33y/o married, $900K investable assets, free house, can I retire?

[Sarah in SC]

Congrats on the new baby and on the impressive additions to your savings.

And yes, I laughed at the "man up" comments you mentioned--easy to see how they missed that.

Thanks for sharing an update on your thoughts. As a longtime poster here, I've found it very instructive to go back and read my earlier posts, and how my thinking and plans have evolved over time, as life intervenes and influences our goals.

Happy new year!

[pb4uski]

I missed your first posts, so thanks for the update. As I read your update one thing that struck me is that you may be overconcentrated in employer stock. Its great when the stock does well but risky... think Enron. Congrats on the upcoming little one.

[GreenER]

Congrats on the baby and on making headway on you're FIRE plans. It definitely seems you've made the right choices! So much easier to just apply yourself in a condensed manner while the pay off is the greatest and then be able to relax fully and feel secure in your FIRE when you do bow out. Best of luck!

[Nerdjenni]

Thanks Katiek! Happy New Years!


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

[photoguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nerdjenni Hi photoguy, thanks for your comment. Sorry I only just read this a year and half later as I forgot I made the original post. Your comment on "what will you do post FIRE" made me think. Honestly, I don't know. Last time I took a one year break from my job and made a film documentary that has since gotten produced and broadcasted. So I'm pretty confident I'll come up with passion projects and will not be bored. But at this point, I really don't know for sure what I will do. Like you, I think I'll end up having worked in SV for ~12 years before FIRE. What do you do now?? Do you miss working?

Congrats on your progress and the baby

When we fired in spring 2014, we sold our house in san jose and our big project has been traveling to different cities in the US and seeing if we'd like to relocate there for the long term (still ongoing). Besides that I haven't had any problem finding projects to do (this year I had over 80 days photographing in the field), extended trips to see family, exercise (lost 30lbs and got back to my high school weight), etc.

Occaisonally I do hear of a neat technical project through friends or news stories and I think that sounds cool, I'd could be working on that. But when I think about all of the work stuff I hate that must go along with that (presentations, reports, team management, dealing with bigwigs), I quickly loose interest. There's also lots of projects I could do in my technical area (data science) on my own that don't necessarily require a huge computing infrastructure but frankly I just haven't been interested.

[aida2003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nerdjenni Hi all - After reading Jacob Lund Fisker's book Early Retirement Extreme, I've been enlightened

I hardly ever check the dates of posting, so I didn't realize your original post was that old until I start reading your *update*. Glad I didn't press 'reply' button after reading the original post. I agree that you made a great choice with 'sticking around' at your work at such a fantastic salary. And it looks like that it rewarded you financially. But I do agree with pb4uski that you might want to investigate whether your stock options/grants have vested in order to unload some. What's the percentage of your total assets in your employer's stock? You might be riding a much riskier roulette than you realize given such wonderful increase in value. Don't get blinded by it. I'd be nervous if I were you.
Congrats on the baby. Considering the education inflation in this country I feel bad for children (including mine). You might want to consider starting a 529 account. If you really don't feel like helping your kids you can use for your own education when you don't work and don't know what to do with your time. Just an idea.

BTW, re the quote about Jacob Fisker, I remember I was fascinated by his 'extreme retirement' until I learned he supposedly got an offer he couldn't refuse. People still quote him today, etc. but they forget that he went to a FT job. It makes me wonder if he was really approached with an offer (some fancy title/work in physics)or he was looking for a job as he got tired of his 'extremes'. He hasn't updated about his status ever since if I'm not wrongh. I find MMM more original though I don't read/follow him either.

[Nerdjenni]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Katiek Thanks for the update and congrats on the upcoming baby! I think you'll be glad you've built a bigger security net when you consider all the various options you may want with respect to your family. The bigger security net will also give you options to fund the post FIRE projects you may want to pursue - especially if they're not income producing right away. My main point in reading your earlier posts is probably moot now. I was questioning whether your spouse would be ok continuing to work if you FIREd early, but based on your post, it sounds like she'll be staying home with your child for the immediate future. If you still have the option of taking a sabbatical every so often, that's a wonderful benefit. it gives you a chance to explore what your post FIRE life may be, while still preserving options. Congrats again!

Thanks Katiek for your warm message! I'm taking a long maternity leave starting in Feb (6 mos) so I'm treating it a bit like a mini-sabbatical. Granted I think it will be a very different sabbatical than the kinds I've had in the past, but it will be a different kind of work than my desk job for sure (and hopefully much more rewarding!) Then will put my nose to the grindstone for another 2 years or so!