Ah...the smell of freedom

[Lisa99]

When I sat down this morning to compare February budget to actuals I realized that we're within spitting distance of FI.

We've budgeted $95k/year for retirement spending when in reality we're only spending around $50k for all of the budget categories we'll still have in retirement. And the lower spending trend is now several months long.

What this means is that once we have the healthcare costs understood (Oct of this year) and buy our retirement home we're in a short countdown to being able to go out and play!

 

[rodi]

Congrats, Lisa99.

 

[HFWR]

It smells around here too, but I don't think it's freedom...

 

[Live And Learn]

Congrats Lisa99 ! Spending only 50% of what you have budgeted is AWESOME ! I've published my budget a zillion times here and I'm still in awe when people list how low some budgets are comparably. I think my budget is fairly bare bones except for the 7k of "spending cash" (which includes alcohol and gas for the car).

 

[powerplay]

Congrats! Freedom is within reach and I bet that feels wonderful.

 

[Lisa99]

Congrats Lisa99 ! Spending only 50% of what you have budgeted is AWESOME ! I've published my budget a zillion times here and I'm still in awe when people list how low some budgets are comparably. I think my budget is fairly bare bones except for the 7k of "spending cash" (which includes alcohol and gas for the car).

Thanks Live! We've realized that STUFF is getting in the way of our FIREing, so we've stopped the serial home renovations and we've cut way back on 'entertainment' without affecting our lifestyle.

It's been really hard to focus on work today. I've spent most of the day looking at houses online in Florida!

 

[Lisa99]

Congrats! Freedom is within reach and I bet that feels wonderful.

Freedom is definitely in reach...now to find that FIRE in 2015 thread and add our names to it (was 2016)

 

[Live And Learn]

I've spent most of the day looking at houses online in Florida!

any particular city / area ?

 

[Midpack]

Congrats! Your plan sounds like ours - what we can safety withdraw is much more than we actually spend. Though that will all change (temporarily) with the next inevitable market correction...

 

[ERhoosier]

Congrats, Lisa!!
Seems like you'll have enough cushion in the budget to buy some goodies from time to time.

 

[Lisa99]

any particular city / area ?

We're going next month to check out The Villages in central Florida. I know many on this site cringe at the thought, but DH is hyper social and the thought of having his pick of 1800 clubs is music to his ears.

 

[Lisa99]

Congrats, Lisa!!
Seems like you'll have enough cushion in the budget to buy some goodies from time to time.

The cushion will likely go for travel. I've always wanted to live in Italy for several months, so it looks like we may actually be able to do some longer-term travel while we're young and can enjoy it.

We go on at least one international trip a year now, but it's the typical two-week rushed affair...three months in one spot is a whole different ballgame.

 

[obgyn65]

Well done, Lisa.

 

[Helen]

Sweet! It sounds like you are going to have a spectacular retirement!

 

[ohyes]

Agrees - your retirement plans sound super!

Our retirement is more low-key (poorer), and it is still too much fun. You are gonna love it.

 

[SJ1_]

We're going next month to check out The Villages in central Florida. I know many on this site cringe at the thought, but DH is hyper social and the thought of having his pick of 1800 clubs is music to his ears.

We were there last wk. on the way home from a Cruise.

2 things that stuck out:

1) Traffic is bad. I think there are around 90,000 people now
2) You can pretty much go anywhere on a golf cart.

Hope you enjoy your time in fl. and congrads. on getting closer
to retirement....

 

[growing_older]

1) Traffic is bad. I think there are around 90,000 people now
2) You can pretty much go anywhere on a golf cart.

Are you saying golf cart traffic is bad? I might want to go visit just to see a golf cart traffic jam.

 

[imoldernu]

We're going next month to check out The Villages in central Florida. I know many on this site cringe at the thought, but DH is hyper social and the thought of having his pick of 1800 clubs is music to his ears.

Congratulations on making it!...
While you're in the area, check out Legacy, Highland lakes, and Royal Highlands. Less traffic, overall, less expensive. Less than 20 miles from Villages... A ride through any of these will help in making the decision...
More "community", less anonymity. Latter two have much activity. For golfers, Royal Highlands is nice in that you don't have to make reservations a week in advance.
Kinda like a big fish in a little pond or little fish in a big pond. "Different strokes."
Not because one is better than the other, but because we've seen so many people make a decision based on a few days visit... either way, and a year or so later making another change.
We were lucky in the beginning, RV'ing and spending six weeks checking out the lifestyle and budget that we were comfortable with. In our case, being on the Chain of Lakes, and boating from our own marina was the big plus.
Good luck in finding your own Shangri-la!

 

[growing_older]

In our case, being on the Chain of Lakes, and boating from our own marina was the big plus.

That sounds very appealing. Can you tell me more about where that is.

 

[BigE]

Congratulations Lisa99. I think I'm within sling-shot distance myself.

 

[photoguy]

We've budgeted $95k/year for retirement spending when in reality we're only spending around $50k for all of the budget categories we'll still have in retirement. And the lower spending trend is now several months long.

What this means is that once we have the healthcare costs understood (Oct of this year) and buy our retirement home we're in a short countdown to being able to go out and play!

What changed in your budget? Did you just have too big a safety factor in all of your categories or did you eliminate some big ticket items?

Healthcare is also looking like it's going to be less than we were budgeting due to ppaca.

 

[Lisa99]

What changed in your budget? Did you just have too big a safety factor in all of your categories or did you eliminate some big ticket items?

Healthcare is also looking like it's going to be less than we were budgeting due to ppaca.

I didnt actually know what we were spending so the original budget was a SWAG. We've been tracking now in Quicken for more than a year and we've been working to get our expenses down. Now that we know what we're actually spending we know the original $95k is far more than we actually spend.

 

[Mulligan]

We're going next month to check out The Villages in central Florida. I know many on this site cringe at the thought, but DH is hyper social and the thought of having his pick of 1800 clubs is music to his ears.

You never have to apologize for where you want to live. I have read a lot about it, and personally would consider it, if isn't wasn't for the summer humidity down there. I would enjoy viewing all the various custom golf carts down there. Congrats on reaching the FI goal!