How Close to FI are you? What's your CURRENT % of your Target Passive Income?

[SwordGuy]

There was a recent poll that asked what people's net worth is. 

That's useful info to know, but it doesn't tell us how well their plan is working. 

If you're aiming for a given amount of passive income, via whatever plan you're using, how close are you?

For example, if you're aiming for a passive income of $40,000 using a 4% SWR via a 100% stocks and bonds portfolio, and you're portfolio is now worth $500,000, you're at 50%.

If you're planning on $20,000 in rental profits and $20,000 in stock/bond profits at a 5% withdrawal rate, then if your current rental profits are $12,000 and your stock/bond portfolio is $160,000, you're at 50%, too.

If you're going to sell your $500,000 paid for house with a realtor and buy a $200,000 house and invest the rest at in stocks and bonds with a 4% SWR, then you can count the equity as $300,000 * .094 (less realtor costs) as $282,000, which would shed off $11280.   Technically you have zero passive income, from this source, but, heck, the purpose is to figure out how close you are, and you're a lot closer than someone who doesn't have $300,000 in house equity that they can (and will) convert to stocks!

Oh, if you've got a $500,000 paid for house but you're not going to sell it when you FIRE, it counts as $0 towards your target income.

I'm curious!  Enquiring minds want to know!  :)

[SwordGuy]

I'm fascinated that no one has made any comments or asked any questions.

[Monkey Uncle]

cFiresim says I'm a hare over 100%.  Not FIREd yet, though.  I'm waiting to see how the health care thing shakes out, which could have a large impact on my projected annual spend.

[Raenia]

Currently a hair over 10% for my personal number, but changes in the healthcare situation and SO's wants in retirement are likely to push the final number up, so I selected 5-10%.

[Rowellen]

I put in 5 to 10% however it's all inaccessible until we turn 60 as it's in super (aust). Once the mortgage is paid off we'll build up savings we can use for ER.

[AnEDO]

In our case, we have the numbers to be FI.  However, most of our wealth is in rental properties and 401ks and IRAs.  Our solution is to semi-retire while we slowly sell off rental properties and do ROTH conversions.  We also plan to rent out our current home and move into one of our rental properties for at least 2 years in order to not pay capital gains on either one.   

[fattest_foot]

About 1/3 of the way there, depending on how the market is currently doing.

It's kind of crazy to think we're already that close.

[wenchsenior]

 We are just shy of 30% funded as of today.  It's entirely possible that by year's end, we will be close to 50% funded.  This train is really starting to roll.  On the other other hand, a recession/market drop would be great at this stage also.  Either way, it's good.

[Aelias]

My husband and I are still working out what "the number" is.  But, safe to say we're 28% - 44% funded.

[Mmm_Donuts]

I chose 80-90% and FIREd but the reality is it's complicated. We currently are doing a 4% withdrawal rate from investments, but we have other passive income which may go away soon that I'm not including here, so the WR could theoretically go up to 6-8% at some point. If the market drops we can cut spending closer to 4%, as there's a fair amount of fat there. Also eventually we plan to sell and downsize our house, which makes up more than 50% of our NW at the moment, so I'm comfortable with a higher WR if necessary. CFiresim says 95% success rate for a very conservative prediction of house sale income in 20 years. What it comes down to is that I have faith that we're smart and flexible enough to figure it all out.

[tipster350]

I am 70% funded. At 70%, I am encouraged and motivated, but am also closing in on the point that if something happened, I could consider alternatives such as reducing my expected ER lifestyle and FIREing, going for a lesser job or p/t gig. It's exciting yet I am impatient! If all goes according to plan, that point will probably come in 3 years.

[homestead neohio]

Currently funded at 67%.  Planned income and expenses this year plus severance gets me to 85% and semi-FIRE/downshifting in 2018.

I'm about at the same point as tipster350, but a layoff will speed things up for me.  Since I don't have to start another cube job, I can't bring myself to choose that path, so no longer on the 3-4 more years plan.  I will likely work part time to cover expenses while the stache grows to full FIRE target. 

[Laura33]

Well, since I think we're there, and DH thinks we're about halfway there, I split the difference at 70-80%. :-)  We are about 8 years out from our target date, so I am pretty highly confident unless everything goes into the shitter.  Which, you know, is always an option.

If I were going to say my "dream" income vs. my "get by just fine" income, I'd probably say 80-90%. 

[UnleashHell]

102% funded.
Working 3 more months for the buffer and medical.
Selling off for income rather than passive income.

[kendallf]

Put an option for "It's complicated!"  :-)  I'm not even going to go through the motivators (and de-motivators) to FIRE now.  It's not all about the money, for sure.

[boarder42]

i'm 30-40% in funded towards fire i'm 50% or more thru work til FI.

[Tyson]

Just over 30%. 

I'll note that I've only been "doing" MMM since about 2 years ago, when I had only $130k to my name (in investments).  Since then I've more than doubled our net worth to $308k, so I'd say the plan is working pretty well!

[NESailor]

about 15% and started MMMing about 18 months ago.  I'd say we have anywhere between 7 to 10 years to go until a sustainable FI stash but we may or may not call it quits by then.  Most likely, I'll transition out of a desk job to something different.  Or I won't, not sure.  DW has a public teacher job and while we max out the 403b she's also contributing and vesting in the pension plan.  Minimum years of service for the employer piece is 10 so that lines up quite nicely with our rough outline.  If we're technically FI at 8 years from now she can probably survive another few without much of an issue.

At that point, however, the kiddos will be in school and probably in our district so she may want to keep going just to be around them anyway (I don't think they have an opinion on that just yet).  If she continues years past our FI date and we actually stick with mustachianism we may overshoot the FI target by a pretty wide margin since we can live on her income and the stash would presumably grow.  I suppose I could do something with a CPA license and personal finance hobby instead of just riding my bike and mess about in wooden boats:).  Big caveat, shit happens so the best laid plans...

[2Birds1Stone]

47.5% assuming 24k per annum.

[boarder42]

Just over 30%. 

I'll note that I've only been "doing" MMM since about 2 years ago, when I had only $130k to my name (in investments).  Since then I've more than doubled our net worth to $308k, so I'd say the plan is working pretty well!

good point hard to tell "how well its working" when you dont know when people found it and the networth gains since finding. so here's ours too

i started around 100k in august of 2014 and we're sitting around 525k today.  425k increase in less than 3 years.  plan to hit 1MM by 2020 this time.

[RosieTR]

I counted my "ideal income" and ballparked current NW, which is possibly a little low (not everything is tracked in Personal Capital). ~80% but there is some definite fat there, PT work potential, etc. Of course I also just got done with an annual eval wherein my boss said basically what I wanted her to: potential for increasing my tasks doing the things I like and decreasing the things I don't, so now I'm feeling good about 3-4 more years in case of the market-goes-to-shit bad case scenario. VS the conservative-ish "avg 4%" earnings which would probably reach full FI sooner.

[NotJen]

57%. Thought it would be higher since my spreadsheet calculates only 3.7 years to FI.

[FIreDrill]

If looking at only our invested assets, we are at 26% roughly.

Found MMM 3.5 years ago and we started at 0% back then.  Hoping to reach 50% in the next 2 years.

[Fu Mainechu]

I picked 50% for me, but it's complicated.  It's 50% assuming that the girlfriend eventually becomes the wife and that she brings $0 to the table.  That way anything she brings is gravy.  If I change my budget to just be for one person, I'm at more like 70%.  Either way I plan to continue working until my kiddo graduates from high school, so it doesn't change my timing.

[scottish]

I could stop now.    But my work is still good & I don't have enough hobbies to occupy me full time.   Yet.

Plus it's good to have benefits until the kids are on their own (another 4-5 years) in case something goes badly wrong.

[fattest_foot]

57%. Thought it would be higher since my spreadsheet calculates only 3.7 years to FI.

Obviously your numbers are probably different from mine, but that looks about right to me. If we were at 57% right now, we'd have about 3.5 years remaining based on our current savings rate.

[SwordGuy]

I find it interesting that about 50% of the people responding to the poll are at <50% target income and the other half are over.

That's a pretty good spread!

[Prairie Stash]

Between 30-80% there's only 7/195 people. A large amount of people getting going and a large amount at the finish line.

The in between stage is the boring part I guess?

[SwordGuy]

Between 30-80% there's only 7/195 people. A large amount of people getting going and a large amount at the finish line.

The in between stage is the boring part I guess?

I counted 60 people with 30 to 80% of their stash out of 196.    That's just under a third.

[leighb]

This was a hard number to figure out because my passive income is in flux. I'm think I'm somewhere between 30%-100%. The first 4 months of this year my rentals have brought in more than I spend, so passive income is greater than expenses, so I could say 100% at least for these first few months of 2017. But then again, last year I only made 25% of my income from rentals. At least I'm heading in the right direction and there's a reasonably good chance I'm closer to the high end. I decided to split the difference for the purpose of the poll.

[SwordGuy]

There are a lot of folks who are in the 0 to 30 range.

I imagine some of you might be a bit discouraged if you compare yourself to folks who are in the 70 to 110+ range.

Don't be!

Most Americans don't have passive income.

Most Americans aren't on track to be financially independent.

Quite a few of them are on track to be broke and quite a few of them are fully at fault for that.

You're on EXACTLY the right path!

Bravo to you!

[Zikoris]

About 35% of the money required (266K/700-800K), but over halfway if you go by time - we're definitely starting to see a lot more snowballing now than for the first few years.

However, that target amount would cover our current level of spending, which is pretty spendy. I could definitely see one day saying "Screw it, I'd rather cut some spending and retire now". We'll see how it goes. Our jobs are good for now.

[Fomerly known as something]

I'm at what I consider "minimal" FI but I checked beween 60-70%.

My current investments could produce $26,000 at the 4% SWR but I'm "conservative" on what I will need not to be stressed about my expenses so have a goal of $40,000.  I have some other moving parts in my career (career federal government worker so working to my MRE gives me a lot it's likely waiting until my target passive income will get me withing 2-5 years of that earliest retirement date and I would lose a lot by quitting earlier)  So it is likely I will not RE until I'm higher than that amount but it is TBD.

[Erinbynight]

We are at about 100k of 600k saved, so 16%. Our house is not counted. We have 5-7 years left, and then I plan to have my husband fire, and me go very part-time at the hospital to keep health insurance unless there is a reliable, less expensive option than obamacare at that point.

[Michread]

90-100% now with both fired 2018;

I am fired but spouse is not.  If stocks tank in 2017, the plan may change.  We still have 1 in college that we are paying 100% for 2 more yrs.

[boarder42]

This would be really fun to book mark and run again in 5 years. asssuming we have similar people still hanging out plus new people.  wonder if it would start to skew to the top.

[Prairie Stash]

Between 30-80% there's only 7/195 people. A large amount of people getting going and a large amount at the finish line.

The in between stage is the boring part I guess?

I counted 60 people with 30 to 80% of their stash out of 196.    That's just under a third.

The second column belongs to 80% and up.

With over 200 votes there's 0at 40-50% and 2 at 50-60%

[dude]

Because my FIRE goal relies on a pension, which I am 2 years away from getting, it's not a matter of % of target passive income for me, but % of time left. With 19+ years down of a 21.5-year bid, I'm 90% of the way there.  As far as the gap income (difference between pension and expenses), I'm pretty well 100+% funded. Best estimate is I'll only need a 1.5% initial withdrawal rate on my portfolio. That figure will rise when my wife joins me in retirement (to cover her gap; she doesn't have a pension, only 401k), and will fall when I reach 70 and begin taking max SS benefits.

[SwordGuy]

I was going to run it every Jan/Feb from now on.

[SwordGuy]

Between 30-80% there's only 7/195 people. A large amount of people getting going and a large amount at the finish line.

The in between stage is the boring part I guess?

I counted 60 people with 30 to 80% of their stash out of 196.    That's just under a third.

The second column belongs to 80% and up.

With over 200 votes there's 0at 40-50% and 2 at 50-60%

???

40.01 to 50%       17 (6.9%)
50.01 to 60%       19 (7.8%

These numbers are within a couple minutes of when you posted your comment.

17 at 40.01 to 50% and 19 in the next category you mentioned.

[partgypsy]

After the separation paperwork is done, will be at 17%. Just happy that it will still be in the positive range.

[SwordGuy]

It's kind of amazing that life is so complicated and so varied; that the apparently simple question for this poll gets so many "It's complicated!" kinds of answers.   

Makes it fun to read thru what everyone has to say!

[Chairman]

Around 50%.

[Prairie Stash]

Between 30-80% there's only 7/195 people. A large amount of people getting going and a large amount at the finish line.

The in between stage is the boring part I guess?

I counted 60 people with 30 to 80% of their stash out of 196.    That's just under a third.

The second column belongs to 80% and up.

With over 200 votes there's 0at 40-50% and 2 at 50-60%

???

40.01 to 50%       17 (6.9%)
50.01 to 60%       19 (7.8%

These numbers are within a couple minutes of when you posted your comment.

17 at 40.01 to 50% and 19 in the next category you mentioned.

switched computers and now I see the problem. Work computer had a double set of results columns. I assumed the second column should be below the first set, however it was the first column that should have been lower. Perhaps its time to upgrade my other computer.

[Jim2001]

Is anyone actually netting 4% in just passive income and not touching capital?

[itchyfeet]

To not touch capital you would want a return above 4% so you could reinvest inflation.

For your stash to last 40 years you are going to need an average return about 2.6% above inflation.

In the March quarter I managed an annualised investment return of 16%, however, this is certainly not sustainable long term as it was generated with significant leverage(33%) and a crazy property market that I would expect to correct somewhat later in 2017 amd into 2018.

[SwordGuy]

To not touch capital you would want a return above 4% so you could reinvest inflation.

Historic US market average rate of return is about 10% including inflation, about 7% with inflation taken out.

The 4% SWR is much lower than that to deal with non-average time periods like the Great Depression, etc.

[Milizard]

After the last election, FIRE # is up to $2M.  It might go back down with better election results next time around.

[RetirementDreaming]

I'm at 64% of my aggressive target.  82% of minimum requirement.  I really don't want to work longer than I have to so I'm leaning towards the minimum target and exiting next year.

[pdxbator]

I'm at >110 but too chicken sh*t to quit. I've moved to part time and work two 10 hour days a week- Wednesday and Friday. I get benefits with this. This is the first summer with this so I'm pretty stoked. However I'm acruing vacation very slowly because I work fewer hours and at some point the desire to do more than a four day weekend will allow will overcome and I'll fire. I'd love for a month or two off to go on a nice long road trip. If only employers could give us that I would happily come back to work. Instead they will lose a well trained employee.

I really need to get over my cold feet to RE.