Thought I'd pop in here and give an update on our situation that many of you so kindly gave us suggestions for last year when DH quit his job.
(old thread:
http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...oup-19788.html )
DH (now 40) was out of work and enjoying it for most of the year. He wasn't really looking for a job, but had several invitations to start different jobs, and finally did in December. He had to take a 25% pay cut (that really cuts into the saving we were doing previously), but is content with his new job at a small company that is a subsidiary of a megacorp. I think he felt like he was wasting some good earning years, and since we weren't *there* yet, that it made sense to get back to work as long as the situation was a good one. Also, we have started to think about needing to have some extra funds in the event his mom (62) needs our support, since she has no savings and some of her health stuff may become an issue.
Anyway, we didn't do much with the asset allocation ideas until this year, but finally put a lot of our cash into some more after tax funds:VGENX, VISGX, VMGIX, VGTSX right at the end of March while the market was still down from that drop. Then at the drop in July, we bought one of Brewer's stock picks, so our cash level is down to a better level. We have one more amount we could move in at any time there is another big drop.
We are pretty happy with the allocation now, with returns across all areas of our portfolio totalling 17% ytd. As a result, we have just passed our first seven figure milestone.
In one aspect it is nice that we reached that sooner than we thought. But on the other hand, it is diminished slightly by the fact that the plummetting dollar has been partially responsible for the appearance of huge gains in our international funds, so the milestone seems cheapened from when we first set our sights on it. Does anybody else feel this way lately? Anyway, I am sure fluctuations will cause us to fall below and go back above several times, but I don't think we will be doing anything rash, just hold on for the long run.
We did start tracking our expenses as a result of a thread last year, and found that we spent an average of $2500/month through June of this year, so now have a pretty good idea of what we will need to plan around.
DH will probably continue on for the time being as long as things are decent there, and then the next time he needs to quit, then that can be his real FIRE with no worries.
That's it, thanks to everyone for all the great info they share here everyday!
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