipate dying with some money -- we project until 95-100, and always have some money left.
This is way more conservative than most folks here would choose, and that's fine; I have a higher-than-normal need for security. But we are also in good jobs that we enjoy, and DH has zero interest in retiring until he sees this one project through in @5-8 years, so I don't really feel like I'm giving up anything meaningful to get that extra security.